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- Special Forces Adventure Training Corporate Teambuilding Events
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- Edibility Test
- Fish
- Nuts
- Plants & Berries
- Preparation of Plant Food
- Plants For Medicine
- Traps & Snares
- Fires
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- 1 - Test only one part of a potential food plant at a time.
- 2 - Separate the plant into its basic components - leaves, stems, roots,
buds, and flowers.
- 3 - Smell the food for strong or acid odors. Remember, smell alone does
not indicate a plant is edible or inedible.
- 4 - Do not eat for 8 hours before starting the test.
- 5 - During the 8 hours you abstain from eating, test for contact
poisoning by placing a piece of the plant part you are testing on the
inside of your elbow or wrist. Usually 15 minutes is enough time to
allow for a reaction
- 6 - During the test period, take nothing by mouth except purified water
and the plant part you are testing.
- 7 - Select a small portion of a single part and prepare it the way you
plan to eat it.
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- 8 - Before placing the prepared plant part in your mouth, touch a small
portion (a pinch) to the outer surface of your lip to test for burning
or itching.
- 9 - If after 3 minutes there is no reaction on your lip, place the plant
part on your tongue, holding it there for 15 minutes.
- 10 - If there is no reaction, thoroughly chew a pinch and hold it in
your mouth for 15 minutes. Do not swallow.
- 11 - If no burning, itching, numbing, stinging, or other irritation
occurs during the 15 minutes, swallow the food.
- 12 - Wait 8 hours. If any ill effects occur during this period, induce
vomiting and drink a lot of water.
- 13 - If no ill effects occur, eat 0.25 cup of the same plant part
prepared the same way. Wait another 8 hours. If no ill effects occur,
the plant part as prepared is safe for eating.
- CAUTION
- Test all parts of the plant for edibility, as some plants have both
edible and inedible parts. Do not assume that a part that proved edible
when cooked is also edible when raw. Test the part raw to ensure
edibility before eating raw. The same part or plant may produce varying
reactions in different individuals.
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- Before testing a plant for edibility, make sure there are enough plants
to make the testing worth your time and effort.
- Each part of a plant (roots, leaves, flowers, and so on) requires more
than 24 hours to test. Do not waste time testing a plant that is not
relatively abundant in the area.
- Remember, eating large portions of plant food on an empty stomach may
cause diarrhea, nausea, or cramps.
- Two good examples of this are such familiar foods as green apples and
wild onions. Even after testing plant food and finding it safe, eat it
in moderation.
- You can see from the steps and time involved in testing for edibility
just how important it is to be able to identify edible plants.
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- Follow rivers or coast which are life-support in their very nature
- Sea water fish can be eaten raw – this is true of shell fish but you
must make sure they are alive when you pick them from rocks etc
- Fresh water fish have to be cooked
- Use hooks, spears, nets or tickle fish under the belly in reeds or the
like and flick them out
- Use a Mk 9 or similar to explode shock waves into the water and stun
fish which will float to the surface to be collected – never eat fish
which you find naturally floating on the surface as they may likely be
diseased
- Seaweed can also be eaten – but in small quantities
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- Do not eat fish that appears spoiled. Cooking does not ensure that
spoiled fish will be edible. Signs of spoilage are;-
- Sunken eyes.
- Peculiar odor.
- Suspicious color. (Gills should be red to pink. Scales should be a
pronounced shade of gray, not faded.)
- Dents stay in the fish's flesh after pressing it with your thumb.
- Slimy, rather than moist or wet body.
- Sharp or peppery taste.
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- Nuts are naturally full of protean and fat but avoid eating lots as they
will give you an upset stomach [eating small chippings of chalk will get
rid of an upset stomach]
- Sweet Chestnuts, Walnuts, Hazelnuts, Beeches, Butternut
- Nuts within Thistles are examples of local nuts that can be eaten
- Poppy, Sunflower, Pumpkin Seed
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- Dandelion Leaves
- Fresh curled tips of new fern leaves can be eaten in small quantities
- Strawberries
- Blackberries
- Amaranth (Amaranthus retroflexus and other species)
- Arrowroot (Sagittaria species)
- Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis)
- Blueberries (Vaccinium species)
- Burdock (Arctium lappa)
- Cattail (Typha species)
- Chicory (Cichorium intybus)
- Chufa (Cyperus esculentus)
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- Daylily (Hemerocallis fulva)
- Nettle (Urtica species)
- Oaks [Nuts Boiled Several Times] (Quercus species)
- Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana)
- Plantain (Plantago species)
- Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana)
- Prickly pear cactus (Opuntia species)
- Purslane (Portulaca oleracea)
- Raspberries
- Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)
- Sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella)
- Strawberries (Fragaria species)
- Water lily and lotus (Nuphar, Nelumbo, and other species)
- Wild onion and garlic (Allium species)
- Wild rose (Rosa species)
- Wood sorrel (Oxalis species)
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- Although some plants or plant parts are edible raw, you must cook others
to be edible or palatable. Edible means that a plant or food will
provide you with necessary nutrients, while palatable means that it
actually is pleasing to eat.
- Many wild plants are edible but barely palatable. It is a good idea to
learn to identify, prepare, and eat wild foods.
