Prepping for Survival

Foraging for Carbohydrates

Foraging is important to -

• supplement food stores with fresh food
• if your food stores run out
• if you must be separated from your food stores because you need to be mobile

The most important ingredients in food are carbohydrates and fats, since these provide you with energy. So where can you find carbs and fats in the plant world?

Many plants store carbohydrates as starch - stored in their roots as tubers. Other plants store energy as sucrose in their fruits, or in their inner bark.

Carbohydrate Values of Plants

per cup -

1. Sugar Cane: 100g of carb
2. Flour: 95.4g of carb
3. Casava: 78.4g of carb
4. Rice: 53g of carb
5. Acorn Squash: 44.9g of carb
6. Sweet Potato: 41.2g of carb
7. Yam: 40g of carb
8. Lentils: 40g of carb
9. Black beans: 40g of carb
10. Chickpeas: 35g of carb
11. Quinoa: 34g of carbs
12. Tomato:28g of carb
13. Corn cob: 27.1g of carb
14. Oats:27g of carb
15. Potato: 26.2g of carb
16. Water Chestnut: 26g of carb
17. Pinto Beans: 25.6g of carbs
18. Parsnips: 22g of carbs
19. Kidney Beans: 22g of carb
20. Pumpkin: 20g of carb
21. Burdock root: 20g of carb
22. Yuccas: 18.87g of carbs
23. Butternut Squash: 16.3g of carb
24. Arrow Root: 16g of carb
25. Onion: 14.9g of carb
26. Artichokes: 14.9g of carb
27. Peas: 14g of carb
28. Celery root: 14g of carb
29. Leek: 12.9g of carb
30. Carrot: 12.3g of carb
31. Rurabaga: 12g of carb
32. Onion: 10g of carb
33. Beets: 9.2g of carb
34. Dandilion Root: 6.1g of carb
35. Cattail: 5g of carb
36. Fennel: 4.2g of carb
37. Tulip Bulb
38. Dahlia Bulb
39. Elm Tree inner bark: 20-25g of carb
40. Pine Tree inner bark: 20-25g of carb
41. Birch Tree inner bark: 20-25g of carb
42. Spruce Tree inner bark: 20-25g of carb

I have highlighted all the wild plants in bold. Casava (Hands down, the highest-carbohydrate veggie is cassava, a starchy root native to central and South America and Africa. One cup of cassava packs a whopping 78 grams of carbs and 328 calories.

The Bark of Trees

Trees rely on the passage of nutrients from roots to leaves, and the passage of sugars from leaves to roots. The transport of nutrients takes place in a layer of the bark called the phloem. Therefore this layer contains all the sugars and nutrients that feed the tree (and could feed you).

Fig 1. Layers of bark

When harvesting tree bark, please try to look for newly fallen tree branches, because taking the inner bark (phloem) from a tree will kill the tree if the bark is taken around the full circumference of the trunk. If newly fallen branches are not available then you could -

• cut down a branch and take the phloem from that, rather than taking it from the trunk. Taking from a branch, instead of the trunk, will not affect the health of the remainder of the tree.
• Take a long thin vertical section from the trunk, rather than a wide section. Confine your harvesting to 5% of the circumference, and choose a different tree each time.

The inner bark of the 4 trees listed above contains starch, sugars, vitamins, minerals, and fiber, providing approximately 80-100 kcal per 100 grams, making it a viable food source in emergencies. According to an entry in the Swedish wiki, flour made out of pine bark contains about 82kcal/100g, or 400 kcal/pound.

"The energy content of pine bark flour is 82 kcal (343 kJ) per 100g,[9] compared to 325 kcal (1359 kJ) of rye flour. [10]" Ref: sv.wikipedia.org

1g of carbohydrate is equivalent to 4000 calories (4 kcal), so 82kcal is equivalent to 20.5g carbohydrate. This means that pine bark has an equivalent carb value to pumpkin and burdock root, and is not far below the carb value of potatoes (26g).

Cut into small pieces with a knife or scissors, then use a manual grain grinder or manual coffee grinder to make it into a fine powder. It can be eaten as -

• a cereal with milk
• a porridge
• baked to make bread
• a soup with added veg
• sliced and fried to make tree-bacon

It furnishes you with as much carbohydrate as potato, and also many additional nutrients. It is very healthy, and most likely it will help with many illnesses.

