I'm an outdoorsy man with many skills suited to survival in remote places far away from assistance or other humans and that leaves me feeling confident when I'm there; it's taken many years to learn and develop the right knowledge and skills and yet there's always more to know so I never rest on my laurels and continually seek a better understanding.
Food (and water), shelter and warmth are the three basic necessities of survival however there's many other elements such as first aid skills, navigation, escape and evasion (in some cases), making fire, and the ability to cope mentally with isolation, fear and hopelessness that often comes through wilderness survival situations, wild animals (or humans), thirst or hunger; there's others too, it's a long list really.
Despite feeling extremely comfortable in remote places there's a few gaps in my skills, one never knows everything, and with a continual improvement ethos in mind I decided to fill one in respect of foraging skills some time ago; I wanted to learn more.
Foraging and edible insects
I know how to trap animals, fish, track, stalk and hunt, and also what to do with the animal to prepare it for consumption but it's not always possible to find animals and so I decided to learn more about foraging.
It's a simple thing really; know what's edible (and its benefits), what is inedible and why, and know where to get it, what to look for and what to do with it when it's found.
Ok, so maybe it's not all that simple. Also, one must remember that foraging burns energy and won't always provide enough calories to sustain the energy burned to perform the foraging so it could be a false economy and one needs to be able to evaluate the reward (or lack of) for the effort expended; but eating something is better than nothing so I wanted to build better skills around foraging specifically.
Further to that, I decided I wanted to know more about edible insects and decided to track down a person I knew to be an expert in that particular aspect of foraging for survival purposes, a friend of a friend.
The person was a wealth of knowledge and right away got me over the, no way I'm eating any fucken insects thing, by telling me that we all eat them already. Flour beetles and weevils are always present in granaries and end up being milled in with the grain for instance...yep, those tiny black specks in your bread. Fruit and vegetables also often contain tiny insects which we eat when we eat the fruit of vegetables and processed (and canned) foods and drinks are often full of insects too; bug infested apples are usually separated from the good ones and used in the production of apple cider just to name a few examples. Ok, I get it, I eat bugs; I'm not dead though, so it's all good...and neither are you. Once over that little hurdle we got into the nuts and bolts of it.
It was many hours of training which I'll not write about in this single post but it opened my eyes to the opportunities of edible insects as a means of staying alive in a wilderness survival situation.
As it turns out, there's many insects that are edible and some are especially tasty and nutritious (apparently) - but he must have kept the good ones for himself as the ones I ate all tasted fucken disgusting. Many have high protein content though and they can be milled into flour to add a protein boost to 'normal' food or eaten natural like one would do in a survival situation. They are easy to raise (in a domestic scenario) and there's minimal butchering required compared with animals for consumption.
These are some of the things he told me...I was unconvinced at that stage as I just don't want to eat insects...but in a survival situation I need to do what is required to survive, so I kept going back for more information and knowledge and we got into some practical methods of finding them, identifying and gathering them and then...eating them. I even ate a witchetty grub...google it.
There's (apparently), almost 1,500 recorded species of insects that are edible and probably far more waiting to be discovered and here's the thing, they're nutritious. If you were to eat 100 grams of crickets for instance you'd be consuming about 120 calories, around 13g of protein, 5g of fat and the same of carbohydrates, 75mg of calcium, 185mg of phosphorous, almost 10g of iron as well as various amounts of thiamine, riboflavin and niacin. (Crickets don't taste good but in a survival situation I'd rather eat crickets than die.)
There's a whole movement around insect eating being the way of the future for humans, thank fuck I'll be dead by the time that happens as the insects I ate tasted horrendously bad. But I learned enough to most probably sustain my life, if barely, in a survival situation and that was my aim.
As I said, I'm not going to go into great detail here and am certainly not trying to suggest we all go around eating insects...especially when pizzas and burgers, tacos, donuts, Indian food and fucken anything else at all is available to eat, but what I learned will possibly help keep me alive in a difficult wilderness survival situation and me being alive means I'll be able to apply my skills to keep others that way too, should others be with me. Just like I have skills in hunting and shooting, first aid, finding and gathering water, building shelter and fire, navigation and other such things it's a responsibility to have skills in this area too, foraging, in my opinion. I'll admit to not wanting to eat insects, but if it's that or die it seems an easy choice.
Just a note, foraging is not something the uninitiated should be doing and must be approached with caution.
Example:
Just recently in Australia a woman had a live Ophidascaris robertsi (roundworm) removed from her brain after suffering many terrible symptoms for a long time. The Ophidascaris robertsi is a parasite found in pythons and the woman often foraged for edible grasses in her area where carpet pythons are also found - it's suspected one took a shit on the grasses the woman collected and she ingested the parasite due to not washing the grasses properly prior to eating them. Here's a link to a YouTube video and you can do your own googling if you care to as well.
