foraging (scrounging) for food…

[J]

One of my favorite authors on survival subjects is a guy named Tom Brown, Jr. Some of you might be familiar with him as he has a series of books (excellent ones, in my humble opinion) on primitive survival By primitive, I mean as in “dropped naked in the middle of BFE” primitive. One of the remarks I found in his writings to stick with me more than any others, and I am paraphrasing here, is that there is no reason that someone, properly educated in his environment, should starve to death, everything we need to survive can be found in the wild.

So why do so many die of exposure?

I guess the answer is ignorance. Not stupidity, mind you, ignorance meaning lack of knowledge. I was raised down South and we went on a number of foraging expeditons from spring through late fall for wild plants and such. We knew where the wild grapes grew, I picked more than my share of poke-salad (Crocodile Dundee has a great quote applicable to that stuff lol) I even convinced a couple of friends of mine to raid a honey tree with me once. That one took a few attempts, but we were successful in the end.

In this section, I am going to post a few things as far as foraging in the wild and ways of preparing stuff so it is edible. I will try to use examples that are common throughout the US, but vegetation can vary, depending on climate. If interested in this subject, you can find a lot of information on edible plants and such with a minimal amount of effort.

Am going to start this off with something that is very common in most areas, Acorns. Oak trees grow pretty much everywhere except desert climates and are easily recognizable.
They were a staple food for a number of Native American peoples and also for pioneers years ago.

You cannot really pick them up off the ground and eat them, they do require a bit of preparation, as they will taste extremely bitter when raw. I actually found a link that describes the process of preparing them similarly to the way I remember doing them as a kid. Mind you, I mostly did the gathering, my Grandma did the prepping. She didnt trust me in the kitchen, yet 🙂

Please feel free to provide feedback on this, if there is interest, I will be happy to share the bits and piece of knowledge i have on the subject.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/471623-how-to-cook-acorns/

[Brandon]

Nice, J! I’m REALLY interested in this kind of stuff.

I never thought acorns would sound good, but reading that article is making me want to try some!

I’m about to head up to Dallas for a week at my mother’s, so I’m not sure if I’ll get to swing by the forums or not. Don’t let my absence cause you to think I’m not interested. I don’t know much about this stuff, but as I said, I’m really interested in it.

[J]

Fair warning, I am making no promises as to taste. Acorns, as well as some of the other stuff I will post are edible but not necessarily tasty. Given a bit of engenuity, they are decent, but there might be a reason you do not see them on the shelf at walmart.

The intent of this is to give you ideas as to alternative food sources that can be foraged in relative safety, taste is a distant second priority.

[Echo5Charlie]

This topic is very interesting to me. I don’t know the vegetation in this area as well as I did Nor Cal. There we had soap root and aloe Vera plants all around, and both were very useful.

There is a lot of time in preparing those acorns according to that article. I’m intrigued by the 500 calories per ounce. That’s pretty good.

Does anyone know if you ate them raw if they would make you sick. I understand they will taste bad, but if you were on the move and didn’t want to set camp and start a fire, could your body handle them?

[J]

I have never personally eaten them raw, tried them but they were too bitter to really eat if i didnt have to. let me look at some of my books, will get back to you on that.

We used to treat them, roast and honey them and mix them with pecans we picked up and hickory nuts. Was quite the treat when I was a kid.

[Echo5Charlie]

That would be great. I have a huge oak tree in the yard, so I will be trying them out with the boil method and my wife is extactic with that revelation (not really) but I am curious about eating them raw.

[J]

Did a bit of research last night and here is a bit more info…

Acorns contain pretty high levels of tannic acid, or tannin. This gives them the bitter taste and is what gives wild game the bitter “gamey” taste. Tannin is also used for tanning hides. Eating very many of them raw, if you could get past the bitter taste, would possibly make you pretty sick.

I personally would not do it unless I were in a situation where I had nothing to lose.

[Echo5Charlie]

Great info, thanks.

So could I boil some acorns and tan a deer skin with the brew waste?

[J]

you could use the tannin solution for this, yes. As far as best concentration and whatever else you might need for the process, you might want to do a bit more research on this. Also, this process does not produse as good a qualiy hide as does brain tanning.

[Echo5Charlie]

I gotcha. I read a book on another method, I either forget the name of it or they didn’t name the method. It was very intense and took several weeks. I want to utilize the deer hides, we burn 5 or 6 every year and it seems like a waste. I’m off topic, thanks for the info.

[J]

no worries, glad I could give you somewhat of an answer. Tanning tends to be a messay and time consuming business, hardly worth it to me for small amounts i woujldl have. I usually trade with others or buy hides that have been processed.

[Brandon]

It’s too bad you can’t eat raw acorns. I wouldn’t care how bitter they were, if I could get calories from them without getting sick.

Do you know if you can eat the thinner, longer acorns?

[J]

Brandon, I wouldnt risk it, personally, unless it was a do or die situation. There are usually other options available to get you by long enough to take proper precautions in regard to acorns. I personally would take raw grass over raw acorns, as the risks would be significantly less.

Yes, you can eat grass if it comes to it. I will be posting a bit more as time allows.

[Brandon]

Yeah, I agree with you, J. Definitely not worth the risk. I’ll look into it, and maybe I can find some info.

Looking forward to hearing more!

[Author]

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