Food in the wild, NE USA

K

KMB

Joined
Feb 14, 1999
Messages
15
I was out last night at dinner, talking with two instructors at a local/semi-local wilderness instruction school. We were just chatting about eating in the wild and we seemed to agree that the most plentiful food to get in the wild, in the NE/mid Atlantic USA, was, in no particular order, pine bark, dandelion, plantains, ***** willow, clover, and acorns.

Any very plentiful and widely available foods (plant) that we left out?

Thanks,

KMB
 
Don't forget my favorite autumn trailside munch -- beechnuts (yum!). Although depending on the weather during the spring and summer, they may be plentiful (like this year) or nearly non-existant (like last year).
 
Thanks for the replies. Beechnuts and sweet flag - any info on what they look like, parts OK to eat, other names/nick names?

thanks again
 
Also Birch (bark, sap in spring, tiwgs and leaves for tea), maple (sap in spring), chicory, arrowhead...

By the way, what did you guys have for dinner that night?
biggrin.gif


~Brian.

[This message has been edited by Brian Jones (edited 11-08-2000).]
 
:
You have to be very careful to not get sweet flag mixed up with blue or yellow flag which are both posionous.
And many times they grow side by side.

------------------
>>>>---¥vsa---->®

"I would rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy."

........unknown, to me anyway........

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KMB asked for info about beech nuts and sweet flag -- can't help on the sweet flag, but beech nuts (nuts from a beech tree) are quite distinctive. They're about a centimeter wide or so and spiny. They split open and have two triangular nuts inside. The nuts themselves have a thin shell on them, which I strip off (probably unnecessary in a survival situation). The nut-meat itself is also triangular and quite tasty. As I understand it, it's about 30-50% fat and about 20% protein.

If found a picture at http://forestry.msu.edu/uptreeid/PICShardwoods/ABEE-fruit.jpg which shows a brown beech nut. Earlier in the year they're green and still quite tasty.
 
Burdock, nettles, chenopodium (Goosefoot) and amaranth (pigweed) are all as common as cheap sin, and all are excellent food.
 
Don't forget BUGS! I'm sure you will find them along with the plants. Just think of the ants as poppy seeds on your bark (haha).

[This message has been edited by allenC (edited 11-10-2000).]
 
Yvsa makes a good point. Be certain what you've correctly identified it before you eat it. There are a lot of lookalikes, some of which are very toxic.

Mike
 
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