Winter feeding – 8 survival foods that you can feed in the middle of winter

8 Survival food for winter feeding

I instructed many field classes on feeding wild dishes and wrote a bit about it. Classes have always been held in spring, summer or autumn, and articles focused on plants, blueberries and other wild food products that were easy to find on a sunny summer day. But what about winter? Well, I did it too – and it’s difficult.

As a reminder, we are talking about a serious winter. Not a cold night in the desert or an energetic wind in the southeast. These are things below zero.

It is possible to find food in winter, but first let’s look at four factors that complicate your winter feeding:

1. It’s cold

This not only affects what you are trying to find and gather, but in the end it will affect you. Cold can also freeze the earth, which will limit access to some roots and tubers.

2. There is snow

Snow covers and send many things you will look for. You must look for tips on the snow. Oak is a good indication that acorns can be on earth under snow. Some oak trees keep the leaves on the branches during winter. It helps. We will discuss other tips on these snow days.

3. He is wet

Many of us like to collect Cattails in winter. But moving through the foot or two water and reaching deep into the water and mud will quickly affect you if you are not prepared.

4. Less than 10 percent is still available

If you are in a winter atmosphere, most things are dead or not growing. Your options are limited to each collection at about 10 percent, depending on your place of residence.

In winter, we lose some indicators that help us find food – a particularly fertile appearance of the leaves. However, some indicators are still available.

8 Survival food for winter feeding

Two days ago I found a grove of wild plums at the end of January. I recognized the shape and concentration of trees, but the real hand was frozen small plums on their branches. They made a great jelly. Fruits visible on a tree or plant may also include roses, cranberry and crab.

Pay attention to the shape and appearance of the bark on the trees, especially trees containing nuts such as oak, chestnut and black walnut. Time to learn and recognize the bark and physical features of trees containing nuts. One tip is a squirrel nest on a tree – although the squirrel could get too many acorns before arriving.

Some plants are still photosynthetic under the snow. Snow extermination can reveal part of this winter treasury, including dandelion, wild onion and chicken.

Go to the water, but carefully. Water sources have a lot of food in winter. If you live by the ocean, the flow at low plates can provide crustaceans and plants such as seaweed or seaweed. Freshwater springs, streams and joints will often have skull stands, freshwater mussels under mud and mud, and sporadic crayfish. But you have to be dressed for any water, so let’s get to dressing and equipping winter feeding.

Here’s what you should look for:

Cattails: Survival Foods for Winter Lading

1. Cattails

The roots, after washing and peeling, are a great source of potato -flavored starch and can be prepared like potatoes. They can also be dried and made in flour.

2. Sales, black walnuts and chestnuts

They are found on the ground under trees containing nuts. You should immerse them for three days with three water changes to remove tannins, and then either bake them, or cook and dry and grind into flour.

3. Rose hips

Usually bright red and about a quarter to half in diameter. Make a jelly or a tea infusion. One of the highest sources of vitamin C in the wild.

4. Mussels of fresh water

I often meet them while feeding Cattail roots. They usually grow in beds. Where you find one, you’ll find others. Scrape them with a small, manual rake. Wash and scrub carefully and cook until the shells open and then boil a little. If they come from a suspicious polluted water source, don’t eat them. In fact, don’t eat anything from the water source that is suspicious.

5. Mushrooms

What is interesting even in winter and sometimes they will appear after a short thaw. Look for them on rotting dead dates. Check a few photos so that you know what you eat. Even in winter, some mushrooms are toxic.

6. Wild Greens

Roots and crown of dandelion, wild onion, chicken, wild garlic. They will reveal with a show of greenery under snow or hammering through the litter. Rinse and cook with salt and eat like green.

7. Water tube

Visible as a large flowering of green flowing in sources and streams. Easy to harvest and can be eaten raw as a salad.

Crabapples: Survival Foods for Winter Lading

8. Wild fruit such as plums and crabs

Usually visible still hanging from their trees. Grate jelly or strain as a juice mixed with water, sugar and cooked.

It is obvious that you should dress warmly and dress in layers while feeding. There will be different degrees of effort and rest, and you want to be able to manage your sweat.

Here are some more tips that have brought me benefits when winter feeding:

If I’m going to collect Cattails, This is usually everything I do. I will wear waterproof shoes and even put on isolated hips. I also wear heavy rubber gloves that approach my biceps with a layer of isolated gloves underneath. The roots in the mud with bare hands will be short -term effort in winter. You also need to gather many things, such as Cattails, if you are serious about making a meal.

The same equipment and preparation concerns the search for a mussel, although I will bring my little three -piece rake, just like me for wild nuts. I will also bring a five -play plastic bucket if I feed in water. It is better to contain residual water, mud and mud.

Wild nuts

If I intend to strive for wild nuts Like acorns or black walnuts, I will leave rubber shoes and rubber gloves at home, but I will make sure that I have a small, three -person rake. Scratching with a glove through snow and leaves of the leaves will wet gloves and will not be as efficient as scraping the surface of a small rake and choosing nuts.

Frozen berries

If my goal is to find frozen fruit or berries Like roses, wild plums, crab applications or other frozen fruit, I will make sure I have stocks of plastic bags in the sizes of one gallon, one quarter and a sandwich to contain fruit. It will be much easier when you get home to sort and wash the berries or fruit, than throwing everyone into a side package or sack.

Winter Greens

If I’m looking for wild, winter-green, I will have some scissors in the kitchen and my little hand. I will also have a lot of plastic bags with one gallon. Rake helps to separate matted greens from the leaf litter, and some stems can be difficult, so kitchen shears help.

Collection of feeding food It requires the possibility of potentially wearing a few pounds or more in a way that keeps them separately and water or snow. I usually have two, side canvas or even a small backpack. Sometimes I put a plastic, in the kitchen, a trash or backpack bag in the kitchen or use smaller plastic bags to keep everything and dry. Sometimes a five -play plastic bucket appears on a journey.

Do not forget to take a bottle of water or two with you, and if you go far with Afield and a small, waterproof survival set. If you stumble and fall into the water, when it is 10 below and you are four miles from anywhere, you must be able to build a fire quickly.

Winter feeding is slim seconds. I saw too many articles that seem to make it easier. It’s difficult, cold and hard work, especially if you’re trying to find some wild plants in winter. But if you know what you are doing, you can find food … and survive.

Related:

Black walnuts: how to crack (and cook with) the most difficult nut of nature

Have you tried winter feeding? What advice would you add? Share it in the section below: