The following articles were gathered bit by bits from the Net.
Lets's hope "Es-Perron_le" that they will be good info for you.
TITLES OF WHAT IS HERE BELOW: 47 Pages
1: REHYDRATION SALTS
2: NUCLEAR FALL OUT MEDICINE: Subject: POTASSIUM IODIDE
3: HOW TO SURVIVE
This information is for long term survival in event of economic
or natural disaster, even long-term unemployment. Hopefully you
will find this information beneficial, or at least interesting.
4: SAS SURVIVAL KNIFE FROM AUSTRALIA DOWN UNDER
5: FORAGING FOR FUN OR MONEY & SURVIVAL FOOD by Nancy Bubel
A while back you were looking for the series of articles I had
from Country Journal magazine. I've located four articles in
that series. FINE FORAGING: by Nancy Bubel
Here are some of the titles covered:
EARLY SPRING / MARCH: / WINTER CRESS / DANDELION / APRIL /
ASPARAGUS / CATTAILS / MORELS ( mushrooms the best) / SOME
PRACTICAL HINTS FOR GETTING THE GOOD STUFF / LATE SPRING /
VIOLETS / SHAGGY MANES / JUNE / STRAWBERRIES
/ FORAGING FOR PROFIT / JULY / LINDEN FLOWERS / DAYLILIES /
BLACKBERRIES / RASPBERRIES / BLACK RASPBERRIES / WINEBERRIES /
PUFFBALLS /
AUGUST / MULBERRIES / ELDERBERRIES / MAY APPLES / Violet Candy
Dandelion Wine / Winter Cress Au Gratin / Daylily Fritters /
Red Raspberry Chewy /
FALL / SEPTEMBER / GROUND CHERRIES / MEADOW MUSHROOMS / HAZELNUTS
BLACK WALNUTS / HICKORY NUTS / OCTOBER / PAPAWS / NOVEMBER /
OYSTER MUSHROOMS / PERSIMMONS / REFERENCE BOOKS /
6: ENVIRONMENTAL COOKBOOKS COMBINES THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
7: SURVIVAL KNIFES
8: SAFE-PACKS SURVIVAL PACKS ???
9: TO BY-PASS OR NOT TO BY-PASS?
Noted Anesthesiologist Reveals Needless Heart Operations
10: EMERGENCY TRANSMISSION DEVICE ONLY SPARK GAP TRANSMITTER
11: PRIMITIVE MEDICINE Subject: US ARMY SF Primitive Medicine
US ARMY SPECIAL FORCES MEDICAL HANDBOOK SEPTEMBER 1982
22-1. GENERAL.
22-2 Primitive treatments. DIARRHOEA:
b. WORMS AND INTESTINAL PARASITES:
c. SORE THROATS:
d. SKIN INFECTIONS:
e. BURNS:
f. LEECHES AND TICKS:
g. BEE, WASP, & HORNET STINGS.
h. CHIGGERS:
22-3 MAGGOT THERAPY FOR WOUND DEBRIDEMENT
22-4 SUMMARY.
12: DIARRHOEA
13: INTERNAL FRAME PACK
14: FIRST THINGS TO DO IF LOST IN THE DESERT
15: GLOVE OVENS. THEY DO FOR YOUR HANDS WHAT A SKI JACKET DOES
FOR YOUR BODY
16: NEW PRODUCT TO SHED A LIGHT (LECTRA LITE)
17: WALKING STAFF: For those who know the need of a walking
staff I suggest you to check that site, its quite a good surprise
& no paid advertising.
18: LIVING UNDERGROUND & ITS ADVANTAGES (Ask any bear?)
Political Correctness: a marketing term for mind control.
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REHYDRATION SALTS
Date: Tue, 02 Jan 1996 03:01:33
From: danagain@gnn.com (Dan Hoff)
To: richard@io.org
Subject: rehydration salts
Rehydration salts are useful for counteracting the effects of
body fluid loss,(and reduce the possibility of shock) due to
heavy bleeding, flu, cholera, severe burns, etc.
following are three lists of ingredients
world health organization recipe for rehydration salts,
glucose 20 grams = 1 1/2 tsp honey or corn syrup
sodium chloride 3.5 grams = 1/2 tsp salt
sodium bicarbonate 2.5 grams = 1/2 tsp baking soda
potassium chloride 1.5 grams = 1/4 tsp or 2 cups orange, apple
juice dissolve this in one litre of water
(from "Far from help, back country medical care", , I highly
recommend this manual, it can be ordered from any bookstore using
ISBN # 0-938567-26-8 @14.95)
From "the family doctor III" on CD-ROM:
You can prepare your own (rehydration) solution by
following this recipe exactly:
1 quart of water;
3/4 teaspoon salt substitute (potassium chloride)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons white corn syrup (Karo syrup)
1 packet of unsweetened powdered drink mix, or concentrated
fruit juice to taste.
This will provide the exact electrolyte requirements in the right
concentration. The recommended intake is about 2 quarts of
liquid a day or up to 3 quarts if a fever and sweating is also
present.
These are the ingredients on a commercially purchased rehydration
salts.
Container
sodium chloride 3.5g ( salt)
potassium chloride 1.5g (used in the salt substitutes)
trisodium citrate dihydrate 2.9g
glucose anhydrous 20.0g (dry monosaccharide sugar dextrose,
fructose-used in canning)
Dissolve this in one litre of water.
To be taken orally
Infants-over a 24 hour period
Children-over an 8-24 hour period
According to age or as otherwise directed under medical
supervision.
Caution: do not boil solution
(two packages are included so that one can fill the international
standard 2 litre coke bottle)
Manufacturer: jianas bros. packaging Kansas city Missouri USA
Notice that quarts & litres are almost the same amount of liquid
These are ideas for small packages of baking soda and Epsom salts
with accompanying instructions.
Acid burns for eyes:
Sodium bicarbonate
contents: one teaspoonful
Make a weak solution by mixing contents in 1 qt. water
wash eye by pouring solution from inner corner of eye,
outward , holding the eyelid open
For poisoning by mouth:
Epsom salts:
contains: 1 tablespoon
Use as a purgative
Mix contents in glass of sweet liquid
Full amount for adults- less for children
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NUCLEAR FALL OUT MEDICINE:
Subject: POTASSIUM IODIDE
On reading the information on nuclear survival there was no
mention of potassium iodide, a brand name is "thyro-block" this
material jams the thyroid full of iodine, so that radioactive
iodine is not absorbed from the fallout.
This is crucial to long term survival, without it the radioactive
iodine causes the thyroid to become cancerous. i have heard that
this material is routinely given to folks that live close to nuke
power plants to have on hand, it was given to folks around
Chernobyl.
It is critical that this stuff be ingested as soon as possible
with exposure to radiation. It is also fairly cheap, (<@3/
bottle) and it stores well. but the only place that I have found
it available is at Nitro-pak preparedness centre, 800-866-4876,
they sell seven bottles for $16.95, item #4501,
*** HOW TO SURVIVE ***
This information is for long term survival in event of economic
or natural disaster, even long-term unemployment. Hopefully you
will find this information beneficial, or at least interesting.
Please feel free to redistribute this information.
Individual security enhances group security.
To me this is like fire insurance for the house, I sure don't
want or intend to use it, but what if one has a fire and no
insurance....
And I don't want to be without a job with nothing to eat. And
like fire insurance if it never gets used so much the better, it
is not that much money, and I sleep like a baby.
What I suggest is storing food and junk silver coins. I have
done some research and have had practical experience with long
term food storage. It can be done very inexpensively.
CONTAINERS
What has evolved in my house is storage of grains and legumes in
frosting buckets that are available from local donut shops or
grocery store bakeries or delicatessens. Obtain buckets in 1 to
5 gallon sizes. Avoid pickle buckets from Mickey D's, unless you
like the smell and taste of pickles.
Two or three litre soft drink bottles also work well if dried out
properly. Filled bottles can be put in the freezer overnight to
kill bugs. One advantage is that the bottles are small, so if
one gets an infestation, it doesn't need to spoil a large amount
of food. And they are easily available, airtight and cheap.
Plastic bag storage in garbage cans is not good. The bags --
unless specifically food storage bags -- have additives that will
leach into the food. And the loose-fitting bag tops and can lids
offer little protection against insects.
CONTENTS
As for the contents, we store mostly grains. Whole grains keep
much better than cracked grains or flour.
We buy the grain from the local food co-op for around @25.00 a
hundred pounds. However, we try to support the local farmer
whenever possible.
Grain purchased directly from farmers and farm co-ops will be
contaminate with small stones, dirt, insects, et cetera, and will
have to be cleaned by hand before grinding.
Grain bought through food co-ops will have been cleaned, thus
cost more, but will save you considerable preparation time.
It happens that in this area, the Midwest, what is grown mostly
is corn, soft wheat, and soy beans. More useful is hard wheat,
oats, corn, barley, popcorn, and varieties of beans.
Wheat varieties are:
Hard wheat - Durum - Flour is used in the manufacture of
Macaroni, Spaghetti, and similar pasta products.
Winter & Spring hard wheats - Highest in protein and
contain a high percentage of Gluten, and are used to
make quality yeast breads, hard roles, and fine cakes.
White - soft wheat - Flour is preferred for pie crust, flat
breads, biscuits, cakes, pastries, crackers, noodles, & breakfast
foods.
Some common bean varieties are:
Pinto Bean; Lima, Baby & Fordhook; Kidney; Navy; Black;
Northern; Black-eyed; Butter; Blackeyed; Small white;
Kidney; Cranberry Bean; Pink Bean; Small Red Bean; Pea
Beans; Etc.
Other legumes are:
Green Split Peas; Garbanzo; Pearl Barley; Yellow Split Peas;
Lentils; Carob; Cowpea; Chickpeas; Etc.
FILLING CONTAINERS
So now you have the buckets, and they are sparkling clean, and
the grain is in hand. There is one more thing when the wheat, or
whatever, is put in the buckets; put a hunk of dry ice in with it
(but not quite at the bottom) and put the lid on. The bucket
will swell a little as the carbon dioxide leaks out. Only one
ever blew the lid off for me & it wasn't very exciting, more of
a pop.
The addition of dry ice offers several advantages, one is that if
there are any bugs in the grain they are goners. Another
advantage is that food keeps better in the absence of oxygen.
And for beans especially this is very important, because the
proteins in beans will be oxidized by oxygen and then they won't
ever cook.
Where does one get dry ice you may ask? Truck stops often have
it. Check in the yellow pages. Usually what I do is get a bunch
of buckets filled, then open them up and push a piece of dry ice
about the size of a walnut down near the bottom.