- Methods used to improve the taste of plant food include soaking,
boiling, cooking, or leaching. Leaching is done by crushing the food
(for example, acorns), placing it in a strainer, and pouring boiling
water through it or immersing it in running water.
- Boil leaves, stems, and buds until tender, changing the water, if
necessary, to remove any bitterness.
- Boil, bake, or roast tubers and roots. Drying helps to remove caustic
oxalates from some roots like those in the Arum family.
- Leach acorns in water, if necessary, to remove the bitterness. Some
nuts, such as chestnuts, are good raw, but taste better roasted.
- You can eat many grains and seeds raw until they mature. When hard or
dry, you may have to boil or grind them into meal or flour.
- The sap from many trees, such as maples, birches, walnuts, and
sycamores, contains sugar. You may boil
- these saps down to a syrup for sweetening. It takes about 35 liters of
maple sap to make one liter of
- maple syrup
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- In a survival situation you will have to use what is available. In using
plants and other natural remedies, positive identification of the plants
involved is as critical as in using them for food. Proper use of these
plants is equally important.
- Terms and Definitions
- The following terms, and their definitions, are associated with
medicinal plant use:
- Poultice. The name given to crushed leaves or other plant parts,
possibly heated, that you apply to a wound or sore either directly or
wrapped in cloth or paper.
- Infusion or tisane or tea. The preparation of medicinal herbs for
internal or external application.
- You place a small quantity of a herb in a container, pour hot water over
it, and let it steep (covered or uncovered) before use.
- Decoction. The extract of a boiled down or simmered herb leaf or root.
You add herb leaf or root to water. You bring them to a sustained boil
or simmer to draw their chemicals into the water. The average ratio is
about 28 to 56 grams (1 to 2 ounces) of herb to 0.5 liter of water.
- Expressed juice. Liquids or saps squeezed from plant material and either
applied to the wound or made into another medicine.
- Many natural remedies work slower than the medicines you know.
Therefore, start with smaller doses and allow more time for them to take
effect. Naturally, some will act more rapidly than others.
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- The following remedies are for use only in a survival situation, not for
routine use:
- Diarrhea. Drink tea made from the roots of blackberries and their
relatives to stop diarrhea. White oak bark and other barks containing
tannin are also effective. However, use them with caution when nothing
else is available because of possible negative effects on the kidneys.
You can also stop diarrhea by eating white clay or campfire ashes. Tea
made from cowberry or cranberry or hazel leaves works too.
- Antihemorrhagics. Make medications to stop bleeding from a poultice of
the puffball mushroom, from plantain leaves, or most effectively from
the leaves of the common yarrow or woundwort (Achillea millefolium).
- Antiseptics. Use to cleanse wounds, sores, or rashes. You can make them
from the expressed juice from wild onion or garlic, or expressed juice
from chickweed leaves or the crushed leaves of dock. You can also make
antiseptics from a decoction of burdock root, mallow leaves or roots, or
white oak bark. All these medications are for external use only.
- Fevers. Treat a fever with a tea made from willow bark, an infusion of
elder flowers or fruit,
- linden flower tea, or elm bark decoction.
- Colds and sore throats. Treat these illnesses with a decoction made from
either plantain leaves or willow bark. You can also use a tea made from
burdock roots, mallow or mullein flowers or roots,or mint leaves.
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- Aches, pains, and sprains. Treat with externally applied poultices of
dock, plantain, chickweed, willow bark, garlic, or sorrel. You can also
use salves made by mixing the expressed juices of these plants in animal
fat or vegetable oils.
- Itching. Relieve the itch from insect bites, sunburn, or plant poisoning
rashes by applying a poultice of jewelweed (Impatiens biflora) or witch
hazel leaves (Hamamelis virginiana). The jewelweed juice will help when
applied to poison ivy rashes or insect stings. It works on sunburn as
well as aloe vera.
- Sedatives. Get help in falling asleep by brewing a tea made from mint
leaves or passionflower leaves.
- Hemorrhoids. Treat them with external washes from elm bark or oak bark
tea, from the expressed juice of plantain leaves, or from a Solomon's
seal root decoction.
- Constipation. Relieve constipation by drinking decoctions from dandelion
leaves, rose hips, or walnut bark. Eating raw daylily flowers will also
help.
- Worms or intestinal parasites. Using moderation, treat with tea made
from tansy (Tanacetumvulgare) or from wild carrot leaves.
- Gas and cramps. Use a tea made from carrot seeds as an antiflatulent;
use tea made from mint leaves to settle the stomach.
- Antifungal washes. Make a decoction of walnut leaves or oak bark or
acorns to treat ringworm and athlete's foot. Apply frequently to the
site, alternating with exposure to direct sunlight.
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- Be familiar with the species of animal you intend to catch.
- Be capable of constructing a proper trap.
- Do not alarm the prey by leaving signs of your presence inc smell &
wind direction.
- Where to place?
- Watch for Runs and trails.
- Watch for Tracks.
- Watch for Droppings.
- Watch for Chewed or rubbed vegetation.
- Watch for Nesting or roosting sites.
- Watch for Feeding and watering areas.
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- Never trust what animals eat – it can poison us
- Never eat if you do not have water
- Never eat if you are unsure of source
- Food is rarely your first priority
- We hope you have enjoyed it and found it informative
- Many Thanks
- DS Training Team SFAT
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Notes