The following articles were gathered bit by bits from the Net. Lets's hope "Es-Perron_le" that they will be good info for you. TITLES OF WHAT IS HERE BELOW: 47 Pages 1: REHYDRATION SALTS 2: NUCLEAR FALL OUT MEDICINE: Subject: POTASSIUM IODIDE 3: HOW TO SURVIVE This information is for long term survival in event of economic or natural disaster, even long-term unemployment. Hopefully you will find this information beneficial, or at least interesting. 4: SAS SURVIVAL KNIFE FROM AUSTRALIA DOWN UNDER 5: FORAGING FOR FUN OR MONEY & SURVIVAL FOOD by Nancy Bubel A while back you were looking for the series of articles I had from Country Journal magazine. I've located four articles in that series. FINE FORAGING: by Nancy Bubel Here are some of the titles covered: EARLY SPRING / MARCH: / WINTER CRESS / DANDELION / APRIL / ASPARAGUS / CATTAILS / MORELS ( mushrooms the best) / SOME PRACTICAL HINTS FOR GETTING THE GOOD STUFF / LATE SPRING / VIOLETS / SHAGGY MANES / JUNE / STRAWBERRIES / FORAGING FOR PROFIT / JULY / LINDEN FLOWERS / DAYLILIES / BLACKBERRIES / RASPBERRIES / BLACK RASPBERRIES / WINEBERRIES / PUFFBALLS / AUGUST / MULBERRIES / ELDERBERRIES / MAY APPLES / Violet Candy Dandelion Wine / Winter Cress Au Gratin / Daylily Fritters / Red Raspberry Chewy / FALL / SEPTEMBER / GROUND CHERRIES / MEADOW MUSHROOMS / HAZELNUTS BLACK WALNUTS / HICKORY NUTS / OCTOBER / PAPAWS / NOVEMBER / OYSTER MUSHROOMS / PERSIMMONS / REFERENCE BOOKS / 6: ENVIRONMENTAL COOKBOOKS COMBINES THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS 7: SURVIVAL KNIFES 8: SAFE-PACKS SURVIVAL PACKS ??? 9: TO BY-PASS OR NOT TO BY-PASS? Noted Anesthesiologist Reveals Needless Heart Operations 10: EMERGENCY TRANSMISSION DEVICE ONLY SPARK GAP TRANSMITTER 11: PRIMITIVE MEDICINE Subject: US ARMY SF Primitive Medicine US ARMY SPECIAL FORCES MEDICAL HANDBOOK SEPTEMBER 1982 22-1. GENERAL. 22-2 Primitive treatments. DIARRHOEA: b. WORMS AND INTESTINAL PARASITES: c. SORE THROATS: d. SKIN INFECTIONS: e. BURNS: f. LEECHES AND TICKS: g. BEE, WASP, & HORNET STINGS. h. CHIGGERS: 22-3 MAGGOT THERAPY FOR WOUND DEBRIDEMENT 22-4 SUMMARY. 12: DIARRHOEA 13: INTERNAL FRAME PACK 14: FIRST THINGS TO DO IF LOST IN THE DESERT 15: GLOVE OVENS. THEY DO FOR YOUR HANDS WHAT A SKI JACKET DOES FOR YOUR BODY 16: NEW PRODUCT TO SHED A LIGHT (LECTRA LITE) 17: WALKING STAFF: For those who know the need of a walking staff I suggest you to check that site, its quite a good surprise & no paid advertising. 18: LIVING UNDERGROUND & ITS ADVANTAGES (Ask any bear?) Political Correctness: a marketing term for mind control. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ REHYDRATION SALTS Date: Tue, 02 Jan 1996 03:01:33 From: danagain@gnn.com (Dan Hoff) To: richard@io.org Subject: rehydration salts Rehydration salts are useful for counteracting the effects of body fluid loss,(and reduce the possibility of shock) due to heavy bleeding, flu, cholera, severe burns, etc. following are three lists of ingredients world health organization recipe for rehydration salts, glucose 20 grams = 1 1/2 tsp honey or corn syrup sodium chloride 3.5 grams = 1/2 tsp salt sodium bicarbonate 2.5 grams = 1/2 tsp baking soda potassium chloride 1.5 grams = 1/4 tsp or 2 cups orange, apple juice dissolve this in one litre of water (from "Far from help, back country medical care", , I highly recommend this manual, it can be ordered from any bookstore using ISBN # 0-938567-26-8 @14.95) From "the family doctor III" on CD-ROM: You can prepare your own (rehydration) solution by following this recipe exactly: 1 quart of water; 3/4 teaspoon salt substitute (potassium chloride) 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 3 tablespoons white corn syrup (Karo syrup) 1 packet of unsweetened powdered drink mix, or concentrated fruit juice to taste. This will provide the exact electrolyte requirements in the right concentration. The recommended intake is about 2 quarts of liquid a day or up to 3 quarts if a fever and sweating is also present. These are the ingredients on a commercially purchased rehydration salts. Container sodium chloride 3.5g ( salt) potassium chloride 1.5g (used in the salt substitutes) trisodium citrate dihydrate 2.9g glucose anhydrous 20.0g (dry monosaccharide sugar dextrose, fructose-used in canning) Dissolve this in one litre of water. To be taken orally Infants-over a 24 hour period Children-over an 8-24 hour period According to age or as otherwise directed under medical supervision. Caution: do not boil solution (two packages are included so that one can fill the international standard 2 litre coke bottle) Manufacturer: jianas bros. packaging Kansas city Missouri USA Notice that quarts & litres are almost the same amount of liquid These are ideas for small packages of baking soda and Epsom salts with accompanying instructions. Acid burns for eyes: Sodium bicarbonate contents: one teaspoonful Make a weak solution by mixing contents in 1 qt. water wash eye by pouring solution from inner corner of eye, outward , holding the eyelid open For poisoning by mouth: Epsom salts: contains: 1 tablespoon Use as a purgative Mix contents in glass of sweet liquid Full amount for adults- less for children @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ NUCLEAR FALL OUT MEDICINE: Subject: POTASSIUM IODIDE On reading the information on nuclear survival there was no mention of potassium iodide, a brand name is "thyro-block" this material jams the thyroid full of iodine, so that radioactive iodine is not absorbed from the fallout. This is crucial to long term survival, without it the radioactive iodine causes the thyroid to become cancerous. i have heard that this material is routinely given to folks that live close to nuke power plants to have on hand, it was given to folks around Chernobyl. It is critical that this stuff be ingested as soon as possible with exposure to radiation. It is also fairly cheap, (<@3/ bottle) and it stores well. but the only place that I have found it available is at Nitro-pak preparedness centre, 800-866-4876, they sell seven bottles for $16.95, item #4501, *** HOW TO SURVIVE *** This information is for long term survival in event of economic or natural disaster, even long-term unemployment. Hopefully you will find this information beneficial, or at least interesting. Please feel free to redistribute this information. Individual security enhances group security. To me this is like fire insurance for the house, I sure don't want or intend to use it, but what if one has a fire and no insurance.... And I don't want to be without a job with nothing to eat. And like fire insurance if it never gets used so much the better, it is not that much money, and I sleep like a baby. What I suggest is storing food and junk silver coins. I have done some research and have had practical experience with long term food storage. It can be done very inexpensively. CONTAINERS What has evolved in my house is storage of grains and legumes in frosting buckets that are available from local donut shops or grocery store bakeries or delicatessens. Obtain buckets in 1 to 5 gallon sizes. Avoid pickle buckets from Mickey D's, unless you like the smell and taste of pickles. Two or three litre soft drink bottles also work well if dried out properly. Filled bottles can be put in the freezer overnight to kill bugs. One advantage is that the bottles are small, so if one gets an infestation, it doesn't need to spoil a large amount of food. And they are easily available, airtight and cheap. Plastic bag storage in garbage cans is not good. The bags -- unless specifically food storage bags -- have additives that will leach into the food. And the loose-fitting bag tops and can lids offer little protection against insects. CONTENTS As for the contents, we store mostly grains. Whole grains keep much better than cracked grains or flour. We buy the grain from the local food co-op for around @25.00 a hundred pounds. However, we try to support the local farmer whenever possible. Grain purchased directly from farmers and farm co-ops will be contaminate with small stones, dirt, insects, et cetera, and will have to be cleaned by hand before grinding. Grain bought through food co-ops will have been cleaned, thus cost more, but will save you considerable preparation time. It happens that in this area, the Midwest, what is grown mostly is corn, soft wheat, and soy beans. More useful is hard wheat, oats, corn, barley, popcorn, and varieties of beans. Wheat varieties are: Hard wheat - Durum - Flour is used in the manufacture of Macaroni, Spaghetti, and similar pasta products. Winter & Spring hard wheats - Highest in protein and contain a high percentage of Gluten, and are used to make quality yeast breads, hard roles, and fine cakes. White - soft wheat - Flour is preferred for pie crust, flat breads, biscuits, cakes, pastries, crackers, noodles, & breakfast foods. Some common bean varieties are: Pinto Bean; Lima, Baby & Fordhook; Kidney; Navy; Black; Northern; Black-eyed; Butter; Blackeyed; Small white; Kidney; Cranberry Bean; Pink Bean; Small Red Bean; Pea Beans; Etc. Other legumes are: Green Split Peas; Garbanzo; Pearl Barley; Yellow Split Peas; Lentils; Carob; Cowpea; Chickpeas; Etc. FILLING CONTAINERS So now you have the buckets, and they are sparkling clean, and the grain is in hand. There is one more thing when the wheat, or whatever, is put in the buckets; put a hunk of dry ice in with it (but not quite at the bottom) and put the lid on. The bucket will swell a little as the carbon dioxide leaks out. Only one ever blew the lid off for me & it wasn't very exciting, more of a pop. The addition of dry ice offers several advantages, one is that if there are any bugs in the grain they are goners. Another advantage is that food keeps better in the absence of oxygen. And for beans especially this is very important, because the proteins in beans will be oxidized by oxygen and then they won't ever cook. Where does one get dry ice you may ask? Truck stops often have it. Check in the yellow pages. Usually what I do is get a bunch of buckets filled, then open them up and push a piece of dry ice about the size of a walnut down near the bottom. For two litre bottles, I use a pencil -sized piece of dry ice about two inches long. Filled two litre bottles can be kept in a freezer instead of dry ice. A little warning, use heavy gloves when handling dry ice, it can very easily blister your skin. And always work in a well ventilated area (one can be overcome with the gas). Store the buckets at room temperature, and don't stack the buckets over four or five tall because the material is heavy and the bottom bucket can buckle. AMOUNTS Store one pound dry food per person per day minimum, in the ratio of two pounds grain to one pound beans. So, if one wants a years supply of food one needs say 250 pounds of grain and 120 pounds of beans per person. This will cost approximately @70.00 for the grain and maybe another @70.00 for the beans; plus another few bucks in dry ice and buckets, and you have something to eat for @150.00 per person per year or so. This grain is not gourmet and is not even a complete diet, but it will keep one alive. It is also assumed that one will supplement this diet with fresh or canned vegetables and fruits. These can also be provided for with a dehydrator, but that is another story entirely. Of course, this stuff is available from a survival food place but it is horrendously expensive and they do basically the same thing but use cheaper nitrogen gas. I try to store the food that has the greatest shelf life. INDEFINITE SHELF LIFE 7-8 YEAR SHELF LIFE Popcorn; White & Yellow