For two litre bottles, I use a pencil -sized piece of dry ice
about two inches long. Filled two litre bottles can be kept in a
freezer instead of dry ice.
A little warning, use heavy gloves when handling dry ice, it can
very easily blister your skin. And always work in a well
ventilated area (one can be overcome with the gas).
Store the buckets at room temperature, and don't stack the
buckets over four or five tall because the material is heavy and
the bottom bucket can buckle.
AMOUNTS
Store one pound dry food per person per day minimum, in the ratio
of two pounds grain to one pound beans. So, if one wants a years
supply of food one needs say 250 pounds of grain and 120 pounds
of beans per person.
This will cost approximately @70.00 for the grain and maybe
another @70.00 for the beans; plus another few bucks in dry ice
and buckets, and you have something to eat for @150.00 per person
per year or so.
This grain is not gourmet and is not even a complete diet, but it
will keep one alive. It is also assumed that one will supplement
this diet with fresh or canned vegetables and fruits. These can
also be provided for with a dehydrator, but that is another story
entirely.
Of course, this stuff is available from a survival food place but
it is horrendously expensive and they do basically the same thing
but use cheaper nitrogen gas.
I try to store the food that has the greatest shelf life.
INDEFINITE SHELF LIFE 7-8 YEAR SHELF LIFE
Popcorn; White & Yellow Flour, White
White Rice Flour, Whole Wheat
Wheat; Soft & Hard Cracked Wheat
Lentils, all types Rolled Oats
Split Peas, all types Cornmeal
Beans, all types
Corn, Rye, Oats 3 YEAR SHELF LIFE
Barley, Millet Brown Rice
Survival food can be purchased at places often located in Utah
because the Mormons believe in storing a years supply of food.
They also believe is storing a quantity of salt.
GRINDING
A hand operated mill must be part of the deal. Grain can be
ground with two rocks, but a hand mill is far more useful and
expedient.
For around @130.00 a Bell hand powered grist mill #2 is available
from the manufacturer in Ohio:
C. S. Bell Company
P. O. Box # 291
Tiffin, Ohio 44883
Phone (419) 448- 0791
Check health food stores and the adds in magazine like Mother
Earth News for other grinders.
Also one of those plastic bucket-opening tools is a good idea too
obtain (around @10.00).
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SAS SURVIVAL KNIFE FROM AUSTRALIA DOWN UNDER
From: ffl@skywalker.ebay.sun.com (Frank Lindquist)
Newsgroups: misc.survivalism
Subject: Australian SAS Survival Kit
Date: 17 Nov 1995 20:38:12 GMT
For those interested,
Tactical_Knives_ magazine did an article about an Australian SAS
Breast Pocket Survival Kit and the small knife in it ....
This is a very compact kit, slightly larger than the Altoids
Peppermint metal boxes ... made for desert & semi-arid climates
Contents listed for what its worth.
The Survival Kit Mark III contains:
P/S: everything is kit is small and simple; knife, compass, etc.
Lighter
Compass
knife
plastic mirror
tweezers
hacksaw blade
plastic bags
needle
fishing line
fishing hooks
brass swivel
sinkers
trace wire
stock cubes
cord
tea bag
glucose tablet
instruction sheet
puritabs
Condy's Crystals (an antiseptic)
Band-Aids
scalpel blade
paracetamol tablets (pain pills)
alcohol swab / pencil
plastic container for kit & canvas tape for sealing
kit & later field use
The inventor of the Kit, Bob Cooper, has an "ABCs to Survival" :
A. Accept the situation
B. Brew up a cup of tea
C. Consider all possibilities
D. Decide on a Plan
E. Execute your Plan
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FORAGING FOR FUN OR MONEY AND SURVIVAL FOOD
From: Paul MacGregor #0 @9:2500/300 via 1:3634/38 SURVNet
Re: foraging
A while back you were looking for the series of articles I had
from Country Journal magazine. I've located four articles in
that series.
Here they are in order ....
FINE FORAGING: EARLY SPRING by Nancy Bubel
First in a series on finding and preparing the best outdoor
edibles of the season. (Country Journal // March/April 1991)
Beyond packaged store foods, beyond farm markets, beyond even
home garden produce, there is a great bounty of food growing all
around us. Original food, you might call it. Wild food. It's
there in the woods, along the hedgerows, throughout the fields,
by the road, even at the edge of your garden, and it's good.
Much of it grows and returns to the earth without ever reaching
our tables. Unless you take the trouble to learn and look you
may never know what you're missing. MMMM!
There are at least 25 wild foods that add sparkle to my family's
meals throughout the year, I'm not talking about subsistence
foraging -- eating to make do.
We don't depend on acorns, or eat meals composed solely of wild
greens. The wild foods we savour are seasonal treats. We eat
only those that have especially rich, delicate, or savory flavour
we couldn't find any other way.
What's more appealing, wild foods grow without any attention from
us. They're unsprayed, and they cost us nothing. These advantages
appeal to our practical nature. At some deeper level, though,
we're aware that, in gathering wild foods, we are really seeking
-- and finding -- a closer relationship witth the wonderfully
varied land that surrounds and supports us.
We feel in tune with the seasons, looking for each treasured
berry, nut, or mushroom as its time comes due. And we notice
subtle changes in our landscape as we search. Wineberries spread
as cut-over woods gradually grow shadier; fallen trees host
mushrooms; microclimates encourage the earliest wild greens.
Most of our foraging is done on our own land, but we occasionally
make trips to pick berries on wild public lands where we know the
crop is plentiful. We don't pick on privately owned land without
asking permission.
Of course, certain city and state parks are protected by
no-picking laws.
We have repeatedly picked each of the following wild foods
because we know them, like them, and easily find them. For your
own wild specialties, start by getting to know what grows in your
neighbourhood.
Consult a reliable wild foods guidebook and learn to positively
identify the scores of edible plants that are out there for the
picking. The quest for wild delicacies can become an absorbing,
satisfying, challenging, lifetime adventure.
MARCH:
WINTER CRESS: ( Barbarea vulgaris)
It is also called yellow rocket, wild mustard, upland cress, and
spring cress. This is our earliest wild spring green. While
March snow still banks the north side of the house, I'll find
little clusters of cress in protected spots near the compost pile
and berry bushes.
We use cress in three stages. The first fresh clumps, well
sweetened by freezing nights, make tender, mild-flavoured salad
greens. When the leaves grow a bit larger, I braise them or cook
them in soup. Then, when the flower buds form (but before the
yellow flowers open), I cook them in a small amount of water for
five to seven minutes.
The buds have a mild broccoli flavour. Once the plants are in
full bloom and the weather turns warm enough to go out without
your jacket, the winter cress season is over.
Wild greens become distastefully bitter and are sometimes tough
when eaten after they flower.
Winter cress has smooth, rounded leaves with several small
secondary lobes along its stem. The stem arises directly from
the crown. Leaves are 3 to 7 inches long and blossom buds are
1/2 to 1 inch in diameter.
You'll find winter cress in rich, moist ground. It often turns
up in the garden, at the edges of perennial vegetable and berry
beds, on sunny hillsides, near streams, and even in lawns --
always in a sunny, open space.
DANDELION (Taraxacum officinale)
As a child, I used to see women picking dandelions in the town
baseball field behind our house. I considered the plants weeds
and the pickers exotic.
We kept to our peas and carrots and never tried the greens.
Now each spring I watch eagerly for those first tousled crowns,
craving their tangy freshness after a winter of bland fare.
I snip them into noonday salads, beginning in late March here in
south central Pennsylvania, until the plants flower and the
leaves turn bitter.
Late-blooming plants in less-sheltered places stretch the season.
In October and November, tender new seedlings crop up at the
edges of the kitchen garden and asparagus patch, sweetened by
frosty nights.
We mostly eat the leaves in salads, but they are also tasty
braised, or cooked in soup. In Pennsylvania Dutch country, you
may find dandelions offered briefly at farmers markets in spring.
On a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch menu, they are served with a
hot sweet and sour bacon dressing.
Dandelion greens contain more vitamin A and C than many garden
salad greens, and they're ready before anything else, so they
fill a fresh- food gap deliciously. The small blossom buds
tightly packed in the centre of the developing crown are also a
good vegetable when briefly cooked for three to five minutes.
Of course you'll recognize the dandelion, with its toothed 4- to
8- inch long leaves, its long, strong root, and its familiar
golden flower.
Dandelions are perennials, so if you have a good patch of them
you can return to it. Look for them in sunny lawns, around
perennial vegetable plantings, or at the garden's edge. You
won't find them in the woods, deep shade, or tangled brush.
APRIL:
ASPARAGUS (Asparagus officinalis)
Wild asparagus spears are just like those that grow in your
garden -- not surprising when you realize they are seedlings from
those same plants, in most cases scattered by bird droppings.
The largest asparagus spear I've ever seen was a wild one our
daughter found near our Lancaster County home. The stem was a
good 2-inches in diameter. It seemed a shame to cook it.
We don't forage for wild asparagus these days because we have a
cultivated patch, but during our years on a small homestead we
were glad for every spear we could find while we waited for our
patch to bear.
You won't discover large colonies of wild asparagus in any one
place.
But during an afternoon jaunt on a warm late-April or May day you
can often find enough of it for a meal. Look alongside fences
where the mower can't reach; in hedgerows, road ditches, and
pasture corners; and especially under phone wires or posts where
birds perch.
Check too, for golden tan, dried, bent stalks from last year --
sure signs of roots that will send up this year's spears.
Asparagus thrives in rich, well-limed soil and full sun. Watch
out for poison ivy, which likes the same conditions and often
grows near by.
CATTAILS (Typha latifolia)
They have a number of edible parts; root sprouts, green bloom
spikes, & young leaf shoots, sometimes called Cossack asparagus.
We've tried the bloom spikes and found them interesting camping
food, if a bit gritty.
It is the shoots we enjoy most. We planted cattails in a wet
spot near our pond so we could have a ready supply of this
delicacy.
Starting in April, and continuing into May as new plants develop,
we look for cattail leaves extending 2 feet above water level
(taller plants have tougher cores). Ten to twelve of these
multileafed shoots serve two people.
Under the tough green outer leaves is a tender white core, 3/8 to
5/8 inch in diameter and 6 to 10 inches long. Steamed for 15
minutes, or cooked in soup, these shoots bring spring to the
table.
Sliced thin, crosswise, they make a fine addition to a salad.
They have a mild, unremarkable flavour and a pleasant texture.
Look for cattails around ponds, marshes, wetlands, even ditches
-- wherever there is standing water or sogggy ground.
