Habitat with most odds off obtaining all your wild food needs in the U.K.

[Toddy]

Thanks for that and coming full circle to the topic it was once a good place to survive but harder now.

I think that's just pressure of numbers of people.
The re-planting has greatly increased biodiversity, and it gives a kind of refuge that flora and fauna can spread out from to re-colonise where they are not actively killed....weedkillers, etc.,

We no longer live a hunter/gatherer or even neolithic lifestyle....well, not in the main.

 

[Suffolkrafter]

You are right. Not many people mention it but people always have and continue to eat that stuff right up to today particularly in Asia. I had insect ice cream once and ate grasshoppers in Uganda. It is a good source of protein. I watched the locals catching them. They got a decent amount in not a lot of time. I have found and listed as many edible insects as I can for my bush craft folder. I could eat anything if it came to it except slugs.

I've eaten plenty of shop bought snails. Snails grilled with garlic butter are delicious. At least, the garlic butter is delicious. I've contemplated snails in my garden with a greedy eye but I've never taken the ultimate step. I'd struggle to chew on a slug though. Maybe if I stuffed one into an empty snail shell it might look more appetising.

 

[Poacherman]

In these sorts of discussions, people rarely mention insects, ants, ant eggs, earth worms, snails and slugs and so on, from a survival perspective. Admitidly, from the point of view of this thread, they are not really location specific. I'm one and a half series into Alone, and they barely feature there either. Is there any evidence of prehistoric people eating these? Or do they just not provide enough calories to be worthwhile?
I think I would also choose the coastal areas of East Anglia. Combination of wetlands, woodland, lakes and rivers and the sea.

Moths can range between 60% to 80% fat they feed on nectar n convert it to pure fat in there abdomen I doubt moths were ignored in summer.

 

[Poacherman]

If we're doubting legalities then round here there's plenty of sheep and cattle about the place to tuck into. Quite often wondering about my woods uninvited...

If you can beat the squirrels too them there's plenty of hazel nuts in the coastal valleys round here. Plenty of shellfish on our local beaches, but the pollution would prevent me from eating things like mussels. And pollution has killed most things in our local streams.

I do wonder what it would have been like 200 years ago around here. The streams were full of trout apparently and I do wonder how many fish could have been caught from the shore before overfishing. Even now you occasionally get shoals of mackerel so dense they can be grabbed from the shore and hundreds of sprats left on the shore so it could have been quite easy to catch dinner a few centuries ago.

Freshwater swan mussels are huge bigger than a hand sometimes and was fair game back then .

 

[ManFriday4]

The only way to survive successfully off the land is if the population is about 5% of what it is now. Nature's biomass needs to be far greater than that of human civilisation. Currently human civilisation is greater than the biomass of Nature.

 

[Herman30]

the native one was called a grice.

Interesting. Pig in swedish is gris. Pronounced like the country Greece.
Wonder if those two words have a common ancestry?!

 

[Toddy]

Interesting. Pig in swedish is gris. Pronounced like the country Greece.
Wonder if those two words have a common ancestry?!

I attended a European archaeological conference in Latvia. Did a talk and demonstration. It had a big focus on traditional crafts and had people from heritage centres from all over Europe. Mostly Northern Europe.

I found myself one wet day in the company of ladies from Sweden, from Denmark, from Norway and from Finland.
I looked at the weather and said, "Dreich"......and every one those ladies knew what I meant, and every one of those ladies had their own very similar word for that kind of weather.

I reckon that there's an underlying pan northern European language set that somehow transends national boundaries. It's the words of common things, like the grice, which is pronounced almost like greece, the words for the weather, like dreich and smirr, etc.,

 

[Nic 1084]

plus fatty ducks geese and fish in the estuary .

being a 'wildfowler' I often get to eat migratory ducks and geese. These are not the fatty farm reared tasteless stuff that you get from Tescos or Aldis. These have little to no fat, like many wild animals. In fact when cooking them you often add fat to increase the flavour and to stop the meat from drying out.

 

[Toddy]

being a 'wildfowler' I often get to eat migratory ducks and geese. These are not the fatty farm reared tasteless stuff that you get from Tescos or Aldis. These have little to no fat, like many wild animals. In fact when cooking them you often add fat to increase the flavour and to stop the meat from drying out.

Inuit ladies who used to make pouches and so on from bird skins, prepped the inner skin by chewing it. It's actually quite delicate work because they want the skin soft but not torn, and they want the feathers still in the skin.
Anyway, they said they got fat when they do a lot of bird skins. A lot of the fat in wildfowl isn't in the meat or around the organs, but literally just under the skin.

Most of us skin birds to cook them these days. If you're really hungry though; eviscerate it and wrap it up in grass and clay and bake it. If you have stuffing of some kind, fill the body cavity with it, that way any fat released will be absorbed and will add to your calorie count.
This is how folks used to cook hedgehogs too....which taste like pork. Not bacon, pork.

M

 

[Tengu]

Like chicken.

So Blackie turns down the chopped breast meat.

And gobbles up the skin.

(He is so spoiled).

 

[Toddy]

Yes, just so. But there's not a lot of meat on a wildfowl beyond the breast, so most folks just take those off without plucking the bird.
Even I do that.