Flour, White White Rice Flour, Whole Wheat Wheat; Soft & Hard Cracked Wheat Lentils, all types Rolled Oats Split Peas, all types Cornmeal Beans, all types Corn, Rye, Oats 3 YEAR SHELF LIFE Barley, Millet Brown Rice Survival food can be purchased at places often located in Utah because the Mormons believe in storing a years supply of food. They also believe is storing a quantity of salt. GRINDING A hand operated mill must be part of the deal. Grain can be ground with two rocks, but a hand mill is far more useful and expedient. For around @130.00 a Bell hand powered grist mill #2 is available from the manufacturer in Ohio: C. S. Bell Company P. O. Box # 291 Tiffin, Ohio 44883 Phone (419) 448- 0791 Check health food stores and the adds in magazine like Mother Earth News for other grinders. Also one of those plastic bucket-opening tools is a good idea too obtain (around @10.00). @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ SAS SURVIVAL KNIFE FROM AUSTRALIA DOWN UNDER From: ffl@skywalker.ebay.sun.com (Frank Lindquist) Newsgroups: misc.survivalism Subject: Australian SAS Survival Kit Date: 17 Nov 1995 20:38:12 GMT For those interested, Tactical_Knives_ magazine did an article about an Australian SAS Breast Pocket Survival Kit and the small knife in it .... This is a very compact kit, slightly larger than the Altoids Peppermint metal boxes ... made for desert & semi-arid climates Contents listed for what its worth. The Survival Kit Mark III contains: P/S: everything is kit is small and simple; knife, compass, etc. Lighter Compass knife plastic mirror tweezers hacksaw blade plastic bags needle fishing line fishing hooks brass swivel sinkers trace wire stock cubes cord tea bag glucose tablet instruction sheet puritabs Condy's Crystals (an antiseptic) Band-Aids scalpel blade paracetamol tablets (pain pills) alcohol swab / pencil plastic container for kit & canvas tape for sealing kit & later field use The inventor of the Kit, Bob Cooper, has an "ABCs to Survival" : A. Accept the situation B. Brew up a cup of tea C. Consider all possibilities D. Decide on a Plan E. Execute your Plan @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ FORAGING FOR FUN OR MONEY AND SURVIVAL FOOD From: Paul MacGregor #0 @9:2500/300 via 1:3634/38 SURVNet Re: foraging A while back you were looking for the series of articles I had from Country Journal magazine. I've located four articles in that series. Here they are in order .... FINE FORAGING: EARLY SPRING by Nancy Bubel First in a series on finding and preparing the best outdoor edibles of the season. (Country Journal // March/April 1991) Beyond packaged store foods, beyond farm markets, beyond even home garden produce, there is a great bounty of food growing all around us. Original food, you might call it. Wild food. It's there in the woods, along the hedgerows, throughout the fields, by the road, even at the edge of your garden, and it's good. Much of it grows and returns to the earth without ever reaching our tables. Unless you take the trouble to learn and look you may never know what you're missing. MMMM! There are at least 25 wild foods that add sparkle to my family's meals throughout the year, I'm not talking about subsistence foraging -- eating to make do. We don't depend on acorns, or eat meals composed solely of wild greens. The wild foods we savour are seasonal treats. We eat only those that have especially rich, delicate, or savory flavour we couldn't find any other way. What's more appealing, wild foods grow without any attention from us. They're unsprayed, and they cost us nothing. These advantages appeal to our practical nature. At some deeper level, though, we're aware that, in gathering wild foods, we are really seeking -- and finding -- a closer relationship witth the wonderfully varied land that surrounds and supports us. We feel in tune with the seasons, looking for each treasured berry, nut, or mushroom as its time comes due. And we notice subtle changes in our landscape as we search. Wineberries spread as cut-over woods gradually grow shadier; fallen trees host mushrooms; microclimates encourage the earliest wild greens. Most of our foraging is done on our own land, but we occasionally make trips to pick berries on wild public lands where we know the crop is plentiful. We don't pick on privately owned land without asking permission. Of course, certain city and state parks are protected by no-picking laws. We have repeatedly picked each of the following wild foods because we know them, like them, and easily find them. For your own wild specialties, start by getting to know what grows in your neighbourhood. Consult a reliable wild foods guidebook and learn to positively identify the scores of edible plants that are out there for the picking. The quest for wild delicacies can become an absorbing, satisfying, challenging, lifetime adventure. MARCH: WINTER CRESS: ( Barbarea vulgaris) It is also called yellow rocket, wild mustard, upland cress, and spring cress. This is our earliest wild spring green. While March snow still banks the north side of the house, I'll find little clusters of cress in protected spots near the compost pile and berry bushes. We use cress in three stages. The first fresh clumps, well sweetened by freezing nights, make tender, mild-flavoured salad greens. When the leaves grow a bit larger, I braise them or cook them in soup. Then, when the flower buds form (but before the yellow flowers open), I cook them in a small amount of water for five to seven minutes. The buds have a mild broccoli flavour. Once the plants are in full bloom and the weather turns warm enough to go out without your jacket, the winter cress season is over. Wild greens become distastefully bitter and are sometimes tough when eaten after they flower. Winter cress has smooth, rounded leaves with several small secondary lobes along its stem. The stem arises directly from the crown. Leaves are 3 to 7 inches long and blossom buds are 1/2 to 1 inch in diameter. You'll find winter cress in rich, moist ground. It often turns up in the garden, at the edges of perennial vegetable and berry beds, on sunny hillsides, near streams, and even in lawns -- always in a sunny, open space. DANDELION (Taraxacum officinale) As a child, I used to see women picking dandelions in the town baseball field behind our house. I considered the plants weeds and the pickers exotic. We kept to our peas and carrots and never tried the greens. Now each spring I watch eagerly for those first tousled crowns, craving their tangy freshness after a winter of bland fare. I snip them into noonday salads, beginning in late March here in south central Pennsylvania, until the plants flower and the leaves turn bitter. Late-blooming plants in less-sheltered places stretch the season. In October and November, tender new seedlings crop up at the edges of the kitchen garden and asparagus patch, sweetened by frosty nights. We mostly eat the leaves in salads, but they are also tasty braised, or cooked in soup. In Pennsylvania Dutch country, you may find dandelions offered briefly at farmers markets in spring. On a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch menu, they are served with a hot sweet and sour bacon dressing. Dandelion greens contain more vitamin A and C than many garden salad greens, and they're ready before anything else, so they fill a fresh- food gap deliciously. The small blossom buds tightly packed in the centre of the developing crown are also a good vegetable when briefly cooked for three to five minutes. Of course you'll recognize the dandelion, with its toothed 4- to 8- inch long leaves, its long, strong root, and its familiar golden flower. Dandelions are perennials, so if you have a good patch of them you can return to it. Look for them in sunny lawns, around perennial vegetable plantings, or at the garden's edge. You won't find them in the woods, deep shade, or tangled brush. APRIL: ASPARAGUS (Asparagus officinalis) Wild asparagus spears are just like those that grow in your garden -- not surprising when you realize they are seedlings from those same plants, in most cases scattered by bird droppings. The largest asparagus spear I've ever seen was a wild one our daughter found near our Lancaster County home. The stem was a good 2-inches in diameter. It seemed a shame to cook it. We don't forage for wild asparagus these days because we have a cultivated patch, but during our years on a small homestead we were glad for every spear we could find while we waited for our patch to bear. You won't discover large colonies of wild asparagus in any one place. But during an afternoon jaunt on a warm late-April or May day you can often find enough of it for a meal. Look alongside fences where the mower can't reach; in hedgerows, road ditches, and pasture corners; and especially under phone wires or posts where birds perch. Check too, for golden tan, dried, bent stalks from last year -- sure signs of roots that will send up this year's spears. Asparagus thrives in rich, well-limed soil and full sun. Watch out for poison ivy, which likes the same conditions and often grows near by. CATTAILS (Typha latifolia) They have a number of edible parts; root sprouts, green bloom spikes, & young leaf shoots, sometimes called Cossack asparagus. We've tried the bloom spikes and found them interesting camping food, if a bit gritty. It is the shoots we enjoy most. We planted cattails in a wet spot near our pond so we could have a ready supply of this delicacy. Starting in April, and continuing into May as new plants develop, we look for cattail leaves extending 2 feet above water level (taller plants have tougher cores). Ten to twelve of these multileafed shoots serve two people. Under the tough green outer leaves is a tender white core, 3/8 to 5/8 inch in diameter and 6 to 10 inches long. Steamed for 15 minutes, or cooked in soup, these shoots bring spring to the table. Sliced thin, crosswise, they make a fine addition to a salad. They have a mild, unremarkable flavour and a pleasant texture. Look for cattails around ponds, marshes, wetlands, even ditches -- wherever there is standing water or sogggy ground. MORELS (Morchella esculenta) They seem to possess a mystique surpassing that of any other wild plant, a combination of elusiveness and rich subtle flavour. Sauteed in butter, these May-fruiting mushrooms are delicious. The problem is finding enough of them. I know people who have picked half-bushel baskets of morels, but at our place we've only ever found a handful at a time -- enough to savour slowly with a simple meal or a piece of toast. Usually, we've found them when we were looking for something else. People who have -- or know of -- good morel hunting grounds are, understandably, close-mouthed about where & even when they pick. The mushroom isn't handsome but it is distinctive. Rising from the ground on a hollow, pale-tan, rubbery-looking, 1- to 1 1/2- inch-wide stalk, the morel has a hollow cap with a honeycomb design furrowing its surface. The size of the fungus varies from 2 to 9 inches in height. Its colour ranges from tan through greyish brown to cinnamon; the caps are often the colour of weathered oak leaves. Also called the sponge mushroom, this morel fruits in late April and early May in south-central Pennsylvania. It is found in varied terrain, from old orchards to burnt-over meadows to duff under oaks, beeches, maples or ash. The similar black morel (M. elata) appears earlier in April, often in conifer forests or in mixed woods among aspen, beech, poplar, or pine. It has a more regular arrangement of ribs on its cap, with the rib edges usually darker than the tan flesh in the pits. Don't rely on this brief description for identification. Consult a good mushroom guidebook. Be sure to make a clear distinction between the pitted cap surface of the morel and the merely wrinkled skin of the sometimes-poisonous false morels, which belong to a different family (Helvellaceae). We never hesitate to eat a mushroom that we know well, but we always take time to be certain of our identification. SOME PRACTICAL HINTS FOR GETTING THE GOOD STUFF 1. Mark known foraging sites and ripening times on your calendar as you discover them for easy reference the following year. Some people mark sites on maps, too. 2. This season's observations can lead to next season's good picking. Watch for evidence of choice wild foods -- cracked nut shells on the road, fields of wild mustard in bloom, tall fronds of gone-to-seed asparagus -- so you'll know where to return. 