MORELS (Morchella esculenta)
They seem to possess a mystique surpassing that of any other wild
plant, a combination of elusiveness and rich subtle flavour.
Sauteed in butter, these May-fruiting mushrooms are delicious.
The problem is finding enough of them.
I know people who have picked half-bushel baskets of morels, but
at our place we've only ever found a handful at a time -- enough
to savour slowly with a simple meal or a piece of toast. Usually,
we've found them when we were looking for something else.
People who have -- or know of -- good morel hunting grounds are,
understandably, close-mouthed about where & even when they pick.
The mushroom isn't handsome but it is distinctive. Rising from
the ground on a hollow, pale-tan, rubbery-looking, 1- to 1 1/2-
inch-wide stalk, the morel has a hollow cap with a honeycomb
design furrowing its surface.
The size of the fungus varies from 2 to 9 inches in height. Its
colour ranges from tan through greyish brown to cinnamon; the
caps are often the colour of weathered oak leaves.
Also called the sponge mushroom, this morel fruits in late April
and early May in south-central Pennsylvania. It is found in
varied terrain, from old orchards to burnt-over meadows to duff
under oaks, beeches, maples or ash.
The similar black morel (M. elata) appears earlier in April,
often in conifer forests or in mixed woods among aspen, beech,
poplar, or pine.
It has a more regular arrangement of ribs on its cap, with the
rib edges usually darker than the tan flesh in the pits.
Don't rely on this brief description for identification. Consult
a good mushroom guidebook. Be sure to make a clear distinction
between the pitted cap surface of the morel and the merely
wrinkled skin of the sometimes-poisonous false morels, which
belong to a different family (Helvellaceae).
We never hesitate to eat a mushroom that we know well, but we
always take time to be certain of our identification.
SOME PRACTICAL HINTS FOR GETTING THE GOOD STUFF
1. Mark known foraging sites and ripening times on your calendar
as you discover them for easy reference the following year. Some
people mark sites on maps, too.
2. This season's observations can lead to next season's good
picking.
Watch for evidence of choice wild foods -- cracked nut shells on
the road, fields of wild mustard in bloom, tall fronds of
gone-to-seed asparagus -- so you'll know where to return.
3. Always ask permission to gather plants on land that is
privately owned.
4. Pick & use only those foods you know for sure are edible safe
5. Avoid picking from the sides of heavily travelled roads and
from land that has been sprayed with herbicides or insecticides.
6. Keep collecting materials in your car; a basket, burlap bag,
backpack, pail, newspaper, plastic bags. You never know when
you'll spot black walnuts by a country road, or berries along a
river.
7. Dress for the job. Wear long pants and long-sleeves for
dealing with thorny bushes, a sun hat for berry patches, boots
for prowling wetlands and gloves for nut husks that can stain
your fingers.
8. Cut a long green stick with a forked notch for pulling
out-of- reach berry canes toward you.
9. Keep your gathered foods cool and use them as soon as
possible. Dry or freeze the surplus.
10. When gathering berries, tie a pail or milk carton around your
waist so you can use both hands for picking.
11. On camping trips, bring your identification books along to
help you identify unfamiliar species and to double-check those
you know.
12. Make mushroom spore prints for positive identification. Put
the fungus, gill side down, on a piece of paper and cover it with
a dish so it won't be disturbed. Leave it for four to eight
hours. If you expect the print to be white, use colored paper,
or use half of a colored sheet and half white.
13. When collecting mushrooms, separate the different kinds in
case there is a question later about one type's identification or
edibility.
FINE FORAGING: LATE SPRING by Nancy Bubel
Second in a series on finding and preparing the best outdoor
edibles of the season. (Country Journal // May/June 1991)
VIOLETS (Viola sororia)
They are a minor but fun addition to a spring salad. The flowers
not only look glorious in a bowl of mixed early greens but they
also contain a hefty amount of vitamin C.
Eaten alone they have a piquant tang. An easy way to enjoy violet
blossoms is to nibble on a few as you tramp around the open
country. They can also be made into a syrup or jam.
I'm tempted to say that violets are everywhere. While that isn't
entirely true, they are widely distributed throughout the
continental United States. Shady and semi-shady borders, road
edges, stream banks, open woods, and north sides of buildings are
a few of the many places they are found.
SHAGGY MANES (Coprinus comatus)
These easy-to-identify mushrooms appear as often in town as in
the country. The shaggy, cylindrical, white caps are about
2-inches wide, and 2 to 6 inches high on 2- to 8- inch stalks.
Look for a ring on the stalk below the cap.
Shaggy manes are good only when fresh. As they age, the gills
dissolve into an inky black liquid. It isn't toxic, but isn't
appealing to eat, either.
Shaggy manes fruit in May through early June and again in
September and October. They often grow in large colonies & have a
surprising ability to erupt through hard-packed, even paved
ground.
We've seen them in our pasture, by wood chip piles, along town
roadsides, and in firmly compacted gravel next to a playground.
JUNE
STRAWBERRIES (Fragaria virginiana & F. vesca)
When my family and I first moved to our farm, the hay-field was
jewelled in June with thousands of wild strawberry plants,
producing more than we could possibly pick.
The tiny berries that grew in the lengthening grass had a flavour
fruitier and more fragrant than any domesticated strawberry. They
varied in size from 1/4 inch gems to thumbnail sized beauties
that filled the pail faster.
Tasks of all kinds call from every side in June, but strawberry
days are fleeting, and we always manage to take time for at least
a few afternoons of picking.
I remove the stem and leaf cap as I pick to save tedious (and
berry-squashing) picking-over later. If you're searching for wild
strawberries, check out rocky hillsides on a southern slope,
grassy road sides, meadows with thin grass, old hayfields, and
late-mowed barnyard edges; in either sun or lightly dappled
shade. Then drop everything and enjoy them.
MUSHROOMS are fairly easy to identify. All have a spongy,
open-pored surface under their caps, instead of gills. Spore
prints vary from yellow-brown to olive-brown. Boletes of various
kinds grow under oak aspen, birch and conifers, from June into
autumn, depending on the species.
Many are edible and choice, especially the fabled Boletus edalis,
often called the king bolete, with its smooth brown cap and huge
bulbous stem.
Boletes with flesh that bruises blue and those with red tube
mouths are considered poisonous.
Like other mushrooms, boletes pop up at seemingly random places
in the woods, so we've learned to carry an empty bag or two when
we go hiking.
If possible, make positive identification of the mushroom before
picking a lot of them. Once when we were camping in Virginia, we
picked a whole grocery bag full of an interesting-looking bolete.
It didn't bruise blue and it didn't have red tube mouths, but it
turned out to be the bitter bolete (Tylopilus felleus), a poorly
flavoured fungus that not even the best butter could redeem. We
did have fun picking them, though.
FORAGING FOR PROFIT
Randy Roya is a professional forager. After being a chef for both
cruise ships and ski resorts (foraging after hours and developing
recipes for his pickings). Roya quit to devote all his time to
what he loves most -- gathering wild edible plants. He became a
full time plant hunter in his native Vermont in 1986.
Roya entered the market at a good time. A few Vermont restaurants
were already featuring wild edible plants on their menus usually
pricey French imports of out-of-state delicacies available frozen
or canned never fresh.
"Some restaurants were interested but couldn't afford to pay
imported prices. Others weren't sure about preparation, so I
offered freshly foraged local greens and mushrooms and brought
recipes," he says.
Local foragers had barely penetrated the market. they were
essentially hobbyists, undependable about deliveries and picking
only when the spirit moved them. Roya made sure he always showed
up when he said he would.
During his years as a chef he had made numerous contacts. To them
he brought sample baskets of wild mushrooms and leeks. With new
restaurants he analyzed their menus to see if they seemed
innovative -- and capable of handling the expense of his labour
and delivery.
Roya located out-of-state markets in such places as Palm Beach
and San Francisco by looking through telephone books and calling
restaurants (a good job for a rainy May).
When visiting a potential client he took his samples and his
knowledge -- anyone not interested in a brief wild plant
education didn't get the opportunity to buy.
Roya learned his first foraging lessons from his father, who is
part Canadian Indian. "My dad inspired me to do this," he says.
He augments this knowledge by studying books. He particularly
likes Peterson's field guide for edible wild plants and an
out-of-print wild mushroom guide he got from his father.
When in doubt about a plant or mushroom, Roya consults with his
father and other foragers. He uses a microscope to check the
shapes of mushroom spores.
Finally, when he is confident of an identification he eats a tiny
portion of the plant. "I've never gotten sick from a wild plant.
I know the deadly mushrooms really well," he says.
Roya's foraging year begins when all but a few patches of snow
have melted in May. Rising with the sun, he pulls on thick boots,
a long-sleeved shirt to protect his arms from deep scratches, and
leggings, if it's cold. He searches woodlands and fields, asking
permission of landowners first.
As the baskets he carries fill, he stashes them in cool spots
returning to them later to load them into cooler chests in his
car. He leaves the patches by 3pm to make restaurant deliveries
between 4 and 6pm.
Roya enjoys sharing his knowledge. He instructs local foragers
and lectures on wild edible plants.
That knowledge includes being aware that leeks grow near stands
of maple trees. (For every two leeks he pulls he leaves one
behind to multiply.)
Roya also knows that riverbanks are the place to find bright
green ostrich ferns, whose tightly furled fiddle heads are a
traditional delicacy at fine restaurants and specialty stores in
Canada and throughout the Northeast.
Fiddleheads are Roya's cash cow. He estimates he sells three tons
of fiddleheads each spring in markets throughout the Northeast.
Harvesting them is chilly and sometimes dangerous work, as wet
slopes can give way. He picks from the outermost ring because the
centre will yield a new crop next year.
Another fiddlehead season ends. Roya seeks out wet and swamps,
areas for cattail shoots -- Cossack asparagus -- until June when
they toughen. This is a particularly abundant plant easily
foraged.
Roya gathers more than 50 varieties of mushrooms and sells most
of them fresh, though some are dried or preserved in brine.
Favourites include the abundant chanterelle (up to 1,500 pounds
in a season), chicken mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, morels and
fairy ring which grows in a circle that expands every year.
In between mushroom gathering, he forages for high bush
cranberries, which are used for sauces. In late summer he picks
spiny gooseberries, black raspberries, blueberries and black
cherries.
As foraging becomes more popular, Roya is seeing some disturbing
trends. "I'm concerned that a novice will sell inedible mushrooms
and ruin the reputation of wild mushrooms.
As he watches newcomers he laments their lack of care. "Patches
where I pick are getting better each year because I take care of
them. I move brush away to let new plants emerge. I don't
pick everything. I cut rather than pull, and I don't damage the
mycelium under mushrooms."
