Rose Hips - I've seen lots of wild roses in Quetico and elsewhere - I'll eat a few while archery hunting in the fall, along with all the rasberries I can find.  The red bud tastes sorta tomatoey; I've eaten the whole bud, but its best to not eat the seeds, as they are another item with the "velcro" hooks and best ignored.  They seem to ripen in late Aug to Sep, and will dry on the bush, staying there all winter.  Anyone can identify a rose bush and rose hips.

Anyone run into wild cucumber?

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) YouTube video is pretty good at helping you identify the plant. 

BTW:  There are a couple of interesting videos by the same person that demonstrates starting a fire with fire-steel with wet tender.  One starts with a wet cotton ball; another starts with wet birch bark.  Looks like a technique that might require a bit of practice.

dd

I will check it out when I make to the EU...

whatever floats you boat, in regard to ever.

DentonDoc wrote on Nov 5^th, 2010 at 12:26am:


I had persimmons growing along my back fence in the Shenandoah Valley in VA.  I love them and agree that they have a lot of pucker power.  My neighbor says that his horses like them so much they practically climb the tree to get them.  The Greek word for the fruit is "Diospyros" which means "the fruit of the gods"

The pucker power taste reminds me of the chokecherries we used to eat when we were kids growing up in the north woods.  In addition they will coat your teeth.  They also made great ammo for pea shooter fights.  We used to cut some hollow stocks of some big leaf plant for the shooter part.  You have to be a meat eater to survive in the north woods and I understand that the natives used to make pemmican by pounding meat with berries; including chokecherries, which included the (poisonous) seeds and all. It's called "Chokecherry because if you eat the leaves or seeds you will be poisoned by hydrocyanic acid, also known as cyanide. Cyanide poisoning causes convulsions and choking."

We use to eat whatever berry that was in season; thimbleberry, goose, blue, rasp, straw, bunch, june, pin cherry; etc.  Have even made sumac lemonaide.  Hazel nuts have a very protected prickley cover, and also have an asstringent taste when raw,  but as soon as they are ripe they disappear very fast in the wild and you have to fight the squirrels for them.  In regards to salad, I've eaten clintonia, or blue bead lilly; they taste like cucumbers; but don't eat the berries which are mildly poisonous.

Another thing I've noticed on books I've read about wild food from the north woods is that it seems like a lot of wild plants require you to boil them two to three times to remove have astringents before you can eat them. For example, marsh marigolds "which contain an acrid poison when eaten raw."

In regards to cattails being edible, I'll quote Patrick MacManus: "being edible does not mean "good to eat" Edible means only that you won't flop over with your face in your plate when you take a bite of the stuff."  "If cattails were actual good to eat they'd sell they'd sell it in supermarkets for three dollars a pound."

One note about fiddleheads is that they are carcinogenic.  Also; make sure you don't confuse them with bracken fern.  I don't know anything about chorophyll poisoning, but I do know that bracken fern will kill cattle that eat it by robbing the them of Vitamin B and cause them to bleed to death.  Sorry for being Debby Downer, I enjoy all kinds of fruits and berries on our canoe trips; Also wintergreen berries and tea, and rose hip tea on our October trips.  You just either need to be well educated; or like me as a child growing up in the north woods to learn by experience; the ones who survived to adulthood and that did not get a Darwin Award. (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)


starwatcher

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