Survival Foods

Survival foods really aren't the most important thing in most survival situations. You can go weeks without eating if you have to. Usually, it is more important to find shelter, stay dry and stay uninjured so that your family won’t be in the painful position of cashing in your cheap life insurance policy. Knowing that you can find food out there, though, and having something in your stomach can do wonders for your state of mind, which CAN be crucial to your survival.

What should you know then, about survival foods? First of all, forget the idea that you need to learn every last edible wild plant. I happen to love learning about new edible plants, but few of them provide enough calories to be worth the effort in a survival situation. What you need to know is a few basic categories of animals you can eat, and a few of the most abundant and calorie-rich plants.

Survival Foods - Animals

All mammals in North America can be eaten (except for the livers of some arctic mammals). Many carry parasites, so always wash your hands after handling them, and cook the meat if possible.

All fresh water fish in North America are edible. Catching the fish is the difficult part, but they can be quickly and easily cooked over a fire.

All North American birds are edible. Bird eggs are edible too. I have even cooked up seagull eggs on a hot rock and they tasted fine.

Reptiles and amphibians are usually safe to eat - if you remove the skin. Having cooked snake in a stew and over a fire, I recommend the latter.

Survival Foods - Plants

The cattail plant is one of the most abundant and calorie-rich foods in the wilderness. The lower, white part of the stalk, and the new shoots can be eaten raw or cooked. The flower spike can be cooked like corn-on-the-cob when green. The roots can be mashed in water to release the starch, which can be added to soups. The pollen from the flower spike can be shook into a bag and used in soups. Cattails grow in swamps or wet soil. Get to know this plant.

Wild edible berries can be a delicious and filling survival food in the right season. Strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, and blackberries all have their wild forms. If it looks like the domestic variety (usually smaller) and smells and tastes like it, it's safe to eat.

You can eat the inner bark of pine trees. This is a good survival food to remember, because it is available year-round. The white spongy layer between the outer bark and the wood is what you want. It is mostly fiber, but contains enough carbohydrates to be worth boiling into a soup if nothing else is available.

It's fun to know which mushrooms you can eat, and which flowers are edible, but they have almost no calories. If you want to quickly learn what you need to survive, concentrate first on the most common animals and the most abundant and calorie-rich edible plants. These are the survival foods that can save your life.

For more survival tips, see the new Wilderness Survival Guide at The Ultralight Backpacking Site.

The Backpacking Site | Survival Foods