Ew!!! That’s Gross!

Some wilderness survival food might cause an “Ew!!! That’s Gross!! reaction., (except for that delicious looking turkey over there).  Your dietary preferences are all learned behavior but, to stay alive, you may find yourself eating (even enjoying) some of that odd wilderness survival food.   Our personal tastes run strongly along regional or ethnic lines. What one group thinks of as a delicacy will often make another group of people get queasy just thinking about it.  An  outdoor survival handbook with tips on procuring wilderness survival food (among other skills) would be an excellent aid to keep in your survival kit.

When it comes to survival, the whole point is to not only stay alive but to remain strong and healthy. In spite of some of it being visually unappealing, wilderness survival food will stave off malnutrition and starvation which are both ugly and uncomfortable to say the least. On the North American Continent it is totally unnecessary to suffer from either. So, get over your food preference in a survival situation and lets look at what will keep up your energy and strength so that we can get back to what we enjoy, be it burgers, vegan, junk food, or epicurean extravagance.

 

There are way too many edible wild plants to attempt to list them all.  Learn what some of the poisonous ones are so you know what to avoid.

Generally leave berries on trees alone unless you definitely recognize them as being edible.  There is a universal edibility test you can perform but a book on edible wild fruits and berries would make it easier to identify what you can eat.

The inner bark of a birch tree, when boiled as a tea, is good for headaches and often called the ‘mountain mans aspirin’.
 

All insects are edible and have a host of differing flavors.
Ants tend to be bitter and acidic but work well as a spice in stews.
Flying insects such as mosquitoes, gnats, and dragonflies or crickets, and grasshoppers, may not be the most delectable fare, but they are almost pure protein.
 

Kick apart a rotten log or tree stump. Those grubs feed bears and birds, and as an emergency wilderness survival food they will provide you with much nutrition too. The up side is you don’t have to eat many to get comfortably full.

 

 

All rodents, from mice to porcupines are quite edible, to say nothing of the larger animals such as deer.

Frogs. Those hind legs are tasty when broiled on an open fire (skin them first).

You can always find excellent wilderness survival food in the many rivers, lakes, and streams in the world.

If you are prepared by having an assembled kit of life essentials containing a supply of food and water, save this as a last resort. Use what you can find in the wilderness as long as possible and save your prepackaged food for when wilderness survival foods are hard to find.

Even if you don’t practice, read and learn all you can about procuring, and preparing, wilderness survival food.