Wilderness Survival food

Wilderness Survival food

It is essential to understand where to find survival food, even food is the least pressing wilderness survival need. With plenty of water and a comfortable resting place, most of us can live many weeks without food.

However, food is important for your mental and emotional state, as well as a source of energy and to maintain a normal body temperature.


Natural food

In a survival situation, you have to take advantage of everything available to eat. Most wilderness areas are full of natural food, ranging from plants to insects. The food sources you can exploit are determined by the habitat you are in. Vary your diet to make sure you get the appropriate proportions of fat, protein, carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins. 

Meat and fish are good sources of protein and fat and provide virtually everything a long-term survivor would need. However, at the first stage of a survival situation, plants are the most appropriate diet as plants are easily accessible and contain the necessary carbohydrates.


Wild edible plants

Depending of the time of the year you will almost always find edible plants, unless you are in the middle of an arid desert. Knowledge of only one or two wild edible plants can be of great help in your search for survival food. Learn more about eating wild plants.


Edible insects

Your most vital nutritional needs in a survival situation are protein and fat. Most insects are rich in both. Turn off your cultural bias against eating insects. Edible bugs are good "survival food".

Fishing

Fish are a valuable food source. Therefore, if you are near a river or stream, fishing is an important alternative to obtain food. Learn different simple methods of catching fish.


Trapping

Unless you are an experienced hunter, hunting animals for meat is inadvisable in a survival situation. Hunting is difficult and you will expend a lot of energy to get your food. Instead of hunting consider trapping. Trapping requires less skill and leaves you free to spend time searching for other food sources. The wilderness survivor needs simple traps that are easy to remember and easy to construct.


Bird eggs

Eggs offer high nutritional value, are convenient and safe. They can be boiled, baked or fried. The first obvious place to look for them is a bird nest. However, not all birds build a nest, but instead lay their eggs directly on the ground or in a hole. 

Reminder: Collecting wild bird eggs are not allowed in most countries. Eating wild bird eggs should only be considered in a wilderness survival situation. 


Methods of cooking

Cooking is a skill of great importance for all wilderness travelers. Cooking not only makes many foods more appetizing to taste, but also ensure that parasites and bacteria are killed. You don’t want to get sick from food poisoning.

A compact camping stove is very convenient in the wilderness. However, in many situations, a cooking fire is more practical and allows a wider variety of cooking opportunities. As a survival skill, you should also be able to prepare your food without any cooking utensils.

Source: https://www.wilderness-survival-skills.com/survivalfood.html

Focus on These 10 Areas to Start Learning Bushcraft Skills

Bushcraft is the name we give a collection of skills that all involve thriving in the wilderness.  From knowing how to build a fire in various conditions to finding food by hunting and foraging, to carving and building necessary items from wood and other natural materials; bushcraft is all about surviving long term without the need for grocery stores, sporting goods stores, or the corner market.

You can break bushcraft down into 10 basic categories to start with, and add more in as you gain more and more skills. Check out the 10 areas of bushcraft skill below and start learning how to survive one bushcraft skill at a time.

Fire Craft

Anyone car start a fire with a lighter, some matches, and a can of lighter fluid, but what happens when all you have is a striking rock and the organic materials laying around in the wilderness?

Fire craft is all about starting and maintaining fires in any condition. This includes multiple techniques for building a fire like flint, the sun, and smoldering plants. It also covers how to use fire for survival and how to transport the fire you built form one location to another to avoid having to rebuild.

Tracking

There are a lot of reasons why it’s a good idea to get good at tracking. First, it’s a pretty great way to catch your dinner but past that it’s a very important part of OpSec.

By being able to track people and animals you can see if your proposed campsite is frequented by any specific animals or if people have been through it before. You can also see if anyone has been around your campsite or homestead recently.

Animals and people tend to follow the same paths over and over again, so being able to recognize these and track where they go can show you where to set snares, get water, and where to avoid when the footprints are bigger than you’d like.

Hunting

This one is pretty obvious, but you need to know how to hunt effectively with a variety of tools. Sure, using a high-powered rifle makes hunting a lot easier, but in the bush you may only have basic supplies and a rifle might not be one of them.

The most common way to hunt in the wild is by trapping. Setting a snare to catch small game is a great way to learn how to survive off the land. Beyond the knowledge of trapping you need to learn how to handle what you trap and hunt once you’ve gotten it.

Learn simple butchering and skinning techniques to make sure you can actually eat what you catch.

Fishing

Similar to hunting and trapping, learning to fish with a variety of tools will make sure you have a good high-protein and fat source of food. The two basic ways of fishing are with a line and hook and by trapping. You can build a fish trap as seen in this video to collect fish without extra work on your end.

Keeping learning how to make a hook and lures is important as well, but the fish trap is your best way if you have the materials and the ability.

Foraging

You can’t survive solely on animals and fish you’ve caught, especially if you can’t build a fire to cook them on, which means foraging is just as important. You need to learn what plants are OK to eat and which ones aren’t, as well as how to determine this in the wild.

Check out this site for some basics on eating plants and foraging, but make sure you learn what’s available in your area and what is your best bet for the most carbs and protein per ounce to save energy while foraging.

Shelter Building

Building a proper shelter is more important than just keeping dry, it gives you a sense of safety and belonging and keeps you safe from animals. Keeping dry is more important than just comfort too, keeping dry will keep you from getting sick and keep your gear usable.

Learn not only how to build a basic shelter, but how to build one from a variety of resources so you’re never stuck out in the cold.

Knives and Axes

One of the most important tools to bushcraft has to be the bladed implement. Survival knives and axes are vital to survival and knowing how to use and care for them correctly is as important as knowing how to find water.

We’re not talking about heavy-duty knifes here, but instead they are generally smaller and built for durability. Learn how to not only use a knife and axe correctly, but to sharpen, repair, and even make your own. Remember, there may very well be a time that there aren’t stores to buy knives from, so learn while you can!

Wood Carving

You use a lot of wooden implements every day and don’t even think about it. From wooden spoons to handles for knives and other tools, knowing how to make wood into what you need it to be is pretty important.

Learn how to work with wood from start to finish and you can make just about anything. Think back to your woodshop days and replace all the power tools with hand tools.

Container Construction

Being able to make the containers that clothes, food, and tools go into is pretty important to learn. Today we go to the store, find something that fits and use it until it breaks and repeat the process. The bushcraft way is very different and once you build a few containers yourself, you’ll respect them a lot more.

Learn how to work with a variety of materials including leather, metal, wood, and even odd materials like tire rubber, which by the way makes a great sandal. You can make a waterproof tarp or food container by melting and applying wax to canvas and buckets out of hollowed out logs. Whatever you choose to make, remember that once you’re on your own, there’s no more Tupperware lady coming around to sell you containers.

Rope Craft

Anyone who was a Boy Scout knows that rope craft and knot tying is one of the most important survival skills out there. From being able to tie down your tent to tying snares and quick release knots for climbing, rope craft is pretty important stuff.

Beyond tying knots however, knowing how to make rope is pretty important stuff. There are a few ways to make rope yourself, and this site has some great information on how to do it from natural fibers.

Source:http://www.survivalbased.com/survival-blog/4867/focus-on-these-10-areas-to-start-learning-bushcraft-skills/