What the fuck right? So yeah, picking up stuff off the ground and eating it doesn't always go well so educate yourself before doing it. If done right, if the skills are present and the right form is followed, it can save lives in difficult situations.
Have you had any experiences with alternative foods? They say a global food shortage is imminent so it's something we're all going to need to deal with I guess, those that live long enough and beyond world war three that is. Have you eaten any weird things, insects for example, or have you foraged for food and hunted to gather your own meat for consumption? If you want to comment please go ahead below.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
[Original and AI free]
Image(s) in this post are my own
I can't say as though I have, but I would be willing to try crickets I think. It would be a tough call for me to eat anything beyond that. I just saw an ad for 160 acres for sale in the mountainous area of northern Michigan. I have to admit, I was a little tempted even though I would never be able to afford it. There is even a creek that runs through the property.
I've thought about this, surviving in difficult situations and it's a stretch for anyone to know how they would react in the moment. Having said that, without the necessary skills the point is moot which is why I went ahead and learned them. It's incredible what a human is capable of, in good and bad ways, and it's all dependent upon the motivation.
By the way, that land...sounds amazing and something I would love!
Yeah, oddly enough, it was only just shy of $200K which seemed not that unreasonable to me. I think I have mentioned this before, but I read a book a while ago about a nuke being detonated in the air and frying all electronics around the world. It made me think a lot about what I might do if that were to happen. My buddy has some acreage up in the UP and I think I would head there if he would have me. My wife said "yeah, you and all his other friends", but I honestly think that would be good. You would need a community to survive in a case like that. Like the old days, everyone hopefully with a skill that they can contribute.
These are strange days indeed.
img-src
Do these worms L👀k yummy?
I found these "worms" today while making some repairs to the drainage pipes that flow to our pond from the gutters. 15 years of "The Primes" driving over them had them damaged and restricted.
Worms man, no one should have to eat those fuckers but one is dead for a long time and if they were to sustain life I think most would probably go ahead and eat them.
Those pipes look like a decent sized job, I hope it's going ok.
Foraging is one of those things that's incredibly simple in theory and a little bit harder in practice XD
Maybe you'd like chocolate covered crickets or cricket chips better XD there's some Asian countries (probably some other ones as well but Asian markets were what I was thinking specifically) that have interesting ways of preparing them.
I'm trying to figure out how a global food shortage is imminent when so much of it gets thrown out and things like Second Bite have to exist.
maybe that's why
As I was writing this post I was thinking about what I've seen people eat in various places and was thinking that insects may not be all that odd as a food for some.
As for chocolate covered ones...I'd rather just eat the chocolate.
The food shortage; when the oceans are fished out and dead it'll place pressure on the land which will go the same way. I global food shortage sounds unrealistic I guess...but then people are starving to death in places even as I type this so...not so unrealistic.
I remember reading (a big ago now so maybe it's out of date?) something about how food production by volume wasn't a problem, a number of the processes were (monoculture is terrible both for the environment and for food security) and distribution very definitely.
I haven't done a lot of research into seafood stocks but do remember there being a serious problem with large fish like bluefin tune numbers so I can easily believe that's a potentiasl if not existing problem. And "bycatch" with trawling x_x
I would rather just eat the chocolate too XD
I did a post on the oceans and how they're at a precarious point only recently based around a Netflix documentary that was quite confronting. We'll see...maybe in a global food crisis McDonald's can come to the rescue with all their plastic food.
My brother's spent the last few years educating himself on foraging (plants and mushrooms, not insects); we'll be walking at random and he'll point out half a dozen edible weeds. Great skill to have.
Yep, I know a few who have done so for a while as well and I've picked up some great local knowledge from them. I figured I'd add in the insects aspect as an additional level of understanding but I hope to never have to rely on it.
J has beeen doing likewise but is trying to find someone more knowledgable about mushrooms to teach him a little bit more as we're not game enough to try the ones that are "probably" XD
Just host a dinner party. #toosoon #betterthanlivinginvictoria
I remember watching a video about that woman who got the worm in her brain. That's nuts!
I lived in Oaxaca Mexico for a while in the 90s and kids were obsessed with eating fried grasshoppers. They would pick it over candy or other desserts. They are definitely nutritious as they are a complete protein. Since you are eating the whole body, you are essentially getting all of the amino acids with each individual critter.
