As a rule, our people go to the forest not just to walk along its outskirts, but to fish, most often to pick mushrooms and berries. Consequently, the most fertile time of year is summer (sometimes it is spring or autumn). It is during these months that it is easiest for a traveler to survive in the forest if he has lost his way and has been wandering in the thicket for more than one day. There is, however, an opportunity to feed yourself in the forest at other times of the year, but more on that next time, and today we’ll talk about how to survive in the forest without food if you get lost in summer or spring.
There are many rules of behavior and ways to survive in the forest. This article will introduce readers to the gastronomic side of the issue. So, what should you look for in the forests and copses if your backpack and pockets are empty, and there is nowhere to wait for help and treats?
Trees
Various parts of some forest trees are suitable for human consumption.
Herbaceous plants
Of course, in summer period Most relevant are edible berries: strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, lingonberries, stoneberries, raspberries and others. And if there is a pot or other utensils for use on a fire, then mushrooms.
When going into the forest, everyone should know the basic rules of survival in an extreme situation, including a list of edible gifts of nature. Let's hope that you never get lost, but if this does happen, then you already know how to survive in the forest in the summer without food. We'll talk about how to get water some other time.
Hello comrades! This is my first “licking” from a third-party resource, but summer is coming and I think it would be nice to refresh my memory, and for someone to find out useful information. We all believe that nothing can happen to us. That our train will never go off the rails, the car will never stop in the middle of the road with a broken tire, and the trip for mushrooms will end successfully and the path will lead straight to the house. Usually, in 99.9% of cases, this is exactly what happens. However, every thousandth person is still unlucky. If you think about this constantly, it’s easier to sit at home and not stick your nose out the door, saying goodbye to hiking and traveling.
Although in order to safely get out of such a jam, in fact, you need very little: take with you a map of the area, a spare tire and a repair kit when you go on the road, matches and a knife when you go mushroom hunting. The rules on how not to get lost are very simple. Surviving when lost is also not difficult - so much so that even girls from high school, falling behind the group, are able to spend several days in the forest and safely wait until rescuers find them.
Our ancestors looked with surprise at people who did not know how to survive in the forest - a place that from time immemorial fed people. But today, the vast majority of tourists who find themselves in extreme conditions are capable of starving to death while passing by a richly laid table of forest delicacies. In fact, the most nutritious and simple protein food is right under any traveler's feet. And you don’t need a gun or a knife to catch her. A shovel or, at worst, a digging stick is enough. Because this rich in proteins food - earthworms.
In order to survive, you will have to eat them. It is enough to dig up a handful of worms and place them in running water for several hours so that the digested earth comes out of them. It’s almost impossible to look at such food, but it’s quite possible to eat it. They even have a taste - far from exquisite, but still. It’s even better to boil the rinsed and soaked worms - eating them in this form is much more pleasant.
The following forest-meat dish is a frequent guest in restaurants, especially French ones. Of course, our frogs are not nearly as large as those served in France, but you can eat them too, because they taste almost like chicken, and they are quite common in the forest. And it's not difficult to catch them. The main thing is to remove the skin and place the legs on sticks to fry. You can eat it raw, but people are more accustomed to hot and cooked food.
Mice are more difficult to get, but still possible. Observations of polar wolves and subsequent experiments on humans, described by Farley Mowat, showed that a person who eats field mice whole, along with their entrails, receives a complete set of substances necessary for life and may not even suffer from vitamin deficiency.
We've sorted out the meat menu. The second dish necessary for a person is bread. Of course, a tourist may come across an abandoned but sown field or pick up a crust thrown by a magpie, but in fact, it is much easier to get bread in the forest. Especially if you come across a river or lake.
Large white lotus-like flowers, rounded leaves - this is what a water lily or white lily looks like. Now there are not so many of them left in Russian reservoirs, but if we're talking about about human life, you don’t have to choose. The water lily rhizome consists of 49% starch, 8% protein and about 20% sugar. Of course, before gnawing it, you will have to dry it, grind it into flour and soak in running water to remove tannins. But then, after drying, this flour can be used for baking bread or dough strips wound on sticks over a fire, or simply whiten a soup with it for satiety.
By the way, similar flour can be made from acorns and even dandelion roots, an eternal weed and a thunderstorm of summer cottages. True, they will also have to be dried first, then soaked twice, and only then, having dried again, ground into flour or cereal to create porridge, but when you are hungry, you don’t have to be particularly picky.
