by Tim MacWelch
FRIED SLUGS Scald the slugs in boiling water for two minutes. Dredge them in egg and then in bread crumbs. Deep fry in oil until golden brown and serve hot.
CLASSIC ESCARGOT Let your snails purge themselves in a container of damp lettuce for 24 hours. Bring 1 cup (250 ml) water or white wine to a boil in a large sauté pan, and pour in 2 cups (17 oz) snails. As the liquid boils off and the snails begin to cook, add one stick of butter to the pan and several cloves of minced garlic. Sauté for three to four minutes and serve.
SLUG STIR-FRY In a wok or skillet, fry some of your favorite veggies with oil, add a couple handfuls of blanched slugs, and season with soy sauce to taste.
BACKWOODS BOIL Put the slugs or snails in water with whatever seasonings you can find and boil for ten minutes. Wild onion and other strong flavors are a solid choice. Eat as a soup, or simply pick out the mollusks and eat them on their own.
092 CRUNCH SOME CRICKETS
Crickets, katydids, and grasshoppers are a very diverse group of bugs that are generally safe to eat if you avoid the colorful members of these families. Red, orange, yellow, and blue are usually colors you should stay far away from. Make sure to remove the heads and small legs, and cook thoroughly. Bugs with crunchy shells (exoskeletons) are often the most laden with parasites. Hunt for them in the early morning, when they are less active due to the colder temperatures. This group of bugs yields approximately 4–5 calories per gram. Their flavor ranges from flavorless to fatty tasting.
093 COOK A CICADA FEAST
Each summer, the roar of the cicadas signals a feast in the animal kingdom. Why not join the other animals that are gobbling up this winged windfall of calories? The newly hatched cicadas (called tenerals) are considered the best for eating because their shells are not too hard.
Your prep work for cicadas is easy: Harvest the slow-witted and slow-moving things in the early hours of the morning. They should be blanched (boiled for four to five minutes) soon after collection and before you eat them. Not only will this solidify their insides a bit, but it will kill any bacteria and parasites. Remove the wings and legs, and at this point you can either freeze them for later use or cook immediately. When you’re ready to take the plunge with a cicada meal, here are three options to try.
THE OLD-FASHIONED This simple snack involves skewering and roasting cicadas on a slender green wood stick for five minutes over a fire. You can also make these in your kitchen—use a metal skewer and roast in the oven for seven minutes at 400°F (204°C). Brush on a little oil or butter toward the end so that any salt or spices you add will stick.
EL CHIRPO TACO Fry the blanched cicadas in a bit of oil and mix in your favorite taco seasonings. If your guests are squeamish, use crunchy corn shells to camouflage the crunch of the bugs.
CHOCOLATE CHIRP COOKIES Mix up a batch of cookies, and press one blanched cicada into the top of each raw cookie on the sheet. Then bake them according to your cookie-mix directions.
094 DRESS SMALL GAME
Even if you take your deer to the game processor for professional cutting and packaging, there’s no reason you can’t do the work yourself on rabbits, squirrels, and other small animals. Once you get the hang of it, you should be able to dress out a small animal in less than ten minutes.
STEP 1 Take your legally hunted, trapped, or road-killed animal and your sharp knife to a clean wooden surface, like a board or a weathered, barkless log. Cut off the head and all four feet. The easiest way to do this is to use a small club of wood as a baton to strike the back of the knife blade and drive it through skin, muscle, tendon, and bone.
STEP 2 Lay the game on its back and set the knife-edge above the anus. Tap the knife with the club to cut off the anus and tail. You could also cut a circle around the anus to isolate it, but this can be time-consuming and tricky on small game.
STEP 3 Make an incision in the belly skin and muscle starting at the sternum (breastbone) and cutting down to the anal cut. Slice shallowly, being careful to keep stomach and intestines whole. Scoop out the guts from liver to colon.
STEP 4 Now that the abdominal guts are gone, you can insert the knife into the chest cavity, blade edge up, and slice through the center of the rib cage all the way to the throat cut. Remove the heart and lungs (the only contents of the chest cavity). Save the “good” guts for sausage or soup. The lungs, heart, liver, and kidneys are definite keepers. If you’re starving, flush out the stomach and intestines and cook those, too.
STEP 5 Peel off the hide. Start at the hind section, which is thinner and easier to remove. Work your thumb under the skin and cut it loose a little with the knife if needed. Once you get a handful of hide, you can peel it off from tail to head (or where the head was formerly located). Save the skin for tanning, or scald the fur off with hot water and some scraping and use the skin for food.
STEP 6 Pick off any remaining hairs and give the carcass a rinse with clean water to remove blood and any dirt. Cook right away as a whole animal, or cut it into quarters with a little more baton work, then bread the quarters and fry them. You can also freeze the carcass in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag for later.
095 WASTE NOTHING
For a macabre treat, place the whole animal head in a small bed of coals from a hardwood fire. Allow it to roast, turning it often by rolling it around with a stick. When the ears have burned off, take the head out and see if it’s done. The tongue and the brain are the edible bits (you’ll see these on creative—and fancy—restaurant menus); they can be removed by cracking the skull with a stone. If anything seems too mushy, throw the head back in the fire for a few more minutes of cooking.