3. Always ask permission to gather plants on land that is privately owned. 4. Pick & use only those foods you know for sure are edible safe 5. Avoid picking from the sides of heavily travelled roads and from land that has been sprayed with herbicides or insecticides. 6. Keep collecting materials in your car; a basket, burlap bag, backpack, pail, newspaper, plastic bags. You never know when you'll spot black walnuts by a country road, or berries along a river. 7. Dress for the job. Wear long pants and long-sleeves for dealing with thorny bushes, a sun hat for berry patches, boots for prowling wetlands and gloves for nut husks that can stain your fingers. 8. Cut a long green stick with a forked notch for pulling out-of- reach berry canes toward you. 9. Keep your gathered foods cool and use them as soon as possible. Dry or freeze the surplus. 10. When gathering berries, tie a pail or milk carton around your waist so you can use both hands for picking. 11. On camping trips, bring your identification books along to help you identify unfamiliar species and to double-check those you know. 12. Make mushroom spore prints for positive identification. Put the fungus, gill side down, on a piece of paper and cover it with a dish so it won't be disturbed. Leave it for four to eight hours. If you expect the print to be white, use colored paper, or use half of a colored sheet and half white. 13. When collecting mushrooms, separate the different kinds in case there is a question later about one type's identification or edibility. FINE FORAGING: LATE SPRING by Nancy Bubel Second in a series on finding and preparing the best outdoor edibles of the season. (Country Journal // May/June 1991) VIOLETS (Viola sororia) They are a minor but fun addition to a spring salad. The flowers not only look glorious in a bowl of mixed early greens but they also contain a hefty amount of vitamin C. Eaten alone they have a piquant tang. An easy way to enjoy violet blossoms is to nibble on a few as you tramp around the open country. They can also be made into a syrup or jam. I'm tempted to say that violets are everywhere. While that isn't entirely true, they are widely distributed throughout the continental United States. Shady and semi-shady borders, road edges, stream banks, open woods, and north sides of buildings are a few of the many places they are found. SHAGGY MANES (Coprinus comatus) These easy-to-identify mushrooms appear as often in town as in the country. The shaggy, cylindrical, white caps are about 2-inches wide, and 2 to 6 inches high on 2- to 8- inch stalks. Look for a ring on the stalk below the cap. Shaggy manes are good only when fresh. As they age, the gills dissolve into an inky black liquid. It isn't toxic, but isn't appealing to eat, either. Shaggy manes fruit in May through early June and again in September and October. They often grow in large colonies & have a surprising ability to erupt through hard-packed, even paved ground. We've seen them in our pasture, by wood chip piles, along town roadsides, and in firmly compacted gravel next to a playground. JUNE STRAWBERRIES (Fragaria virginiana & F. vesca) When my family and I first moved to our farm, the hay-field was jewelled in June with thousands of wild strawberry plants, producing more than we could possibly pick. The tiny berries that grew in the lengthening grass had a flavour fruitier and more fragrant than any domesticated strawberry. They varied in size from 1/4 inch gems to thumbnail sized beauties that filled the pail faster. Tasks of all kinds call from every side in June, but strawberry days are fleeting, and we always manage to take time for at least a few afternoons of picking. I remove the stem and leaf cap as I pick to save tedious (and berry-squashing) picking-over later. If you're searching for wild strawberries, check out rocky hillsides on a southern slope, grassy road sides, meadows with thin grass, old hayfields, and late-mowed barnyard edges; in either sun or lightly dappled shade. Then drop everything and enjoy them. MUSHROOMS are fairly easy to identify. All have a spongy, open-pored surface under their caps, instead of gills. Spore prints vary from yellow-brown to olive-brown. Boletes of various kinds grow under oak aspen, birch and conifers, from June into autumn, depending on the species. Many are edible and choice, especially the fabled Boletus edalis, often called the king bolete, with its smooth brown cap and huge bulbous stem. Boletes with flesh that bruises blue and those with red tube mouths are considered poisonous. Like other mushrooms, boletes pop up at seemingly random places in the woods, so we've learned to carry an empty bag or two when we go hiking. If possible, make positive identification of the mushroom before picking a lot of them. Once when we were camping in Virginia, we picked a whole grocery bag full of an interesting-looking bolete. It didn't bruise blue and it didn't have red tube mouths, but it turned out to be the bitter bolete (Tylopilus felleus), a poorly flavoured fungus that not even the best butter could redeem. We did have fun picking them, though. FORAGING FOR PROFIT Randy Roya is a professional forager. After being a chef for both cruise ships and ski resorts (foraging after hours and developing recipes for his pickings). Roya quit to devote all his time to what he loves most -- gathering wild edible plants. He became a full time plant hunter in his native Vermont in 1986. Roya entered the market at a good time. A few Vermont restaurants were already featuring wild edible plants on their menus usually pricey French imports of out-of-state delicacies available frozen or canned never fresh. "Some restaurants were interested but couldn't afford to pay imported prices. Others weren't sure about preparation, so I offered freshly foraged local greens and mushrooms and brought recipes," he says. Local foragers had barely penetrated the market. they were essentially hobbyists, undependable about deliveries and picking only when the spirit moved them. Roya made sure he always showed up when he said he would. During his years as a chef he had made numerous contacts. To them he brought sample baskets of wild mushrooms and leeks. With new restaurants he analyzed their menus to see if they seemed innovative -- and capable of handling the expense of his labour and delivery. Roya located out-of-state markets in such places as Palm Beach and San Francisco by looking through telephone books and calling restaurants (a good job for a rainy May). When visiting a potential client he took his samples and his knowledge -- anyone not interested in a brief wild plant education didn't get the opportunity to buy. Roya learned his first foraging lessons from his father, who is part Canadian Indian. "My dad inspired me to do this," he says. He augments this knowledge by studying books. He particularly likes Peterson's field guide for edible wild plants and an out-of-print wild mushroom guide he got from his father. When in doubt about a plant or mushroom, Roya consults with his father and other foragers. He uses a microscope to check the shapes of mushroom spores. Finally, when he is confident of an identification he eats a tiny portion of the plant. "I've never gotten sick from a wild plant. I know the deadly mushrooms really well," he says. Roya's foraging year begins when all but a few patches of snow have melted in May. Rising with the sun, he pulls on thick boots, a long-sleeved shirt to protect his arms from deep scratches, and leggings, if it's cold. He searches woodlands and fields, asking permission of landowners first. As the baskets he carries fill, he stashes them in cool spots returning to them later to load them into cooler chests in his car. He leaves the patches by 3pm to make restaurant deliveries between 4 and 6pm. Roya enjoys sharing his knowledge. He instructs local foragers and lectures on wild edible plants. That knowledge includes being aware that leeks grow near stands of maple trees. (For every two leeks he pulls he leaves one behind to multiply.) Roya also knows that riverbanks are the place to find bright green ostrich ferns, whose tightly furled fiddle heads are a traditional delicacy at fine restaurants and specialty stores in Canada and throughout the Northeast. Fiddleheads are Roya's cash cow. He estimates he sells three tons of fiddleheads each spring in markets throughout the Northeast. Harvesting them is chilly and sometimes dangerous work, as wet slopes can give way. He picks from the outermost ring because the centre will yield a new crop next year. Another fiddlehead season ends. Roya seeks out wet and swamps, areas for cattail shoots -- Cossack asparagus -- until June when they toughen. This is a particularly abundant plant easily foraged. Roya gathers more than 50 varieties of mushrooms and sells most of them fresh, though some are dried or preserved in brine. Favourites include the abundant chanterelle (up to 1,500 pounds in a season), chicken mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, morels and fairy ring which grows in a circle that expands every year. In between mushroom gathering, he forages for high bush cranberries, which are used for sauces. In late summer he picks spiny gooseberries, black raspberries, blueberries and black cherries. As foraging becomes more popular, Roya is seeing some disturbing trends. "I'm concerned that a novice will sell inedible mushrooms and ruin the reputation of wild mushrooms. As he watches newcomers he laments their lack of care. "Patches where I pick are getting better each year because I take care of them. I move brush away to let new plants emerge. I don't pick everything. I cut rather than pull, and I don't damage the mycelium under mushrooms." Roya urges novice foragers to think about what they are doing. "Take care," he cautions, "or the plants will disappear." From: The WEE Scot Paul MacGregor Moderator ... I tried tap dancing, but I kept falling in the sink. FINE FORAGING: MIDSUMMER by Nancy Bubel (Country Journal / July/August 1991) Third in a series on finding and preparing the best outdoor edibles of the season. JULY LINDEN FLOWERS (Tilia spp.) In late June and early July, I sniff the air for the haunting perfume of blossoming linden trees. I gather and dry the small, cream-coloured, waxy-looking flowers to make an aromatic tea, an old European custom that should be more widely practised. Linden trees are broadly distributed throughout the United States. I've seen European lindens planted as street trees in several cities, as wild roadside trees in West Virginia, as magnificent guardians of houses or barns on old farms and most memorably, as ancient specimen trees