Hi, This is Hawk and I want to talk with you a bit about surviving a bad situation out in the wilderness Survival foods are not the most important thing in most emergency situations in the wilderness. You can survive weeks without eating if you have to, so it is usually more important to find shelter and water, and to stay dry and uninjured. On the other hand, just knowing you can find food out there, and having something in your stomach, can do wonders for your state of mind, which can be crucial to your survival.

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

Survival Foods – The Animals To Hunt.

Mammals in North America can all be eaten (except for the livers and gallbladders of some animals and also some arctic mammals are unedible). Since many carry parasites. You should wash your hands after handling a freshly butchered animal, and remember to cook the meat to well done, if possible.

Most North American birds are edible, some taste better than others and all their eggs are pretty good too. I’ve even eaten seagull eggs cooked on a hot rock, and they tasted fine.

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

Amphibians and reptiles are usually safe to eat – if you remove the skin. I have cooked rattlesnake in a stew and over a fire, and I personally recommend the latter.

Survival Foods – The Edible Plants To Gather.

Cattail is one of the most abundant and calorie-rich foods in the wilderness. The white part of the stalk at the bottom, and the new shoots, can be eaten raw or cooked. Flower spikes can be cooked like corn-on-the-cob when green. Roots can be mashed in water to release the starch, which can be added to soups. Pollen from the flower spike can be shaken into a bag and used in soups. Cattails grow in swamps or wet soil, and you really should get to know this plant.

The inner bark of most types of pine trees is edible. It’s a good survival food to remember because it is available year-round. That white spongy layer between the outer bark and the wood is what you want. Although it is mostly fiber, it contains enough carbohydrates to be worth boiling into a soup if nothing else is available.

Edible berries can be a delicious and filling survival food in the right season. Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cranberries, and blackberries all have their wild forms. If it looks like the domestic one that you plant in your garden (usually smaller) and smells and tastes like it, It should be safe to eat. Something you and your family should do is get a nice edible plant guidebook and start learning about edible plants and where to find them, this information will come in handy during a bad situation.

Of course, it’s fun to know which mushrooms you can eat, and even which flowers are edible, but both of these have almost no calories. To quickly learn what you need to survive, concentrate first on the common animals and the most abundant and calorie-rich edible plants. Those are the survival foods that will most likely save your life in a bad situation.