Roya urges novice foragers to think about what they are doing.
"Take care," he cautions, "or the plants will disappear."
From: The WEE Scot Paul MacGregor Moderator
... I tried tap dancing, but I kept falling in the sink.
FINE FORAGING: MIDSUMMER by Nancy Bubel
(Country Journal / July/August 1991)
Third in a series on finding and preparing the best outdoor
edibles of the season.
JULY
LINDEN FLOWERS (Tilia spp.)
In late June and early July, I sniff the air for the haunting
perfume of blossoming linden trees. I gather and dry the small,
cream-coloured, waxy-looking flowers to make an aromatic tea, an
old European custom that should be more widely practised.
Linden trees are broadly distributed throughout the United
States. I've seen European lindens planted as street trees in
several cities, as wild roadside trees in West Virginia, as
magnificent guardians of houses or barns on old farms and most
memorably, as ancient specimen trees at Monticello, Thomas
Jefferson's home.
The blossoms of the European linden (T. europaea) possess a more
intense fragrance and therefore a better flavour than those of
the smaller, nearly pyramidal (T. americana).
DAYLILIES (Hemerocallis fulva)
These bright flowers can put a vegetable on your table even if
you never plant a seed. Their buds, and even the spent blossoms,
are edible. Briefly steamed, they're good to eat in their own
right, without needing any justification by comparison with
familiar vegetables, although they are often compared to snap
beans.
Daylily buds are ready around the middle of July. For several
weeks they will steadily produce trumpet-shaped orange flowers
above arching, flat, 2-to-3-foot leaves. Blossoming daylilies and
the first garden picking of beans occur at about the same time.
If you can't keep up with the daylilies once the beans start
producing, you can dry and store both the buds and the day-old
flowers, as the Chinese do.
Widespread and easy to find when in bloom, daylilies grow on
road sides, near fences, by old house foundations, and around
meadows, in both sun and partial shade.
(Remember to always ask permission before picking any plants on
private property.) They are strong-rooted perennials, so removing
the flowers won't interfere with next year's bloom.
BLACKBERRIES (Rubus idaeus var. canadensis)
RASPBERRIES (R. idaeus var. strigosus)
BLACK RASPBERRIES (R. occidentalis)
WINEBERRIES (R. phoenicolasius)
Bramble bushes ramble all over the land, producing perfectly
delicious compound berries that are wonderful for fresh eating
and for pies, jams, and cobblers.
All are borne on spiny bushes that hopscotch over rocky clearings
and fringe the edges of mixed woods, their 6-foot long canes
rooting at the tips in a thorny stitchery that can quickly cover
favourable sites. Most of these berries ripen in July, with a few
extending into August.
Blackberries and black raspberries, the most numerous of these
wild delights, favour sunny or partly sunny places, as do the
less common raspberries. Wineberry bushes, which produce a
translucent, orange-red, tart/sweet berry, prefer shady and semi-
shady sites.
Wineberry stems are covered with a reddish down, and the berries
remain enclosed in a fuzzy calyx until they're ripe. Wineberries
have a less intense flavour than raspberries or blackberries, but
they're refreshingly juicy. They're good in a fruit cup or
drizzled with honey and covered with milk.
BLUEBERRIES (Vaccinium corymbosum)
After picking lowbush blueberries from scraggly 18-inch high
plants during the Maine summers of my childhood, I found the
high-bush blueberries here in Pennsylvania offered a whole new
world of picking.
Their larger berries in full clusters are much easier to gather.
They have a wonderful wild, rich flavour that uniform, cultivated
blueberries have never been able to match.
Blueberries are members of the heath family and, like their
cousins the azaleas and rhododendrons, they like acid soil.
Lowbush species are found in sunny or semishady rocky or sandy
clearings, often near pines and sweet ferns. My favourite patches
in Maine were along the railroad right of way and in clearings in
the woods where there had been a fire.
In New Jersey and Pennsylvania, I've found highbush blueberries
growing in swampy places, near mountain streams, along the edge
of sandy woods and in northern Pennsylvania, in highcountry
meadows near mixed woods. I've picked gallons of blueberries in a
swamp where the standing water was so deep I needed hip boots to
stay dry.
Blueberries ripen in New Jersey about mid-July and in the
northern Pennsylvania mountains in early August, so the picking
season can be long for serious foragers who enjoy wild berries
enough to travel for them.
It has been awhile since my family and I have managed to make
visits to our favourite picking spots, but each year we talk
about doing it.
More than any other wild food we gather, blueberries combine
pleasure in the picking site, delight in the fruit (of course we
eat as we pick), fond memories, family fun, adventure, and deep
satisfaction in the abundance that is there for the finding and
gathering.
PUFFBALLS (Lycoperdon perlatum, Calvatia gigantea, and others)
If morels are the filet mignon of the mushroom world, puffballs
are the hamburger.
Some of these stemless fungi have smooth skins; others are warty
and leathery. They range from an inch or so in diameter through
baseball and soccer ball size and up to gigantic specimens as
much as 2 feet across.
We've seen many puffballs the size of soccer balls growing in
grass along the Blue Ridge Parkway, and we've found two on our
lane, growing in a grassy strip at the edge of the woods.
Puffballs grow on the remains of dead trees as well as in sod.
They're a summer food, usually available from July until
September.
Use them while their interior flesh is still white and firm; when
it softens and yellows, the flavour is poor, and when the fungi
turn hollow and dusty inside, they'll explode in a cloud of
greyish spores when you step on them.
To serve them, peel off the skin, slice them, and fry the solid
flesh.
Like all mushrooms, puffballs shrink a lot when cooked.
AUGUST
MULBERRIES (Morus rubra)
They are often seen as street trees in town, their dropped fruit
unappreciated by home owners who resent the purple sidewalk
stains. They appear on country roads, too, and on old farms where
an original tree may be surrounded by its seedlings.
Mulberries are fun to eat as a wild snack. They are quite sweet.
Acid content, and therefore flavour, varies from tree to tree.
Most mulberries are a deep purple, but there is a white variety
that is so sweet it is sometimes used as a sugar substitute in
canning fruit.
When a mulberry tree is in fruit, it produces prodigious amounts
of elongated berries. The trees accept a variety of conditions
and may be found growing almost anywhere in open sunny ground in
the North Temperate Zone. Not content for birds to drop us some
seedlings, we planted several mulberries in the hedgerows of our
farm.
ELDERBERRIES (Sambucus canadensis)
You can buy cultivated elderberry bushes, which have larger
berries than the wild kind, but their berries have less flavour.
We planted some once, but we don't bother with them anymore
because the wild berries taste so much better. Don't try
elderberries raw, though; all elderberries have a rank,
disagreeable flavour when uncooked. But when cooked and sweetened
in pie or jelly, their flavour is as rich as their deep-purple
colour.
We've used elderberries in three ways: The dried berries make an
excellent, full-bodied tea: the cooked berries, thickened a bit
with arrowroot and sweetened, make a fine pie: and the juice from
stewed berries makes one of the world's best jellies.
Elderberries ripen in mid-August here in south-central
Pennsylvania, and birds compete with us for the crop. They often
eat the berries before they ripen.
Snap or cut the heavy heads of small, purple-black berries from
the bushes, and then sit on the porch in the evening light to
pull the berries off the stems as fireflies blink over the
meadow.
Processing elderberries is a PURPLE job, but the results are
worth the cleanup.
Elderberry bushes grow in damp, rich soil near streams, road
ditches, lowlands, and hedgerows. They often grow in large
groups, so you can pick a lot of berries in one stop.
MAY APPLES (Podophyllum peltatum)
These elusive fruits have a tropical flavour and aroma that make
them worth seeking. They're good to eat fresh, out of your hand.
We've never gathered enough of them at one time to make May apple
marmalade as Euell Gibbons did, but we hope to someday.
May apple plants are easy to find in May. Their umbrellalike
leaves on 12-to-16-inch stems shelter a single, waxy, white, 1 to
1 1/2 inch blossom.
By August and into September, though, when the pale-yellow fruits
ripen, the stems have bent to the ground, exposing the fragrant
fruits to foraging squirrels.
May apples prefer open woods and roadsides, but we've also found
them in meadows. They seem to like fairly moist soil.
Violet Candy
3 cups blue violet flowers
2 egg whites (beaten)
1 cup granulated sugar
Rinse the flowers in cold water, drain, and dry on a paper towel.
Hold the flower with a pair of tweezers and with a toothpick dab
the flower with egg white. Sprinkle with sugar. Spread the coated
violet flowers on wax paper and let dry.
Dandelion Wine
1 gal dandelion flowers
1 gal boiling water
3 lemons
3 oranges
3 lbs brown sugar
2 pkgs yeast
Wash flowers in cold water. Place flowers in a 2 gallon or larger
crock.
Cover with 1 gallon boiling water. Cover container and let stand
for 3 days. Filter the mixture and save the liquid. Chop lemons
and oranges into small pieces.
Add chopped lemons and oranges (seeds, skins & all) and sugar to
dandelion liquid in an enamel pot. Cover & boil for 30 minutes.
Cool to lukewarm and pour into crock. Add 2 packages of yeast.
Cover container and ferment for 3 weeks or until bubbling stops.
Always allow for the carbon dioxide to escape because containers
can explode. Filter through cheesecloth and pour into bottles.
Seal with corks.
Winter Cress Au Gratin
1 lb winter cress flower buds
1/3 cup onion (chopped)
3 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 cup cheddar cheese (shredded)
salt & pepper to taste
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 tsp paprika
Lightly boil winter cress for 5 minutes. Drain and save liquid.
Saute onions in butter until brown. Add flour & 1 cup of winter
cress liquid.
Stir constantly. Stir in Cheddar cheese until melted. Add salt
and pepper to taste. Pour some of the sauce into a baking dish.
Add the winter cress flower buds and cover with remaining sauce.
Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and paprika. Broil for 5 minutes or
until light brown.
Daylily Fritters
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
dsh garlic salt
salt & pepper to taste
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
10 daylily flowers
Sift together flour, baking powder, and garlic salt. In another
bowl beat milk and eggs together. Combine mixtures with basil and
cheese until smooth. Wash flowers. Clip off stems, and pull out
stamens and pistil.
Pat dry with paper towels. Dip blossoms into batter and deep-fry
until golden brown. Place fritters on paper towels and salt and
pepper to taste.
Red Raspberry Chewy
3 cups red raspberries (cleaned and was
FINE FORAGING: FALL by Nancy Bubel
(Country Journal / September/October 1991)
Last in a series on finding and preparing the best outdoor
edibles of the season.
