Norwegian wild edibles?

[dump of the stig]

Ive had a mooch about online and done a search on hear and no joy,
anyone know a good resource for this, plants, roots, berries ect.
any help would be great!

 

[DavidJT]

I've only ever collected berries (lingon, and cloudberries etc), and Fungi (Chanterelles, Ceps etc). That and of course fishing!

I can recommend a good book available in English about wild food in Finland. Much of it will probably apply to Norway too. But the book is written from a gourmet recipe aspect - not so much about identification etc....

The Wild Herb Cookbook by Sami Tallberg

But I'm sure a local Norwegian will be along soon with some much better suggestions.

 

[Qwerty]

How good is your Norwegian?

http://naturtips.no/ville.htm

 

[Tor helge]

Just see what edibles there are in britain and subtract 90 percent of them and there you have it.

To be more serious; the question is where in Norway do you seek information on edibles. It is a huge difference between the south of the country and the north were I live.
There is however an ounce of truth in my first response. Many of the edibles here are probably the same as you already know, but fewer species. I don`t know if there are written any books about the subject (they would be in norwegian anyway), but I have a little section on my homepage (dare i blow my own trumpet) describing some of the edibles found in my part of Norway. Link; http://www.torbygjordet.com/foraging.html

 

[dump of the stig]

ill be up north, evenes way, thanks Tor ill take a look
edit....Great just taken a look, that's a perfect, easy understood guid, ill be making copys
of the ones I didn't recognise (a good few) cheers

 

[Fjellduken]

I've had a few survival courses in my army days, although a bit north from Evenes.
Tor's guide looks good from my experiences. Take note that most of the edibles are found at the shoreline, if I were in a survival situation I would head there. To forage in the forest is much harder and much less rewarding when counting calories.

The book/link mentioned in post 3 is excellent reading regarding bushcraft and foraging. I had the author as instructor at one course and learnt a lot.


If it was a real survival situation I would break into the nearest cabin, but that's probably not a viable alternative during training =)

Good luck to your journey.

 

[dump of the stig]

haha no I think breaking and entering is out! plan is to head to the fjords via 3 lakes that are joined up by a brook/river
each lake on the map appears to be surrounded by some flood plain (so im counting on this being very rich land)
the river and lakes I am told ar stacked with trout (fishing to be honest is my main interest on this one)
there is a few berries there I have not come across before, so it very handy info, good to get some roughage
and vitamins inside me, and ill at least be able to jazz up the mornings pancakes.
when I hit the coast it will be plain sailing (un-intentional pun sorry) ive lived round the coast all my life
and thats where my skill set lays, ill thrive there no worrys

 

[Fjellduken]

plan is to head to the fjords via 3 lakes that are joined up by a brook/river
each lake on the map appears to be surrounded by some flood plain (so im counting on this being very rich land)
the river and lakes I am told ar stacked with trout -)

Sounds like you are heading along Skoddebergvannet-Saltvannet towards Grov. If so I can offer som info on that area. I have a cabin nearby Skoddebergvannet - So no breaking and entering

Fjellduken

 

[dump of the stig]

no unfortunately not tho that sounds great, the final destination on the coast is Ostervik, ill be going via
Ostervikvatnet (austavikvatnet?) and 2 other lakes (tho I cant remember there names) directly north is
the E10 road, so with that and the river that connects the lakes navigation will be easy
I plan for August, but might be cutting it fine as my equipment list is growing and money is tight
but fingers crossed ill make it.

 

[dump of the stig]

How good is your Norwegian?

http://naturtips.no/ville.htm

about as good as my Japanese

 

[Tor helge]

The two lakes is probably Skallvatnet and Holmvatnet then?
The flood plain will be marsh and peat bog mainly.

 

[Bumbler]

The two lakes is probably Skallvatnet and Holmvatnet then?
The flood plain will be marsh and peat bog mainly.

I'll pick him up at the airport and dump him around there, and make sure he has a fishing license for Holmvatnet and Snubbavatnet (Østervikvatnet) + the rivers between the lakes and Snubbaelva down to the bridge.

Dump, with a little luck you'll find a lot of blueberry. Cloudberry too if we have a good summer. (may be to early). Lingon berry is not until september really. else mushrooms, chanterelle (just don't mix that one up with f.ex the deadly webcap that grows in the same area, then it's game over), birch bolette and penny buns should also be available by the plenty. Else, there is probably some nettles around huts and cabins. Appart from tghat, precious little I am afraid.

You could get luckky and find some Chaga for tea, and there should be some pine around there for pine needle tea.

If it was winter you could probably have gone to the estuary and picked some mussles as well. But in summer they are probably a bit dodgy but we can check the state of that when you arrive to see if they are safe. They turn deadly due to algae some times of the year.

Else there is the fishing. In the sea you can count on it. I gurantee that you will catch cod, haddock and coalfish there. And of course trout in the lakes and river.

 

[dump of the stig]

yeah it sounds awesome!, I swerve shrooms all together, I know a bit but know where near enough and
its just not a pretty way to go :-/
berrys and fish will do me just fine, rations will be a good bag of my patented trail mix and a good square
dehydrated meal a day, maybe some pancake mix for the morning, so I wont starve but ill need to pull
my finger out for a good scrounge about if I want to eat well which is always good motivation. Those
lakes and river are just screaming "fish meee, no fish meeee". So its bushcrafting in a lush environment
blissful days fishing and evenings watching the buschcraft TV (fire) sounds about perfect! you gana try
and get a days fishing in with me Viking? oh I got a nice bag of Chaga for you by way of thanks
oh PS only chaga if its as rare over there as it is here obviously.
The dump is getting dumped! very excited!

