Knowing how to source emergency survival foods from tree bark is an excellent piece of skill to possess as a prepper. You do not know what may warrant you to be in the wilderness without food, but there’s the possibility of it happening.
With the knowledge in this article, you can escape to the wilderness in the event of a catastrophe & get your food from the wild plants around you.
Let’s look at what’s involved in eating tree bark for survival & what you need to know about eating it.
Sourcing for Your Emergency Survival Foods from Tree Bark
The inner bark of a tree is an efficient food when it comes to survival in the wild. It is commonly believed that “Adirondack” meant “tree eaters.” This word was believed to have originated from a derogatory perception of hunters who ate tree bark because they had to when they went hunting. These hunters were considered bad (unable to hunt well), but whatever it was, the fact now remains that some of the earliest natives of Woodlands fed on tree barks.
You can’t feed on the inner bark of all trees. You have to be careful before deciding to eat any bark. To start with, slippery elm is an excellent tree to eat. In fact, it is sold commercially in a powder form that you can make with maple syrup to enjoy a delicious breakfast cereal. You may be interested in considering this powder as an edible & medicinal food to store for emergencies. Therefore, the first piece of advice is to ask you to learn more about elm trees, such as when they grow and when to eat them. You can also make your powder by using a good knife to cut out the bark of this tree & running its soaked interior through a food processor, or you just pound and dehydrate.
Another great tree whose bark to consume is the White Pine. You can chew on its inner bark & make it as tea. This is done through decoction, which involves simmering the materials and not just steeping them. If you wish, you can grind this bark into food, as the native Americans did on their hunting adventures. I mean, it is usually a lot of work to move logs and make notches in them.
As it is always advised, it is necessary to know for sure that what you want to eat is 100% safe. Evergreen trees are tasty, but how is it safe to consume? Pines and similar trees are excellent survival & winter foods due to their numerous nutritional & medicinal qualities. You have to take advantage of these benefits if you’re ever caught up in the wild during the cold months.
Take note that there are worries over the excessive consumption of the thick & resinous compounds in these trees. They may not be safe if repeatedly taken.
Concluding the Emergency Survival Foods from Tree Bark
Getting emergency survival foods from tree bark is a usual practice among survivalists. But there’s the fact that there’s still so much to learn about the wild, and I’m not referring to its dangers. Instead, I’m speaking of the various ways to optimize trees & other things in it for survival.