Not sure if this should go in /nom/ or here, but... what do you find in your garden that you didn't put there but which is none the less edible? Nettles and dandelion came up before, but are there other treasures just waiting to be picked?
Picture hopefully not related until >>1091 happens.
As far as I know only stag beetle grubs are worth hunting much for while as far as insects go (unless you're just grabbing anything but if you spend an hour to get an ant or two you end up burning more in the hunt than you eat). Of course you'd need the stomach to eat them and dead rotting wood in your garden (and a countryside location to encourage them to it to lay eggs, I'd imagine). I'd rather pick mushrooms or wild onion/garlic. Both tend to crop up in a lot of places (the former being able to cling to any patch of dirt here in some form or another and the latter being considered a weed by many).
There are roots and other wild plants (I have to consult the book pile to know them, to be honest). Pine needles can give you vitamin C, I believe. You have to boil them and drink the brew. Probably taste nasty, but nasty tea is better than bleeding fingernails and teeth falling out or similar.
>>1111 This is getting a bit more relevant: >>/nom/4562 . It's not a matter of life and death, but could make a real difference. Setting is a "large" rural town (~11k people). There's no forest near by (though I could hike to one), but plenty of field and pasture areas.
Oh, and there's no way in hell you'll feed 11,000 on the odd grub or root around the town. Things like that would just be extras for a community already well-settled or practiced in survival. For someone thrust into it suddenly you'd probably not find enough to make up for the energy lost hunting them, even assuming there was enough to go around or only that person on their own somehow.
Dandelions, Rose hips, Pine needles - either useful for normal eating or can be used simply to get vitamins (something you might find hard when things go wrong and fresh fruit or animal organ meat isn't in high supply).
>>1235 > Rose hips, Pine needles
Thanks, that's exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for! Rose hips I can identify fine. Pines I wasn't so sure about, but found a thread elsewhere (http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/topic/19985/) with some more details which was reassuring: apparently, if it has needles and isn't yew, it's probably not poisonous.
You'd know a yew tree after seeing one once and there's sadly not so many about. Completely different to the firs you see more commonly, thankfully. You'll never accidently collect from one of those unless you're seriously out of it.
Vitamins will be one of the biggest concerns in a medium-long term survival situation as "empty" calories only take you so far and vitamins are hard to store in the body or out. Knowing that common plants can get you these in a pinch (even if they aren't always too pleasant) is handy.
Rose hips are used in a few commerical products, mind. Booze, I believe.
>>1242 Mmm, I know what a yew looks like (well, as long as there are berries on it, anyway). As it happens, there is a rather large one nearby, but it's out of reach anyway. The flesh of the berries is apparently edible, but there's no reason to chance it yet.
Anyway, did my "scouting mission" along one of the pastures here. Seems it's a bit early for easy stuff: There's a hazelnut tree with hopelessly green fruits so far, a plumb tree with fruits already blue-ish, but which still have that strong dry-mouth flavour of being unripe, and finally a fair few sloe trees (same problem. I know they never really get sweet, but in their current state they're clearly still unripe). It seems a bit early for rose hips as well: there were a few shrubs, but the fruits were still green... except for a semi-ornamental one along one of the paths which had a few ripe ones (pic related).
There's also an apple tree with a branch overhanging a public path (cue pun about low hanging fruit). I may be naughty and go scrumping later.
On the upside, the was a lone small gooseberry bush with a handful of tiny but ripe berries on it.
I've heard that one can make rowan berries into a jam; while jam-making is going to be difficult in anything remotely apocalyptic, I assume that the berries themselves are of some worth.
Also, when one reads a book, what is meant by 'edible' in free food books? Not poisonous? Can be digested to good effect?
Old fashioned jam making can be done with rather primative equipment and no electricity (although certainly modern vaccumm systems with all the bells and whistles are great). People used to do it even in the home, such as inner city tenements with only gas lighting and coal fires. The main thing is keeping clean and a source of heat when preserving food.
If you wanted to prepare for hardship or disasters then starting to get the hang of home preserving through such jars would be handy. It was a way of helping get through tough times in previous economic struggles. Stocking up on empty jars and extra lids is something I know a few people have been doing. Comes in handy for when you bag a pile of food and can't use it up or want to put some away for winter or leaner times (seasonal fruit/vegetables/mushrooms/large carcasses). Can also be kept to give away and trade.
Fatty things are hard to keep without freezers and home canning/jar preserving is the next best thing for the individual.
Anything you plan to use like that should be read up on and practiced before you need it. Canning/jar preserving can go very wrong and food poisoning or the jars blowing is a risk if you go wrong, especially if you don't keep things clean (in the past you could sometimes see a can gone bad by it swelling up and pushing out the sides and tops with the gas pressure build up inside from the rotting and bacteria, very nasty stuff but canning has got better and better over time, it seems).
"Edible" is usually accepted to simply mean safe to eat. Naturally you'll also want to know what nutrition and how much you'll get from it. Edible rice paper is safe to eat, but you can't live on it. You could get lots of calories from something but no protein or salt or vitamins, etc. Without any information on that you can only guess.
>>1258 The main issue with jam-making, so far as I could see, would be getting sugar; it's not hugely abundant. So far as preserving goes, one might be limited to some crude pickling, in vinegar.