Gathering Food for the Table

At times a variety of fine foods can be gathered from the countryside. Literature on the subject can be very helpful in identifying various weeds that are nutritious eating. The dandelion is such a “weed.” Its young leaves can be used as salad. It beats all other common salad greens as regards vitamin A content, and it is rich in calcium, phosphorus, iron, sodium and potassium. The flowers are sometimes used for wine making. The root may be sliced and used in salad, or it can be dried, roasted and ground and used as a coffee substitute.

The nettle is another very nutritious “weed.” Its tender sprouts contain large amounts of vitamins A and C, and some vitamin B. They are also rich in potassium, calcium, phosphorus and iron, and contain protein and glucose as well. The young shoots, which appear in the spring, may be used as spinach, mixed with salad greens, or boiled to make soup. They may also be frozen raw for later use, or dried and milled into flour.

Pigweed, or lamb’s-quarters, as it is also called, is said to be a perfect spinach substitute. The young leaves may be prepared in the same way as spinach, or it can be used in salad. Besides the many edible wild green plants, there are different kinds of edible mushrooms, nuts and berries that can often be gathered in the countryside.

Emergency Situations

Should predicted famines strike, it may be important to know the things around us that can be safely and beneficially eaten.

Some persons stranded in a wilderness have been known to starve to death while all around them was a pantry full of life-sustaining food. The big question, though, is, What can be eaten?

What can help a person is to watch what the birds and animals eat. As a rule, what they eat you can eat. But not in every instance. So if you are in doubt as to whether something is poisonous or not, chew a little bit and hold it in your mouth. When there is a burning, nauseating or bitter taste, spit it out, A poisonous plant tasted in this manner is not likely to be deadly to you.

Eskimos have plundered mouse nests of their winter supply of roots, nuts and greens to add some vegetables to their diet. They knew they could rely on the mice to gather edible food. They carefully replaced with fish what they took, so that the mice could survive and gather vegetables for the next winter.

Almost all sorts of grass and clover are edible, although the stomach will have to get used to it gradually. Trees and bushes can also provide good food. Their fresh buds and shoots may be edible. The inner bark or sapwood of various trees, too, can be valuable for food. People have dried and cut it into pieces and ground it for use in porridge and bread. Lichen and moss are also edible. Western explorers of the Arctic regions are said to have survived by eating these. The common cattail can serve as food in a variety of ways.

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Dandelions can be used to make salad, wine and a coffee substitute

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The cattail has been called the “supermarket of the swamps and marshes.” A cooked vegetable can be made from its bloomed spikes, pancake flour from its pollen, a potato substitute from its starchy rootstock and a food somewhat like a cucumber from its peeled stalk