HOW TO PREPARE COMESTIBLE PLANTS: (See also cooking #?)
If you soak, boil, cook or filter your food you get a better taste. Tusk have better taste when filtered: You smash the food and dump boiling water over them through some kind of strainer even your shirt or some clean cloth can be used.
PLANTS & LEAVES WARNING:
The colour RED associated with a plant in Tropical or Sub-Tropical areas can be regarded as a DANGER SIGNAL.
Any plants that show red in any parts of its growth in its fruits, in its leaves or in its stalks should be regarded with suspicion unless you know for certain that it is absolutely safe.
Rhubarb has a red stalk and is good yet the leaves are Deadly when cooked. The tomato belongs to the Solarium family of which is the Deadly Nightshade yet it is quite good.
Strawberries or Raspberries are also good, they are found in the Northern hemisphere.
SO UNLESS YOUR ARE ABSOLUTELY SURE BETTER NOT TAKE A CHANCE.
This is particularly applicable to Tropical Berries and fruits.
ANOTHER GENERAL SIGN OF PROBABLE POISON IS ANY FRUIT WHICH IS DIVIDED INTO 5 DIVISIONS.
This a generalisation but better cautious than overbold and dead. See below??
BEWARE! COLOURED SAP:
OF ALL TREES WHICH HAVE A COLOURED SAP, WHITE, RED OR BLACK.
Many of these saps are a danger signal and some particularly the white saps can inflict painful burns to skin or if allowed in the eye can cause blindness.
Also Beware of the Ground Trefoils particularly those which have little corns or tubers they are OFTEN POISONOUS.
WATER FROM PLANTS & VINES:
TRY THIS METHOD! (Tropic)
On a vine at its highest peak, make a deep cut, then: Cut the vine very close to ground level and let the water run into your mouth or in a container. When the water ceases to run, start all over the same method till the vine runs out.
LEAVES EDIBLE:
Leaves of many trees and shrubs and ground plants ARE EDIBLE, can easily sustain life. The only test is to taste the leaf. (Tasting alone is safe. DO NOT SWALLOW!
NUTS & CEREALS:
These keep reasonably well provided they are not allowed to get damp but will keep better if dried. Place them on hot rocks from the fire, turning them frequently until thoroughly dried. They should then be kept in damp-proof containers.
SEEDS & NUTS WARNING:
A few seeds contain DEADLY POISON and these poisons CAN NOT BE DETECTED BY THE PALATE.
In general a bitter, strongly acid or burning hot taste is a sign of poisonous contents. ANY SEED WITH THESE TASTE MUST BE AVOIDED.
THE MERE ACT OF TASTING WILL NOT AFFECT YOU. THE POISON MAY BE TASTED BUT NOT SWALLOWED.
If tasting then found dangerous just spit it out, there will not be any ill-effect.
NUTS & WARNING:
They are of course seeds, yet many nuts contain poison. This is ALWAYS detected by the palate and in nearly all instances where it occurs; it can be dissolved by either boiling or soaking in water for 10 to 12 hours.
Other nuts such as the Candle Nut a relative of the Tung Nut is a violent purgative. Again by boiling or baking it may render them harmless.
Unless you are certain, treat all nuts with suspicion and taste them before eating, if taste indicates no poisons then eat a small quantity. If there is no ill-effects within an hour the nut will be safe.
GRAINS & SEEDS:
Grains are enclosed in a husk. Dry them thoroughly to allow the grain to crack out. Thresh or trash it with a flail, stick or rock or if the grain is very malleable, rub it between your hands.
Shake out on to a flat container and occasionally toss into the air in a breeze (winnowing). The husks (chaff) will blow away leaving the heavier seed behind.
ROOTS & TUBERS:
MOST OF THE ROOTS & TUBERS ARE SAFE but almost all MUST be boiled or heat treated in some way before they are digestible.
The common potato is almost valueless as food unless cooked.
ROOTS TIP 2:
SOME ARE TOXIC BUT THE TOXINS ARE DESTROYED BY HEAT.
ALWAYS cook roots; boiling will make the toughest ones tender. Roast roots are very tasty; but boil them first. Try boiling for 5 minutes then place them in a hole dug beneath the fire, cover with ash & embers & leave until tender.
BARK: (Tree not dog)
The interior bark of a tree (the layer immediately covering the wood) CAN BE EATEN RAW OR COOKED.
By smashing to powder the interior bark of Cotton-tree, Aspen, Birch, Willow or Pine. You will obtain a flour.
