Tree bark as food?
- Thread starter Barkbat
- Start date
Birch. Pine.
But not the outer bark layer ( cambium), only the innermost layer ( phloem) is ( just) eatable.
Needs to be ground up and mixed with flour to make bread.
In Scandinavia this was common amongst the poorest country people during starvation years. The last time this happened was 150 years ago.
But it has been written down that eating this bread will irritate your bowers so much that you get bloody stools.
Note that eating mushrooms/ funghi was unknown in both Norway and Sweden. In Finland, with the Russian influenced culture, the people survived the bad years relatively well by eating fungi.
The Same people did something similar as standard.
But not the outer bark layer ( cambium), only the innermost layer ( phloem) is ( just) eatable.
Needs to be ground up and mixed with flour to make bread.
In Scandinavia this was common amongst the poorest country people during starvation years. The last time this happened was 150 years ago.
But it has been written down that eating this bread will irritate your bowers so much that you get bloody stools.
Note that eating mushrooms/ funghi was unknown in both Norway and Sweden. In Finland, with the Russian influenced culture, the people survived the bad years relatively well by eating fungi.
The Same people did something similar as standard.
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Janne, you're close.
The fleshy cambium layer is what you eat. Eventually the cell division products dfferentiate as secondary phloem to the outside, secondary xylem to the inside.
Only in spring is cell division active enough to produce something which can be considered edible.
The down side is that harvesting permanently kills at least this part of the tree. Branches, less so.
The process requires stripping the bark and scraping off the edible sloppy mush.
Not something that I would ever consider as a staple, let alone try to dry and pulverize to make some bready thing.
But as Janne points out, in starvation years, so be it.
The fleshy cambium layer is what you eat. Eventually the cell division products dfferentiate as secondary phloem to the outside, secondary xylem to the inside.
Only in spring is cell division active enough to produce something which can be considered edible.
The down side is that harvesting permanently kills at least this part of the tree. Branches, less so.
The process requires stripping the bark and scraping off the edible sloppy mush.
Not something that I would ever consider as a staple, let alone try to dry and pulverize to make some bready thing.
But as Janne points out, in starvation years, so be it.
As you read, botany is not my strength.
I guess it is the sugar containing sap that is the important bit?
When I read about that bread, I never understood why they not just boil it snd drink the juice. It must be the very coarse dried fibers that irritate the mucosa in the bowel.
I guess it is the sugar containing sap that is the important bit?
When I read about that bread, I never understood why they not just boil it snd drink the juice. It must be the very coarse dried fibers that irritate the mucosa in the bowel.
In rapid spring growth, the cambium is a layer 5-20 cells thick, growing and dividing like crazy.
The cell contents, the super-thin cells walls, would all contribute to something edible.
BUT it would be of similar substance to the placental fiber network suspending the seeds in a pumpkin.
I can't see it as anything less that an exercise in desperation for survival.
I salt and roast pumpkin seed every Hallowe'en as a treat. The sloppy placental tissue among the seeds
withers away to nothing at 350F. I bake the pumpkin (scored, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon) to eat.
The cell contents, the super-thin cells walls, would all contribute to something edible.
BUT it would be of similar substance to the placental fiber network suspending the seeds in a pumpkin.
I can't see it as anything less that an exercise in desperation for survival.
I salt and roast pumpkin seed every Hallowe'en as a treat. The sloppy placental tissue among the seeds
withers away to nothing at 350F. I bake the pumpkin (scored, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon) to eat.
If you take off the bark, remove the outer layer, the inedible bit, and roast/toast the inner layer, it can be ground into flour on it's own.
We are "The Cooking Ape". By cooking the bark this way, then grinding it, it makes it much more digestible and nutritious…..and it doesn't screw up the bowels the same way either. It makes flour rather than sawdust if roasted first.
It's basically one of the old 'famine foods'. Not something you'd go out of your way to eat in any quantity unless of necessity.
It's an energy balance thing again though. If it costs more to extract than you gain from ingesting it, it's not worth it.
In Springtime, when the tree is pre-bud break, but obviously warming up to it, then's the time when the inner bark is sweetest. It's also the hardest time of year in some ways. Nothing is plentiful after Winter, and the late Spring/early Summer growth hasn't come on yet. So, the bark was a fill in to the seasonal round.
M
We are "The Cooking Ape". By cooking the bark this way, then grinding it, it makes it much more digestible and nutritious…..and it doesn't screw up the bowels the same way either. It makes flour rather than sawdust if roasted first.
It's basically one of the old 'famine foods'. Not something you'd go out of your way to eat in any quantity unless of necessity.
It's an energy balance thing again though. If it costs more to extract than you gain from ingesting it, it's not worth it.
In Springtime, when the tree is pre-bud break, but obviously warming up to it, then's the time when the inner bark is sweetest. It's also the hardest time of year in some ways. Nothing is plentiful after Winter, and the late Spring/early Summer growth hasn't come on yet. So, the bark was a fill in to the seasonal round.
M
