Eating out Back of beyond
(Page 4 of 5)
We hunt deer, bear, grouse and duck. We also fish for cod,
flounder and salmon and dig clams. In the spring, summer
and fall we gather mushrooms. (Cream of morel soup is a
treat we look forward to and remember.) A very good book,
Guide to Common Mushrooms of British Columbia by
Robert J. Bandoni and Adam F. Szczawinski—published
by A. Sutton, September 1964—helps us identify edible
varieties. ( This work is out of print, but B.C.
residents might be able to find it in their local
libraries.—MOTHER.)
RELATED CONTENT
Wild greens are a regular part of our diet in the spring
and summer: sheep sorrel, wild onions, dandelion, cattail,
glasswort, sea plantain, wild mint, pigweed. (Did you know
that pigweed contains 27,000 units of vitamin A per
cupful?) We pick berries too—salal, huckleberries,
blackberries, wild currants—which I dry or can or
make into jam and jelly. We're assisted in our foraging by
another good book: Guide to Common Edible Plants of
British Columbia by Adam F. Szczawinski and George A.
Hardy, published by A. Sutton, August 1967. ( This also
is out of print.—MOTHER.)
Gardening and domestic animals (goats, chickens) can
provide excellent food to add to your supply. Cultivating
bushland is hard work, though. Our own clearing has a
foot-thick mat of salal roots beneath its entire surface.
This will have to be removed and the soil composted,
fertilized and otherwise babied. (Most of B.C.'s forest
floor is acidic and our patch will probably need a lot of
limestone and wood ashes.) Still, the hope of lettuce,
spinach and a store of winter vegetables makes all the hard
work seem worthwhile to us.
Now then, you've finally landed in the woods with all this
food . . . and potential sources of more through foraging,
hunting, fishing and gardening. You've got a wood stove and
have made friends with it. What can you fix to eat? Here
are some suggestions:
VARIOUS BREADS: Corn bread, bannock,
biscuits, onion bread, hot cross buns, cinnamon rolls . . .
to be eaten with jam, jelly, preserves or honey.
SANDWICHES: Your homemade whole-wheat
bread plus fish or meat (if you get some), peanut butter,
cheese, honey, jam, watercress or-in garden times-tomato.
SOUPS: Cream, vegetable, potato, onion,
clam or fish chowder, split pea, navy bean, lentil, tomato,
soy grit.
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