• Inner Tree Bark as a winter source of carbs
• How to Make Birch Bark Flour
• Inner Tree Bark preparations for eating

Wild Plants as Sources of Carbs

1. Sugar Cane
2. Yam
3. Burdock root
4. Arrow root
5. Dandelion root
6. Cattail root
7. Elm inner bark
8. Pine inner bark
9. Birch inner bark
10. Spruce inner bark

Fig 2. Burdock in year 1 forming a floret on the ground.

Wild plants that store the most carbs in their roots, also have the biggest leaves. Burdock has huge heart shaped leaves. This makes sense because the large leaves boost photosynthesis - they gather alot of energy, so alot of energy is stored. Burdock can be identified by -

• Large heart shaped leaves
• Hollow stems
• Furry under-leaf texture

The best time to harvest burdock root is in autumn of the first year of growth - when the burdock forms a floret close to the ground - before it sprouts high in the second year

Cattails grow in watery environments such as ponds, riversides and marshes. Burdock grows in untilled areas, such as fields, meadows.

Scavenging Plants for Carbs

In a survival situation, where you are traveling through countryside, you might find various crop plants growing outside the boundaries of farms - due to overspill or plant migration. You should first identify regions where an abundance of a crop is grown. Inevitably there will be overflow. Overflow often results during transportation, when potatoes or grains fall from a lorry, and start sprouting along a roadside. Commonly occurring overflow occurs with -

• Potatoes
• Corn
• Sugar cane
• Yams
• Cassava
• Avocado

Or you might seek to offer your labour in return for some of the above. In Africa, this overspill occurs especially with yams and with sugar cane, which can often be found growing along road sides, and in forests near to farms.

Fruits as Sources of Carbs

Common fruits high in carbs are -

1. Mango: 50g
2. Pears: 27g
3. Bananas: 27g
4. Apples: 25g
5. Pinnapple: 22g
6. Avocados: 17g
7. Grapes: 16g
8. Blackberries: 14g
9. Strawberries: 12g
10. Oranges: 11g
11. Plums: 7.5g
12. Coconut: 7g

A banana, apple, or pear will give you twice the energy of an orange, and a mango will give you 4 x the energy. In Africa, some of these may grow wild, or outside of the boundaries of orchards or vineyards - in particular -

• Mango
• Banana
• Avocado
• Oranges
• Plums
• Blackberries
• Coconut
• Pinnapple

Or you might seek to offer your labour in return for some of the above.

Fruit	Measure	Weight	Cal	Carb	Prot	Fat
apple	1 medium	182 g	95	25	0.5	0.3
apricot	1 apricot	35 g	17	3.9	0.5	0.1
avocado	1 avocado	201 g	322	17	4	29
bananas	1 medium	118 g	105	27	1.3	0.4
blackberries	1 cup	144 g	62	14	2	0.7
blueberries	1 cup	148 g	85	21	1.1	0.5
cantaloupe	1 melon	552 g	186	45	4.6	1
cherries	1 cup	155 g	77	19	1.6	0.5
cranberries	1 cup	100 g	46	12.2	0.4	0.1
dates	1 date	24 g	66	18	0.4	0
grapefruit	1/2 fruit	123 g	52	13	0.9	0.2
grapes	1 cup	92 g	62	16	0.6	0.3
honeydew	1 cup	170 g	61	15	0.9	0.2
kiwi	1 fruit	69 g	42	10	0.8	0.4
lemon	1 fruit	58 g	17	5	0.6	0.2
lime	1 fruit	67 g	20	7	0.5	0.1
mandarin	1 fruit	75 g	40	10	0.6	0.2
mango	1 fruit	336 g	201	50	2.8	1.3
nectarine	1 fruit	142 g	63	15	1.5	0.5
oranges	1 fruit	96 g	45	11	0.9	0.1
peaches	1 fruit	150 g	59	14	1.4	0.4
pear	1 fruit	178 g	102	27	0.6	0.2
pineapple	1 cup	165 g	82	22	0.9	0.2
plums	1 fruit	66 g	30	7.5	0.5	0.2
pomegranate	1/2 C seeds	87 g	72	16	1.5	1
raspberries	1 cup	123 g	65	15	1.5	0.8
strawberries	1 cup	152 g	49	12	1	0.5
watermelon	1 cup	152 g	46	11	0.9	0.2

In the next installment, I will look at plants that provide fats. This will include avocadoes, nuts, seeds. Fats provide a big source of energy. Infact, whilst studying chemistry I learned that fats are a much more concentrated source of energy than carbohydrates.

The above info will need to be updated with -

• the times when these foods are available.
• location/habitat of each plant
• preparation of these plants for eating