Ok lets say you're in the BWCA with no food. What could you eat (besides fish)? I can think of:

- crawdads

- cattails

- fresh water clams

What are other common plants/animals in the BWCA that you could eat?

Momabadoo
I see you found the thread started by kclamken.
I noticed many people mentioned eating muscles in the BW. I too have opened a couple looking for pearls. That was before I was aware of this, however.

"No live mussels may be collected in Minnesota. No live or dead mussels may be collected in National Park Service units, including the St. Croix River. If you pick up a live mussel, return it to the water immediately, being careful to place its foot end in the stream bottom so about two-thirds of the shell is buried."

I found this on the DNR website. I'm sorry to spoil anyone's tasty dinner.
Stubs

Well, the obvious are the berries -- blueberries, raspberries, strawberries. I have some of these nearly every trip.

Large leaf aster is everywhere and you can eat that.... in the spring

Fiddleheads off of ferns... in the spring

Rose hips when available.

Burdoc root is good but I don't know how much of that I've seen there.

The list goes on and I'm always trying to add to it.

Hex

Word of caution regarding fiddleheads.

There is a fern in the wilderness called the "Bracken Fern" which should not be consumed by humans-even in the fiddlehead state. It contains chemicals that are linked to Stomach Cancer. If you intend to eat Filldeheads ber sure they are from the Ostrich Fern.

See the links to disctinquish the two-if you are not sure don't eat any.

Bracken Fern:

http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/bracken_fern.htm

Ostrich Fern

http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/ferns/matteucciastru.html

Ah, but when the bracken ferns are boiled in salt water the effects are negated. I personally prefer the Osterich fern unless they are bitter but I know others that prefer the bracken.

http://www.rook.org/earl/bwca/nature/ferns/pteridiumaqui.html

But, to each his own and I prefer to err on the safe side thus they do not make my plate. In a time of need I would eat them.

Hex

I was thinking...
The video you need to watch each year, the Leave No Trace video, says that you are only allowed to take dead and down wood, bark, etc. for firewood. Does this rule apply to edible plants too? That is, is it technically illegal to harvest your own fiddleheads or large leaf aster in the BW?

Stubs

Indeed I do believe so although I doubt the DNA are gonna get to angry if they find you eating a a cattail...

It surely is not encouraged. It may be illigal.
On the contrary:
I have ran into a pair of ranges a few years back on Kek that told us thay had just run into an outfitter guiding a group of asians. They were astonished at thier knowledge of edible plants and ability to keep the guide fed with fresh greens.

I, by no means, rely on eating off the wild. I have been known to prepair the side of wild greens from time to time while in the B-Dub but do most of my foraging localy. I think that they could never formally encourage it for fear of more delectable species being decimated in areas by over harvest.

Hex

This thread has had a nearly 6 year hiatus. Time for a bump. Wish it were in general discussion though.

There is a current thread on PB&J and one in the Q forum on edible plants.

So bumpity bump...

Who has eaten from the wild in the B'dub or the Q? How did you learn what to eat? Have you eaten anything without knowing exactly what it is/was? Bring any plant identification books with to give it a try?

Besides some berries and acorns, I haven't done much of it but am considering giving it more of a try next year. I think it would be neat to try out the greens as in this thread and the thread in the Q forum.

quote hexnymph: "I have ran into a pair of ranges a few years back on Kek that told us thay had just run into an outfitter guiding a group of asians. They were astonished at thier knowledge of edible plants and ability to keep the guide fed with fresh greens."

A few years back, I read about an Asian family in California that ended up in the hospital (or dead?). They mistook one of the native mushrooms for one of their regular edibles back home. The mushroom they ate was poisonous.

Basic edibles are great. You can find many of them in older Boy Scout Handbooks and Fieldbooks. Other specific guides to regional plants are good, too. The SAS survival manuals are a great resource, too.

