Edibility of Plants

Plants are valuable sources of food because they are widely available, easily procured, and, in the proper combinations, can meet all your nutritional needs.

It is important to be able to recognize both cultivated and wild edible plants in a survival situation. Most of the information in this chapter is directed towards identifying wild plants because information relating to cultivated plants is more readily available.

• Plants growing near homes and occupied buildings or along roadsides may have been sprayed with pesticides. Wash them thoroughly. In more highly developed countries with many automobiles, avoid roadside plants, if possible, due to contamination from exhaust emissions.
• Plants growing in contaminated water or in water containing Giardia lamblia and other parasites are contaminated themselves. Boil or disinfect them.
• Some plants develop extremely dangerous fungal toxins. To lessen the chance of accidental poisoning, do not eat any fruit that is starting to spoil or showing signs of mildew or fungus.
• Plants of the same species may differ in their toxic or subtoxic compounds content because of genetic or environmental factors. One example of this is the foliage of the common chokecherry. Some chokecherry plants have high concentrations of deadly cyanide compounds while others have low concentrations or none. Horses have died from eating wilted wild cherry leaves. Avoid any weed, leaves, or seeds with an almondlike scent, a characteristic of the cyanide compounds.
• Some people are more susceptible to gastric distress (from plants) than others. If you are sensitive in this way, avoid unknown wild plants. If you are extremely sensitive to poison ivy, avoid products from this family, including any parts from sumacs, mangoes, and cashews.
• Some edible wild plants, such as acorns and water lily rhizomes, are bitter. These bitter substances, usually tannin compounds, make them unpalatable. Boiling them in several changes of water will usually remove these bitter properties.
• Many valuable wild plants have high concentrations of oxalate compounds, also known as oxalic acid. Oxalates produce a sharp burning sensation in your mouth and throat and damage the kidneys. Baking, roasting, or drying usually destroys these oxalate crystals. The corm (bulb) of the jack-in-the-pulpit is known as the "Indian turnip," but you can eat it only after removing these crystals by slow baking or by drying.
  
  

  WARNING

  Do not eat mushrooms in a survival situation! The only way to tell if a mushroom is edible is by positive identification. There is no room for experimentation. Symptoms of the most dangerous mushrooms affecting the central nervous system may show up after several days have passed when it is too late to reverse their effects.

  
  Plant Identification
  You identify plants, other than by memorizing particular varieties through familiarity, by using such factors as leaf shape and margin, leaf arrangements, and root structure.

  The basic leaf margins (Figure 9-1) are toothed, lobed, and toothless or smooth.

  
  
  These leaves may be lance-shaped, elliptical, egg-shaped, oblong, wedge-shaped, triangular, long-pointed, or top-shaped (Figure 9-2).
  
  
  The basic types of leaf arrangements (Figure 9-3) are opposite, alternate, compound, simple, and basal rosette.
  
  
  The basic types of root structures (Figure 9-4) are the bulb, clove, taproot, tuber, rhizome, corm, and crown. Bulbs are familiar to us as onions and, when sliced in half, will show concentric rings. Cloves are those bulblike structures that remind us of garlic and will separate into small pieces when broken apart. This characteristic separates wild onions from wild garlic. Taproots resemble carrots and may be single-rooted or branched, but usually only one plant stalk arises from each root. Tubers are like potatoes and daylilies and you will find these structures either on strings or in clusters underneath the parent plants. Rhizomes are large creeping rootstock or underground stems and many plants arise from the "eyes" of these roots. Corms are similar to bulbs but are solid when cut rather than possessing rings. A crown is the type of root structure found on plants such as asparagus and looks much like a mophead under the soil's surface.
  
  
  
  Learn as much as possible about plants you intend to use for food and their unique characteristics. Some plants have both edible and poisonous parts. Many are edible only at certain times of the year. Others may have poisonous relatives that look very similar to the ones you can eat or use for medicine.

  Universal Edibility Test
  There are many plants throughout the world. Tasting or swallowing even a small portion of some can cause severe discomfort, extreme internal disorders, and even death. Therefore, if you have the slightest doubt about a plant's edibility, apply the Universal Edibility Test (Figure 9-5) before eating any portion of it.

  
  
  Before testing a plant for edibility, make sure there are enough plants to make the testing worth your time and effort. Each part of a plant (roots, leaves, flowers, and so on) requires more than 24 hours to test. Do not waste time testing a plant that is not relatively abundant in the area.

  Remember, eating large portions of plant food on an empty stomach may cause diarrhea, nausea, or cramps. Two good examples of this are such familiar foods as green apples and wild onions. Even after testing plant food and finding it safe, eat it in moderation.