Icelandic lichen, which is found in central Russia in pine forests, is also edible. And not just for deer. It contains 44% soluble lechenin starch and about 3% sugar. In order for a person to eat it, it is necessary to deprive the lichen of bitter substances. Therefore, Icelandic moss is soaked with soda or potash for 24 hours. For those who are not used to carrying baking soda with them on an industrial scale, we can advise pouring ash infusion over Icelandic moss. Approximately 2 tablespoons of ash per liter of water, add another two liters of water and you can soak one hundred grams of Icelandic moss. After a day, the moss needs to be washed and soaked in plain water for another day. And then either dry, grind and add to other flour, or boil into jelly and pour in jellied meat or jelly from wild berries. In addition, the cunning Swedes distill alcohol from Icelandic lichen. So the forest is not only ready to feed and shelter any lost tourist, but also to give the skilled one the opportunity to have fun and warm up from the inside.
Another green edible plant that is usually forgotten is burdock. Its roots are best collected in early spring or late autumn, but even in summer they are quite capable of feeding a tourist. They can be eaten raw, boiled, and even better, baked. Completely replaces potatoes, carrots or celery. And if you boil peeled and chopped burdock roots with sorrel or sorrel, you can get excellent sweet and sour jam.
The common and seemingly useless plant chickweed can also be eaten - in salads, soups or even purees. Do the same with sorrel, snytka and “rabbit cabbage”. And young ones can completely replace Brussels sprouts in forest green soups or baked as a side dish.
The forest table is not as familiar as our everyday one, but it is much richer than ordinary tourists imagine. When you have canned food and cereals with you, you can neglect them, but you still need to know about them. And only then, in an extreme situation, decide whether it is worth dying of hunger next to such delicious dishes.
I also think that sorrel and cattail are not deservedly not mentioned (the first is eaten entirely from the second, the peeled, lower part of the stem). Read, share your experience. I think it will be useful for everyone. I almost forgot cattail (it is also mistakenly called reed) grows along the banks stagnant bodies of water and looks like a large hunting match with a brown head. If you fluff it up and dry it, you get excellent kindling (well, just like cotton wool).
Hello, dear readers! Vladimir Raichev is with you again, and today I have prepared a lot of interesting things for you. Today’s article will answer the question of how to survive in the forest alone and without special means.
Survival in the forest is a reality! Anyone who reads such advice never imagines that such a situation could happen to them. But such is the irony of fate that it is not those who are prepared who are left alone with nature, but people who do not allow the thought of such a turn of events.
But does this happen to anyone? Isn’t it better to worry in advance and spend a little time studying survival techniques in the wild? It's about survival in the forest, where you can end up completely by accident, going for mushrooms or taking a shortcut by car and getting stuck with a broken tire.
People with extensive experience of living in deep forests know that the forest is a living, huge organism, with its own laws and rules, which does not forgive mistakes, but provides shelter and food for a prepared person.
It’s good if we are talking about spending one day in the forest, but what if, by chance, fate throws you into the endless wilds and you have to live for a month or two? No matter how fantastic this situation may seem, anything can happen in life.
Start with something. As quickly as possible, get into your head the idea that this has already happened to you and sooner or later you need to stop screaming and calling for help (although this is not bad).
You should immediately cope with panic, provide first aid to your companions, invent or build shelter from bad weather, take care of food and water, and finally prepare all kinds of distress signals that will help search groups find you as quickly as possible.
Now, in order, let's start with point number one - victory over fear. Panic is the worst of helpers, and first you need to extinguish this terrible feeling. To do this, you should stop moving through the forest and simply look around.
Performance this advice, will help you find out more about the place you find yourself in and create the feeling that you now have at least one area under control. It is victory over panic that will help you accept in the future right decisions.
Location orientation
If you are lucky and have a compass, finding your way around the area will not be difficult, but you are not always so lucky.
The cardinal directions can also be determined by “indicators” of nature, such as the location of moss or the number of branches on the side of a tree.
If you decide to move, then, if possible, mark your path with notches on the tree or stones in visible places.
How to determine where north is using the polar star?
For those who understand at least a little about astronomy, a hint for determining north by the polar star will be useful. This landmark has been used by sailors since time immemorial and was often the only “compass”.
To locate the polar star, you should find the constellation Ursa Major. Next, draw an imaginary line through the two “bucket handle” stars, lengthening it five times, taking the distance between these two stars as one reference unit.
