DentonDoc wrote on Nov 26^th, 2010 at 11:29pm:

Anyone try rock tripe?  Caribou moss?   Not like they have a lot of calories, but then you'd typically not have to spend many calories finding/harvesting. dd

Sparky says (Mark Stensaas) in Canoe Country Flora; "Rock tripe has a completely undeserved reputation as an edible lichen." Franklin Arctic expedition ate it but they suffered from bowel complaints and nausea.

He also says that reindeer lichen, as human food, "may be more palatable after partial digestion in the grazing ungulates gut."  Arctic inhabitants mix partial digested lichens with the animals blood.

Of course if we were eating a caribou, moose or deer; we probably wouldn't need to eat the lichen, except for a salad entree  ;)

starwatcher