at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home. The blossoms of the European linden (T. europaea) possess a more intense fragrance and therefore a better flavour than those of the smaller, nearly pyramidal (T. americana). DAYLILIES (Hemerocallis fulva) These bright flowers can put a vegetable on your table even if you never plant a seed. Their buds, and even the spent blossoms, are edible. Briefly steamed, they're good to eat in their own right, without needing any justification by comparison with familiar vegetables, although they are often compared to snap beans. Daylily buds are ready around the middle of July. For several weeks they will steadily produce trumpet-shaped orange flowers above arching, flat, 2-to-3-foot leaves. Blossoming daylilies and the first garden picking of beans occur at about the same time. If you can't keep up with the daylilies once the beans start producing, you can dry and store both the buds and the day-old flowers, as the Chinese do. Widespread and easy to find when in bloom, daylilies grow on road sides, near fences, by old house foundations, and around meadows, in both sun and partial shade. (Remember to always ask permission before picking any plants on private property.) They are strong-rooted perennials, so removing the flowers won't interfere with next year's bloom. BLACKBERRIES (Rubus idaeus var. canadensis) RASPBERRIES (R. idaeus var. strigosus) BLACK RASPBERRIES (R. occidentalis) WINEBERRIES (R. phoenicolasius) Bramble bushes ramble all over the land, producing perfectly delicious compound berries that are wonderful for fresh eating and for pies, jams, and cobblers. All are borne on spiny bushes that hopscotch over rocky clearings and fringe the edges of mixed woods, their 6-foot long canes rooting at the tips in a thorny stitchery that can quickly cover favourable sites. Most of these berries ripen in July, with a few extending into August. Blackberries and black raspberries, the most numerous of these wild delights, favour sunny or partly sunny places, as do the less common raspberries. Wineberry bushes, which produce a translucent, orange-red, tart/sweet berry, prefer shady and semi- shady sites. Wineberry stems are covered with a reddish down, and the berries remain enclosed in a fuzzy calyx until they're ripe. Wineberries have a less intense flavour than raspberries or blackberries, but they're refreshingly juicy. They're good in a fruit cup or drizzled with honey and covered with milk. BLUEBERRIES (Vaccinium corymbosum) After picking lowbush blueberries from scraggly 18-inch high plants during the Maine summers of my childhood, I found the high-bush blueberries here in Pennsylvania offered a whole new world of picking. Their larger berries in full clusters are much easier to gather. They have a wonderful wild, rich flavour that uniform, cultivated blueberries have never been able to match. Blueberries are members of the heath family and, like their cousins the azaleas and rhododendrons, they like acid soil. Lowbush species are found in sunny or semishady rocky or sandy clearings, often near pines and sweet ferns. My favourite patches in Maine were along the railroad right of way and in clearings in the woods where there had been a fire. In New Jersey and Pennsylvania, I've found highbush blueberries growing in swampy places, near mountain streams, along the edge of sandy woods and in northern Pennsylvania, in highcountry meadows near mixed woods. I've picked gallons of blueberries in a swamp where the standing water was so deep I needed hip boots to stay dry. Blueberries ripen in New Jersey about mid-July and in the northern Pennsylvania mountains in early August, so the picking season can be long for serious foragers who enjoy wild berries enough to travel for them. It has been awhile since my family and I have managed to make visits to our favourite picking spots, but each year we talk about doing it. More than any other wild food we gather, blueberries combine pleasure in the picking site, delight in the fruit (of course we eat as we pick), fond memories, family fun, adventure, and deep satisfaction in the abundance that is there for the finding and gathering. PUFFBALLS (Lycoperdon perlatum, Calvatia gigantea, and others) If morels are the filet mignon of the mushroom world, puffballs are the hamburger. Some of these stemless fungi have smooth skins; others are warty and leathery. They range from an inch or so in diameter through baseball and soccer ball size and up to gigantic specimens as much as 2 feet across. We've seen many puffballs the size of soccer balls growing in grass along the Blue Ridge Parkway, and we've found two on our lane, growing in a grassy strip at the edge of the woods. Puffballs grow on the remains of dead trees as well as in sod. They're a summer food, usually available from July until September. Use them while their interior flesh is still white and firm; when it softens and yellows, the flavour is poor, and when the fungi turn hollow and dusty inside, they'll explode in a cloud of greyish spores when you step on them. To serve them, peel off the skin, slice them, and fry the solid flesh. Like all mushrooms, puffballs shrink a lot when cooked. AUGUST MULBERRIES (Morus rubra) They are often seen as street trees in town, their dropped fruit unappreciated by home owners who resent the purple sidewalk stains. They appear on country roads, too, and on old farms where an original tree may be surrounded by its seedlings. Mulberries are fun to eat as a wild snack. They are quite sweet. Acid content, and therefore flavour, varies from tree to tree. Most mulberries are a deep purple, but there is a white variety that is so sweet it is sometimes used as a sugar substitute in canning fruit. When a mulberry tree is in fruit, it produces prodigious amounts of elongated berries. The trees accept a variety of conditions and may be found growing almost anywhere in open sunny ground in the North Temperate Zone. Not content for birds to drop us some seedlings, we planted several mulberries in the hedgerows of our farm. ELDERBERRIES (Sambucus canadensis) You can buy cultivated elderberry bushes, which have larger berries than the wild kind, but their berries have less flavour. We planted some once, but we don't bother with them anymore because the wild berries taste so much better. Don't try elderberries raw, though; all elderberries have a rank, disagreeable flavour when uncooked. But when cooked and sweetened in pie or jelly, their flavour is as rich as their deep-purple colour. We've used elderberries in three ways: The dried berries make an excellent, full-bodied tea: the cooked berries, thickened a bit with arrowroot and sweetened, make a fine pie: and the juice from stewed berries makes one of the world's best jellies. Elderberries ripen in mid-August here in south-central Pennsylvania, and birds compete with us for the crop. They often eat the berries before they ripen. Snap or cut the heavy heads of small, purple-black berries from the bushes, and then sit on the porch in the evening light to pull the berries off the stems as fireflies blink over the meadow. Processing elderberries is a PURPLE job, but the results are worth the cleanup. Elderberry bushes grow in damp, rich soil near streams, road ditches, lowlands, and hedgerows. They often grow in large groups, so you can pick a lot of berries in one stop. MAY APPLES (Podophyllum peltatum) These elusive fruits have a tropical flavour and aroma that make them worth seeking. They're good to eat fresh, out of your hand. We've never gathered enough of them at one time to make May apple marmalade as Euell Gibbons did, but we hope to someday. May apple plants are easy to find in May. Their umbrellalike leaves on 12-to-16-inch stems shelter a single, waxy, white, 1 to 1 1/2 inch blossom. By August and into September, though, when the pale-yellow fruits ripen, the stems have bent to the ground, exposing the fragrant fruits to foraging squirrels. May apples prefer open woods and roadsides, but we've also found them in meadows. They seem to like fairly moist soil. Violet Candy 3 cups blue violet flowers 2 egg whites (beaten) 1 cup granulated sugar Rinse the flowers in cold water, drain, and dry on a paper towel. Hold the flower with a pair of tweezers and with a toothpick dab the flower with egg white. Sprinkle with sugar. Spread the coated violet flowers on wax paper and let dry. Dandelion Wine 1 gal dandelion flowers 1 gal boiling water 3 lemons 3 oranges 3 lbs brown sugar 2 pkgs yeast Wash flowers in cold water. Place flowers in a 2 gallon or larger crock. Cover with 1 gallon boiling water. Cover container and let stand for 3 days. Filter the mixture and save the liquid. Chop lemons and oranges into small pieces. Add chopped lemons and oranges (seeds, skins & all) and sugar to dandelion liquid in an enamel pot. Cover & boil for 30 minutes. Cool to lukewarm and pour into crock. Add 2 packages of yeast. Cover container and ferment for 3 weeks or until bubbling stops. Always allow for the carbon dioxide to escape because containers can explode. Filter through cheesecloth and pour into bottles. Seal with corks. Winter Cress Au Gratin 1 lb winter cress flower buds 1/3 cup onion (chopped) 3 Tbsp butter 2 Tbsp flour 1/2 cup cheddar cheese (shredded) salt & pepper to taste 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese 1 tsp paprika Lightly boil winter cress for 5 minutes. Drain and save liquid. Saute onions in butter until brown. Add flour & 1 cup of winter cress liquid. Stir constantly. Stir in Cheddar cheese until melted. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour some of the sauce into a baking dish. Add the winter cress flower buds and cover with remaining sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and paprika. Broil for 5 minutes or until light brown. Daylily Fritters 1 1/2 cups flour 2 tsp baking powder dsh garlic salt salt & pepper to taste 1/4 cup milk 2 eggs 1/2 tsp basil 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese 10 daylily flowers Sift together flour, baking powder, and garlic salt. In another bowl beat milk and eggs together. Combine mixtures with basil and cheese until smooth. Wash flowers. Clip off stems, and pull out stamens and pistil. Pat dry with paper towels. Dip blossoms into batter and deep-fry until golden brown. Place fritters on paper towels and salt and pepper to taste. Red Raspberry Chewy 3 cups red raspberries (cleaned and was FINE FORAGING: FALL by Nancy Bubel (Country Journal / September/October 1991) Last in a series on finding and preparing the best outdoor edibles of the season. SEPTEMBER GROUND CHERRIES (Physalis pubescens): These marble-sized, tomato-like berries are also called husk tomatoes. Each berry is individually enclosed in a papery husk, similar to that of a Chinese lantern, that turns from green to straw colour when ripe. Ground cherries are plants of hedgerows and roadsides and are weeds in gardens and ploughed fields. The sprawling plant hugs the ground and bears pointed leaves that resemble those of the pepper plant. Its ripe berries are sweet and may be eaten fresh or made into jam or pie. The ground cherry has a wide range. Once when we found a bunch of them in our garden, I gave them to a Hawaiian friend, who remembered them from her home state as poha berries. MEADOW MUSHROOMS (Agaricus campestris) They are tasty mushrooms nearly identical to those sold in stores, but those you gather yourself will be fresher and free of the residue of chemicals used to control growing conditions in commercial mushroom cultures. These beauties have smooth white caps, pink gills when young (turning tan and then brown with age), and a brown spore print. (Here again, use my description only as a rough guide in locating wild fungi; always make a positive identification from a reliable mushroom guidebook and take a spore print before eating any wild fungi.) Several years ago we had an immense crop of meadow mushrooms in our pasture -- more than ever before or since. We picked gallons of them for two to three weeks. Our usual harvest is measured in quarts - enough to perk up several breakfasts and dinners with sauteed fresh mushrooms. We find them in sunny, grassy places such as in the pasture and orchard and along fences. HAZELNUTS (Corglus americana). These hedgerow plants bear their nuts in secret, sometimes partly shady places known only to the squirrels. The small wild nuts, born in clusters of fringed husks, taste just like the larger cultivated filberts you buy in the store. Hazelnuts ripen in early September. You need to gather them before the squirrels move in or you won't find any of the delicious nuts. Look for multiple shrubby slender branches rising directly from the ground. The leaves are roughly heart shaped, with toothed edges and a downy undersurface. In winter and spring you'll see pendant catkins on the stalks, which are the tightly wrapped buds of next year's flowers. BLACK WALNUTS (Juglans nigra) They have become a staple in our household, thanks to hedgerow trees that drop enough of the green-husked nuts on the road or on mowed land where we can easily find them. The nuts have a distinctive, rich flavour that is especially good when they are oven dried for about 10 minutes at 325=F8F. We think they make the world's best waffles when dropped into a whole-wheat buckwheat, and oatmeal batter and served with maple syrup from the Pennsylvania woods. An easy way to remove the husk is to spread the nuts in a single layer on the driveway where the car or tractor will run over them. If you let them dry for a day or so after the husks have split open, your hands won't get so stained by the walnut's inedible brown juice. After I pick out the husked nuts, I keep them in a basket in the sun to dry for a week or two. Then, before winter, we pour them into a cylinder of hardware cloth that admits air but keeps out squirrels. My husband made this nut cage by stapling a rectangle of hardware cloth, at its lower edge, around an 18-inch diameter disk of wood, then wiring the sides together to form an open-topped nut safe, which can be covered with a circle of hardware cloth for more protection against squirrel raids. To maintain good air circulation so the nuts don't heat when piled up, we insert a 2-inch-diameter tube of hardware cloth in the centre of the cage before starting to fill it with nuts. In order to get as many unbroken halves as possible, we use a special nutcracker. You can crack the nuts open with a hammer, too. Black walnut trees are among the last to leaf in the spring and the first to lose their leaves in the fall. They have compound leaves composed of paired, slender, pointed leaflets. The green-husked nuts range from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches in diameter. They start to fall in late September and can still be found in good condition in mid-November. The husks turn brown soon after the nuts fall. Tons of these wild treasures go to waste each year. For a treat that money can't buy, try nutting for black walnuts. HICKORY NUTS (Carga ocata) They are as delicious as walnuts and somewhat more versatile because their flavour is more subtle. But they aren't as dependable a crop. The shagbark hickory tree in our meadow produces nuts only every third year, with an all-out, large crop once every seven. So for a regular supply of hickory nuts, you need to make the acquaintance of several trees. Look for a tall, stately tree with shaggy bark -- the result of long sections of bark coming loose at the ends but remaining attached to the tree. As the nuts ripen in late September they usually fall free of their four-part segmented husks (the husks are dry and easy to remove). The 1 1/4 inch tan nuts are flattened on two sides. Like a black walnut, a hickory nut is difficult to extract from its shell unless you have a special nutcracker. With the proper equipment, cracking them is a pleasant, satisfying job, and the nuts taste wonderful. We eat them plain, add them to granola and cookies, and make a family favourite hickory pie, substituting hickories for pecans and using maple syrup in place of the usual corn syrup. The gathering period for hickories extends into the month of October. OCTOBER PAPAWS (Asimina triloba) are a Northern exotic. The kidney- shaped, kiwi-sized fruit has a smooth, greenish-yellow skin and a tropical aroma when ripe. Its other names (custard apple, Michigan banana) give you a hint of its texture -- smooth and starchy -- and its flavour -- mellow, like a banana with a tinge of wildness. The fruits drop to the ground when they ripen, in mid to late October. At this time of year, the slender, often spindly papaw tree is easy to spot in the woods because its large wide leaves turn a golden-yellow hue. The trees can grow in shade -- we found some doing well as understory trees in a mixed forest. Scuffle through the leaves under the trees to find the fruits. NOVEMBER OYSTER MUSHROOMS (Pleurotus ostreatus) They grow on dead elm, popular, aspen, alder, beech, and maple trees. The ones we've found have been white, creamy, or greyish tan, with an off-centre stem and white gills extending down the stalk. The spores are white. They often grow in large clusters in both spring and fall, and even in wet, cool summers. We've found them as late as November. Oyster mushrooms sauteed in butter or oil are delicious (discard the tough stem ends). They are a real find in the autumn woods. PERSIMMONS (Diospyros tirginiana): We associate these sweet morsels with Thanksgiving because we would often gather them while hiking with our like a banana with a tinge of wildness. The fruits drop to the ground children on their Thanksgiving school break. Although we've found good persimmons near the sea in Delaware in early October, those that grow in our woods seem to taste best a month or more later, probably because they receive less sun than the streetside Delaware trees. Experts insist that contrary to popular belief, it is maturity not frost that sweetens the persimmon. Sometimes we shake the trees to dislodge the 1 1/2 inch, slightly flattened, round, burnt-orange fruits. They're squishy and look overripe, but taste sweet. We usually eat them right there in the woods and toss the seeds around to start more trees. Persimmons have an astringency that catches in your throat after you've eaten eight or ten. I've occasionally used persimmon pulp (made by putting the ripe fruits through a food mill) in muffins or steamed breads, and we've enjoyed the persimmon pudding that is a tradition in parts of the Mid-West. The word serendipity could have been coined for the wild foods gatherer. Wonderful foods are often found in unexpected places. You may start out searching for one treat and find another instead. When you've been gathering wild foods for a while, each jaunt recalls other times, other places. You find yourself reminiscing about the time you found those blueberries by the side of the lake; when the kids scrambled to collect hickories on a perfect Indian summer day; when you spotted oyster mushrooms capped with snow on a firewood- collecting trip into the woods. You find yourself increasingly able to tune into subtle clues in the fields, hedgerows, and woods that lead you to good things there for the gathering. And finally, you discover that you enjoy the search too, whether you return with a pailful of ripe raspberries or just some kindling for the fireplace. People have been gatherers for longer than they've been shoppers, and I find that I need to respond to that ancient foraging impulse. Luckily, there are still many good things out there for us to collect and enjoy. REFERENCE BOOKS Here are some books you may find useful in identifying foraged plants. A FIELD GUIDE TO EASTERN EDIBLE WILD PLANTS by Lee A. Peterson (Houghton Miffin, 1984) (a part of the Peterson Field Guide series) A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO EDIBLE AND USEFUL PLANTS by Debera Tull (Texas Monthly Press, 1987) A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE: A GUIDE TO EDIBLE WILD FLOWERS AND PLANTS OF THE NORTHEAST by Nicholas Fish (Scriptorium Press, 1987) COMMON EDIBLE AND USEFUL PLANTS OF THE EAST AND MIDWEST by Muriel Sweet (Naturegraph, 1975) EAT THE WEEDS by Ben C. Harris (Barre, 1969) EDIBLE and USEFUL WILD PLANTS of the UNITED STATES and CANADA by Charles F. Saunders (Peter Smith) EDIBLE WILD PLANTS OF EASTERN UNITED STATES AND CANADA by John Tomikel (Allegheny, 1976) EDIBLE WILD PLANTS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEIGHBORING STATES by Richard J. and Mary Lee Medve (Penn State Press, 1990) EDIBLE WILD PLANTS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK by John Tomikel (Allegheny, 1973) FAVOURITE WILD FOODS OF THE FIFTY STATES (National Wild Foods Association, Parkersburg, West Virginia) FIELD GUIDE TO NORTH AMERICAN EDIBLE WILD PLANTS by Thomas and Dykeman Elias (Van Nostrand Berhold, 1983) SIMON & SCHUSTER'S GUIDE TO MUSHROOMS (Simon & Schuster, 1981) STALKING THE WILD ASPARAGUS by Euell Gibbons (Alan C. Hood, 1987) STURTEVANT'S EDIBLE PLANTS OF THE WORLD (Dover, 1972) THE AUDUBON SOCIETY FIELD GUIDE TO NORTH AMERICAN MUSHROOMS by Gary H. Lincoff (Alfred A. Knopf, 1981) THE MUSHROOM HUNTER'S FIELD GUIDE by Alexander H. Smith & Nancy Weber (University of Michigan Press, 1969) TOM BROWN'S GUIDE TO WILD EDIBLE AND MEDICINAL PLANTS by Tom Brown Jr. (Berkley Publishing, 1985) WILD EDIBLE FRUITS AND BERRIES by Marjorie Furlong and Virginia Pill (Naturegraph, 1974) WILD FOOD by Roger Phillips (Little, Brown, 1986) EDIBLE WILD PLANTS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND WILD FOODS FIELD GUIDE AND COOKBOOK by Billy J. Tatum (Workman Publishing, 1985) * Origin: The Scottish Conne @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ENVIRONMENTAL COOKBOOKS COMBINES THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS From: Tim_Sykes@msn.com (Barbara Sykes) Subject: Edible Wild Plants Date: 15 Dec 95 03:53:31 -0800 The Forager's Second Cookbook of Wild Plants contains 83 pages of mouth-watering recipes, tips, & collection techniques for WEEDS! That's right; the dandelions you dig from your front yard, the purslane that springs from the cracks in your driveway, even the chickweed that blankets your spring lawn all can be turned into delicious treats. And this is the book to tell you how! The people who produce The Forager: The Newsletter of Edible Wild Plants and The Forager's First Cookbook of Wild Plants have now produced their second well-organized Cookbook. Plants appear alphabetically, each with easily recognized symbols, telling the reader the proper season to harvest and the type (or types) of dishes you can prepare from them. Both Cookbooks have been thoroughly researched. Many descriptions even include the types of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals available in the plant. And they provide some colonial and pioneering recipes they couldn't resist sharing. The Forager's First & Second Cookbook(s) of Wild Plants are environmentally friendly, natural foods cookbooks compiled by Tim & Barbara Sykes from their research into edible wild plants. The 5« x 8 softcover editions are available from Forager Publications, PO Box 692110, Houston, TX 77269-2110. Each sells for $6 ($10 for both). For more information on these and other Forager products, send a #10 SASE for our free brochure. E-Mail inquiries to: Tim_Sykes@msn.com @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ANYONE LOOKING FOR MORE INFO ON PLANTS CHECK THIS OUT; Are you still looking for plant images? There are hundreds available on the WWW. You might want to try: http://meena.cc.uregina.ca/~liushus/bio/bio-pic.html http://www.euronet.nl/users/mbleeker/ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ SURVIVAL KNIFES From: Dave Lee Organization: RateNet To: richard@io.org Subject: survival knives Chris Janowski, head of the World Survival Institute, endorses only two survival knives: (1) FOLDER: Benchmade - AFCK-800S (appx $120) lifetime warranty (2) SHEATH Busse Combat Knives - Steel Heart II (~$200?) or Badger Attack (~160) lifetime warranty. You might want to check them out for inclusion in your page. Most of the knives out there remain crappy & many knife lists are out of date, considering the new technologies knifemakers are using. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ SAFE-PACKS SURVIVAL PACKS ??? Date: Wed, 06 Dec 1995 09:45:49 -0500 From: Dave Lee To: richard@io.org Subject: Safe-Pack survival packs I just followed your link to safe-pack earthquake survival packs. Frankly, I think they are selling CRAP. How can they sell a 1 or 2-man "survival" kit without a swiss army knife, fire starter, or a candle? Most people would be better off in an emergency shelter than trying to rough it in the woods with one of their inadequate kits. Just check their kits out against your own lists! -Dave PS don't consider this a flame...just constructive criticism...keep up the good effort! @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ TO BY-PASS OR NOT TO BY-PASS? Noted Anesthesiologist Reveals Needless Heart Operations From danagain@gnn.com Wed Jan 3 16:52:25 1996 From: danagain@gnn.com (Dan Hoff) To: richard@io.org "Note from Richard to our readers: read on and decide for yourself, I only carry those news I donşt judge nor write them" September 1994 Golden Age Monthly Noted Anesthesiologist Reveals Needless Heart Operations By William Sardi He once was the chief architect of a program that coerced angina patients into giving their consent for heart bypass operations. Now, this doctor goes public with his revealing story of the trickery and deceit behind the over-selling of heart bypass operations. His unconventional approach to practising medicine is well known in the Tampa, Florida area, as well as nationally. He is Donald Carrow, M.D., former chief of anaesthesiology for a large Florida hospital. In a candid interview below, Dr. Carrow tells all. The turning point for Dr. Carrow came with his own personal health crisis. "Two things happened to me. I was a 42-year old physician working in a major hospital in Tampa, Florida. I was a professor of anaesthesia. l created the concept of the heart team. This team was comprised of nurses, ministers, radiologists, laboratory technicians, family physicians, and even patients who had previously undergone open heart bypass surgery. We developed a uniquely contrived method of talking patients into heart bypass surgery that, now looking back on it, they didn't need." "Other hospitals would send people to learn how we 'sold' heart bypass surgery. Since hospitals had to spend $1.5 to $2 million dollars in equipment before they could perform their first heart bypass operation, they were obviously eager to recoup their. investment. This meant a steady stream of patients was required to pay debt service to the bank emphasizes Dr. Carrow. "When a patient would come to the hospital with chest pain they would be stabilized with pain relieving medications and then would undergo a myriad of tests, including a heart angiogram. Nurses were then instructed to tell the patient there was some bad news concerning their tests and that the doctor would have to speak with them about it. The family physician would then visit the patient and indicate the cardiologist would be needed for a consultation. By the time the cardiologist was at the patient's bedside he or she would usually be in a state of fright. The cardiologist would then point to an area on the angiogram and tell the patient they were a 'walking time bomb'." "If the patient still couldn't make a decision to undergo open heart surgery I would go out and visit with his or her spouse," says Dr. Carrow, "and point to the same spot on the angiogram and say this problem is what we call a widow maker." The spouse would then run to their loved one and plead with them to consent to the operation. "If all of this didn't work, then we would apply the icing on the cake. This consisted of sending a patient who had undergone successful heart bypass surgery to visit the prospective surgical candidate and tell them how successful the operation was. " It wasn't easy to find a patient who had a successful operation, notes Dr. Carrow. "The heart surgeon would then come in and say how easy the surgery was to perform. All members of the heart team were trained to circumvent the question: how effective is the outcome of the surgery? We would answer that question by saying that years ago there was only a six percent chance of success. Today the. was a 96 percent chance. Every patient would interpret this as a cure. The nurses were told to tell the patient they would be holding their hand through the whole procedure. then the pastor would come in and say a few words. It was well orchestrated." "we call all of this patient education. It was really patient coercion. I was involved in over 2000 open heart procedures. Only about 200 were necessary. We had a 90% failure rate," says Dr. Carrow. These numbers were recently confirmed by a landmark Harvard study. "Then, at age 42, my own chest pain occurred. Crushing chest pain. I couldn't say a full sentence, I couldn't find the strength to walk out of a chair. My colleagues said it was my time to get on the operating table. I had no intention of having the operation. Something inside me balked at having the same operation that I talked others into on a daily basis." Heart bypass surgery consists of taking a vein out of the leg and placing it into the heart, to restore circulation. There is a 50 percent failure rate in the first year following the operation, says Dr. Carrow. "If it weren't for a little trick performed by the surgeon at the end of the operation, heart bypass surgery would be shows to be an outright failure," says Dr. Carrow. "When the operation is completed the surgeon announces he wants to check for stasis (blood flow). He puts his hand behind the heart, and in doing so, breaks the nerve connections behind the heart. Once broken the patient feels no chest pain. It takes about 6-7 years before these nerves regenerate and then the pain returns. The surgeon temporarily eliminates nature's way of letting the patient know their heart circulation is bad. It's really a despicable trick to play because it makes the patient feel the operation worked and that they can return to the way they lived before the operation. Only recently has the government begun to force surgeons to analyze the long-term outcomes of the procedures they perform. Surgery for prostate cancer is another procedure that was recently called into question. Patients who choose "watchful waiting" over surgery live just as long, if not longer, as patients who have their prostate gland surgically removed. Recently the Agency for Health Care Policy Research has questioned the outcomes of various surgical procedures. Patients who undergo heart bypass procedures don't live any longer than angina patients who undergo non-surgical approaches to improving circulation. Dean Ornish, M.D., noted physician, recently gained national attention for his approach to heart disease that includes very low-fat diets, nutritional supplements, exercise and stress reduction. Dr. Carrow's approach to heart disease, in addition to low-fat diets and exercise, includes vitamin and herbal recommendations such as vitamins C and E, amino acids like carnitine and cysteine, minerals such as magnesium, herbs such as cayenne pepper and garlic; and nonvitamin nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids and coenzyme. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ EMERGENCY TRANSMISSION DEVICE ONLY SPARK GAP TRANSMITTER From: mlmoody@delphi.com (Michael L. Moody) Newsgroups: misc.survivalism Spark gap transmitters were banned early, early, early in radio history as they; 1) typically transmitted thousands of miles, and 2) since there is no tuning feature other than antenna length, they were heard all across the radio spectrum. Think of lightning strikes. Every time one occurs, you get static on your radio. At least if it's nearby (50-100 miles). Now think of a man made device that is designed to make static intentionally. You can get a LOT of range out of it. I could make one with an ignition coil, a spark plug (optional, as any gap will work), the car battery, and a length of wire, the longer the better. Run a piece of wire up the highest thing around and secure it at the top. If it's a tree or anything wet, make sure it doesn't ground out anywhere. This is the antenna. At the other end of this wire, connect it to the pointed end of the spark plug, i.e., where the spark plug wire attaches. Take a short piece of wire and run it from the screw threads on the spark plug to the high voltage output on the ignition coil. Take another piece of wire and run it from the negative terminal on the ignition coil to ground. I mean, stick the wire in the ground, the more the better. Bury it. If the soil is wet, better still. Take another piece of wire and connect it from the negative terminal on the ignition coil (yes, this is the same terminal that the last piece of wire connected to) to the negative terminal on the battery. Take another piece of wire and connect it to the positive terminal on the ignition coil. Leave the other end unconnected. At this point the transmitter is complete. Connecting the positive coil wire to the battery will energize the coil and *may* produce a spark at the plug. Don't worry if it doesn't. When you disconnect the wire, a spark *should* be produced. If it doesn't, check all wiring connections. Make sure the antenna isn't grounded. Make sure the ground wire is. You may have to change your spark gap as well. Be advised that making and operating a transmitter of this type will bring the wrath of the FCC and possibly other government bodies down on *YOU*. Rapidly making and breaking the battery connection with the positive wire will enable a person to send a morse code type distress signal. Doing this as long as possible will alert the appropriate authorities and give them ample time to triangulate your position. I would continue doing this until someone arrived. Doing this in a non emergency situation (testing) will get you busted big time. Fines are usually $3000 - $5000 for a first offense and can go a lot higher. The above circuit will transmit far enough to alert someone to your presence. .. --- ... = S O S dot dot dot dash dash dash dot dot dot @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ PRIMITIVE MEDICINE Subject: US ARMY SF Primitive Medicine Date: Fri, 10 Nov 1995 01:07:15 GMT Organization: Homenet Communications, Inc. This is from: ST-31-91B US ARMY SPECIAL FORCES MEDICAL HANDBOOK SEPTEMBER 1982 CHAPTER 22 PRIMITIVE MEDICINE 22-1. GENERAL. a. This chapter covers a number of primitive treatments using materials that are found worldwide. It does not cover herbal medicines because specific herbs (plants) are difficult to identify and some are found only in specific areas of the world. This does not mean, however that they should not be used. To get information concerning types and uses of herbal medicines in a particular area, talk to the natives. But remember, it is preventive medicine (PM) that must be stressed. Proper hygiene, care in preparation of food and drink, waste disposal, insect and rodent control, and a good immunization program can greatly reduce the causes and number of diseases. b. All of us---patients and doctors alike----depend upon wonder drugs, fine laboratories, and modern equipment. We have lost sight of the "country Doctor" type of medicine---determination, common sense, and a few primitive treatments that can be lifesaving. Many areas of the world still depend on the practices of the local witch doctor or healer. And many herbs (plants) and treatments that they use are as effective as the most modern medicine available. Herbal medicine has been practised worldwide since before recorded history, and many modern medications come from refined herbs. For example pectin can be obtained from the rinds (white stringy part) of citrus fruits and from apple pomace(the pulp left after the juice has been pressed out). If either is mixed with ground chalk, the result will be a primitive form of Kaopectate. c. Although many herbal medicines and exotic treatments are effective, use them with extreme caution and only when faced with limited or non-existent medical supplies. Some are dangerous and, instead of treating the disease or injury, may cause further damage or even death. 