I'm guilty of "hiding" as well. It's just for an easy life. I think lots of people don't share their activities with others if they think it's not going to be well accepted. (ie Gary and his re-enactments) I actually discovered that one of my friends also frequents BCUK but since then we don't really talk about bushcraft in front of other friends, or if we do it's said in a slightly cryptic way.
Stuart said:
can you imagine the day people ask you what you do as a passtime and you can say "bushcraft" with out having to explain what bushcraft is and then convince them your not a nutter
I'm sure one day it'll be widely accepted but not for a few years yet. I can't wait!!
I must say that the image of people being shocked by maddave
munching on a bush did make me smile.
In fairness it's not what you normally see - they probably thought there had been a breakout from the local asylum!
I think that a lot of people percieve all plants as poisonous. On the 15 minute walk to the shops I pass Dandelions, Hedge Garlic, Cleavers, Hawthorn, Birch, Beech, Red Dead Nettle - and those are only the ones that I know. I'm sure there's more!
I bet if i made a "normal" salad and wanted to make it look a bit more colourful by adding some dandelion flowers, most of my friends would either refuse to eat them or have convinced themselves that they don't like them before they do.
A lot of it's the way we're brought up.
It's like Gary's thread about the EC ruling on rabbits. Most people wouldn't even consider skinning their own.
In my house we eat a lot of poultry (curries, stir fries, etc). Chicken breasts are expensive compared to turkey so, as we're not too well off at the moment, we buy turkey steaks.
Now, I was in the supermarket at the weekend and I was getting more turkey when I noticed the whole chickens. The large ones were costing just over £4 for 2.25kg whereas 700g of turkey steaks are just under £3. I decided to buy a whole chicken and joint it myself - before that it wasn't somehting that I had ever considered before because we've always bought breast meat.
I managed to get 9 portions of chicken and 2 portions of stock for £4, compared to 4 portions of turkey for £3. (Admittedly I had to put in the time jointing it as well) Crazy! how many people do you know that would be prepared to joint there own chicken?
Sorry for going on a bit! :roll: