(Hint: It's the Calories)
I hear a lot of ‘survivalists’ talk on and on about how we all need to learn to forage. I am actually in favor of knowing at least a little about foraging but the underlying directive that this will somehow nourish and save you if society collapses. And that’s wrong thinking. Why?
Because it’s about the calories first, not nutrients, in a collapse situation. If you are doing a lot of walking and other activities, you’ll need more calories, not less. Think about it, if you have to flee a city, odds are any gas in your vehicle will get used up and you won’t be able to fill it. So that means walking. Then there’s creating a shelter, building a fire and other activities. All of that will take calories, much more than what you consume now.
Let’s walk though foraging. Take one of my favorite forage foods, dandelions. I think dandelions are possibly the best forage food because 1) we all know what a dandelion looks like, 2) they grow when many other plants won’t, and 3) they grow just about everywhere.
Dandelions have a lot to offer. The flowers, leaves and roots are edible. But let’s just stick to the leaves. The leaves have loads of vitamins, especially vitamin K. Several needed minerals as well. One cup of chopped leaves will get you 31% of your daily requirement of vitamin A (carotenes), 357% vitamin K, 21% of vitamin C and a host of B vitamins.
But…. how many calories does that one cup of chopped leaves get you?
A whooping 25.
Yes, 25 calories and only 1.5 grams of protein. So for an adult, you’d to eat at least 50 cups for 1,250 calories a day and 75 grams of protein. Of course, that would be hard to source, a pain to eat if you could get that much. Now if you have a family, well, you’re going to be picking a lot of leaves.
Basically, there’s no green you are going to find that significantly beats dandelions in nutrition, protein and calories. Greens are not going to get you by.
But wait, what about native fruits? That’s a good question. Where I live, there are dewberries each spring. Dewberries will grow in a variety of conditions and can be invasive. If we stopped mowing and grazing, I’m pretty sure dewberries would take over. And with a dark purple berry, they provide a ton of antioxidants.
The downside of this is that where I live, the dewberry season is, at best, three weeks long. That’s it. And they are very thorny so harvesting them can take a bit of time. I know because I harvest them. And you’ll be competing with birds, rodents and snakes (yes snakes) for those berries. And, while they would make a nice addition to the dandelion greens you’d be getting sick of eating, they won’t be enough and aren’t around long.
I could go on but you get my point. Foraging won’t save you. Dandelion leaves would be eaten regularly by my family and I in tough conditions but as a supplement to our baseline food plan that is designed to provide a minimum of 2,500 calories and 100 grams of protein for a man and 1,850 calories and 75 grams of protein for a woman.
Read my other articles to find out my recommendations for thriving in tough times.