SEPTEMBER
GROUND CHERRIES (Physalis pubescens):
These marble-sized, tomato-like berries are also called husk
tomatoes. Each berry is individually enclosed in a papery husk,
similar to that of a Chinese lantern, that turns from green to
straw colour when ripe.
Ground cherries are plants of hedgerows and roadsides and are
weeds in gardens and ploughed fields. The sprawling plant hugs
the ground and bears pointed leaves that resemble those of the
pepper plant. Its ripe berries are sweet and may be eaten fresh
or made into jam or pie.
The ground cherry has a wide range. Once when we found a bunch of
them in our garden, I gave them to a Hawaiian friend, who
remembered them from her home state as poha berries.
MEADOW MUSHROOMS (Agaricus campestris)
They are tasty mushrooms nearly identical to those sold in
stores, but those you gather yourself will be fresher and free of
the residue of chemicals used to control growing conditions in
commercial mushroom cultures.
These beauties have smooth white caps, pink gills when young
(turning tan and then brown with age), and a brown spore print.
(Here again, use my description only as a rough guide in locating
wild fungi; always make a positive identification from a reliable
mushroom guidebook and take a spore print before eating any wild
fungi.)
Several years ago we had an immense crop of meadow mushrooms in
our pasture -- more than ever before or since. We picked gallons
of them for two to three weeks. Our usual harvest is measured in
quarts - enough to perk up several breakfasts and dinners with
sauteed fresh mushrooms.
We find them in sunny, grassy places such as in the pasture and
orchard and along fences.
HAZELNUTS (Corglus americana).
These hedgerow plants bear their nuts in secret, sometimes partly
shady places known only to the squirrels. The small wild nuts,
born in clusters of fringed husks, taste just like the larger
cultivated filberts you buy in the store.
Hazelnuts ripen in early September. You need to gather them
before the squirrels move in or you won't find any of the
delicious nuts. Look for multiple shrubby slender branches rising
directly from the ground.
The leaves are roughly heart shaped, with toothed edges and a
downy undersurface. In winter and spring you'll see pendant
catkins on the stalks, which are the tightly wrapped buds of next
year's flowers.
BLACK WALNUTS (Juglans nigra)
They have become a staple in our household, thanks to hedgerow
trees that drop enough of the green-husked nuts on the road or on
mowed land where we can easily find them. The nuts have a
distinctive, rich flavour that is especially good when they are
oven dried for about 10 minutes at 325=F8F.
We think they make the world's best waffles when dropped into a
whole-wheat buckwheat, and oatmeal batter and served with maple
syrup from the Pennsylvania woods.
An easy way to remove the husk is to spread the nuts in a single
layer on the driveway where the car or tractor will run over
them.
If you let them dry for a day or so after the husks have split
open, your hands won't get so stained by the walnut's inedible
brown juice.
After I pick out the husked nuts, I keep them in a basket in the
sun to dry for a week or two. Then, before winter, we pour them
into a cylinder of hardware cloth that admits air but keeps out
squirrels.
My husband made this nut cage by stapling a rectangle of hardware
cloth, at its lower edge, around an 18-inch diameter disk of
wood, then wiring the sides together to form an open-topped nut
safe, which can be covered with a circle of hardware cloth for
more protection against squirrel raids.
To maintain good air circulation so the nuts don't heat when
piled up, we insert a 2-inch-diameter tube of hardware cloth in
the centre of the cage before starting to fill it with nuts.
In order to get as many unbroken halves as possible, we use a
special nutcracker. You can crack the nuts open with a hammer,
too.
Black walnut trees are among the last to leaf in the spring and
the first to lose their leaves in the fall. They have compound
leaves composed of paired, slender, pointed leaflets.
The green-husked nuts range from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches in
diameter. They start to fall in late September and can still be
found in good condition in mid-November. The husks turn brown
soon after the nuts fall.
Tons of these wild treasures go to waste each year. For a treat
that money can't buy, try nutting for black walnuts.
HICKORY NUTS (Carga ocata)
They are as delicious as walnuts and somewhat more versatile
because their flavour is more subtle. But they aren't as
dependable a crop. The shagbark hickory tree in our meadow
produces nuts only every third year, with an all-out, large crop
once every seven.
So for a regular supply of hickory nuts, you need to make the
acquaintance of several trees.
Look for a tall, stately tree with shaggy bark -- the result of
long sections of bark coming loose at the ends but remaining
attached to the tree. As the nuts ripen in late September they
usually fall free of their four-part segmented husks (the husks
are dry and easy to remove). The 1 1/4 inch tan nuts are
flattened on two sides.
Like a black walnut, a hickory nut is difficult to extract from
its shell unless you have a special nutcracker. With the proper
equipment, cracking them is a pleasant, satisfying job, and the
nuts taste wonderful.
We eat them plain, add them to granola and cookies, and make a
family favourite hickory pie, substituting hickories for pecans
and using maple syrup in place of the usual corn syrup. The
gathering period for hickories extends into the month of October.
OCTOBER
PAPAWS (Asimina triloba) are a Northern exotic.
The kidney- shaped, kiwi-sized fruit has a smooth,
greenish-yellow skin and a tropical aroma when ripe.
Its other names (custard apple, Michigan banana) give you a hint
of its texture -- smooth and starchy -- and its flavour --
mellow, like a banana with a tinge of wildness. The fruits drop
to the ground when they ripen, in mid to late October.
At this time of year, the slender, often spindly papaw tree is
easy to spot in the woods because its large wide leaves turn a
golden-yellow hue.
The trees can grow in shade -- we found some doing well as
understory trees in a mixed forest. Scuffle through the leaves
under the trees to find the fruits.
NOVEMBER
OYSTER MUSHROOMS (Pleurotus ostreatus)
They grow on dead elm, popular, aspen, alder, beech, and maple
trees. The ones we've found have been white, creamy, or greyish
tan, with an off-centre stem and white gills extending down the
stalk.
The spores are white. They often grow in large clusters in both
spring and fall, and even in wet, cool summers. We've found them
as late as November. Oyster mushrooms sauteed in butter or oil
are delicious (discard the tough stem ends). They are a real find
in the autumn woods.
PERSIMMONS (Diospyros tirginiana):
We associate these sweet morsels with Thanksgiving because we
would often gather them while hiking with our like a banana with
a tinge of wildness. The fruits drop to the ground children on
their Thanksgiving school break.
Although we've found good persimmons near the sea in Delaware in
early October, those that grow in our woods seem to taste best a
month or more later, probably because they receive less sun than
the streetside Delaware trees. Experts insist that contrary to
popular belief, it is maturity not frost that sweetens the
persimmon.
Sometimes we shake the trees to dislodge the 1 1/2 inch, slightly
flattened, round, burnt-orange fruits. They're squishy and look
overripe, but taste sweet. We usually eat them right there in the
woods and toss the seeds around to start more trees.
Persimmons have an astringency that catches in your throat after
you've eaten eight or ten. I've occasionally used persimmon pulp
(made by putting the ripe fruits through a food mill) in muffins
or steamed breads, and we've enjoyed the persimmon pudding that
is a tradition in parts of the Mid-West.
The word serendipity could have been coined for the wild foods
gatherer.
Wonderful foods are often found in unexpected places. You may
start out searching for one treat and find another instead.
When you've been gathering wild foods for a while, each jaunt
recalls other times, other places. You find yourself reminiscing
about the time you found those blueberries by the side of the
lake; when the kids scrambled to collect hickories on a perfect
Indian summer day; when you spotted oyster mushrooms capped with
snow on a firewood- collecting trip into the woods.
You find yourself increasingly able to tune into subtle clues in
the fields, hedgerows, and woods that lead you to good things
there for the gathering. And finally, you discover that you enjoy
the search too, whether you return with a pailful of ripe
raspberries or just some kindling for the fireplace.
People have been gatherers for longer than they've been shoppers,
and I find that I need to respond to that ancient foraging
impulse.
Luckily, there are still many good things out there for us to
collect and enjoy.
REFERENCE BOOKS
Here are some books you may find useful in identifying foraged
plants.
A FIELD GUIDE TO EASTERN EDIBLE WILD PLANTS by Lee A. Peterson
(Houghton Miffin, 1984) (a part of the Peterson Field Guide
series)
A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO EDIBLE AND USEFUL PLANTS by Debera Tull
(Texas Monthly Press, 1987)
A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE: A GUIDE TO EDIBLE WILD FLOWERS AND
PLANTS OF THE NORTHEAST by Nicholas Fish (Scriptorium Press,
1987)
COMMON EDIBLE AND USEFUL PLANTS OF THE EAST AND MIDWEST
by Muriel Sweet (Naturegraph, 1975)
EAT THE WEEDS by Ben C. Harris (Barre, 1969)
EDIBLE and USEFUL WILD PLANTS of the UNITED STATES and CANADA
by Charles F. Saunders (Peter Smith)
EDIBLE WILD PLANTS OF EASTERN UNITED STATES AND CANADA
by John Tomikel (Allegheny, 1976)
EDIBLE WILD PLANTS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEIGHBORING STATES
by Richard J. and Mary Lee Medve (Penn State Press, 1990)
EDIBLE WILD PLANTS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK
by John Tomikel (Allegheny, 1973)
FAVOURITE WILD FOODS OF THE FIFTY STATES
(National Wild Foods Association, Parkersburg, West Virginia)
FIELD GUIDE TO NORTH AMERICAN EDIBLE WILD PLANTS
by Thomas and Dykeman Elias (Van Nostrand Berhold, 1983)
SIMON & SCHUSTER'S GUIDE TO MUSHROOMS (Simon & Schuster, 1981)
STALKING THE WILD ASPARAGUS by Euell Gibbons (Alan C. Hood, 1987)
STURTEVANT'S EDIBLE PLANTS OF THE WORLD (Dover, 1972)
THE AUDUBON SOCIETY FIELD GUIDE TO NORTH AMERICAN MUSHROOMS
by Gary H. Lincoff (Alfred A. Knopf, 1981)
THE MUSHROOM HUNTER'S FIELD GUIDE by Alexander H. Smith & Nancy
Weber (University of Michigan Press, 1969)
TOM BROWN'S GUIDE TO WILD EDIBLE AND MEDICINAL PLANTS
by Tom Brown Jr. (Berkley Publishing, 1985)
WILD EDIBLE FRUITS AND BERRIES
by Marjorie Furlong and Virginia Pill (Naturegraph, 1974)
WILD FOOD by Roger Phillips (Little, Brown, 1986)
EDIBLE WILD PLANTS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND WILD FOODS FIELD GUIDE AND
COOKBOOK by Billy J. Tatum (Workman Publishing, 1985)
* Origin: The Scottish Conne
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ENVIRONMENTAL COOKBOOKS COMBINES THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
From: Tim_Sykes@msn.com (Barbara Sykes)
Subject: Edible Wild Plants
Date: 15 Dec 95 03:53:31 -0800
The Forager's Second Cookbook of Wild Plants contains 83 pages of
mouth-watering recipes, tips, & collection techniques for WEEDS!