 

[Broch]

It is interesting to compare the calorific value of foods with and without skin:

Duck - meat 123 kcal/100g - with skin 211 kcal
Pheasant - meat - 133 kcal/100g - with skin 181 kcal
Goose - meat 161 kcal/100g - with skin 371 kcal

If you've spent all that energy hunting it, you eat the skin

 

[TeeDee]

It is interesting to compare the calorific value of foods with and without skin:

Duck - meat 123 kcal/100g - with skin 211 kcal
Pheasant - meat - 133 kcal/100g - with skin 181 kcal
Goose - meat 161 kcal/100g - with skin 371 kcal

If you've spent all that energy hunting it, you eat the skin

Do you have details of calories from Organ meats as opposed to flesh?

Nutritionally organ meats knocks the spots of 'meat' but I wonder if there is any difference in calories?

 

[Toddy]

It is interesting to compare the calorific value of foods with and without skin:

Duck - meat 123 kcal/100g - with skin 211 kcal
Pheasant - meat - 133 kcal/100g - with skin 181 kcal
Goose - meat 161 kcal/100g - with skin 371 kcal

If you've spent all that energy hunting it, you eat the skin

Having plucked innumerable birds, I can atest though that that too takes energy.
I know you get quick at it, well, quarter an hour or so, but still, it's a missing part of the equation.

 

[Van-Wild]

Inuit ladies who used to make pouches and so on from bird skins, prepped the inner skin by chewing it. It's actually quite delicate work because they want the skin soft but not torn, and they want the feathers still in the skin.
Anyway, they said they got fat when they do a lot of bird skins. A lot of the fat in wildfowl isn't in the meat or around the organs, but literally just under the skin.

Most of us skin birds to cook them these days. If you're really hungry though; eviscerate it and wrap it up in grass and clay and bake it. If you have stuffing of some kind, fill the body cavity with it, that way any fat released will be absorbed and will add to your calorie count.
This is how folks used to cook hedgehogs too....which taste like pork. Not bacon, pork.

M

Interesting! . Usually when prepping a bird I'll use the 'poachers pluck' method, which leaves me with a nice clean breast. I'll then skin the legs and cut the feet off. Preparing a bird this way, I can get at the organs as well. I do like a stew done this way, usually with a pheasant.

It has made me think though @Toddy, in todays world, how would I go about cooking a bird using your method in the woods? For a pheasant I assume you would need a lot of mud and grass and a very long cooking time?

 

[Toddy]

Interesting! . Usually when prepping a bird I'll use the 'poachers pluck' method, which leaves me with a nice clean breast. I'll then skin the legs and cut the feet off. Preparing a bird this way, I can get at the organs as well. I do like a stew done this way, usually with a pheasant.

It has made me think though @Toddy, in todays world, how would I go about cooking a bird using your method in the woods? For a pheasant I assume you would need a lot of mud and grass and a very long cooking time?

It might surprise you how well it can cook like that. Last time I saw it done was at the Crannog centre. We had fish, a salmon, wrapped up the same way. It kind of bakes it and the clay (doesn't need to be full on clay, just clay rich soil, something you can mould around the grass or the bird) goes hard like a shell that keeps the heat, and the juices inside.
It was just done in the embers of the fire. We just put it in and got busy. The fish was opened up after about an hour. I mind that because there was a discussion about how one could put a full salmon into a sink and fill the sink around it with boiling water and just let it sit in that. It cooked through very quickly and was reckoned to be quicker than the grass and clay wrapped and fire baked method. The clay peeled off and the fish inside was pretty much falling off the bones.
I don't remember how long the bird was in the embers though; sorry. It was a busy day.
I know it was eaten at dinner time, but had been sitting in the cooled embers even after the fire went out.
My Dad did the hedgehog like that when I was very little. Long time ago, no one would eat a hedgepig now.

 

[Broch]

Do you have details of calories from Organ meats as opposed to flesh?

Nutritionally organ meats knocks the spots of 'meat' but I wonder if there is any difference in calories?

Typical values:

	per 100g	kcal	Fat g	Prot g
Lamb	Heart	129.5​	6.8​	17.1​
	Kidney	91.4​	2.6​	17.0​
	Liver	137.1​	6.2​	20.3​
Pig	Heart	97.3​	3.2​	17.7​
	Kidney	86.3​	2.7​	17.1​
	Liver	113.2​	3.1​	15.5​
Ox	Heart	104.3​	3.5​	21.3​
	Kidney	87.7​	2.1​	18.2​
	Liver	154.5​	7.8​	17.2​
Chicken	Liver	91.5​	2.3​	17.7​

 

[TeeDee]

Typical values:

	per 100g	kcal	Fat g	Prot g
Lamb	Heart	129.5​	6.8​	17.1​
	Kidney	91.4​	2.6​	17.0​
	Liver	137.1​	6.2​	20.3​
Pig	Heart	97.3​	3.2​	17.7​
	Kidney	86.3​	2.7​	17.1​
	Liver	113.2​	3.1​	15.5​
Ox	Heart	104.3​	3.5​	21.3​
	Kidney	87.7​	2.1​	18.2​
	Liver	154.5​	7.8​	17.2​
Chicken	Liver	91.5​	2.3​	17.7​

Liver for the win.

Ox liver is extremely nutritionally dense.

 

[Broch]

Having plucked innumerable birds, I can atest though that that too takes energy.
I know you get quick at it, well, quarter an hour or so, but still, it's a missing part of the equation.

I worked on a farm when I left school and we killed and plucked over 100 turkeys each Christmas; one learns to be efficient

 

[Toddy]

I worked on a farm when I left school and we killed and plucked over 100 turkeys each Christmas; one learns to be efficient

You know what I found to be a brilliant help ? Thin disposable latex gloves.
They fit close, they're just grippy enough to pull the feathers easily and make a clean job of it without leaving quills behind. I didn't find the vinyl ones to be as useful.

M