Basic Survial Kit Recap

reply to post by Dan Tanna


That was a good link, yes, maybe you or somebody start a thread for fungi and wild plant ids. But still the best thing is practice, if you get stranded, or SITX occurs, you want to know where your going to go, have back-up shleters and routes, and have an extremely open mind to the entire situation... Think Outside the box.

Originally posted by Dan Tanna
Wild fungi needs its own dedicated stuff
Daniel.

I agree it REALLY does.
There's a very good reason why even Ray Mears doesn't touch it in his wild food book.
It's HUGE,the similarities between poisonous and edible are varying and sometimes confusing..and the legal implications of someone getting poisoned after taking advice on a forum aren't straightforward either.

If in doubt..CHUCK IT OUT... is the best advice I'd be prepared to give.

Keep species separated in case of cross contamination,chuck out any decomposing/insect ridden.
Cooking doesn't neutralise poisonous ones either.

One guide I read recommends,if you want a supply of safe eating fungi..to lay logs down and introduce said fungus to these logs..so you're assured of a relatively safe supply.
..
added a 'similar' idea.. commercially done..
www.humungus-fungus.co.uk...

scroll down to "growing mushrooms on hardwood logs"

AGENT_T, I will say this. If i was to do a thread i would make it a 'learn, learn & more learn' thread.

I would avoid saying 'eat this, don't eat that', but I would try and point towards as many sources of advice as i could.

BBC fungi page

Mushrooming safely

There are no shortcuts to identifying edible fungi

Bearing in mind the dangers, it is highly recommended that you first find a knowledgeable guide. Michael Jordan, chairman of the Association of British Fungus Groups (ABFG), says, “I would definitely encourage novices to go out with someone who has good field experience”. Other mycologists agree, stressing the need to positively identify all mushrooms before ingesting them, and discarding any that cannot be positively identified. Stefan Buczacki, past president of the British Mycological Society, says, "there is no substitute for collecting with someone experienced". His colleague Liz Holden emphasises that "there are no shortcuts to identifying edible fungi - none of the traditional 'rules' for separating the edible fungi from the poisonous (eg the cap of an edible fungus peels easily, brightly coloured fungus are poisonous, etc) can be relied upon ".

Even the experts agree. practise and skill. Discard ALL that cannot be 100% identified.

AGENT_T, I think that mushroom growing on logs idea is bloody awesomeness.

I am going to give that a bash this autum.

So much great info on fungus + mushrooms, personally I wouldn't touch the stuff with a 10ft barge pole unless I knew what I was doing.
I agree this is the kind of thing where you have to be expierienced to risk not posioning yourself (or seeing hobbits and unicorns )

I found this link while digging which gives some pretty good info on edible mushrooms, you can also search for inedible/posionous ones to...

www.rogersmushrooms.com...

I'm also looking over the specs on that vacuum sealer, what a great idea

Does anyone know what 24� Hg is? Is that 24.5 Bar??? In all my time working with high vacuum systems I've never seen vacuum pressure written like this...

reply to post by fred3110

Many mushrooms are poisonous some are deadly poisonous. We have made every effort to ensure accuracy on this website but, in the end, the responsibility for eating any mushroom or fungus must rest with the individual; for instance there are people who are allergic to all species of mushrooms. If you collect any mushrooms to eat make sure that your identification checks out in every detail. Never eat any wild mushroom until an expert mycologist has checked your identification. Even when you know a mushroom well weather conditions or animal damage can cause differences in appearance that could lead to misidentification.

www.rogersmushrooms.com...

I thought I'd copy his disclaimer as it contains some VERY good advice in general.
Again with the dilemma of supplying info balanced against the sheer number of differences between types.
Very daunting..

Stick to frogs legs Fred ..(NOT those lumpy ones that looked tempting on your trip )
Try them on any slackers first

[edit on 7-8-2008 by AGENT_T]

reply to post by fred3110


Tell you never been a nurse or medic.

Thats 24 mm of mercury pressure rating. Thats LOW, very low... thats, deathly low in a human beings system. ROFL.

Yeah I seen that disclaimer, they've gotta put it on everything nowadays or there ass gets sued.

T I eat whole frogs...with a bit of sauce there quite scrumptious

Dan gimme a break thats why I've never seen it before all the systems I've dealt with are uber vacuum normally rated 1.1/9.9x10-7 or 8 not that measly kind lol!

Cheers for the info though could of asked my mam that if she was in...shes a nurse, bet shes having a hell of a time tonight with all the drunks coming in

reply to post by fred3110




Ring your mum up, and say 'why does my pressure reading say 24 mm Hg on it? if she asks if your feeling unwell, say 'deadly tired'.

See how fast the ambulance reaches you.

ROFL. Second thoughts, don't. She'll kill you when she finds its a joke.

nooooo I'd feel her full wrath if I done that

Its so handy having a family member as a nurse, I get step by steps on how set broken legs and what anit-biotics are best to use etc...my notbooks like a medical bible now hope I never have to open the damn thing!

yeah, you get good info, but none at all about what fungi to eat........ tsk tsk, they don't teach 'em enough i say!

Any how, I got a good idea for a thread now.

Will post it in the morning.

Looking forward to reading it

I might go out tommorow and see what kinds grow in the local area...maybe take a few pictures so I can do some research on them.

Don't know if anyone mentioned this but with this new Iran EMP thing going on it might not hurt to try and get a 3-6 month supply of your prescriptions.

May be expensive but running out of insulin or blood pressure meds may kill you faster than the poopwater.

Originally posted by emsed1
Don't know if anyone mentioned this but with this new Iran EMP thing going on it might not hurt to try and get a 3-6 month supply of your prescriptions.

May be expensive but running out of insulin or blood pressure meds may kill you faster than the poopwater.

Quoted for the truth.

If it goes down, those on meds are dead. Simple fact. Well, after all, survival of the fittest and all that.

Okay, here is some suggestion when it comes to possibly poisonous plants/fungi.

I'm pulling all of this from memory, so I might have this confused a little.

But, there is a method to use when you are unsure if a plant is edible or not.
First off, before you eat any of it, rub the plant on a small patch of skin. If you get irritated after a few minutes, its probably not safe to eat. If not, break open the leaf and rub on skin, still looking for irritation.

If that is safe, the next step is to rub the plant on your lips. Give this step some time to see any adverse reactions. Once the lip test is passed, you can chew a small portion (without swallowing). After this, you can eat a small amount, and see how you digest it.

Now, you want to do this in very small quantities. If the plants are poisonous, you will get a reaction during one of the stages. Hopefully, it would be in one of the earlier stages before you actually eat the plant.

I remember this information, from reading it at another location. It really made sense to me. I would not suggest using this method under any circumstance other than dire ones. Your health is not worth the risk, unless you are starving.

Part of planning for Survival under any conditions, especially SitX, is knowing what location you will be in, and having flora/fauna information available. A few printed pages of local edible plants with pictures would be helpful.

I would also suggest Ebooks. If you download ebooks, you can quickly amass a vast library of knowledge. Remember, knowledge is power.

Does anyone know if the local Pharmacists here in the UK do Mushroom Identifying?

I know that in France they (Pharmacists) do this as everyone and their aunt sell locally picked ones in their markets.

A good book to get is the Collins Mushroom Guide. In fact Collins produce quite a few good books on Identifying all sorts of things. They are nice and small and compact, worth a getting a collection up.

Important note to the "testing food" procedure mentioned above, at each stage, you need to wait a significant period of time - this should be a very slow process, and wait at least 24 hours after consuming one mouthful before you actually chow down..

I'm still recommending the "write your own survival book" idea, because a lot of knowledge will stick in your head that way. Obviously, we should all know the basic shelter, first aid, water, food tips that are necessary for survival, and definitely know how to use everything in your survival kit.. but having a manual for backup, especially for things like first aid, plant identification, etc.

One useful thing I learned recently, I took a trip to a local Native American museum, where they helpfully had displays showing various kinds of tools, traps, fishing nets, basket designs, and the thing I found most useful, how to prepare acorns for eating. The visual display, and the different implements used are now cemented in my head.. Their daily diet would consist of roughly 1lb acorn flour/mush per person per meal (2x daily), an amount they could harvest from a few trees in a matter of days, for an entire year's supply.. The preparation is quite time consuming, since you need to leach out the tannin, but in a long term survival situation, this is an abundant food source that many others will not be thinking of.

If you are worried about testing food, just be sure that your survival plan includes having some people around that are unprepared and you dont much care for.

This tread has turned into a mushroom thread, which is interesting. I like mushrooms, keep books on hand however, way too big a risk to not know what you are looking at.

Yes, as salchanra mentioned, this is sort of turning into a edible plant thread, I would like to keep it to a basic survival kit that an average joe could put together..

Question: Has anyone told and talked about survival kits to people who are not ATS or survivalist?

reply to post by truth_seeker3


All the time. However, I dont refer to them as survival bags to most people. I call them prepardness bags. I come across as less of a lunatic that way (maybe). If you can get people thinking a little bit, it could help in the long run. Ive had a couple of people gravitate more towards a self sufficient lifestyle.

I had a question I wanted to bring up here. Lets say that you know 3 or 4 others like you in your nearby area. Would it be better for all of you to have your own BOB or to have everyone carry the basics, and then specialize for the good of the group? You would have fewer duplicates of some items, axes for instance, and would be able to carry larger tents, medical bags etc...?