Mushrooming is very dangerous for the uneducated. A great book to help you identify the "Safe Six" (six mushrooms that are nearly impossible to misidentify) is Start Mushrooming. The safe six are (and you've likely seen many of these before) giant puffball, sulfer shelf, hen of the woods, oyster, morel, and shaggy mane. The book includes basic tests you can perform to confirm the identity of those you find (from the color of the gills and spores, to noting the color the mushroom flesh turns when it is bruised).

This message has had HTML content edited out of it.



A couple of species of mushrooms that I've found in the bw. Birch Bolete (the ones with the longer stalks) and some Chanterelles (the yellow ones) Birch Bolete tastes ok. Chanterelles are fantastic.

Just a little note: Don't EVER eat a mushroom unless you are 100% sure of what it is and you are 100% sure you know enough to know what it is.

If I'm living off the land than, all is fair in this hypothetical situation...

Crawdads, small Minnows caught in a rock corral, Mussels, Frogs, Turtles, Squirrels,

Blueberries, Strawberries, Thimbleberries, Sumac tea, Labrador tea, Cattail root, Rose hips, Raspberries, Acorns, Pine cone seeds,

And only in a survival situation, grubs, If Bear can do it so can I, :)

Again if I had to live off the land most anything goes...
My stainless steel leader spool has lots of snare wire the catch critters...

Field mice, Chipmunks, Grouse, some birds, bird eggs if I could find any,

Turtle soup. You do need to buy a turtle license in MN but a snapping turtle shell could make a neat trip memento.

Turtle is tasty.
Never thought of trapping minnows.

I have only eaten the various berries you can pick in summer while visiting the BWCAW/ Quetico. I learned edible plants from relatives, scouts, and books. I would never eat anything I wasn’t totally familiar with. I would even discourage a person from using a field guide to try something for the first time. Know what it looks like first. Many things are only edible after much more food preparation than we are used to. Also I do not know if it would be ethical let alone legal to forage in an area like the BWCA/Q. So with that disclaimer:

If you can get to them before the red squirrels, there are plenty of beaked hazel nuts around in late August through September. Plenty of pin and chokecherries too. Bunch berries can still be found as well as few thimble berries. But the most common edibles are the same weeds that can be found in a city lawn: dandelions, chickweed, lambsquarters, and its relative pigweed. Although the young shoots, leaves, and flowers of fireweed are edible, I wouldn’t support harvesting the whole plant.

Paddled 14 days from nym to ely with one bag of flour and one medium size bag and jerky from the gas station...


Ate two full meals a day and till I was stuffed. Also no sleeping bag or tent for the trip. Met some park rangers at snake falls and they saw how little gear we had and thought we were crazy.
blue berries,

strawberries,

Bunchberries,

Cattail,

Lichen= reindeer moss=made into flour for ash cakes,

rock tripe=cooked like oatmeal

young pine needles for vitamin c drink

fireweed tea

Fish, crawdads, clams=from the shallows, = legal meat

Most days I made a thick hearty stew. Base of flour and water and threw in whatever edible plants I found and whatever type of meat I came across that day.

There's several more plants I ate those are just off the top of my head. I'll have to find my journal and see what all I used. It's been 12 years since I did that trip =)

Last June I came across a lone morel mushroom in the middle of a short portage. Thought about plucking it, but one wouldn't do much for a meal, although it did look tasty.

Now that's one thing I've never seen up in quetico yet. Is a morel as I'm usually there in september or late august.

Since i've had grouse pecking at my shoelaces before it's only fair i help thin the herd of the stupid ones. i've also found beaver lodges so flimsy and built under large rocks that i could see them on their platforms inside. i think i'd try and get all my meat at once before i go on a minnow diet. i'd eat minnows if i had to though.

the mushroom guy didnt mention black morels. I found some on a portage last year. they were so delicous with some walleye.

I'd love to harvest and eat mushrooms while there but the only one I know for sure is the morel. I pick a lot of those every spring on the farm. Yum!

I'd love to harvest and eat mushrooms while there but the only one I know for sure is the morel. I pick a lot of those every spring on the farm. Yum!