  You can see from the steps and time involved in testing for edibility just how important it is to be able to identify edible plants.

  To avoid potentially poisonous plants, stay away from any wild or unknown plants that have--

• Milky or discolored sap.
• Beans, bulbs, or seeds inside pods.
• Bitter or soapy taste.
• Spines, fine hairs, or thorns.
• Dill, carrot, parsnip, or parsleylike foliage.
• "Almond" scent in woody parts and leaves.
• Grain heads with pink, purplish, or black spurs.
• Three-leaved growth pattern.

• Amaranth (Amaranthus retroflexus and other species)
• Arrowroot (Sagittaria species)
• Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis)
• Beechnut (Fagus species)
• Blackberries (Rubus species)
• Blueberries (Vaccinium species)
• Burdock (Arctium lappa)
• Cattail (Typha species)
• Chestnut (Castanea species)
• Chicory (Cichorium intybus)
• Chufa (Cyperus esculentus)
• Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
• Daylily (Hemerocallis fulva)
• Nettle (Urtica species)
• Oaks (Quercus species)
• Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana)
• Plantain (Plantago species)
• Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana)
• Prickly pear cactus (Opuntia species)
• Purslane (Portulaca oleracea)
• Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)
• Sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella)
• Strawberries (Fragaria species)
• Thistle (Cirsium species)
• Water lily and lotus (Nuphar, Nelumbo, and other species)
• Wild onion and garlic (Allium species)
• Wild rose (Rosa species)
• Wood sorrel (Oxalis species)

• Bamboo (Bambusa and other species)
• Bananas (Musa species)
• Breadfruit (Artocarpus incisa)
• Cashew nut (Anacardium occidental)
• Coconut (Cocos nucifera)
• Mango (Mangifera indica)
• Palms (various species)
• Papaya (Carica species)
• Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum)
• Taro (Colocasia species)

• Acacia (Acacia farnesiana)
• Agave (Agave species)
• Cactus (various species)
• Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera)
• Desert amaranth (Amaranths palmeri)

When gathering seaweeds for food, find living plants attached to rocks or floating free. Seaweed washed onshore any length of time may be spoiled or decayed. You can dry freshly harvested seaweeds for later use.

Its preparation for eating depends on the type of seaweed. You can dry thin and tender varieties in the sun or over a fire until crisp. Crush and add these to soups or broths. Boil thick, leathery seaweeds for a short time to soften them. Eat them as a vegetable or with other foods. You can eat some varieties raw after testing for edibility.

SEAWEEDS

• Dulse (Rhodymenia palmata)
• Green seaweed (Ulva lactuca)
• Irish moss (Chondrus crispus)
• Kelp (Alaria esculenta)
• Laver (Porphyra species)
• Mojaban (Sargassum fulvellum)
• Sugar wrack (Laminaria saccharina)

Methods used to improve the taste of plant food include soaking, boiling, cooking, or leaching. Leaching is done by crushing the food (for example, acorns), placing it in a strainer, and pouring boiling water through it or immersing it in running water.

Boil leaves, stems, and buds until tender, changing the water, if necessary, to remove any bitterness.

Boil, bake, or roast tubers and roots. Drying helps to remove caustic oxalates from some roots like those in the Arum family.

Leach acorns in water, if necessary, to remove the bitterness. Some nuts, such as chestnuts, are good raw, but taste better roasted.

You can eat many grains and seeds raw until they mature. When hard or dry, you may have to boil or grind them into meal or flour.

The sap from many trees, such as maples, birches, walnuts, and sycamores, contains sugar. You may boil these saps down to a syrup for sweetening. It takes about 35 liters of maple sap to make one liter of maple syrup!

Staying Warm: The Secret To A Good Hunt Out Of A Stand

Nights are cooling down and there is a chill in the air early mornings and late evenings. You can wrap up now and stay fairly comfortable for several hours on a stand. But we do have firearm season and muzzleloading season to follow in late winter when the elements are more severe.

I am usually lucky or fortunate enough to tag a buck, at least during one of the firearm seasons, if not before. You can call it lucky, but it seems the more hours I spend in my stand, the luckier I get.

One reason I can spend those hours in the stand is the ability to be comfortable for several hours there. With the firearm seasons being set in November and December, warmth plays a large part of being comfortable in your stand. I have hunted many deer seasons, in all kinds of weather and through the years, I’ve learned to deal with the elements.

It’s hard to predict the weather, but here in Kentucky, you can almost bet that during the ten-day firearm season in November, we’ll have to deal with morning lows in the 20’s to 30’s and probably at least one day of rain.

