Survival Meals

dandylion leaves - pedals are edible and tasty if you have the hour it takes to pluck enough to make a tiny salad .

The Reverend wrote:

dandylion leaves - pedals are edible and tasty if you have the hour it takes to pluck enough to make a tiny salad .

Hello Reverend,

You must live in a relatively dandelion free area. As a kid I could get enough dandelion leaves from a local vacant lot o fill a standard paper grocery sack in about 10 minutes. More than enough to make a good-sized salad. The very same vacant lot a bunch of us used as a play area.

Superman

hey supes never actually timed how long it took but each flower has like 1 100th of an ounce of petals . would eat them before starving wont bother if the grocery store sells shredded cabbage and onions . lots of tasty apples all around here free for the picking

sour cream cones

Bring the sour cream and the cones in the cooler for an energy perk up add sunflower seeds to it with the dandylion parts Mix with grass and pieces of apple scoop into the cone and enjoy

for extra flavor add a beetle or worm to the mix

i would eat beetles , worms even ants to survive but until then im sticking to turkes and veggies . oh and my saturday bbq

survival food can be almost anything. . .a basic outline of your supply should cover the following. . .what will sustain the body. . .and what are you willing to eat. . .emotional attachement goes a long way to surviving any situation. . .if you don't like something. . .you will avoid it. . .and probably to your downfall. . .what you choose needs to be properly packaged. . .too many people don't prepare their food well enough. . .and you need to think of the fact of storage. . .are you going to travel or not with it. . .how are you going to prepare it. . .consume it. . .and what other items you need. . .that can of soup is great. . .but not without a can opener. . .and a heat source to cook it. . .don't overlook your sweet tooth. . .if youd deny your body what you have always given it. . .it will rebel at the worst time. . .

Urban Avenger wrote:

Nah seriosusly.. all about the trail mix...

I'd have to agree on that.  I was going to say "protein bar", but trail mix is cheaper.  

AND water....

In determining poisonous from edible plants, the Army has a simple, albeit time-consuming, method. It takes 24 hours in total, and you have to test each part of whatever plant you intend to eat (which is part of why it takes so long). For starters, you should avoid any plants with milky or discoloured sap; beans, bulbs, or seeds inside pods; a bitter or soapy taste; spines, fine hairs or thorns; dill, carrot, parsnip, or parsley-like foliage; an almond scent in the woody parts or leaves; green heads with pink, purplish, or black spurs; or a three-leafed growth pattern. You only test one part of the plant at a time.

Start by separating the plant into it's basic components: leaves, stems, roots, bulbs, and flowers. Smell the plants for strong or acidic odours, but also remember that smell alone does not indicate if a plant is edible or not. You can't eat for eight hours, before you start the test, and you should take nothing but water, and the part of the plant you're eating; during that time, you test for contact poisoning, by taking a piece of the part of the plant you're testing, and placing it on the inside of your elbow or wrist (usually, it will take about fifteen minutes, at most, to cause a reaction). Then, you take a small portion of that plant, if you had no reaction, and make it like you would normally eat it. Before you eat it, touch a pinch of it to the outer surface of your lip, to test for burning or itching. If, after three minutes, there's no reaction, put it on your tongue, and hold it there for fifteen minutes. If there's still no reaction, thoroughly chew it, and hold it in your mouth for fifteen minutes; do not swallow, yet. If there's still no reaction, swallow that piece, and wait for eight hours. If you do have a reaction, make yourself throw up, and drink plenty of water. If there are no ill effects, eat 1/4 cup of that part of the plant, prepared the same way, and wait another eight hours; if you still have no ill effects, that part of that type of plant is safe to eat.

Also, keep in mind that a plant that's okay to eat when cooked, may not be okay to eat raw.

Cornelius' pictures bring back memories. They have little snack-packs with canned meat and crackers together that I used to get a long time ago. I forget where I was living at the time, but the shelter would give you those things for lunch during the day, and send you on your way before they locked up. I think it was Tupelo.

I hear cattails grow everywhere in the States and every part of the plant is edible, as long as you learn to tell the difference from poison iris.

Edible, good for insulation, and easy to start fires with

"The United States almost won WWII with cattails."

http://www.eattheweeds.com/cattails-a-survival-dinner/

I heard a bit of advice a few years ago that I think makes a fair bit of sense. Before learning which plants are edible, learn which ones are dangerous. That way you'll hopefully only have to worry about getting mildly I'll if you make a mistake.

Ideally, you should have already researched the different kinds of plants native to whatever area you're visiting, so you know how to spot the ones to avoid and the ones that are safe. While it's a good idea to learn which plants are inedible or poisonous first, you should also keep in mind that there are a lot of other plants out there with some edible parts, and some poisonous ones, on the same plant.

just an additional thought. . .if you are going to give any out to the homeless. . .please understand that their diet cannot handle high impact food.. .their body may have deteriorated somewhat and cannot process well. . .just keep it in mind.. .