Insects are commonly eaten in various places around the world, just not in my location so it seems an odd thing for people to get their head around. If the alternative is death, I'd say most people would eat insects.
I saw this on the link you left. Sounds pretty good, TV snack food if ever there was one! 😀
How about that worm thing! I think it'd make any sane person think twice about foraging. I know it would freak me out knowing there was a live worm in my brain. I wonder if that woman still forages.
Haha, yeah dude.. I wonder. I would be a psychological mess after that. I already have a bit of hypochondria. A worm in my head? forget about it.
Yeah, I'm with you there.
Crocodile Dundee descibes it well in a movie scene, when he fries a snake over a camp fire and his girl friend asks if it tastes well. "No, it tastes like shit, but its eatable." :)
I forgot that line, damn it I should have used it in my post!
Well .... I haven't eaten insects, at least not intentionally... and I wouldn't do it unless I was in the situation you describe, which is a matter of life and death.
When I was a child the situation at home was complicated and there were chickens for example, I remember that one by one they disappeared and my grandmother told me that she had stolen them, today I think that maybe because there was nothing to eat... she made them disappear so that my brother and I could eat something.
I have also eaten pieces that some acquaintances had hunted like vizcacha, deer... but they are not strange things. Well for me they were.
The world is changing... I don't like the subject of insects at all, many of them are toxic for humans... I wonder what's in processed foods, what they put in them?
I hope soon to be able to move to a more distant place and have my own vegetable garden, I don't say to be completely self-sufficient, but I want a change of life. To know what I'm eating.
A curious fact, I met a gardener a long time ago who taught me everything I know about gardens, he was a real master and he told me: did you know that human beings eat soil all the time? I hadn't realised.
I wonder what you might do to survive if your life was threatened, what you would do (do another human) or what you might eat? It's a question most can't answer properly without having been in that situation I guess, but I'm always curious. (Also, what would a human do to save/protect their children.)
In an extreme situation I believe that the human being is capable of anything, because reason has no place anymore. And even more so if he has to protect children. It would be an animal instinct to save life at any cost. Unless the person tends to depression and lets himself die.
Nah man, I have never eaten or am ever going to eat those insects whether they are edibles or not.
I mean how can you eat those things which we can't even look at sometimes because of their weird shape. (Kidding)
And as far as foraging is concerned, yeah, many times when I wake up in the middle of the night, I search for edibles in the kitchen and most of the time end up eating my siblings food 😆 (I hope this counts). Lol
Would you eat such things if the alternative was dying of hunger?
Ummm
I don't get the question, why would I eat something who is already dying of hunger. Instead I will feed that thing.
Would you eat such things (insects) if the alternative was (you) dying of hunger (if you did not eat them)?
I get it now.
Ewww
But I have to in order to survive. My answer is yes.
They say that in Asian cultures they eat insects. But the truth gives me the creeps. I remember an aunt who was preparing a bread and she put meat and cheese in it and it had an exquisite smell and when she bit it with her teeth it had a spoonful inside, she started to scream and vomit and spent several days sick. But everything is according to conception and family tradition. I still don't eat that food and one day I ate it unintentionally mixed with some food. I respect everyone who has a different opinion.
I'd not want to eat insects either, I'd rather chew my own arm off, but in a survival situation when it's life or death eating insects is probably preferable to eating one's own arm off.
Here's something I've learnt after three years of intense foraging (plants not insects), in spring look for leaves and flowers, summer for fruit and fall and winter you should go beneath the soil for roots. In fall you can also find shrooms, if survival is the deal, go for the big good smelling and good tasting ones, don't bother with small buggers. It's pretty logical really, but sometimes we've been so disconnected from Nature that what should be obvious is often ignored. Following this simple advice you will get a better economy from foraging, because I have deeply experience what you say about burning more calories than what I was receiving and this had greatly to do with not knowing what to look for in different times of the year.
It seems logical enough, however I think that's generally location specific and doesn't take into consideration all environments and conditions around the world; it's reasonably sensible information though.
I think I got a point to dig into more todsy...never heard of foraging, neither ever thought of eating insects.... but people in my tribal area do practice certain things...there are few who used to have snake venom for intoxication...and they are alive
If a person is hungry enough they'll soon discover what they're prepared to do to stay alive; some say they would rather die than eat this or that however when in the moment they may think differently.
I learned that now.....it depends upon the situation and how the much the person is ready to do to stay alive....i heard soldiers even eat snakes and many other things when in the battle ground or some extreme situation. A common man also needs to learn few of the trick, afterall it is all about survival
People are so reliant on others these days but I believe that puts a person at risk of being ill-prepared. I guess it doesn't much matter what others do, but for me I like to be prepared and skilled which means I'm more likely to be ok in a crisis than the next person.
