Finnish Wild Food Army Manual

[Martti]

"Luonnonmuonaohje" is a Finnish Defence Forces manual which was created based on several studies that the FDF and the Border Guards produced during the 1970s and 80s. The Defence Command produced also another set of manuals which explain the scientific background behind the wild food. These were published in 1979 under the title "Mahdollisuuksista tukeutua luonnonvaraisiin eläimiin ja kasveihin ravinnonlähteinä" or how to exploit animals and plants as food sources. They do not contain any really practical information as the manual now in question but contain many tables, compare different food storage techniques and so on. One of the more interesting studies in the study was that of exploiting pines for making "pettu". Pettu is the part of a pine's inner bark that can be used for human consumption. The study concluded that up to 1/10 of energy requirement can be satisfied by eating pettu and without any side effects.

To get back to the point, here is the link for the Luonnonmuonaohje. It is written in Finnish but much of the illustrations are self-explanatory but I will be happy to translate any part to English if needed. I urge you to start reading from page nineteen where different type of fishing hooks are explained. Page 22 on the other hand shows how to fish with a two-man net. From there on the manual continues to moose and bird hunting.

Happy readings!
Finnish Defence Forces - Luonnonmuonaohje

 

[RonW]

Thanks Martti!

 

[Steffen]

regarding pettu:
over here it was common for very poor people to scrape the inside of birch bark.
and use the scrapings instead of flour, when baking bread.
and from what i've been told, it has some nutrition, but not enough for a hard working lifestyle.

 

[Martti]

and from what i've been told, it has some nutrition, but not enough for a hard working lifestyle.

Accoring to the The Defence Command, a 100 g of dried pettu contains 332,5 kJ (81,8 kcal) of energy in June and 197,6 (47,2) in December. For comparison rye flour contains 1272 kJ (304 kcal) of energy.
Fineli.fi - Rye flour whole meal

 

[Husky]

There is a slight missunderstanding about the nutritional value of pine (inner)bark.
In the old days when the harvest went wrong and supplies would not last through winter, people would harvest the bark, grind it and mix with the flour to make it last longer. This bark harvested in the autumn did not have much nutritional value at all and you could starve to death eating barkbread. The thing is, it has to be harvested during spring when the sap is rising and the bark contains lots of carbs. Some Saami used this as a staple. Roasted it has a red colour and was eaten with milk much as we eat breakfast cerial. Today barkbread is even being promoted as having great health benefits but it is not the same stuff that killed people two hundred years ago.

And Martti beat me with the facts!
Thanks for the links.

 

[Toddy]

Excellent information thank you all for contributing to this

Martii, thank you for the translation offer much appreciated.

kind regards,
Toddy

 

[Radix lecti]

Great stuff Martii, like you said the pictures are self-explanatory. Thanks for sharing.

Darren

 

[Martti]

Updated the link to a working one in case someone is still interested of reading the manual.

 

[Janne]

There is a slight missunderstanding about the nutritional value of pine (inner)bark.
In the old days when the harvest went wrong and supplies would not last through winter, people would harvest the bark, grind it and mix with the flour to make it last longer. This bark harvested in the autumn did not have much nutritional value at all and you could starve to death eating barkbread. The thing is, it has to be harvested during spring when the sap is rising and the bark contains lots of carbs. Some Saami used this as a staple. Roasted it has a red colour and was eaten with milk much as we eat breakfast cerial. Today barkbread is even being promoted as having great health benefits but it is not the same stuff that killed people two hundred years ago.

And Martti beat me with the facts!
Thanks for the links.

Contemporary writing states that after a couple of weeks of eating bark bröd ( bark bread) most people were getting bloody diarrhea.
I know of one unit in the Swedish Army regiment K4, that ran an experiment for a few weeks winter -80/81 in arctic survival. Closely doctor supervised.
Boiling the inner bark of pine and birch was included. Also eating boiled ren lav ( reindeer moss?)
Stomach pains and diarrhea was a common problem.

Subseqvent Swedish Army survival books exclude the bark if I am not misstaken.