096 PROCESS YOUR OWN GAME
Don’t be intimidated by big-game processing. These animals generally have the same parts and pieces as small game, and they come apart in the same way.
The first job that must be done with big game is the field dressing—the removal of the animal’s internal organs so the body can cool more quickly and the abdominal contents don’t taint the meat. This can be done while laying the animal on the ground, but many people get some help from gravity by hoisting the animal by the neck into a tree.
Let’s start with the hard part: Cut a circle around the anus, pull the rectum outward, and tie it off with a piece of string. This keeps any feces contained and contributes to cleaner field dressing. Once that’s done, create an incision from the ribs to the anus through the skin and muscle of the belly. You’ll know when you first pierce the abdominal cavity, as a whiff of foul gas will hit you right in the face—and it will be worse if the animal has an abdominal injury or if you accidentally cut into the stomach or intestines.
Cut to the side of male organs, as these will be removed later, and when the cut is complete, reach in and pull out the stomach, liver, intestines, and any other innards. You may have to do a little cutting to get the stomach loose on really large animals, but smaller creatures have thin enough tissues that the digestive organs will all tear free.
You may also have to cut the connective tissue around the rectum, a bit like coring an apple, to get the large intestine free. Finish the field dressing by cutting the diaphragm muscle where it attaches around the rib cage and pulling the heart and lungs from the chest cavity. You may also sever the esophagus to aid in removing the cardio-pulmonary system.
097 HANG IT UP
Hanging the animal lets the animal cool, keeps insects off, and makes your job easier. Using a gambrel hook (which looks like a clothes hanger), you can hang your big- game animal with its tail upward. Make a slit in the skin of each rear leg, between the tendon and the bone. This hook can be replaced by tying a rope to each Achilles tendon, or threading a stout pole through these leg cuts. You can leave the animal hung like this for a short while in warm weather, or several days in cold weather. It can keep for weeks in subfreezing weather.
098 SKIN YOUR CARCASS
Carefully cut around each rear leg to cut the skin but not the meat or load-bearing tendons. Make cuts down each inner thigh, a ci
rcle around the neck, and a cut down the chest so they all meet up with the initial field-dressing cut. Then cut circles around the front leg joints and connect to the chest cut. Peel the hide forcefully from the animal’s rump to its neck. The head can be cut off at any time, but don’t skin until you’re ready to cut up the meat, as the hide acts as a natural barrier to insects, scavengers, and bacteria.
099 PULL THE CHOICE CUTS
Here’s the part where things can get either really complicated or really easy. You can study a book on fine cuts of meat and learn where each type of steak comes from, or you can cut off a hunk of meat, impale it on a pointy stick, and roast it over the open fire. Remember to use every little scrap. It can be soup stock, hamburger, sausage, or something else to make thrifty use of your resources. And all the bones can be used to make broth, which provides vital minerals.
100 DISCOVER WILD-GAME NUTRITION
Ever wonder how many calories are in a squirrel? I have. It’s 900, and it’s not necessarily something you need to memorize. But failing to understand the nutritional value of your wild game meats can lead to malnutrition and even death in extreme cases of living off the land. There was a malady among fur trade–era trappers that came to be known as “rabbit starvation”—today we might call it protein toxicity, and it’s still fatal. Eating only lean muscle meats, as the trappers sometimes did (without eating the animal fat and organs or any carbohydrates), puts the body deep into ketosis and leads to rapid weight loss, diarrhea, and ravenous feelings. If the weight loss and accompanying hunger led to more lean meat consumption, a person could be dead from “starvation” in just a few weeks—with a full belly of meat! And that’s why you need to know about nutrition—so dig in.
Let’s continue our wild-food finding with the plant kingdom—or, as I like to think of it, the food that can’t run, fly, or swim away. Safe, nutritious, wild edible plants are abundant across much of the world during warmer seasons, and often these tough plants survive into the colder seasons, too. Even if you don’t succeed at fishing, trapping, and hunting, there are almost always plant foods available.
It’s not just the stuff of legends and survival shows—out there in the wild, there really are nuts, berries, twigs, and roots that will make you a feast. Whether your goal is to survive an emergency in a remote area, or simply find something unique to put on the family dinner table, the following pages will guide you through the complex world of botanical terms and plant structures, inform you with food-gathering knowledge for survival, and provide intriguing ideas for preparing these wild foods.
When it comes to learning about how to identify good food plants and avoid the dangerous ones, the devil’s in the details. Small structural differences between plants can make a big difference as to their identity, which in turn affects their safety as a consumable good. You’ll need to train your eye to look for the little things, and exercise caution if you’re not certain of the plant’s identity. Don’t be afraid to use your sense of smell to assist with plant identification, too. Some plants have very characteristic odors.
Study the details of these plants, and soon you’ll be seeing familiar wild-plant foods everywhere you go.
101 FOLLOW THE BOY SCOUT MOTTO
Before you run out to go berry picking, fishing, or ’shroom hunting, you should always take a moment to consider what would happen if you were injured, lost your way, or otherwise ran into trouble. In other words, be prepared!