22-2 Primitive treatments. DIARRHOEA: a. Diarrhoea is a common, debilitating ailment that can be caused by almost anything. Most cases can be avoided by following good PM practices. Treatment in many cases is fluids only for 24 hours. If that does not work and no anti-diarrhoeal medication is available, grind chalk, charcoal, or dried bones into a powder. Mix one handful of powder with treated water and administer every 2 hours until diarrhoea has slowed or stopped. adding equal parts of apple pomace or citrus rinds to this mixture makes it more effective. Tannic acid, which is found in tea , can also help control diarrhoea. Prepare a strong solution of tea, if available, and administer 1 cup every 2 hours until diarrhoea has slowed or stopped. The inner bark of hardwood trees also contains tannic acid. Boil the inner bark for 2 hours or more to release the tannic acid. The resultant black brew has a vile taste and smell but will stop most cases of diarrhoea. More on this subject a little below on page 39/40 depending of your type of screen and type setting. b. WORMS AND INTESTINAL PARASITES: Infestations can usually be avoided by maintaining strict preventive medicine measures. For example, never go barefooted. The following home remedies appear to work or at least control the degree of infestation, but they are not without danger. Most work on the principle of changing the environment of the gastrointestinal tract. (1) Salt water. Four tablespoons of salt in 1 quart of water. This should be taken on a one time basis only. (2) Tobacco. Eat 1 to 1 1/2 cigarettes. The nicotine in the cigarette kills or stuns the worms long enough for them to be passed. If the infestation is severe, the treatment can be repeated in 24 to 48 hours, BUT NO SOONER (3) Kerosene. Drink 2 tablespoons. Don't drink more. The treatment can be repeated in 24 to 48 hours but no sooner. (4) Hot peppers. Put peppers in soups, rice, meat dishes or eat them raw. This treatment is not effective unless peppers are made a steady part of the diet. c. SORE THROATS: They are common and usually can be taken care of by gargling with salt water. If the tongue is coated, scrape it off with a tooth brush, a clean stick, or even a clean fingernail; then gargle with warm salt water. d. SKIN INFECTIONS: (1) FUNGAL INFECTIONS: Keep the area clean and dry, and expose to sunlight as much as possible. (2) HEAT RASH: Keep the area clean, dry, and cool. If powder is available, use it on affected area. (3) The rule of thumb for all skin diseases is: "if it is wet, try it, and if it is dry, wet it." e. BURNS: Soak dressings or clean rags that have been boiled for 10 minutes in tannic acid (tea or inner bark of hardwood trees), cool and apply over the burns. this relieves the pain somewhat, seems to help speed healing, and offers some protection against infection. f. LEECHES AND TICKS: Apply a lit cigarette or a flaming match to the back of the leach or tick, & it will drop off. Covering it with moistened tobacco, grease or oil will also make it drop off. Do not try to pull it off; part of the head may remain attached to the skin and cause an infection. g. BEE, WASP, & HORNET STINGS. Inspect the wound carefully and remove stinger if present. Apply baking soda, cold compress, mud or coconut meat to the area. Spider, scorpion, & centipede bites can be treated the same way. h. CHIGGERS: Nail polish applied over the red spots will cut off the chigger's air supply and kill it. any variation of this, eg., tree sap, will work. 22-3 MAGGOT THERAPY FOR WOUND DEBRIDEMENT a. Introducing maggots into a wound can be hazardous because the wound must be exposed to flies. Flies, because of their filthy habits, are likely to introduce bacteria into the wound, causing additional complications. Maggots will also invade live healthy tissue when the dead tissue is gone or not readily available. Maggot invasion of healthy tissue causes extreme pain and haemorrhage, possibly enough to be fatal. b. Despite the hazards involved , maggot therapy should be considered a viable alternative when, in the absence of antibiotics, a wound becomes severely infected, does not heal, and ordinary debridement is impossible. (1) All bandages should be removed so that the wound is exposed to circulating flies. Flies are attracted to foul or fetid odours coming from the infected wound; they will not deposit eggs on fresh clean wounds. (2) In order to limit further contamination of the wound by disease organisms carried by the flies, those flies attracted to the wound should not be permitted to lite directly on the wound surface. Instead, their activity should be restricted to the intact skin surface along the edge of the wound. Live maggots deposited here and/or maggots hatching from eggs deposited here will find their way into the wound with less additional contamination than if the flies were allowed free access to the wound. (3) One exposure to the flies is usually all that is necessary to ensure more than enough maggots for thorough debridement of a wound. Therefore, after the flies have deposited eggs the wound should be covered with a bandage. (4) The bandage should be removed daily to check for maggots. If no maggots are observed in the wound within 2 days after exposure to the flies, the bandage should be removed and the wound should be re-exposed. If the wound is found to be teeming with maggots when the bandage is removed as many as possible should be removed using forceps or some other sterilized instrument or by flushing with sterile water. Only 50 - 100 maggots should remain in the wound. (5) Once the maggots have become established in the wound, it should be covered with a bandage again, but the maggot activity should be monitored closely each day. A frothy fluid produced by the maggots will make it difficult to see them. This fluid should be "sponged out" of the wound with an absorbent cloth so that all of the maggots in the wound can be seen. Care should be taken not to remove the maggots with the fluid. (6) The period of time necessary for maggot debridement of a wound depends on a number of factors, including the depth and extent of the wound, the part of the body affected, the number of maggots present in the wound, and the fly species involved. In a survival situation an individual will be able to control only one of these factors-- the number, and sometimes not even that; therefore the exact time to remove the maggots cannot be given in specific numbers of hours or days. However it can be said with certainty that the maggots should be removed immediately once they have removed all the dead tissue and before they have become established in healthy tissue. When the maggots begin feeding on normal healthy tissue, the individual will experience an increased level of pain at the site of the wound as the maggots come in contact with "live" nerves. Bright red blood in the wound also indicates that the maggots have reached healthy tissue. (7) The maggots should be removed by flushing the wound repeatedly with sterile water. When all the maggots have been removed, the wound should be bandaged. To ensure that the wound is free of maggots, check it every four hours or more often for several days. Any remaining maggots should be removed with sterilized forceps or by flushing with sterile water. (8) Once all of the maggots have been removed, bandage the wound and treat it as any other wound. It should heal normally provided there are no further complications 22-4 SUMMARY. The treatments discussed in this chapter are by no means all of the primitive treatments or home remedies available for use. Most people have their own home remedy for various problems. Some work, some don't. The ones presented here have been used and do work, although some can be dangerous. The lack of modern medicine does not rule out medical treatment. Common sense, determination to succeed, and advice from the natives in the area on primitive treatments can provide a solution to a medical problem. Just keep one thing in mind: "First I shall do no harm." John Faherty X-Army medic DIARRHOEA Subject: Follow up to SF Primitive Medicine From: medintz@falcon.cc.ukans.edu (Mike S. Medintz) Date: 10 Nov 95 06:30:57 CST I have to take issue with the diarrhoea treatment. The way I was taught (Not in the Army, more of a private-sector Peace-Corps) was that it's not necessary and not even desirable to treat the diarrhoea itself. The SF Medic Handbook was written with combat effectiveness in mind. Diarrhoea, like coughing, is how the body cleans itself out and is best left to happen. Given a patient suffering from diarrhoea, regardless of cause, I would say that it's best for the patient to consume a normal healthy diet. However, an increase in fibre is a good idea-extra helpings of rice and bananas (if available) work fairly well. The critical thing is to increase the victim's fluid intake. The victim should drink _AT_LEAST_ as much water or other fluids as is being excreted. My kids' paediatrician prescribed the B.R.A.T. treatment: Bananas, Rice, Apples, and Tea. Loads o' liquids, too. In the cases of poisoning this may be true, however, if a supply of drinkable water is a hard to come by item then stopping or slowing the diarrhoea is of great importance. If the victim cannot eat, then a rehydration drink should be administered. I have some packets left over from various summers in countries full of people that Joe Bunkley doesn't like. They don't give proportions on the label (use your best guess) and I may mistranslate something (my Spanish is a little rusty) but I think it says glucose, salt, and baking soda. We used to add a couple of MRE (combat ration) sugar & salt packets to a quart canteen of water to increase the electrolyte value of the drink. Your nearest WHO/UNICEF office, or the federal building (if it has a US AID) office may be more help that I. David Werner's book _Where There Is No Doctor_ (Hesperian