Forest Survival Food

We have had a lot of folks ask us to talk about foraging. Spring was a hard time for many people living in rural areas in the 18th century. When food ran out, and before new food had grown in the garden, foraging in the woods was often turned to as a means of survival.

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[VeritySnatch]

nettles are surprisingly high in protein. finding fats and oils is the hard one. i spent 6 months in in a tiny tent in the mountains back in my youth surviving on a homemade muesli. oats, nuts, dried whole milk, whey and dried fruit. i caught trout, ate a few grasshoppers, collected pig nuts, visited the coast for a day or two of silverweed, lush mussels, winkles, urchin roe. sand dabs roasted with wild parsnip, dulse, and samphire. still had to buy oil/fat to thrive

[STB-jhod]

I was stationed in Northern Germany in early 90s, and the nearby city had a day of mourning for elderly man who passed, at the end of WW2 when there was no food, he knew about edible plants that grew there. He foraged and taught others how to so so, and identify edible plants. He is credited with stopping a famine.

[jerryodell]

When I was a boy in the 1940s and 1950s because of WW2 and the shortages that lasted until about the mid 1950s (officially in some places 1954), everyone foraged, grew gardens, hunted, reused virtually everything. I remember seeing tin cans made into useable items and vividly remember tin can lids used to cover holes in fences and walls when we went to town which was a rare event because of gas shortage. There was a saying, " Use everything twice or more than twice " and people did. Old junk piles were raided for parts and metal. Old clothes became rags, quilts, and more. People learned to live.

[Geark]

My mom grew up in post-war Germany and she told stories about accompanying her mother, going in the woods to collect stinging nettles whenever they had to cover a stretch of time where they didn't have enough food.

[elisebarrett]

Nettles— blanched and then sautéed with onion, and served with a squeeze of lemon or a splash of vinegar— are an INCREDIBLY tasty food. Don’t be deceived by the palates of people who thought lobster was disgusting and tomatoes were poison! Stinging nettles are a LUXURY on the table and if you’ve never tried them, you should.

Super easy to pick using just a ziplock baggie as a glove. Pinch them off just where the stem starts to get bigger around than a chopstick. Blanch for two minutes in salted boiling water, and thank me later.

[natviolen]

1:12 "other times not so much" - that was put very nicely.
My great grandmother lived through WWI and WWII and was so used to foraging for food that she wouldn't abandon the habit even when times got better. Often to my grandmothers and mothers great embarrasment who were ashamed and afraid that people might think we were poor.

[Overhill_Farm]

Stinging nettles are one of the most nutritionally dense plants on earth. They are high in amino acids, protein, flavonoids, and bone-building minerals like iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and zinc, and one of the greatest sources of vitamin K.

[brian_castro]

As Theodore Roosevelt, an avid outdoorsman famously said, “ Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

[sherylcascadden]

Early spring was frequently called "the starving time."
Nettle tea is pretty good, I've had that.

[benjaminmaker]

My Fiancee and I forage every warm season for food to save for the rest of the year. Our cupboards are full of mushrooms and dried plants like bayberry leaves for seasonings, and our freezer is full of blanched wild greens like stinging nettle and lamb's quarters. These things suppliment the venison from my hunts and the vegetables we grow in our garden.

[FrikInCasualMode]

In Poland major foraging herbs are nettles, sorrel, hogweed and goosefoot(lamb's quarter). My grandma often cooked green borsch from sorrel leaves, and my mom still cooks it from time to time. It can even be preserved for winter - chop young leaves thinly, salt them well to draw moisture, then tightly pack into small jars to pickle them. Pour some vegetable oil on top to prevent spoiling. I'm not really a fan, but it tastes well enough with potatoes and chopped hard boiled eggs.

[TH-tlsy]

I once spent 2 weeks in the bush with just a pocket knife, flint stone and snare wire. Had to trap, forage and gather water. It was an all day event to gather enough food for 1 meal a day. It sucked so hard! Lol but was a great life altering event. And gave me great appreciation for our ancestors. PS Fireweed tastes like crap but high in vitamin C.

[walrusbyte]

Foraging is my hobby, and stinging nettle was one of the first plants I learned to identify, so it has a special place in my heart. Loved the video!

[Norbrookc]

Several years ago, I used to give a talk at some of the campgrounds on "wild foods." That is, plants in the local area that were edible, some needing cooking, but others that you could eat raw. As I told the people there, "this is not so you can go out in the woods and live off the land, but so that if you get lost, you can survive long enough to be found." Thankfully, these days it isn't absolutely necessary for survival, but I still enjoy doing foraging to add variety to the dinner table.

[HaphazardHomestead]

Foraging in the early spring is so much easier now than in those olden days. Today, so many of the plants we can harvest in the late winter and early spring are not native (like the dandelion and wild field garlic you showed). Instead, they were brought over as garden plants and have escaped cultivation, and have even become weeds that dominate native plants and places. Those European plants have such an earlier season because they are from farther northern latitudes, so our late winter daylength seems like springtime to them. And with warmer temperatures now, compared to the older days, even the native stinging nettles have an earlier season now. So it's hard to appreciate how tough those folks really had it, without the specialized knowledge and access to productive places. Stinging nettles were so important to people -- and are still one of the most delicious and nutritious wild greens out there. Happy foraging!

[froginprogress]

My parents won't even try foraging beyond picking blackberries. My mother actually tried to dispose of a bunch of greens I had collected for my lunch recently, insisting I was going to poison myself. I live in western Washington, and foraging for food is only difficult when things are frozen hard. But a lot of people act like things are poisonous if they weren't planted or bought from the store. They will sadly learn the hard way if things go fully sideways.

[mrdaym]

When spending summers at my grandmas farm in my youth she always made nettle pancakes. Just absolutely delicious. She also made nettle soup. In fact, I think most things had nettles in it as long as they were somewhat in season. Even in the middle of summer you could still find good nettles to eat in shaded places.

[jodydorsett]

Every year during this time I think of foraging at granny's home place. In the spring we'd gather nettles, fiddle heads, dandy lion leaves and early mushrooms. At the same time lettuce, beets and radishes would be planted. Before long the asparagus shoots would come up as well as the rhubarb. Peas would be planted. And so on. Easter was always a celebration using the last ham, the last of the root vegetables and lots of foraged veggies always cooked with ham hocks.

[dianebondhus]

We have loads of plantain, dandelion, and nettles on our family's property.

[jasonm]

Can't say it enough..this man is a national treasure.