At Home in the Wilderness

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The best way to prepare meat for storage is to cut it into thin strips—a quarter-inch thick, an-inch wide, and as long as possible—taking care to remove as much fat as you can. Hang the ribbons on a makeshift drying rack or dead bush in an area exposed to direct sunlight, allowing them to cure until they crack when bent. The best storage spot for the finished jerky would be in the back of a cave or in some other cool, nonhumid area such as one of the leaf huts I described in MOTHER NO. 71 (page 58). A dry hole in the ground, lined with dried-out grasses and covered with a flat rock, is another good storage cache.

Small animals such as squirrels, chipmunks, and certain birds can be easily dried by simply cleaning, skinning, and opening up the carcass and then leaving it to dehydrate in the sun. After the meat is dry, the animal should be pounded with a rock in order to split the bones and expose the marrow, then left to sun-dry a second time (if this isn't done, the marrow will rot and spoil the meat).

Roots and tubers can be preserved for storage by slicing them very thin and allowing them to dry thoroughly on a flat rock placed in the sun. Herbs and other leafy vegetables should be bundled up and hung—root side uppermost—in a dry, shady place (such as the inside of your hut).

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Finally, and most important of all, remember that the best time to practice any survival skills—cooking, foraging, or whatever—is before you need them. When you're lost in the back country, cold, hungry, and probably more than a little bit scared, it is definitely the wrong time to be just learning how to stay alive. Wilderness living requires hard-earned knowledge . . . but even if you're never lost in the wilds, the rewards of mastering survival lore are substantial. By doing so, you'll not only build your self-confidence, but also increase your ability to enjoy and respect the natural world around you.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Remember, never eat any wild food that you're not totally familiar with. Use a good field guide—or "apprentice" yourself to an adept forager—to sharpen your identification skills.

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