 

[Bumbler]

yeah it sounds awesome!, I swerve shrooms all together, I know a bit but know where near enough and
its just not a pretty way to go :-/
berrys and fish will do me just fine, rations will be a good bag of my patented trail mix and a good square
dehydrated meal a day, maybe some pancake mix for the morning, so I wont starve but ill need to pull
my finger out for a good scrounge about if I want to eat well which is always good motivation. Those
lakes and river are just screaming "fish meee, no fish meeee". So its bushcrafting in a lush environment
blissful days fishing and evenings watching the buschcraft TV (fire) sounds about perfect! you gana try
and get a days fishing in with me Viking? oh I got a nice bag of Chaga for you by way of thanks
oh PS only chaga if its as rare over there as it is here obviously.
The dump is getting dumped! very excited!

I think you'd better leave that chaga on your side of the pond. Customs officers don't like wild organic stuff crossing borders. An believe it or not, it's considerd a controlled substance here due to it's medicenal properties. And well...this is a birch forest...the whole coast is. I'll find chaga here. :vio:

And yes of course I'll go fishing with you for a day. You are my sole excuse to get out of SWMBO's clutches and get some fishing in that month, lol

Anyway, with all that fish, you could also bring some freeze dried mashed potatoes. They are light weight and fills the tummy nicely.
And I just might come visiting and bring you some local variety to your diet.

 

[dump of the stig]

haha thanks for the heads up about the Chaga, that could of been bad LOL.
yeah spud mash is great stuff, great you can come fishing, you can show me how the Norwegians do it .
In the sea would large rubber shads work, I seen some good stuff on you tube where guys are catching
good sized fish off the beach on them, insane fishing. I have a heavy ish carp rod, that will be sensitive
enough for the trout and also plenty of backbone for the heavier sea fish, if its not it will be a hell of a lot of fun
bringing in an angry cod with it anyway :-D

 

[Bumbler]

haha thanks for the heads up about the Chaga, that could of been bad LOL.
yeah spud mash is great stuff, great you can come fishing, you can show me how the Norwegians do it .
In the sea would large rubber shads work, I seen some good stuff on you tube where guys are catching
good sized fish off the beach on them, insane fishing. I have a heavy ish carp rod, that will be sensitive
enough for the trout and also plenty of backbone for the heavier sea fish, if its not it will be a hell of a lot of fun
bringing in an angry cod with it anyway :-D

Rubber shads will work fine. I use them a lot myself for sea fishing. Also I'll bring some freshly dug earth worms for you for the trout, and I also know of some places to dig for lug.
The last is not something we use here in Norway, but I've tried it and it works. Else mackerell and herring works very well as bait, specially combined with some prawns.

If you bring some heavy sinkers you could use bait as well and use the carp rod as a light beach caster.
A mate of mine targets halibut using that, but mostly gets cod
The ground here is quite rough, so make some gliding tackles. As simple as you can will do

There is a mark right in Bogen, which is excellent, deep water, plenty of fish. I got a 17lb wolf fish there last summer, plus plenty of haddock, cod and coal fish.
And thats only 3-4 km from the lakes.

So what we could do, is that I come and trout fish with you, string up my hammock and then in the morning we can do some shore fishing before I return to SWMBO, depending on the tide.
She loves sea food so that should soften her up

I also have a small SIB we could use (weather permitting, it's only 8 feet) for some deep sea fishing out on the fjord. I have a boat rod I can lend you for that, and those rubber shads you have should work fine for that.

I.e...plenty of opportunities.

Else a UL rod and some spinners might be a good idea. And bring your fishing flies too, and I'll show you how to fish them with your carp rod, if you don't already know.

Rune

 

[DavidJT]

I've mostly just fished the smaller trout in lakes - and would recommend a very light rod and some tiny (3 - 5g) meps in silver, gold or black.

I'm sure the worm will work too though of course!

Would love to get into a bit more of the sea fishing over there.

 

[Bumbler]

I've mostly just fished the smaller trout in lakes - and would recommend a very light rod and some tiny (3 - 5g) meps in silver, gold or black.

I'm sure the worm will work too though of course!

Would love to get into a bit more of the sea fishing over there.

Good advice that. I use a Shimano Beastmaster UL165. The rod is only 5,5 foot long, and can take lure weights from 1-7 grams and I use either Silver, bronze or black 3 gram (size "0") Blue Fox Vibrax spinners for trout. Or tasmanian devil lures, sometimes a 5 gram rapala wobler does the trick.

Another method that is deadly is to lob out 50 gram bomber floats like this with a salmon or bass rod. But Dumps carp rod should work fine as well.

on the terminal end of a 6-7 foot leader you put someting like this:

We simply call these a trout bomb...you can chuck them out 50-60 meters, then you reel in slowly...

 

[DavidJT]

Nice tips Bumbler.

Of course Stig if you really want to feed yourself there's always an otter board ("oterfisk") where allowed...

Have a look at this thread...

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40834

Not that "sporting" but if we are talking pure calories then it's a good option.

 

[dump of the stig]

im going for mepps, pretty much fail safe little spinners, not much will turn them down, and the plus
you can take off the treble hook and put 3ins of line on with a single hook and bait that with worm and just
twitch it over the bottom, killer
Ha yeah the "otter bourd" you know I never heard of that until researching Norway fishing, amazing!!!.
bumble we call thos controller floats this side of the pond, so do you bait that with the fly and twitch it
back in, or a floating worm? we sometimes inject a worm with a bit of air and let it wriggle on the
surface for chub and carp.