Posted: 7/7/2012 2:11:22 PM EDT
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Thought I'd start a thread on the most useful tools I've found for discretely and efficiently gathering and processing wild edibles.
First on the list should be *Knowledge* and *Practice* Anything written by Sam Thayer An accurate, scoped, suppressed .22 Fishing gear. Good quality, whatever's appropriate for your area. I like ultralight spinning rods with multi-filament lines. Nets. Specifically flag nets. Crawfish traps. Crawfish are everywhere, and they're delicious. Don't let those fish heads go to waste, use them for bait. 24 gauge brass wire or 26 gauge stainless steel fishing wire for snaring squirrels. 'Davebilt' nut and acorn cracker. Canoe. Most food is near water, and a canoe makes everything easier. |
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That list seems like a hunting equipment list.... But, a carpet knife is useful for getting roots, tubers, mushrooms, water plant roots, asparagus and other plants cut at the dirt line. (Note, I do not recommend foraging for mushrooms during SHTF.) I use one for weeding, and if you are bent over pulling out particular plants they are quite useful. It keeps the yanking to a minimum, and lets you cut stems nicely in heavy brush. or That, and gloves.
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sounds crazy but a decent small bucket and a belt.
If you are gathering nuts, picking berries, pulling ramps or whatever you always seem to be a hand short. One hand to grab the bramble and pull it toward you, one hand to pluck the fruit and one hand to hold the berry pail. Years of harvesting apples, blueberries and other fruits taught me that you can pick faster, with less effort and better results if both hands are free. So, a small bucket belted to your waist means you dont kick over your harvest, but stil have both hands for harvesting. Seriously, I can harvest about three times more fruit, acorns whatever in a given time frame if the bucket is attached to me Dumbass idea i know. try it before you write it off as stupid. Fro |
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Sam Thayer was a new one for me.
Had to Google that one... Sam Thayer |
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I have shelves of foraging books. His two are worth all the others combined. |
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Quoted:
I have shelves of foraging books. His two are worth all the others combined. Thanks for the book info. Good list. I would add a cast net and gill net. Cast net works great for crawdads by spreading it out in a pre-scoped-out spot because they come out at night/dusk. Lay out the net, let them cover it and pick it up. In a good spot, you'll have 50 of 'em. I like having some larger gage wire, too and stick with SS. Groundhogs are easy. I don't mess with rods/reels if I'm in food gathering mode. Trot line with several hooks on each line. (be informed that this, gill nets, snaring groundhogs etc is illegal in many places). If times get real tough, you can "coyote fish" with a wire, treble hook and hunk of meat. Learn to do twitch up snares for ground animals to get them out of reach of predators before you can claim your prize. Squirrels are nice in this regard because they hit the snare and fall off the limb and are already out of reach. |