Foraging for Food

Five Things You Can Do Now

1. Collect resources about food sources that could be foraged in your locale.
2. Interview an expert in edible plants and learn how to locate them.
3. Learn how to use edible plants. Explore recipes and try them.
4. Learn and practice hunting and fishing skills. Connect with others who can teach you in the field.
5. Learn how to clean and prepare animals that have been killed in the wild.

Foraging food from the wild would provide bare subsistence at best.

Some people believe they can just “live off the land” in the event of a crisis. In fact, there are a few who seem to be looking forward to the possibility. They are convinced that if they ever had to, they could gather all their food from wild sources. They imagine digging up a few wild onions, picking a handful of berries, perhaps catching and eating a fish, and lying back under a tree, full and contented. In reality, foraging enough food in the wild to live off is not a realistic option.

Consider the amount of wild food that would likely be available. In any major crisis, hordes of unprepared people with the same idea would converge to scavenge the wild areas, quickly gathering, killing, and eating everything in sight. It would be life-threatening just to be there!

And that does not even account for herd migration or winter when game is scarce and edible plants lie dormant. Even in the backcountry it would be a desperate struggle to keep from starving to death.

Nevertheless, in some circumstances, foraging could be used to stretch and add some variety to the survival diet or to keep you alive temporarily. Keep in mind that the first rule of obtaining food from the wild is that it should not take more energy to acquire food than it will give you in return.

Wild Edible Plants

There is a large variety of plants humans can eat, but there are limitations. First, most contain fewer than one hundred calories per pound. You would need to eat from fifteen to more than fifty pounds per day to meet your energy needs! Even berries only average about 250 calories per pound. Nuts provide more calories but are not always available.

Second, if you are not used to them, wild plants may challenge your taste buds and digestive system. Your body may need a period of adjustment to be able to handle the increased fiber. This all assumes you know the difference between what is poisonous and what is not! Some poisonous plants look quite similar to nonpoisonous ones, and some parts of a plant are nontoxic, while other parts are toxic. Follow the guidelines in the Quick Check, “Wild Edible-Plant Safety” to help determine the safety of a plant.

Learning to Distinguish Edible Plants

Although some edible plants are easily distinguished, others take great skill to identify. The best way to develop this skill is by learning in the field from someone already knowledgeable. If that isn’t possible, consult guidebooks. Each area of the country has its own indigenous edible plants, and you’ll need a guide to the plants common to your local area.

Guide Books

Use the criteria in the Quick Check “Criteria for Selecting Guide Books” to help select a good guidebook. Refer to pages 430 – 431 in the resource section for specific examples of guidebooks.

Fishing, Hunting, and Trapping

Normally, fishing and hunting are sports with accepted methods and are governed by laws and regulations to maintain a healthy population of sport animals. I don’t recommend that you disregard hunting and fishing regulations.

Fish

Fish are a low-calorie food, averaging four hundred calories per pound for whitefish and seven hundred calories for salmon. Unless you fish in the ocean, much of what you can catch today is stocked from hatcheries that probably will not be raising fish in a prolonged crisis.

It’s never a bad idea to have a stockpile of line, leaders, sinkers, lures, and especially hooks; however, the best way to catch the most fish quickly is with nets and traps.

You will want a good fillet knife for preparing and filleting fish.

Ocean and bay shorelines can supply shellfish, like mussels, clams, and oysters, and crustaceans, like crab and lobster. If this is an option for you, you’ll need appropriate gear, such as shovels, rakes, and traps.

Small Animals

Although survival courses teach how to live on rodents, lizards, snakes, frogs, turtles, bird eggs, and even insects, and although rabbits, squirrels, porcupines, birds, and other small animals are edible and considered tasty in different regions of the country, this kind of diet would be a radical change for most Americans. Like most wild things, small animals are low in calories, and you would need quite a few to stay alive. Most are also low in fat content. Rabbit meat, for instance, has about two and a half percent fat.

When it comes to killing small animals, you have several options. Slingshots with #9 buckshot will work but require practice to perfect your aim. Pellet guns are inexpensive to shoot and are quiet, accurate, and effective at short ranges. Shotguns are very useful but far from quiet. Select #6 shot or game load for an all-around ammunition.

Traps are an efficient way of obtaining small animals. They work quietly twenty-four hours a day with little attention. Also, you may want to store wire of different sizes for snares.

Game Animals

Venison has 550 to 700 calories per pound yet is only 4 percent fat. I recommend a rifle unless you are a proficient bowhunter. Store plenty of ammunition, a hunting knife, and a skinning knife. It is best to learn the basic skills now from an experienced hunter. Using a red filter over a light will allow you to see the game at night without them seeing you. Close observation of their feeding and watering habits will help you have success. A guide to animal tracks will help you identify what it is you’re following and what it’s doing.

Wild-Game Recipes

Once you’ve got whatever game you were after, you’ll need to know how to dress it and prepare it for the table. Check out the resource section for where to find more information.

Fur Animals

If you plan to trap fur animals like muskrat, beaver, otter, and mink, store six to twelve steel traps. Sizes #1 and #1½ are the best all-around with #4 for beaver. Acquire a book or two on trapping to tell you about animal habits, how to trap them, and how to properly prepare the traps to eliminate human scent.