That's right; the dandelions you dig from your front yard, the
purslane that springs from the cracks in your driveway, even the
chickweed that blankets your spring lawn all can be turned into
delicious treats. And this is the book to tell you how!
The people who produce The Forager: The Newsletter of Edible Wild
Plants and The Forager's First Cookbook of Wild Plants have now
produced their second well-organized Cookbook. Plants appear
alphabetically, each with easily recognized symbols, telling the
reader the proper season to harvest and the type (or types) of
dishes you can prepare from them.
Both Cookbooks have been thoroughly researched. Many descriptions
even include the types of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals
available in the plant. And they provide some colonial and
pioneering recipes they couldn't resist sharing.
The Forager's First & Second Cookbook(s) of Wild Plants are
environmentally friendly, natural foods cookbooks compiled by Tim
& Barbara Sykes from their research into edible wild plants.
The 5« x 8 softcover editions are available from Forager
Publications, PO Box 692110, Houston, TX 77269-2110. Each sells
for $6 ($10 for both). For more information on these and other
Forager products, send a #10 SASE for our free brochure. E-Mail
inquiries to: Tim_Sykes@msn.com
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ANYONE LOOKING FOR MORE INFO ON PLANTS CHECK THIS OUT;
Are you still looking for plant images?
There are hundreds available on the WWW. You might want to try:
http://meena.cc.uregina.ca/~liushus/bio/bio-pic.html
http://www.euronet.nl/users/mbleeker/
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SURVIVAL KNIFES
From: Dave Lee
Organization: RateNet
To: richard@io.org
Subject: survival knives
Chris Janowski, head of the World Survival Institute, endorses
only two survival knives:
(1) FOLDER: Benchmade - AFCK-800S (appx $120) lifetime warranty
(2) SHEATH Busse Combat Knives - Steel Heart II (~$200?) or
Badger Attack (~160) lifetime warranty.
You might want to check them out for inclusion in your page. Most
of the knives out there remain crappy & many knife lists are out
of date, considering the new technologies knifemakers are using.
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SAFE-PACKS SURVIVAL PACKS ???
Date: Wed, 06 Dec 1995 09:45:49 -0500
From: Dave Lee
To: richard@io.org
Subject: Safe-Pack survival packs
I just followed your link to safe-pack earthquake survival packs.
Frankly, I think they are selling CRAP. How can they sell a 1 or
2-man "survival" kit without a swiss army knife, fire starter,
or a candle?
Most people would be better off in an emergency shelter than
trying to rough it in the woods with one of their inadequate
kits. Just check their kits out against your own lists! -Dave
PS don't consider this a flame...just constructive
criticism...keep up the good effort!
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TO BY-PASS OR NOT TO BY-PASS?
Noted Anesthesiologist Reveals Needless Heart Operations
From danagain@gnn.com Wed Jan 3 16:52:25 1996
From: danagain@gnn.com (Dan Hoff)
To: richard@io.org
"Note from Richard to our readers: read on and decide for
yourself, I only carry those news I donşt judge nor write them"
September 1994 Golden Age Monthly
Noted Anesthesiologist Reveals Needless Heart Operations
By William Sardi
He once was the chief architect of a
program that coerced angina patients
into giving their consent for heart
bypass operations. Now, this doctor goes
public with his revealing story of the
trickery and deceit behind the over-selling of
heart bypass operations.
His unconventional approach to
practising medicine is well known in the
Tampa, Florida area, as well as nationally.
He is Donald Carrow, M.D., former chief of
anaesthesiology for a large Florida hospital. In
a candid interview below, Dr. Carrow tells all.
The turning point for Dr. Carrow came
with his own personal health crisis. "Two
things happened to me. I was a 42-year old
physician working in a major hospital in
Tampa, Florida. I was a professor of
anaesthesia. l created the concept of the heart team.
This team was comprised of nurses,
ministers, radiologists, laboratory
technicians, family physicians, and even
patients who had previously undergone
open heart bypass surgery. We developed a
uniquely contrived method of talking
patients into heart bypass surgery that, now
looking back on it, they didn't need."
"Other hospitals would send people to
learn how we 'sold' heart bypass surgery.
Since hospitals had to spend $1.5 to $2
million dollars in equipment before they
could perform their first heart bypass
operation, they were obviously eager to
recoup their. investment. This meant a
steady stream of patients was required to
pay debt service to the bank emphasizes
Dr. Carrow.
"When a patient would come to the
hospital with chest pain they would be
stabilized with pain relieving
medications and then would undergo a
myriad of tests, including a heart angiogram.
Nurses were then instructed to tell the patient there
was some bad news concerning their tests and
that the doctor would have to speak with them about it.
The family physician would then visit the patient
and indicate the cardiologist would be needed for
a consultation. By the time the cardiologist
was at the patient's bedside he or she
would usually be in a state of fright.
The cardiologist would then point to an area on
the angiogram and tell the patient they
were a 'walking time bomb'."
"If the patient still couldn't make a
decision to undergo open heart surgery I
would go out and visit with his or her
spouse," says Dr. Carrow, "and point to
the same spot on the angiogram and say
this problem is what we call a widow
maker." The spouse would then run to
their loved one and plead with them to
consent to the operation.
"If all of this didn't work, then we
would apply the icing on the cake. This
consisted of sending a patient who had
undergone successful heart bypass surgery
to visit the prospective surgical candidate
and tell them how successful the operation
was. " It wasn't easy to find a patient who
had a successful operation, notes Dr. Carrow.
"The heart surgeon would then come in
and say how easy the surgery was to
perform. All members of the heart team
were trained to circumvent the question:
how effective is the outcome of the surgery?
We would answer that question
by saying that years ago there was only a
six percent chance of success. Today the.
was a 96 percent chance. Every patient
would interpret this as a cure. The nurses
were told to tell the patient they would be
holding their hand through the whole
procedure. then the pastor would come in
and say a few words. It was well orchestrated."
"we call all of this patient education. It
was really patient coercion. I was involved
in over 2000 open heart procedures. Only
about 200 were necessary. We had a 90%
failure rate," says Dr. Carrow. These
numbers were recently confirmed by a
landmark Harvard study.
"Then, at age 42, my own chest pain
occurred. Crushing chest pain. I couldn't
say a full sentence, I couldn't find the
strength to walk out of a chair. My
colleagues said it was my time to get on the
operating table. I had no intention of having
the operation.
Something inside me balked at having
the same operation that I talked
others into on a daily basis." Heart bypass
surgery consists of taking a vein out of the
leg and placing it into the heart, to restore
circulation.
There is a 50 percent failure rate
in the first year following the operation,
says Dr. Carrow. "If it weren't for a little
trick performed by the surgeon at the end
of the operation, heart bypass surgery
would be shows to be an outright failure,"
says Dr. Carrow.
"When the operation is completed the
surgeon announces he wants to check for
stasis (blood flow). He puts his hand
behind the heart, and in doing so, breaks the
nerve connections behind the heart. Once
broken the patient feels no chest pain. It
takes about 6-7 years before these nerves
regenerate and then the pain returns.
The surgeon temporarily eliminates nature's
way of letting the patient know their heart
circulation is bad. It's really a despicable
trick to play because it makes the patient feel
the operation worked and that they can return to the
way they lived before the operation.
Only recently has the government
begun to force surgeons to analyze the
long-term outcomes of the procedures they
perform. Surgery for prostate cancer is
another procedure that was recently called
into question. Patients who choose
"watchful waiting" over surgery live just as
long, if not longer, as patients who have
their prostate gland surgically removed.
Recently the Agency for Health Care
Policy Research has questioned the
outcomes of various surgical procedures.
Patients who undergo heart bypass
procedures don't live any longer than angina
patients who undergo non-surgical
approaches to improving circulation.
Dean Ornish, M.D., noted physician, recently
gained national attention for his approach to
heart disease that includes very low-fat
diets, nutritional supplements, exercise and
stress reduction.
Dr. Carrow's approach to heart disease,
in addition to low-fat diets and exercise,
includes vitamin and herbal
recommendations such as vitamins C and E,
amino acids like carnitine and cysteine,
minerals such as magnesium, herbs such as
cayenne pepper and garlic; and nonvitamin
nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids and
coenzyme.
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EMERGENCY TRANSMISSION DEVICE ONLY
SPARK GAP TRANSMITTER
From: mlmoody@delphi.com (Michael L. Moody)
Newsgroups: misc.survivalism
Spark gap transmitters were banned early, early, early in radio
history as they;
1) typically transmitted thousands of miles, and
2) since there is no tuning feature other than antenna length,
they were heard all across the radio spectrum.
Think of lightning strikes. Every time one occurs, you get static
on your radio. At least if it's nearby (50-100 miles). Now think
of a man made device that is designed to make static
intentionally. You can get a LOT of range out of it.
I could make one with an ignition coil, a spark plug (optional,
as any gap will work), the car battery, and a length of wire, the
longer the better. Run a piece of wire up the highest thing
around and secure it at the top.
If it's a tree or anything wet, make sure it doesn't ground out
anywhere.
This is the antenna. At the other end of this wire, connect it to
the pointed end of the spark plug, i.e., where the spark plug
wire attaches.
Take a short piece of wire and run it from the screw threads on
the spark plug to the high voltage output on the ignition coil.
Take another piece of wire and run it from the negative terminal
on the ignition coil to ground.
I mean, stick the wire in the ground, the more the better. Bury
it. If the soil is wet, better still. Take another piece of wire
and connect it from the negative terminal on the ignition coil
(yes, this is the same terminal that the last piece of wire
connected to) to the negative terminal on the battery.
Take another piece of wire and connect it to the positive
terminal on the ignition coil. Leave the other end unconnected.
At this point the transmitter is complete. Connecting the
positive coil wire to the battery will energize the coil and
*may* produce a spark at the plug.
Don't worry if it doesn't. When you disconnect the wire, a spark
*should* be produced. If it doesn't, check all wiring
connections. Make sure the antenna isn't grounded. Make sure the
ground wire is. You may have to change your spark gap as well.
Be advised that making and operating a transmitter of this type
will bring the wrath of the FCC and possibly other government
bodies down on *YOU*.
Rapidly making and breaking the battery connection with the
positive wire will enable a person to send a morse code type
distress signal. Doing this as long as possible will alert the
appropriate authorities and give them ample time to triangulate
your position.