Foundation) is a great source on the subject of diarrhoea and associated health conditions. Darn good book, required reading for all here. (JMHO) Mike S. Medintz @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Subject: Re: INTERNAL FRAME PACK From: chingliu@lust.ugcs.caltech.edu (Ching Liu) http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~chingliu/Ballroom.html Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.camping Subject: Re: Internal Frame Pack Date: 15 Oct 1995 09:27:53 GMT burke@enga.bu.edu (Shawn Burke) writes: When I was pack shopping, I was also very impressed by the Dana Designs "Terraplane"; comfortable with a load, and easily adjustable. For me, it was a toss-up between the Gregory Nova and the Dana Designs Terraplane; I was swayed when a local outdoors shop gave me a steep price discount on the Nova. I suggest you give Dana Designs packs a look. I got this pack about two years ago, and it has made me the happiest hiker in the world. The Dana Designs packs were by far the most well-padded, comfortable packs available in the store at the time (though also the most expensive). I broke in my pack on a foolish, aborted attempt at the Fire and Ice hike: Death Valley to Mt. Whitney, carrying two weeks of food and our cold-weather gear in the packs, as well as a 2.5 gallon jug of water for me in the desert. My pack weighed about 80 pounds, but I only had mild tenderness on the sides of my hips after the first day of hiking. I have never even had that much, though, in my many hikes since then. (I plan to attempt the hike again some time in the future, doing it right.) The back of the pack is covered with a thick, but very breathable padding - after an afternoon of strenuous hiking, the back of my shirt is no more wet than the front. The pack has a huge capacity - very rarely do I fill it beyond 2/3 full, but it is just as comfortable empty as it is full (unlike a lot of internal frame packs, which rely partially on their filling to maintain their shape). The workmanship is also very good -I've had no trouble whatsoever with any stitching, seams, etc. My advice is this: if you plan on doing a lot of hiking, AND are willing to spend more for a superior product, get a Dana Designs pack (when I was shopping, the Dana Designs packs cost about @100 more than the Gregory packs of the same size). If you don't plan to do a lot of hiking, but have loads of cash to spend on a great product you won't use a lot, get a Dana Designs pack. Otherwise, it's just not worth it - the Gregory packs are indeed good packs for the price, from what my friends that own them say. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ FIRST THINGS TO DO IF LOST IN THE DESERT Newsgroups: misc.survivalism Subject: Re: Death in the Desert, true story Date: 9 Nov 1995 15:44:47 GMT There is a story just released in the news, in which two men, one 61, the other 73, visited a volcanic national park in Mexico. They were 30 miles into the desolate park and stopped for a break. After the break, their jeep wouldn't start. Thus began an eight day ordeal, battling hunger, thirst, and blistering heat. They did not have any maps, but the older man had visited the park previously. So, they relied on their hunches and set off for help. They had an ice chest and a gallon of water. The older man died from the heat on the third or fourth day. The surviving man said that they realized they should not have left the jeep after only a few hours, where they had more ice and water. Every day they realized they were in deeper trouble, but they had reached the point of no return. There were no clouds and it was very hot. The original article implied that the ground was mostly lava rock. On the eighth day, the Mexican Park Service arrived in a helicopter and rescued the survivor. Only his brain and heart were functioning completely. After a few days in the hospital, he was released. The survivor described how he tried to suck the juices out of cactuses, but with little rain this year, the cactus was too dry. He used hair spray for fire starting. He described the desert as being barren of life, with not even a snake to eat. He tried to capture a lizard, but it was too fast for him. For me, I would have stayed at the jeep and tried to fix the jeep that had obviously been running fine. Not getting the jeep to run, I would have stripped that car for survival gear... wires for snares, vinyl for a solar still, mirrors for signalling, oil and tires for signal fires, and carpeting for sun cover. I would have immediately embarked on a water rationing scheme, and stayed low and cool by day, hunting animals and gathering celestial information by night. I would have relied on my knowledge that snakes, rodents, and many other edible desert animals are only active at night. Even without pen and paper, I would have drawn out a star chart on the ground, getting my bearings from the north star, and the fact that Saturn and Jupiter are in view this time of the year, so if I had to go, I would know which direction to travel. I would spend at least two to three days intensely studying star movement so I could navigate if necessary. I would have set the mirrors up so that they reflected light outward, along the ground towards the horizon, so searchers in cars might see the reflection in the shimmering desert, since they might not see the jeep alone. I would have been ready to grab a mirror and light a signal fire at a moment's notice. I would also probably sound the horn periodically, especially in the early still mornings, and at dusk. By the third day, i probably would have set two of the tires on fire in low wind to try and signal someone, saving the remaining tires for signalling later. What would you have done differently from the two men, and what would you have done differently than what I would have done? Ration sweat, not water. Build a couple of solar stills per person. Make shelter - dig if possible (at night) a couple of feet down in the earth, it's a lot cooler. I wouldn't worry too much about food. Probably not too helpful, unless they're moving. the aperture of reflected light is quite small, and there's a LOT of junk that reflects light in the deserts in the US and mexico. Unless it's being moved, a searcher probably won't notice it or care. Why two? by modulating the fire with sand or dirt, you can get a lot of burn time out of them. If you're creative enough (and it's someone else's jeep ), you can take out the battery and a headlight, with some wire, and get a signalling lamp. Like so many similar incidents, the death in this one was completely preventable, based on the information you've presented. I have to totally agree with your response... food is not too important, and I like the idea about the headlights. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Subject: GLOVE OVENS Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 17:34:10 GMT Check out our new web page at http://www.well.com/user/dazebtwn/skiwarm.html This ski season you can ski with WARM HANDS on those COLD, FRIGID days on the slopes. Introducing GLOVE OVENS. THEY DO FOR YOUR HANDS WHAT A SKI JACKET DOES FOR YOUR BODY For more info call toll free 1 800 547 2994 or e-mail dazebtwn@znet.com for free brochure... @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ NEW PRODUCT TO SHED A LIGHT Date: Wed, 01 Nov 95 20:14:12 EST From: andrew@vbs.com Newsgroups: misc.survivalism Subject: Interesting Product Hi All, I recently purchased a product called a Safe-T-Lite from Lectra Lite Corp...It is a cigarette lighter that uses no lighter fluid, no wicks, no flint, and no disposable batteries.... It also lights up in my convertible at over 50 MPH!.....Just thought I'd share this with you all since much of this newsgroup deals with their outdoors (I'm a boater &outdoors person myself and this thing puts the others to shame!).. I bought mine from: Lectra Lite Corp 1036 St. Clair Ave Charlottesville, VA 22901 The cost was 24.95 which includes shipping and handling....I've had mine for over 3 months now and all I can say is WOW! @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ WALKING STAFF: For those who know the need of a walking staff I suggest you to check that site, its quite a good surprise. Note from Richard off course. P/s No I am not paid for that news either. Too bad! Subject: Wilderness Walking STaff E-Book WWW Site Sender: news@freenet.victoria.bc.ca (News Manager) Date: Tue, 17 Oct 1995 20:27:52 GMT Hi Come by and visit the new WWW site! Thanks. The Wilderness Walking Staff Electronic Book Home Page: http://www.islandnet.com/~wwseb @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ LIVING UNDERGROUND & ITS ADVANTAGES Subject: Re: live under or above ground? - ungnd09.txt [1/1] Sender: decastro@netcom7.netcom.com saladino@soho.ios.com (Vinnie Saladino) writes: In article , frankl@tpoint.net says: I see several big advantages to living below ground... 1) The temperature below ground remains between 45-55 deg F all year round if you live in about 50 ft down. A basement of a house won't drop below 50 in the winter (in the LI NY area) if the windows are shut, and won't go above 78 in the hot summer days if the windows are again kept closed. 2) Heating a below ground shelter in the winter takes a minimum amount of fuel. 3) The IR signature of a below ground shelter only shows up at the windows and door entrances. 4) Digging a new room and shoring-up the walls and ceiling is a lot cheaper then finding the materials for an above ground house. 5) Defending a below ground house is easier the an above ground house. 6) An under ground 'green house' with a glass roof (at ground level) would not be so easily spotted by others as a source of food (for them). Any comments on 'easy' construction methods for digging-in a hurry? Corrugated "sewer" pipe can be had in any size up to "stand-up-in"... ..dig a trench and bury 2/3 - 3/4 diameter in the ground... seal one end and construct a hidden/lockable entrance in the other (or both) end(s)... ..cover the exposed 1/3 - 1/4 with topsoil and plant a hearty ground cover and shrubbery (not a fancy shrubbery,) to hide it and hold the soil on top... use a cutting torch to cut vent /firing ports and conceal them... Cover the (approx) 8"x8" ports with 1/4" screening &/or bug screen to keep skitters, mice, and grenades out... you may wish to cover/hide the vents with false stones (or real ones) which may help to reduce your IR signature... Canines will still be able to sniff you out, but you can keep a 4LB keg of cayenne pepper in your hidy-hole if that is a concern and spread it on any approaching trails etc. after rains. I was going to blast some caves with hidden entrance, but the sewer pipe method is much cheaper and can be expanded and improved in many many ways. If I arrive at the middle of somewhere, It will probably be in my custom Van, which I can live in for quite a while. To build a permanent structure underground, I would start with what ever steel auto bumpers I could scrounge up, Lay them on level ground in a large 'circle' or square: (say 20'x20'), get/buy/steel a few bags of cement and any scrap iron/pipes I could find, and build a 2' high cement reinforced wall above the steel bumpers. It should be easy to scrape the dirt our from under the steel, as the weight of the 2' cement wall would push it down. As the structure sinks lower, I can add row upon row of bricks or more cement/scrap iron. It should take me a few weeks, but when I'm done, The underground structure would last a life time. END OF THIS FILE 10/1/1996 @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@