Has anybody eaten this from sheer natural curiosity ? It contains a third more calories than honey or corn flakes apperently people have survived off it for months.
All sources online say it’s high in calories Wikipedia claims higher than honey but tbh wikepedia isn’t a trusted source info there’s a crag near me with a tonne off the stuff so I was Just curious .I think that's apocryphal.
It's an occasional famine food, it's a delicacy in the far east, it's a dye here, and it weighs almost nothing, so even if it is more calorifically heavy than cornflakes....( honey ? I really doubt that, honey is almost pure sugar, 82g per 100g of honey ).....you can't get more out than it contains.
Think of it more as an enriched seaweed.
There's a reason we grow sugar beet in this country, and not rock tripe lichen, put it that way.
It's one of those 'survival' food rations that is touted and the word spread about and the reality is that you'd have to be damned hungry to try it, hungry like folks boiling up old leather to soften it to eat, hungry.
It doesn't grow in enough quantity to be cropped beyond being a 'delicacy'. I seriously doubt that the energy expended in collecting it is more than that gained from the plant.
We're not reindeer. Better let them eat it and folk eat them instead.
Have I tried it ? yes, not very appealling, didn't really taste sweet tbh, and I ended up using it in a dyebath instead
research it on the web there’s all sorts written about itWhat are the other sources of information?
I looked. Most sources seem to say it’s a famine food and only Britanica makes a claim about it being high in calories ‘It contains about one-third more calories than equal amounts of honey, corn flakes, or hominy’ - not sure what their source is or if they are comparing it weight for weight, volume - or indeed just made it up!All sources online say it’s high in calories Wikipedia claims higher than honey but tbh wikepedia isn’t a trusted source info there’s a crag near me with a tonne off the stuff so I was Just curious .
It does look rank but beggars carnt be choosers in a emergency .I looked. Most sources seem to say it’s a famine food and only Britanica makes a claim about it being high in calories ‘It contains about one-third more calories than equal amounts of honey, corn flakes, or hominy’ - not sure what their source is or if they are comparing it weight for weight, volume - or indeed just made it up!
Either way it looks rank.