I have found that layers of clothes are better than just one coat or coveralls. There is one catch though. Money! You’ll have to purchase certain clothes and accessories. You’ll “get what you pay for” and I suggest don’t buy according to the price tag, but rather, the quality of the item.

Here’s how to stay warm and dry in that stand.

First, let’s start at the bottom and work our way up. Cold feet have run me and other hunters out of their stands for years. I’ve tried everything from electric socks, more socks and even had friends buy boots that have an air pocket that the military uses in the arctic. Nothing worked until about 7 or 8 years ago I tried something called boot blankets.

Boot blankets are almost like they sound. It’s like wrapping your boots in a blanket and these wonders are rated to – 85 degrees! You slip these on over your boots and to add icing to the cake, slip one of the hand warmer packets in the tip of the blanket where your toes will be. It’s like toast! Icebreaker makes the brand I use and seems to be the best on the market. They are insulated with Hollofil 808.

One disadvantage is the bulk on the stand. These are not made to walk in and you must be pretty stationary when wearing them.

Next, we’ll keep those legs warm with insulated bib overalls. Make sure from the bibs to the coats you buy that you get fleece, hydro-fleece or wool, because the fabric is quiet when moving around. You’ll need to move and sometimes in the morning when everything is very still in the woods, your clothes can give you away just by the cracking or sliding noise they give off.

Buy bibs that have a full-length zippers. That is, they zip down your leg from waist to your feet. You’ll also have a zipper in front that zips to your waist too. With these, you can slip boots as large as pack boots through the bibs easily on the stand. Zip up your zippers and you’ll keep those legs warm.

The reason I choose bibs is the freedom it gives your arms when wearing a heavy coat or layers of coats. If you use a complete insulated suit, sometimes your arm movement is restricted and you can have to much bulk on.

We come to the parka now. Thinsulate or Goretex are good fill materials, plus the added silence of fleece or wool work well. Buy a parka that comes down over your waist and also has a hood. Most that have hoods have tall collars on them and can still stop the wind from chilling your neck, even if you don’t wear the hood. A good parka will cost $150 to $250.

I usually wear a lighter fleece jacket under my parka when the weather is really cold. It fits me tighter and holds a lot of warmth.

Let’s deal with the hands now. Besides my feet, my hands would always get cold. Now I wear a pair of camo jersey gloves to the stand. When on the stand, I use an insulated hand muff, like my boot blankets, they are also made by Icebreaker. The muff is round and about 15 inches long and feels like fur inside. Throw in another hand warmer packet inside and I haven’t ever found it cold enough for my hands to be cold on the stand.

You can either hang the muff from your neck or attach it to a belt. When that deer walks up, slip your hands out of the muff with your jersey gloves on and pick up your gun or bow. You now don’t have to worry about getting those bulky Thinsulate gloves in the trigger guard.

We’re at the top now and looking at the head. I don’t like anything to cover my ears, because I usually detect more deer by sound than by sight. I can usually just use a light camo mask like turkey hunters use, if the weather isn’t extremely cold. Its surprising how much warmth a mask will trap your breath and help your face and head stay warm.

If it is very cold, I’ll use a hooded type toboggan, balaclava or in extreme cold, I’ll use my hood on my parka. I give up some detection of picking up sound with the hood, but it is still better to be able to be comfortable on the stand and stay longer than getting cold and leaving the stand. Protect the back of your head and neck to help keep the chill off.

If you’re wet, you’re going to be cold this time of year. To help beat this I use the new dry-plus rain gear that is out today, which is very good and you’ll need this traveling to and from your stand. I bought one of the tree umbrellas on the market a couple of years ago after down pours on muzzleloading and modern gun opening days made it miserable in the woods. These umbrellas work very well and you can even take your rain gear off under them. The umbrellas sell for around $25 and are well worth the money.

Neoprene gloves will help keep your hands warm when wearing your rain suit. My gloves used to be soaked when the rest of me was dry. Neoprene gloves have ended those days.

Now, the key to all the clothes is not to wear them until you get in your stand. If you wear them while walking to the stand, you’ll perspire to much and therefore be damp when you arrive at your stand. I don’t even wear insulated underwear because this can also cause you to get to warm while walking to your stand.

I started using a pack about 10 years ago and it’s been one of the best investments I’ve ever made. Cabela’s has one that is called their Deluxe Whitetail pack and comes in various camo patterns. Make sure the pack you buy has side pockets and straps on the back. You’ll have to use not only the inside of the pack, but also strap some of your gear on it.

All at once or add one piece at a time, equip yourself with these tips and accessories for cold or wet weather. I can’t guarantee you’ll fill your tag, but I promise you will be warmer and therefore get luckier. Hang in there!