COME PREPARED If you’re going outside your normal stomping grounds, be sure to bring a map and compass. Even if you’re on familiar ground, carry a survival kit and first aid kit in case of the unexpected. Traveling with a friend is also good for safety—and fun.
LEAVE A TRAIL Tell someone the details of your trip so there will be someone who knows where you went and when you should return, and who can contact the authorities if you don’t show up on time.
DON’T DISCONNECT Carry a fully charged cell phone so that you can call or text for help if you get into trouble (but don’t assume you’ll always have a signal).
102 PACK A KIT
A well-stocked survival kit can be a literal lifesaver in an emergency situation. Although many of these items are inexpensive, their value in the field is immeasurable. It’s far better to have the gear and not need it than to need the gear and not have it. Build your own survival kit and first aid kit with these components.
SURVIVAL KIT
Space blanket
Butane lighter
Waterproof matches
Ferrocerium spark rod
Collapsible water bottle
Water disinfection tablets
Whistle for signaling
Mirror for signaling
Metal cup to boil water
Cordage material
Snacks or emergency food rations
Large trash bag
Roll of dental floss
Monofilament fishing line
Small and medium fish hooks
Compass
FIRST AID KIT
Alcohol swabs
Antibiotic cream packets
Burn gel packet
10 adhesive bandages
1 blister patch
Small roll of waterproof tape
4 nonstick gauze pads
4 butterfly strips
8 acetaminophen tablets
8 ibuprofen tablets
8 aspirin tablets
8 antidiarrheal tablets
8 antihistamine tablets
1 pair of nonlatex exam gloves
Thermometer
1 large needle
103 BECOME LOST-PROOF
Getting lost is one of the main reasons that people find themselves in survival situations, and it’s one of the easiest problems to prevent. Avoid losing your way by using these navigation tricks.
PRE-GAME
Get a map of the area that you are traveling to and study it before going.
Use the map and a compass while you’re there.
Imagine looking down on the terrain from a “bird’s-eye view“ and find where you are on the map.
Look behind you frequently to familiarize yourself with the views and terrain, especially if you will be returning in that direction.
Look for landmarks, memorize them, and use them to travel in straight lines.
IF YOU DO GET LOST, DO THE FOLLOWING IN ORDER:
1 STAY PUT.
2 MAKE CAMP, FOLLOWING THE PRIORITIES OF SURVIVAL (SEE ITEM 104).
3 SIGNAL FOR HELP OFTEN, USING DIFFERENT METHODS.
4 TAKE TEST TRIPS OUT AND BACK FROM CAMP TO SEE IF YOU CAN DETERMINE WHERE YOU ARE AND WHICH WAY TO GO.
104 PRIORITIZE YOUR SURVIVAL TO-DO LIST
If the worst happens and you need to survive until you’re found or can find your way out, you need to prioritize—and fast. Here’s what you should concentrate on, in order, starting with your most immediate need and moving toward less-pressing issues.
SHELTER This is always your top survival priority (unless there is a dire medical issue). Your shelter will need to protect you from the cold or the heat, depending on the scenario. Build a thick, insulated shelter for cold conditions. Construct a shady, open one in hot, sunny climates. Remember that your clothes are a form of shelter, too. Stuff them with insulation if you’re getting too cold.
WATER You can only make it a few days without water. Boil or treat your water for safety if you can. When faced with the choice between drinking questionable water or dying due to dehydration, drink the water. It’s better to be sick and alive than pathogen-free and dead.
FIRE AND SIGNALING Fire is an outstanding distress signal. It also boils your water, cooks your food, and gives you light and heat. Carry multiple fire-starting methods to ensure your success, no matter the weather conditions.
FOOD While the average person could survive a month without eating, there’s usually no need for that kind of suffering. Follow the tips, tricks, and information in this book, and you’ll have the food prio
rity covered.
105 ENJOY YOUR WEEDS
With convenience stores on every corner, you may be wondering why people would need to scavenge for wild plants. But there may come a time when foraging in Mother Nature’s supermarket becomes a necessity, and knowing which plants are edible (and delicious) can help you navigate those unfamiliar aisles. If you’re wondering what weed-eating can do for you, read on.
SURVIVAL As the students in my seasonal foraging classes can tell you, the primary motivation for learning about wild food is to find out what plants to eat if you’re lost in the woods and hungry.
FRESH, NUTRITIOUS FOODS Short of eating directly from your garden, picking wild “produce” is the best way to “eat local.” Fresh plant foods haven’t had time to oxidize or lose nutrients like their store-shelf counterparts.
GOURMET TREATS Dark acorn bread, gooey sweet persimmons, and spicy, crisp, spring salads are just a few of the delicious whole-food dishes that can be ordered in the wild.
ORGANIC PRODUCE If you care about the techniques used in growing the food you eat, munch a bunch of weeds. Naturally self-sustaining, non-GMO, and poison-free, wild edible plants are completely organic. If you’ve ever wondered where the food you buy comes from and how it was grown, it’s a relief to know that wild food you gather from a clean area (with knowledge gleaned from this book) is safe and toxin-free.