I would continue doing this until someone arrived. Doing this in
a non emergency situation (testing) will get you busted big time.
Fines are usually $3000 - $5000 for a first offense and can go a
lot higher.
The above circuit will transmit far enough to alert someone to
your presence.
.. --- ... = S O S
dot dot dot dash dash dash dot dot dot
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PRIMITIVE MEDICINE
Subject: US ARMY SF Primitive Medicine
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 1995 01:07:15 GMT
Organization: Homenet Communications, Inc.
This is from: ST-31-91B
US ARMY SPECIAL FORCES MEDICAL HANDBOOK SEPTEMBER 1982
CHAPTER 22 PRIMITIVE MEDICINE
22-1. GENERAL.
a. This chapter covers a number of primitive treatments using
materials that are found worldwide. It does not cover herbal
medicines because specific herbs (plants) are difficult to
identify and some are found only in specific areas of the world.
This does not mean, however that they should not be used. To get
information concerning types and uses of herbal medicines in a
particular area, talk to the natives. But remember, it is
preventive medicine (PM) that must be stressed.
Proper hygiene, care in preparation of food and drink, waste
disposal, insect and rodent control, and a good immunization
program can greatly reduce the causes and number of diseases.
b. All of us---patients and doctors alike----depend upon wonder
drugs, fine laboratories, and modern equipment. We have lost
sight of the "country Doctor" type of medicine---determination,
common sense, and a few primitive treatments that can be
lifesaving.
Many areas of the world still depend on the practices of the
local witch doctor or healer. And many herbs (plants) and
treatments that they use are as effective as the most modern
medicine available.
Herbal medicine has been practised worldwide since before
recorded history, and many modern medications come from refined
herbs. For example pectin can be obtained from the rinds (white
stringy part) of citrus fruits and from apple pomace(the pulp
left after the juice has been pressed out).
If either is mixed with ground chalk, the result will be a
primitive form of Kaopectate.
c. Although many herbal medicines and exotic treatments are
effective, use them with extreme caution and only when faced with
limited or non-existent medical supplies. Some are dangerous and,
instead of treating the disease or injury, may cause further
damage or even death.
22-2 Primitive treatments. DIARRHOEA:
a. Diarrhoea is a common, debilitating ailment that can be
caused by almost anything. Most cases can be avoided by following
good PM practices. Treatment in many cases is fluids only for 24
hours. If that does not work and no anti-diarrhoeal medication is
available, grind chalk, charcoal, or dried bones into a powder.
Mix one handful of powder with treated water and administer
every 2 hours until diarrhoea has slowed or stopped. adding equal
parts of apple pomace or citrus rinds to this mixture makes it
more effective.
Tannic acid, which is found in tea , can also help control
diarrhoea.
Prepare a strong solution of tea, if available, and administer 1
cup every 2 hours until diarrhoea has slowed or stopped. The
inner bark of hardwood trees also contains tannic acid. Boil the
inner bark for 2 hours or more to release the tannic acid.
The resultant black brew has a vile taste and smell but will stop
most cases of diarrhoea. More on this subject a little below on
page 39/40 depending of your type of screen and type setting.
b. WORMS AND INTESTINAL PARASITES:
Infestations can usually be avoided by maintaining strict
preventive medicine measures. For example, never go barefooted.
The following home remedies appear to work or at least control
the degree of infestation, but they are not without danger. Most
work on the principle of changing the environment of the
gastrointestinal tract.
(1) Salt water. Four tablespoons of salt in 1 quart of water.
This should be taken on a one time basis only.
(2) Tobacco. Eat 1 to 1 1/2 cigarettes. The nicotine in the
cigarette kills or stuns the worms long enough for them to be
passed.
If the infestation is severe, the treatment can be repeated in 24
to 48 hours, BUT NO SOONER
(3) Kerosene. Drink 2 tablespoons. Don't drink more. The
treatment can be repeated in 24 to 48 hours but no sooner.
(4) Hot peppers. Put peppers in soups, rice, meat dishes or eat
them raw. This treatment is not effective unless peppers are made
a steady part of the diet.
c. SORE THROATS:
They are common and usually can be taken care of by gargling
with salt water. If the tongue is coated, scrape it off with a
tooth brush, a clean stick, or even a clean fingernail; then
gargle with warm salt water.
d. SKIN INFECTIONS:
(1) FUNGAL INFECTIONS: Keep the area clean and dry, and expose
to sunlight as much as possible.
(2) HEAT RASH: Keep the area clean, dry, and cool. If powder is
available, use it on affected area.
(3) The rule of thumb for all skin diseases is: "if it is wet,
try it, and if it is dry, wet it."
e. BURNS:
Soak dressings or clean rags that have been boiled for 10 minutes
in tannic acid (tea or inner bark of hardwood trees), cool and
apply over the burns. this relieves the pain somewhat, seems to
help speed healing, and offers some protection against infection.
f. LEECHES AND TICKS:
Apply a lit cigarette or a flaming match to the back of the leach
or tick, & it will drop off. Covering it with moistened tobacco,
grease or oil will also make it drop off. Do not try to pull it
off; part of the head may remain attached to the skin and cause
an infection.
g. BEE, WASP, & HORNET STINGS.
Inspect the wound carefully and remove stinger if present. Apply
baking soda, cold compress, mud or coconut meat to the area.
Spider, scorpion, & centipede bites can be treated the same way.
h. CHIGGERS:
Nail polish applied over the red spots will cut off the chigger's
air supply and kill it. any variation of this, eg., tree sap,
will work.
22-3 MAGGOT THERAPY FOR WOUND DEBRIDEMENT
a. Introducing maggots into a wound can be hazardous because the
wound must be exposed to flies. Flies, because of their filthy
habits, are likely to introduce bacteria into the wound, causing
additional complications. Maggots will also invade live healthy
tissue when the dead tissue is gone or not readily available.
Maggot invasion of healthy tissue causes extreme pain and
haemorrhage, possibly enough to be fatal.
b. Despite the hazards involved , maggot therapy should be
considered a viable alternative when, in the absence of
antibiotics, a wound becomes severely infected, does not heal,
and ordinary debridement is impossible.
(1) All bandages should be removed so that the wound is exposed
to circulating flies. Flies are attracted to foul or fetid odours
coming from the infected wound; they will not deposit eggs on
fresh clean wounds.
(2) In order to limit further contamination of the wound by
disease organisms carried by the flies, those flies attracted to
the wound should not be permitted to lite directly on the wound
surface.
Instead, their activity should be restricted to the intact skin
surface along the edge of the wound. Live maggots deposited here
and/or maggots hatching from eggs deposited here will find their
way into the wound with less additional contamination than if the
flies were allowed free access to the wound.
(3) One exposure to the flies is usually all that is necessary
to ensure more than enough maggots for thorough debridement of a
wound.
Therefore, after the flies have deposited eggs the wound should
be covered with a bandage.
(4) The bandage should be removed daily to check for maggots. If
no maggots are observed in the wound within 2 days after exposure
to the flies, the bandage should be removed and the wound should
be re-exposed.
If the wound is found to be teeming with maggots when the bandage
is removed as many as possible should be removed using forceps or
some other sterilized instrument or by flushing with sterile
water. Only 50 - 100 maggots should remain in the wound.
(5) Once the maggots have become established in the wound, it
should be covered with a bandage again, but the maggot activity
should be monitored closely each day.
A frothy fluid produced by the maggots will make it difficult to
see them. This fluid should be "sponged out" of the wound with
an absorbent cloth so that all of the maggots in the wound can be
seen. Care should be taken not to remove the maggots with the
fluid.
(6) The period of time necessary for maggot debridement of a
wound depends on a number of factors, including the depth and
extent of the wound, the part of the body affected, the number
of maggots present in the wound, and the fly species involved.
In a survival situation an individual will be able to control
only one of these factors-- the number, and sometimes not even
that; therefore the exact time to remove the maggots cannot be
given in specific numbers of hours or days.
However it can be said with certainty that the maggots should be
removed immediately once they have removed all the dead tissue
and before they have become established in healthy tissue.
When the maggots begin feeding on normal healthy tissue, the
individual will experience an increased level of pain at the site
of the wound as the maggots come in contact with "live" nerves.
Bright red blood in the wound also indicates that the maggots
have reached healthy tissue.
(7) The maggots should be removed by flushing the wound
repeatedly with sterile water. When all the maggots have been
removed, the wound should be bandaged. To ensure that the wound
is free of maggots, check it every four hours or more often for
several days. Any remaining maggots should be removed with
sterilized forceps or by flushing with sterile water.
(8) Once all of the maggots have been removed, bandage the wound
and treat it as any other wound. It should heal normally provided
there are no further complications
22-4 SUMMARY.
The treatments discussed in this chapter are by no means all of
the primitive treatments or home remedies available for use. Most
people have their own home remedy for various problems. Some
work, some don't.
The ones presented here have been used and do work, although
some can be dangerous. The lack of modern medicine does not rule
out medical treatment. Common sense, determination to succeed,
and advice from the natives in the area on primitive treatments
can provide a solution to a medical problem.
Just keep one thing in mind: "First I shall do no harm."
John Faherty X-Army medic
DIARRHOEA
Subject: Follow up to SF Primitive Medicine
From: medintz@falcon.cc.ukans.edu (Mike S. Medintz)
Date: 10 Nov 95 06:30:57 CST
I have to take issue with the diarrhoea treatment. The way I was
taught (Not in the Army, more of a private-sector Peace-Corps)
was that it's not necessary and not even desirable to treat the
diarrhoea itself.
The SF Medic Handbook was written with combat effectiveness in
mind.
Diarrhoea, like coughing, is how the body cleans itself out and
is best left to happen. Given a patient suffering from diarrhoea,
regardless of cause, I would say that it's best for the patient
to consume a normal healthy diet.
However, an increase in fibre is a good idea-extra helpings of
rice and bananas (if available) work fairly well. The critical
thing is to increase the victim's fluid intake. The victim should
drink _AT_LEAST_ as much water or other fluids as is being
excreted.
My kids' paediatrician prescribed the B.R.A.T. treatment:
Bananas, Rice, Apples, and Tea. Loads o' liquids, too.
In the cases of poisoning this may be true, however, if a supply
of drinkable water is a hard to come by item then stopping or
slowing the diarrhoea is of great importance.
If the victim cannot eat, then a rehydration drink should be
administered. I have some packets left over from various summers
in countries full of people that Joe Bunkley doesn't like.
They don't give proportions on the label (use your best guess)
and I may mistranslate something (my Spanish is a little rusty)
but I think it says glucose, salt, and baking soda.