The outside bark can not be used for this purpose being too strong in taste. PINE BARK IS RICH IN VITAMIN C.
Scrape off the exterior layer and keep only the part that clings to the tree. You can eat it fresh dried, cooked or crushed.
REMEMBER NOT ALL FLOWERING PLANTS ARE EDIBLE, MANY ARE POISONOUS.
CEREAL BOOST:
Also true according to Macrobiotics that cereal seeds left in water to sprout after 24-48 hours will help in case of survival and very nourishing especially Lucerne which is really rich in proteins. To pursue this and a series of a few more seeds
MPF FOOD:
To investigate there exist a flour especially made and rich in vitamin and mineral called MPF: Multipurpose Emergency Food.
FRUITS:
Fruit and berries can be dried whole or cut into slices and dried by sun, smoke or heat.. Fruits can usually be eaten dry.
GREEN VEGETABLES:
Wash in clean water and boil for just long enough to make them tender. They are often and easily overcooked.
Tender plants can be gently steamed if you are sure that they are safe to eat. Add to stew after the meat are cooked and already tender. Eat fresh greens Raw as salad.
EVERY NECESSITY IS FREE!:
HUM! Try that with your Tax Man?
Anyone at anytime can suddenly find himself dependent on his own resources for survival.
It costs little time, money & efforts to be ready for such an emergency. If you are NOT ready, it may cost your life or someone dear to you.
Henry Thoreau noted: I learned that a man may use as simple a diet as the animals & yet retain health & strength. One can make a satisfactory dinner off a dish of Purslane gathered & boiled.
Yet men have come to such a pass that they frequently starve not from want of necessaries but for want of luxuries. To survive one does not need caviar & champagne.
MOSS AS FOOD PRESERVING:
The moss keeps humidity for a long time thus can be used to keep meat, fruits or vegetables. (NOT Fish! NO!)
Cover the food with this moss tightly pressed and put them in a damp box away from predators. Put a bed of that tightly press moss at the bottom of the box too.
PRESERVING LEAVES, ROOTS BARK:
Sort them out to keep only the good ones and let them dry at least 48 hours away from the sun, then bag it in Humidity Proof containers to use it when you need them.
SAND PRESERVING:
Many vegetables can be kept by just putting them under a thick layer of dry sand.
BAKING IS ALSO VERY SUITABLE FOR ROOT & VEGETABLES:
FRUIT KEEPING:
Plantain, Banana, Bread-Tree fruits, leaves, berries etc. can be sun dried, wind dry, or on fire with or without smoke. Cut fruits in thin slice place it to the sun or near fire.
PRESERVING FRUITS:
To preserve fruits, carefully wash some white sand with water till the water is clear and #limpid#. Next pour some cognac or alcohol on this washed sand.
Now put in a wooden or earth jars your fruits and pour the sand over them all at least 2 inches above & keep the whole thing in a temperate place. The fruits will keep for several years.
VEGETABLE PRESERVING:
Carrots and Turnips will keep fresh longer after you have picked them if you have taken the precaution to bury them up to the root into clean damp sand contained in a jar, don't remove the roots but use them to pick your vegetable easily.
APPLE PRESERVING:
Sand that was well dried in the sun and spread over alternatively on apples, a layer of sand then one of apple etc. and the last one being sand of course kept in a barrel will keep the apples all winter long. The sand will preserve all dampness to rot the apple.
STEAMING PLANTS:
IT DOES NOT OVERCOOK SO IT PRESERVES ALL NUTRITIONAL VALUES. (ESSENTIAL in Survival)
It is an excellent way of cooking fish and green vegetables. Fresh young leaves take Very Little cooking. The foodstuff needs to be suspended in the steam away from boiling water.
Make a simple steamer by punching holes in a can and suspending it inside a large can, or putting something in the bottom of the large can to keep the inner one above the water.
Cover the outer can so that steam is not dissipated, but not so tightly that it is sealed or pressure could build up and cause it to explode. ((OOP's!)
HONEY & EXHAUSTION: 2rpt in: f/aid
Honey is so rapidly assimilated by the body that if given by any means to a person unconscious from exhaustion, it will be almost IMMEDIATELY assimilated & restore consciousness and strength.
#VEGETARISM#:
(Or Dinosaurs spare-ribs?)
REMEMBER the story of the farmer who said; you can not live on vegetable food only for it furnishes nothing to make bones with, yet all the while he was talking behind his oxen which with vegetable-made bones jerk him and his plough all along. Hum?