Bible says that a man lived on grasshoppers and honey.
Honey may be difficult to find in nature.
However, grasshoppers are common.
Man could live on wild plants and insects alone.
In the thread "How to dry and store food", I explained the basic way of drying food.
Insects and plants can be dried on room temperature if they are cut in small pieces and placed on a dry surface.
Now lets examine the food groups that humans can eat:
1) Nuts and acorns
2) Rose hip
3) Berries
4) Fruit
5) Wild edible green plants
6) Insects (spiders, grasshoppers, larvae, grubs, earthworms...)
7) Roots
8) Vegetables
9) Water vegetation, plants in water
10) Blossoms
11) Tree bark (cambium)
12) Bird's eggs
13) Flowers
14) Grains
15) Seeds
16) Tree leaves
17) Mushrooms and fungi
18) Fish
19) Animals (small, big)
20) Tree sap
21) Snails and slugs (must be cooked)
22) Lizards, invertebrates
23) Reptiles
24) Bees nectar
25) Buds
26) Seedlings
Nuts and acorns are high in calories, and so are berries and rose hips. Berries are easy to eat. Nuts can be stored for a long time, they dont require drying.
Fruit like cherries is easy to eat and chew.
You can grow fruit trees. I will make a thread about easy way to grow trees in combination with insect and slug farming.
Wild green edible plants are usually found plenty of in nature. In previous thread, I mentioned Stinging nettle and dandelion. I will make a thread that deals with wild edible plants specifically.
Another source of food are insects. Insects are easy to identify and its easy to remember which ones are edible.
Usually, there is plenty of insects around.
One can catch them by hand, but catching with net is faster. Insects like grasshoppers are sometimes found in great number.
Searching for roots can be useful. You must remember which plants have edible roots, then dig them up. You may find some insects while digging.
Vegetables are not often found in nature. However, a person can grow them if a person happens to have seeds. There are some vegetables, like carrots, that any idiot can grow. They will grow even if you dont give them much care. For this also, there will be thread that deals with farming.
Water vegetation and plants that grow in rivers can be used for food. These will be included in the wild edible greens thread.
Blossoms are low in calories and I wouldnt recommend eating them.
Tree cambium has some calories and trees with edible cambium are common. However, tree cambium should only be eaten in small amounts. Eating too much can cause constipation.
Bird's eggs are found at bird's nests. If you happen to see these, you can collect eggs from them.
Flowers are very low in calories and I would not recommend eating them or searching for them. There are exceptions, like dandelion and sunflower.
These will be included in the thread about wild edible greens.
Grains are not that common in nature. They are high in calories, but searching for them could be a waste of time. Same goes for seeds.
Tree leaves are very low in calories. Eating them wont give you much, even if you find the edible ones.
Mushrooms and fungi are poisonous. You should never eat them unless you can confirm its not poisonous.
Fish is where things get fun. For fishing, all that you need is silk, hook and bait. Having rod also helps. For bait, you can use insects. For rod, you can use any stick that wont break easily.
Fishing is simple to learn and useful in areas where there is lots of fish.
Other than this, there is spear fishing, but that takes lots of skill. If you will rely on it, make sure you have tried it before.
You can also try nets and traps, but I dont have much faith in these.
Hunting animals is easy if you have guns and bullets. If you dont, you might still run into animal's nests and eat small animals.
You could try making traps to catch animals. For this, it is recommended that you have lots of experience and proper tools.
Tree sap is low in calories. Eat it if you find it, but dont rely on it.
Snails and slugs are common. There is plenty of them. They need to be cooked and gutted. They can be farmed, and they will be included in tree farming thread. Since they are so common, it seems that cooking them and eating makes sense. They are not hard to collect, since they are so slow. Cutting down grass and placing grass on a pile will lure slugs to the pile. It will also lure earthworms and some other insects.
Lizards and invertebrates, and reptiles like snakes, can be cooked and eaten if you find them. However, snakes are usually rare and could be dangerous.
Buds and seedlings are low in nutrients. Seedlings can be farmed for consumption, but it is almost always better to grow plants to their maturity.
Bees nectar is good if you find the bees hive. However, you might get sting by the bees.
That completes our general food groups thread. Next, we will do basic tree farming in combination with insect and slug and wild edibles farming.
