Originally published April 8 2015
Brush up on your bushcrafting - wilderness survival
by Daniel Barker
(NaturalNews) No matter how well prepared your home is for a SHTF scenario, there's always a possibility that you may, at some point, find yourself faced with having to survive in the wilderness without adequate food supplies. Would you have the skills to forage and successfully feed yourself in this type of situation?
Knowing how to forage and hunt in your native habitat are skills that must be learned if you want to adequately prepare yourself for a prolonged disaster scenario. If you are forced to leave your home or bug-out location and head for the hills, you'll need to know what plants and animals are available, where to find them and what to do with them
You'll need to obtain a basic knowledge of hunting and trapping, and how to clean and prepare the animals you hunt or capture. You must also learn to recognize the plants that you can and can't eat, or how to prepare them to render them edible. Many plants are poisonous or inedible until they are boiled, soaked or otherwise prepared for safe human consumption.
A basic rule is to not eat anything that you cannot definitely identify as safe, but there may be situations where you are forced to gauge a plant's edibility by tasting and then eating miniscule amounts to test for any adverse reactions. Obviously, the more you learn about the wild plants that grow in your area, the better off you'll be when you find yourself in a position where foraging is necessary.
TheBugOutBagGuide.com has posted some general tips for foraging and determining which plants may be safe or not to eat. Among the things to avoid are plants which have red leaves, fruits or berries. There are, of course, several obvious exceptions, but as a rule, if it's red and you aren't sure what it is, don't eat it.
Other indicators that a plant is dangerous to consume include bitter taste or an almond flavor, a "hot" or fiery taste, or a bad smell. Once again, if you aren't sure, you should probably avoid eating it, especially if the plant in question has any of these qualities.
Edible mushrooms can be readily found in almost all regions, but an intimate knowledge of them is required before you should even consider gathering and eating wild mushrooms. Many are highly poisonous and are often nearly indistinguishable from the safe ones. Learning which ones are edible can be highly rewarding, however -- many delicious varieties can be found throughout the forests of the U.S. and elsewhere.
A few basic tools and some practical knowledge make it possible to survive in almost any part of the world. Learning how to make basic traps and snares using a good knife and materials found in the woods (plus a bit of cord or wire you can easily carry) can provide you with fresh meat on a daily basis. It's much easier to survive in the wild if you have animal flesh to feed on. It's difficult to get enough calories and nutrients by strictly foraging plants, nuts, roots and berries.
There are just a few essential tools needed to forage in the wild. At least one high-quality knife is a must-have item to carry. You'll need to pack one or more fire-starting methods, cord or wire for making snares and precious little else -- survival in the wild is more about having gained the knowledge and skills needed to find, catch and prepare the food than owning a lot of fancy survivalist tools.
Learning these skills is not difficult, but it takes some practice. As you gain the knowledge, you can begin testing your skills in the wild. If you haven't had at least some practice under your belt, you might find yourself at a dangerous disadvantage when and if the SHTF for real.
Source:
http://www.thebugoutbagguide.com
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