Hi Galen; I don't think I've ever had any weird food in my life. Except for sparrows. Now it is forbidden to eat them but when I was little my father hunted them for food. A custom left over from the famine years in Madrid after the civil war. On the subject of eating insects, the truth is that seeing the world that is coming I'm glad I'm the age I am.
Best regards
Sparrows, that's a new one for me although I guess it's not all that different to eating quails, which I've done a few times.
I agree with you on the last comment, I think there's something terrible on the way and despite people wanting/hoping for something better I believe there's some very hard times the like the world hasn't seen in a very long time, if ever.
I can tell you that eating such a small bird is the same as eating only bones, haha! and we have already said it before, the world is going in a very bad way. For me this means enjoying every moment, and these days I'm enjoying them quite disconnected from work and obligations. For example, it is snowing here and I love to walk on the snow and hear how it crunches.
I think many many sparrows may be needed to make up a decent sized meal. Well, that's if they were still on the menu.
I'm glad to hear your, live every moment ethos, it's really the only way to get the best out of life overall. Nice work!
Have a nice day Galen, now I put on my boots and go for the snow. ❄️❄️☃️
lol you're so random at that last part with the python taking a shit and giving the lady a roundworm in her brain that's crazy. I mean there's a lot of crazy/stupid shit happening all the time but this is one of those just next level things. like someone shared me a video of a cat going to the toilet with their owner to take a shit together; that's some crazy bonding between pet and owner.
I don't know about eating insects though . depending on what's still left of earth i may prefer to just die haha
On side note you have amazing skills and I guess if there was an apocalypse or some crazy world ending moment, gotta get galenkp to join the team.
Well, I though that was relevant considering it's about foraging which is basically what this post is about.
In respect of your prefer to die comment, people say that I guess, but it's not until a person is faced with the prospect of imminent death that they could truly understand what they might do to stay alive.
maybe not random but went kind of wild to the extremes? There are cases those situations do happen but I think it's not that frequent someone foraging will end up doing surgery cuz of some bad stuff they picked up. Then again foraging is not something the majority of the people of our time really do I guess since we mostly just buy from a supermarket or eat ready made food. also with the food safety and regulation it'd be rare for us to get into a situation with spoiled food so I guess we are really lucky for our time. Can't imagine those caveman times where can't really check if there's a parasite; guess they probably just died since surgery non existent during that era.
I guess it's hard to say until faced with the situation of death but I think it really depends on the situation. if i was like the only person left on earth alive, I feel i would consider dying as what's the point to live at that point if there's nobody around
Yep, for most, foraging happens at McDonald's.
Hmm...remember 2020/2021, that little thing called corona virus? People didn't think stuff like that cold happen, but then it happened and took people by surprise. My ethos is to always plan for the worst.
hey now don't expose me lol. I like mcdonalds ice cream
it's not a great memory but even though it was a bad thing a lot of great things came from it i feel. but ya nobody expected it and people were dumb and refused to wear masks when it was for their own good and for the ones surrounding them. Who knows maybe we will have something worse than corona and we will have to try to survive. I don't think many people were ready for covid. I think it's something we just have to be able to respond to but I guess we can have the thought of the possibilities but life is too short i think to worry about that super small % chance happening. We just gotta live to the fullest but idk that's just how i feel
I actually remembered the Lion King when I looked up the witchetty grub. I know insects are a delicacy in a lot of Asian countries, but I don't like them. I can understand the need to have that skill, especially since you're an outdoorsy guy. I'm just thankful I don't see myself needing it in the future.
I'd rather boil up the sole of my shoe than eat insects but I think it's important to gather skills that match one's activities and having an understanding of foraging and wilderness survival is something that may come in useful at some stage. I'd rather have it than not...but I'd not go out of my way to eat insects if I had alternatives.
Any mention of weevils and I have to repeat the silly jokes from Master and Commander (which is just about my favorite film).
"Do you not know that in the service, one must always choose the lesser of two weevils?" (link)
I don't necessarily find the idea of eating insects disgusting, but I also am not in a hurry to embrace this particular way of the future.
One traditional food in Japan which many small villages still partake in is eating bees. I tried it once, about 15 years ago. They were cooked in honey and other things so they tasted fine. But you'll notice I never tried it again.
Yeah, eating insects isn't so bad but I'm not rushing out to do it. I know what I know and it'll possibly save my life should I get into a situation where insect eating is required, but I'd rather pizza.
The food looks so delicious 🥹🥹
Yeah.
That looks really good🥹
Yeah.