Lost Outdoors and Edible Foods

Making Tea from Pine Needles:


Spruce needles have high levels of Vitamins A and C.

Gather fresh pine and spruce needles Spruce needles are sharp and slightly square completely surrounded by their twigs, and they can prick your fingers. (Follow animal tracks to water, if you’re not by a stream or river. Also follow the stream as it may help you find your way out) Crush the needles with a rock and drop into boiling water. Remove the mixture and steep for five to ten minutes.



Edible Plants for Food:

Maple trees have many edible parts including the sap which is sweet.

Dandelion leaves are tasty and nutritious, the plants are ubiquitous.

Acorns are abundant and are easy to gather. Blackberries, raspberries and even mulberries are easy to find in season.



Avoid the following:

Any plants, with bitter or soapy taste and plants with mildew or fungus.

Toxic flowers like foxglove, monkshood, buttercup bluebonnet and the highly toxic death camas and lupines.

White berries, mushrooms, toadstools, and red plants unless you know for certain they are safe, like rhubarb.

Castor been seeds found in the wild.

Horse chestnuts/ buckeyes

Any plant growing in contaminated/ stagnant water.

Plants with milky or off colored sap. Plants with pods that have beans, seeds or bulbs inside.

Plants that smell like almonds in the stems or leaves may contain cyanide.



Animals to Shun:

Toads, box turtles/ poisonous flesh, insects with bright colors: likely toxic and wasps: very aggressive and they love to sting.



Animals that are Nourishing:

Adult females are the best as they have good flavor and an abundance of meat.

Young animals are lean. Older animals will be tough.

Relatively easy to catch and a high protein content are insects.

Porcupines have tasty meat and are easily killed.

Birds and bird eggs, fish can be caught with a little ingenuity.

Except for those under leaves, grubs are good to eat.



Tips from the experts:

Do not assume that because one part of a plant is edible, other parts are, too. Likewise, do not assume that if cooked plant matter is edible, the raw matter must be, or vice versa. Finally, note that different people may have different reactions to the same point. U S ARMY