We used to add a couple of MRE (combat ration) sugar & salt
packets to a quart canteen of water to increase the electrolyte
value of the drink.
Your nearest WHO/UNICEF office, or the federal building (if it
has a US AID) office may be more help that I.
David Werner's book _Where There Is No Doctor_ (Hesperian
Foundation) is a great source on the subject of diarrhoea and
associated health conditions.
Darn good book, required reading for all here. (JMHO)
Mike S. Medintz
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Subject: Re: INTERNAL FRAME PACK
From: chingliu@lust.ugcs.caltech.edu (Ching Liu)
http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~chingliu/Ballroom.html
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.camping
Subject: Re: Internal Frame Pack
Date: 15 Oct 1995 09:27:53 GMT
burke@enga.bu.edu (Shawn Burke) writes:
When I was pack shopping, I was also very impressed by the Dana
Designs "Terraplane"; comfortable with a load, and easily
adjustable.
For me, it was a toss-up between the Gregory Nova and the Dana
Designs Terraplane; I was swayed when a local outdoors shop gave
me a steep price discount on the Nova. I suggest you give Dana
Designs packs a look.
I got this pack about two years ago, and it has made me the
happiest hiker in the world. The Dana Designs packs were by far
the most well-padded, comfortable packs available in the store at
the time (though also the most expensive).
I broke in my pack on a foolish, aborted attempt at the Fire and
Ice hike:
Death Valley to Mt. Whitney, carrying two weeks of food and our
cold-weather gear in the packs, as well as a 2.5 gallon jug of
water for me in the desert.
My pack weighed about 80 pounds, but I only had mild tenderness
on the sides of my hips after the first day of hiking. I have
never even had that much, though, in my many hikes since then. (I
plan to attempt the hike again some time in the future, doing it
right.)
The back of the pack is covered with a thick, but very breathable
padding - after an afternoon of strenuous hiking, the back of my
shirt is no more wet than the front.
The pack has a huge capacity - very rarely do I fill it beyond
2/3 full, but it is just as comfortable empty as it is full
(unlike a lot of internal frame packs, which rely partially on
their filling to maintain their shape). The workmanship is also
very good -I've had no trouble whatsoever with any stitching,
seams, etc.
My advice is this: if you plan on doing a lot of hiking, AND
are willing to spend more for a superior product, get a Dana
Designs pack (when I was shopping, the Dana Designs packs
cost about @100 more than the Gregory packs of the same size).
If you don't plan to do a lot of hiking, but have loads
of cash to spend on a great product you won't use a lot, get
a Dana Designs pack. Otherwise, it's just not worth it -
the Gregory packs are indeed good packs for the price, from
what my friends that own them say.
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FIRST THINGS TO DO IF LOST IN THE DESERT
Newsgroups: misc.survivalism
Subject: Re: Death in the Desert, true story
Date: 9 Nov 1995 15:44:47 GMT
There is a story just released in the news, in which two men, one
61, the other 73, visited a volcanic national park in Mexico.
They were 30 miles into the desolate park and stopped for a
break. After the break, their jeep wouldn't start. Thus began an
eight day ordeal, battling hunger, thirst, and blistering heat.
They did not have any maps, but the older man had visited the
park previously. So, they relied on their hunches and set off for
help. They had an ice chest and a gallon of water.
The older man died from the heat on the third or fourth day.
The surviving man said that they realized they should not have
left the jeep after only a few hours, where they had more ice and
water.
Every day they realized they were in deeper trouble, but they had
reached the point of no return. There were no clouds and it was
very hot. The original article implied that the ground was mostly
lava rock.
On the eighth day, the Mexican Park Service arrived in a
helicopter and rescued the survivor. Only his brain and heart
were functioning completely. After a few days in the hospital, he
was released.
The survivor described how he tried to suck the juices out of
cactuses, but with little rain this year, the cactus was too dry.
He used hair spray for fire starting. He described the desert as
being barren of life, with not even a snake to eat. He tried to
capture a lizard, but it was too fast for him.
For me, I would have stayed at the jeep and tried to fix the jeep
that had obviously been running fine.
Not getting the jeep to run, I would have stripped that car for
survival gear... wires for snares, vinyl for a solar still,
mirrors for signalling, oil and tires for signal fires, and
carpeting for sun cover.
I would have immediately embarked on a water rationing scheme,
and stayed low and cool by day, hunting animals and gathering
celestial information by night.
I would have relied on my knowledge that snakes, rodents, and
many other edible desert animals are only active at night. Even
without pen and paper, I would have drawn out a star chart on the
ground, getting my bearings from the north star, and the fact
that Saturn and Jupiter are in view this time of the year, so if
I had to go, I would know which direction to travel.
I would spend at least two to three days intensely studying star
movement so I could navigate if necessary. I would have set the
mirrors up so that they reflected light outward, along the
ground towards the horizon, so searchers in cars might see the
reflection in the shimmering desert, since they might not see the
jeep alone.
I would have been ready to grab a mirror and light a signal fire
at a moment's notice. I would also probably sound the horn
periodically, especially in the early still mornings, and at
dusk.
By the third day, i probably would have set two of the tires on
fire in low wind to try and signal someone, saving the remaining
tires for signalling later.
What would you have done differently from the two men, and what
would you have done differently than what I would have done?
Ration sweat, not water. Build a couple of solar stills per
person. Make shelter - dig if possible (at night) a couple of
feet down in the earth, it's a lot cooler.
I wouldn't worry too much about food. Probably not too helpful,
unless they're moving. the aperture of reflected light is quite
small, and there's a LOT of junk that reflects light in the
deserts in the US and mexico. Unless it's being moved, a searcher
probably won't notice it or care.
Why two? by modulating the fire with sand or dirt, you can get a
lot of burn time out of them. If you're creative enough (and it's
someone else's jeep ), you can take out the battery and a
headlight, with some wire, and get a signalling lamp.
Like so many similar incidents, the death in this one was
completely preventable, based on the information you've
presented.
I have to totally agree with your response... food is not too
important, and I like the idea about the headlights.
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Subject: GLOVE OVENS
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 17:34:10 GMT
Check out our new web page at
http://www.well.com/user/dazebtwn/skiwarm.html
This ski season you can ski with WARM HANDS on those COLD, FRIGID
days on the slopes.
Introducing GLOVE OVENS.
THEY DO FOR YOUR HANDS WHAT A SKI JACKET DOES FOR YOUR BODY
For more info call toll free 1 800 547 2994
or e-mail dazebtwn@znet.com for free brochure...
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NEW PRODUCT TO SHED A LIGHT
Date: Wed, 01 Nov 95 20:14:12 EST
From: andrew@vbs.com
Newsgroups: misc.survivalism
Subject: Interesting Product
Hi All,
I recently purchased a product called a Safe-T-Lite from Lectra
Lite Corp...It is a cigarette lighter that uses no lighter fluid,
no wicks, no flint, and no disposable batteries....
It also lights up in my convertible at over 50 MPH!.....Just
thought I'd share this with you all since much of this newsgroup
deals with their outdoors (I'm a boater &outdoors person myself
and this thing puts the others to shame!).. I bought mine from:
Lectra Lite Corp
1036 St. Clair Ave
Charlottesville, VA 22901
The cost was 24.95 which includes shipping and handling....I've
had mine for over 3 months now and all I can say is WOW!
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WALKING STAFF:
For those who know the need of a walking staff I suggest you to
check that site, its quite a good surprise. Note from Richard off
course. P/s No I am not paid for that news either. Too bad!
Subject: Wilderness Walking STaff E-Book WWW Site
Sender: news@freenet.victoria.bc.ca (News Manager)
Date: Tue, 17 Oct 1995 20:27:52 GMT
Hi Come by and visit the new WWW site! Thanks.
The Wilderness Walking Staff Electronic Book Home Page:
http://www.islandnet.com/~wwseb
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LIVING UNDERGROUND & ITS ADVANTAGES
Subject: Re: live under or above ground? - ungnd09.txt [1/1]
Sender: decastro@netcom7.netcom.com
saladino@soho.ios.com (Vinnie Saladino) writes:
In article , frankl@tpoint.net says:
I see several big advantages to living below ground...
1) The temperature below ground remains between 45-55 deg F all
year round if you live in about 50 ft down. A basement of a house
won't drop below 50 in the winter (in the LI NY area) if the
windows are shut, and won't go above 78 in the hot summer days
if the windows are again kept closed.
2) Heating a below ground shelter in the winter takes a minimum
amount of fuel.
3) The IR signature of a below ground shelter only shows up at
the windows and door entrances.
4) Digging a new room and shoring-up the walls and ceiling is a
lot cheaper then finding the materials for an above ground house.
5) Defending a below ground house is easier the an above ground
house.
6) An under ground 'green house' with a glass roof (at ground
level) would not be so easily spotted by others as a source of
food (for them).
Any comments on 'easy' construction methods for digging-in a
hurry?
Corrugated "sewer" pipe can be had in any size up to
"stand-up-in"...
..dig a trench and bury 2/3 - 3/4 diameter in the ground... seal
one end and construct a hidden/lockable entrance in the other (or
both) end(s)...
..cover the exposed 1/3 - 1/4 with topsoil and plant a hearty
ground cover and shrubbery (not a fancy shrubbery,) to hide it
and hold the soil on top... use a cutting torch to cut vent
/firing ports and conceal them...
Cover the (approx) 8"x8" ports with 1/4" screening &/or bug
screen to keep skitters, mice, and grenades out... you may wish
to cover/hide the vents with false stones (or real ones) which
may help to reduce your IR signature...
Canines will still be able to sniff you out, but you can keep a
4LB keg of cayenne pepper in your hidy-hole if that is a concern
and spread it on any approaching trails etc. after rains.
I was going to blast some caves with hidden entrance, but the
sewer pipe method is much cheaper and can be expanded and
improved in many many ways.
If I arrive at the middle of somewhere, It will probably be in
my custom Van, which I can live in for quite a while. To build a
permanent structure underground, I would start with what ever
steel auto bumpers I could scrounge up, Lay them on level ground
in a large 'circle' or square:
(say 20'x20'), get/buy/steel a few bags of cement and any scrap
iron/pipes I could find, and build a 2' high cement reinforced
wall above the steel bumpers. It should be easy to scrape the
dirt our from under the steel, as the weight of the 2' cement
wall would push it down.
As the structure sinks lower, I can add row upon row of bricks or
more cement/scrap iron. It should take me a few weeks, but when
I'm done, The underground structure would last a life time.
END OF THIS FILE 10/1/1996
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(
geocities.com/mark_l_anderson)