- Joined
- Jan 7, 2003
- Messages
- 2,373
FOOD GATHERING – On a wilderness canoe trip in Canada the outfitter sent our food (26 people) out with another group (13 people). The first day a girl left a bottle of white stove gas open and ruined the food in her pack. Another girl let her pack fall in the water having previously opened all her waterproof food bags to verify their contents. Closing the bags apparently wasn’t part of the drill yet! These compounded errors put us on concentration camp rations with a heavy workload. The first nights dinner was a measured half cup of mac’n cheese!
Three members of the group had bought fishing licenses and had regular fishing tackle. They caught eight walleye each day and each day they caught bigger fish. We also ate freshwater clams, crayfish, and a few chipmunks we found “getting stoned” on the beach. (not us the rodents!). The fishing tackle saved the trip. We should have run out a few trotlines at night but we were pretty sure that was illegal. A slingshot would have bagged us some squirrels, also illegal. The chipmunks… they were just getting stoned on the wrong beach.
I give food-gathering resources a pretty low priority. I do carry snare wire but have never snared an animal with it under survival conditions. I also carry a skein of #4 waxed line that is good for making snares and cage type bird traps although I have never trapped with it. I know how to make traps and snares and have done so with regular leg-hold traps as a kid. I have used snares to catch problem squirrels but ended up resorting to the .22 to really take care of the problem.
My PSK fishing kit has come in handy several times when we came across streams with fish in them. During my misspent youth we would snag ducks on a creek near our “fort” with small corn-baited hooks tied to short, log drags. You watch until a duck is hooked and then approach and get him quick before he breaks away.
Many times I have packed in to remote streams with the intention of actually fishing and taken along a pack sized graphite rod and mini-reel. It makes it easier but I can’t say I get more fish that way.
Here in Brazil the mountain streams have no fish at all; 70-meter waterfalls kind of limit their travel. It is common to catch large lizards with baited hooks tied to springy tree branches. I haven’t done this personally but plan to try it soon. You can also cover the end of a thin green sapling with strong treble-hooks and drag rodents out of their burrows. I haven’t had the heart to try that either.
I have killed and eaten lizards here in Brazil. They always give you a second shot with a wrist rocket. A pellet rifle is perfect. There’s not too much meat on them but it isn’t bad at all, kind of a white, bland cross between fish and chicken. The ones I got were pretty small but there are many lizards with a foot long body and the Tiú grows to about three feet long.
About the most abundant food source here is insects. There are HUGE termite mounds everywhere and the larvae are edible roasted or boiled. The mounds are easy to tear apart with either a sharp stick or machete. Haven’t tried them. There are HUGE ants with a large white abdomen that the locals fry up and mix with toasted manioc flour. Haven’t tried them either. We also have HUGE grasshoppers. I once ate a South Korean grasshopper that was commercially prepared, not bad. (Note to self: never dare a Korean woman to eat anything) I ate ants in Colorado, they tasted like weak lemon flavored caviar, not bad at all.
The lower forests here abound with bamboo shoots and edible palm heart is easy to find. Ancient home sites are a regular grocery store of edible fruits such as mango, guava (goiaba) and jabuticaba (like a grape growing on a tree trunk). Old homesteads are easy to locate due to the mature mango and bamboo groves nearby. Just follow the little bare footprints in the dust. Mac
Three members of the group had bought fishing licenses and had regular fishing tackle. They caught eight walleye each day and each day they caught bigger fish. We also ate freshwater clams, crayfish, and a few chipmunks we found “getting stoned” on the beach. (not us the rodents!). The fishing tackle saved the trip. We should have run out a few trotlines at night but we were pretty sure that was illegal. A slingshot would have bagged us some squirrels, also illegal. The chipmunks… they were just getting stoned on the wrong beach.
I give food-gathering resources a pretty low priority. I do carry snare wire but have never snared an animal with it under survival conditions. I also carry a skein of #4 waxed line that is good for making snares and cage type bird traps although I have never trapped with it. I know how to make traps and snares and have done so with regular leg-hold traps as a kid. I have used snares to catch problem squirrels but ended up resorting to the .22 to really take care of the problem.
My PSK fishing kit has come in handy several times when we came across streams with fish in them. During my misspent youth we would snag ducks on a creek near our “fort” with small corn-baited hooks tied to short, log drags. You watch until a duck is hooked and then approach and get him quick before he breaks away.
Many times I have packed in to remote streams with the intention of actually fishing and taken along a pack sized graphite rod and mini-reel. It makes it easier but I can’t say I get more fish that way.
Here in Brazil the mountain streams have no fish at all; 70-meter waterfalls kind of limit their travel. It is common to catch large lizards with baited hooks tied to springy tree branches. I haven’t done this personally but plan to try it soon. You can also cover the end of a thin green sapling with strong treble-hooks and drag rodents out of their burrows. I haven’t had the heart to try that either.
I have killed and eaten lizards here in Brazil. They always give you a second shot with a wrist rocket. A pellet rifle is perfect. There’s not too much meat on them but it isn’t bad at all, kind of a white, bland cross between fish and chicken. The ones I got were pretty small but there are many lizards with a foot long body and the Tiú grows to about three feet long.
About the most abundant food source here is insects. There are HUGE termite mounds everywhere and the larvae are edible roasted or boiled. The mounds are easy to tear apart with either a sharp stick or machete. Haven’t tried them. There are HUGE ants with a large white abdomen that the locals fry up and mix with toasted manioc flour. Haven’t tried them either. We also have HUGE grasshoppers. I once ate a South Korean grasshopper that was commercially prepared, not bad. (Note to self: never dare a Korean woman to eat anything) I ate ants in Colorado, they tasted like weak lemon flavored caviar, not bad at all.
The lower forests here abound with bamboo shoots and edible palm heart is easy to find. Ancient home sites are a regular grocery store of edible fruits such as mango, guava (goiaba) and jabuticaba (like a grape growing on a tree trunk). Old homesteads are easy to locate due to the mature mango and bamboo groves nearby. Just follow the little bare footprints in the dust. Mac
