Wild Foraging Series Finding Food In The Snow
Article from: January 5th, 2013
In winter the ground is covered with snow. Everything is brown. The plants are all dead for the season. The leaves have fallen. It looks bleak. It seems that there is nothing to eat. Or is there?..
Somehow the animals manage to survive all winter. Some sleep all season and avoid the cold weather and scarcity of food. Some, like the squirrels put away food in the fall to last all winter. But many animals like deer are wild foragers and must somehow survive. Watch the animals and learn from them. The deer actually scratch off the snow to find food underneath.
We can do the same. It does take some work to find food. The best thing is to know already, before the snow falls, where the plants are growing so you can find them later. If you are a nomad traveling across the land, then it gets harder to find wild edibles. Then it is hit and miss. You may need to kick up a lot of snow in order to find something edible. But if you know the area a bit, in the fall just before the snow comes down, you can locate and remember where the winter wild edibles are growing.
Digging in the snow for wild edible food
Garlic mustard is a hardy winter wild edible plant that can be found underneath the snow all season. If you can find it, you have a very healthy winter vegetable that tastes great fresh or served hot. The Europeans brought it over as a vegetable and it ran wild. Now we treat it like a weed. In winter it can save your life.
Winter survival food under the snow
Wild garlic is another hardy winter plant. Wild garlic prefers cooler weather and even dies off in the heat of summer. It grows right back again when the weather cools down some. Garlic can be found all over the forest in the North East US because the Europeans brought it over and it also grew wild. You can eat the whole plant from the leaves to the root bulb. Wild garlic is also a natural antibiotic and helps fight cold and flu.
There are many other wild edibles that can be found in winter. The wild edible series will continue through the season.
You can watch today's video here:
Finding Survival Food in The Winter Snow
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About the Author
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Troy Reid |
