# Outdoor Survival / Food



## Antelope Bob (May 6, 2015)

Here are some guideline for eating wild plant life. In most situations, if you don't know what a plant is, don't eat it. You can live 3 weeks or more without food. You can live a lot less long with poison in your system. Only eat wild plants if you have devoted a good deal of time to studying them.


Do not eat mushrooms or fungi unless you know for certain that it is edible. Most are poisonous, and there is no way of determining which ones are edible without properly identifying the species.
Plants with umbrella-shaped flowers should not be eaten.
Avoid legumes (beans and peas).
Bulbs should generally be avoided. Wild garlic and onions are edible but have poisonous look-a-likes. However, garlic and onions smell distinctively like garlic and onions.
Lichen
Avoid white and yellow berries, as most of them are poisonous. Blue and black berries are usually safe to eat.
The "berry rule" is that 10% of white and yellow berries are edible; 50% of red berries are edible; 90% of blue, black, or purple berries are edible, and 99% of aggregated berries are edible. This is only a guideline, and unknown berries shouldn't be eaten.
Aggregated fruits and berries are almost always edible (blackberry, raspberry, salmonberry, and thimbleberry).
Single fruits on a stem are usually considered safe to eat.
Plants with shiny leaves or a milky sap are considered to be poisonous. The two that don't follow this rule are Dandelion and Fig. (Both have milky sap.)
It is a myth that if an animal eats something, then it is safe. For instance, deer will eat poison ivy.
Wild nuts that taste or smell like almonds are EXTREMELY dangerous. They contain hydrogen cyanide.
Wild fruits and berries can be checked for edibility in the following way:

Put a small amount of juice on your forearm and wait until it dries. If there is no burning, swelling or redness go to the next step.
Put a small amount of juice on the corner of your mouth and wait until it dries. If there is no burning or stinging go to the next step.
Put a small amount of juice on your tongue. If there is no burning or stinging go to the next step.
Eat a very small amount. (If you immediately feel sick or vomit, stop eating!) If no symptoms occur in 24 hours, the item MOST LIKELY is not poisonous.
Eat sparingly at first, and if symptoms still do not occur, proceed to eat as much as you like.
NOTE: This technique can be very dangerous. Many plants (Agave, to name one example) contain compounds that won't burn or tingle, but can be powerful emetics and/or laxatives. Others may be safe in small quantities, but can be dangerous when large amounts are eaten. Your best bet is to familiarize yourself with a few common plants for your area that can be eaten, and not rely on potentially dangerous methods such as the one listed above.

Animals:
There are three main types of meat you can get in a survival situation: Insects, fish, and game. Here they are covered in that order; easiest to hardest.

All mammals and birds are edible. Some must be boiled or roasted until tender, though.

Do not eat dog/wolf liver, it contains high levels of vitamin A which can lead to hypervitaminosis and death.

Eating a long term diet of only rabbits can lead to "rabbit starvation" and death. Rabbits have no fat which your body needs.

Insects:
In many places, insects are a staple of local diets. Some basic guidelines for insect eating:


Avoid brightly colored insects.
Avoid insects that bite or sting.
Avoid fuzzy or hairy insects.
Most worms and grub are good to eat. It helps to toast grub until they are dried.
Some ants are good food. Dip a stick in water after letting it be coated by ants; repeat until you have enough.
Before eating grasshoppers and crickets, remove their wings and legs. (They scratch on the way down.)
Only eat fresh, healthy insects.
Grasshoppers can contain tape worms, grab them behind the head and hold their body and pull out the stomach and intestines, and it is a good idea to line them up on a small stick and roast them on a rock by a fire.
These are just a few of my favorite things


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## Art101 (May 6, 2015)

Good stuff for sure.I miss picking mushrooms though.


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## iamwhatiam (May 6, 2015)

I was reading that almonds contain some cyanide, but the bitter almonds contain exponentially more cyanide in them. Apparently wild almonds have lots of cyanide whereas domesticated don't. We have Indian Almond trees (_Terminalia catappa) _here that I've sampled some nuts from, but I wonder if those contain lots of cyanide as well.
Also, I thought I heard somewhere that grasshoppers/crickets have parasites in their brains so you should pull the heads off before eating?


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## iamwhatiam (May 6, 2015)

"The bitter form is also used in cooking, but it must first be processed in the raw stage. Bitter almonds contain a toxic amount of prussic acid, which can be further refined into a poison called cyanide. Consuming a handful of unprocessed, raw ones can lead to death from this poison. Consequently, the prussic acid must be leached out before they can be used by humans as food."

So probably okay to eat em if you soak in water for a day (or longer?) and change the water several times?


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## Antelope Bob (May 6, 2015)

iamwhatiam said:


> Also, I thought I heard somewhere that grasshoppers/crickets have parasites in their brains so you should pull the heads off before eating?



the last point under insects covers this


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## Antelope Bob (May 6, 2015)

iamwhatiam said:


> So probably okay to eat em if you soak in water for a day (or longer?) and change the water several times?



Just don't do it.


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