Having a Bug for a Dinner Guest

As you may suspect, there are many ways of preparing and cooking food procured in the wild. Often, we get lucky and bag a rabbit, or perhaps a squirrel. Yep, I know all about making Apache foot snares (often used for deer), and huge figure four traps, but let’s be honest here, the odds are remote that you will feed on venison or bear in a survival situation. Most game procured will be small game, unless you have a gun along. If you have a gun and lots of game in the area, then this article isn’t for you. Most of us will have to settle for less for dinner.

When we enter “nature’s supermarket,” most of us may be lost in more ways than one. The foods we are used to seeing just aren’t there. Or, at least they don’t look the same way we would expect them look. Keep in mind, many of the foods we now purchase were once, and may still be, wild in the woods. What do you know about vegetables? Do you know that certain vegetables grow under ground and some on top of the ground? Nonetheless, many folks have no idea what is eatable and what isn’t once they leave the house.

I suggest you do some research and find out as much about wilderness food procurement as you can. There are many good books out there and lots of great web sites on wild foods. I also recommend that you buy and carry a good survival manual, the USAF Aircrew Survival Pamphlet, SAS Survival Guide, or my book. All of these publications have information on how to identify poisonous and non-poisonous plants. And, since it is very likely that the most common things in the bush will supply a large portion of our “wilderness diet,” let’s look at wilderness food sources a little closer.

If it is not winter, you may be able to rustle up a nice meal of insects. They are usually out in abundance and all we have to do is gather them up. What? You don’t like the idea of eating bugs? Common sense tells us that insects are usually there, we are hungry, so, why not get together for a meal? Now, I have to admit, bugs aren’t my favorite meal, but they can help keep you alive.