The line will point to the polar star, which always points north. This method more accurate than determining cardinal directions by the sun.
How to determine where north is by looking at the moss?
Moss is mainly located on stones and trees on the side facing north. But do not rely on observations from one tree, compare readings on several trunks.
In addition, the bark of trees facing the north side is often darker and rougher than on the south side.
Providing first medical care to the injured companion or yourself
Of course, ideally, no matter where you are, have a first aid kit in your briefcase, bag, backpack, in which you need to have a bandage, iodine, plaster, tourniquet, etc.
But if it is not there, then you should use available means. A tourniquet can be replaced with a rope or intertwined willow twigs; it is also suitable for stopping blood neckerchief, belt, shirt sleeve.
Ideally, have at least some idea about medicinal plants.
For example, sphagnum moss, which grows in abundance in peat bogs, perfectly stops blood and is also an excellent bactericidal agent.
Bird cherry leaves, brewed instead of tea, will help with loose stools or intestinal colic. Cranberries and raspberries have the ability to lower temperatures. There are a lot of similar examples, and this is another reason to devote some time to studying natural healers.
How to build a shelter from bad weather?
This point is one of the most important, since it is shelter from bad weather and overnight accommodation that will become one of the first points of semblance of comfort and coziness. The ability to build a semblance of a “house” from available materials is, first of all, limited by imagination.
Any device is good here: a canopy, a hole in the snow, a hut and much more. If you are lucky enough to find a low horizontal branch growing straight from the tree, you can use it as a base.
In this way, the “structure” will also be strengthened. Relying on such a branch, straight poles are laid on both sides, onto which spruce branches can already be attached. You can secure the branches using willow twigs or bark, but you need to knit them immediately before the bark begins to dry out and break.
Getting food and water
If there is no emergency supply of water and food at hand, then a resourceful and at least slightly prepared traveler will not have any difficulty finding food in the forest.
The forests are rich in berries, roots, mushrooms, nuts, and there is also a chance that a stream flows nearby. If you do not understand mushrooms, then it is better not to risk it.
You can replenish the protein supply in the body with the help of insects, earthworms, frogs, snakes, birds and other living creatures.
Distress signals
The most reliable means is a fire. It should be planted in an open place so that the smoke is not blocked by tree branches. The amount of smoke determines the distance from which you can be seen.
Therefore, add moss, pine needles and half-damp straw to the fire. If you are waiting for rescuers in one place, then find a clearing where you can lay out an arrow with stones or any objects that will indicate the direction in which you are located to passing rescue teams.
To summarize, it is worth noting that during such a forced journey, your body and resourcefulness themselves will make every effort to survive, you just need to stock up on at least a small amount of knowledge.
Such knowledge will be useful on a picnic or on a hike, and will definitely help you out in the most extreme situations.
That’s all I have for today, I told you everything I knew. Did you like the article? Share it with your friends on in social networks. Subscribe to blog updates - there is still a lot of interesting and useful things to come. Until we meet again, bye-bye.
Outdoor recreation has become very popular in Lately. City dwellers love to go into the forest with tents, go for berries and mushrooms, and go for long walks, hunting and fishing. But often they become the heroes of sad news. Nobody thinks that you can get lost in the forest, and few people know even the most basic rules of behavior in an extreme situation. If a person behaves incorrectly, he may die. Therefore, it is worth spending a little time and learning how you can protect yourself. Below is a list of rules for surviving in the forest in summer, read them and try to remember them. Then in the event of a force majeure situation, you will know what to do.
10. Stop and don't panic
When a person realizes that he is lost, he panics. He begins to rush through the forest, screaming, crying. Under no circumstances should this be done; you can move even further away from the road or original location. The moment you realize you are lost, stop. Try to calm down. Accept the situation, prepare yourself for the best, but be prepared to spend a long time in the forest. The easiest way to deal with fear is to accept it. Try visualizing your fear. When you realize that you have come to your senses, begin to act.
9. Call 112 and save your charger
If you have a phone, it's not so bad. First of all, call the emergency services at 112, tell them everything you know about your location. The service operator will determine your location within a radius of up to 600 meters. If you are near a road or populated area, he will be able to guide you out by giving directions over the phone. If you are unable to get out on your own, are injured, or are too far away, a search party will be sent to pick you up. You, in turn, need to treat your phone with care. The main condition is to save battery power. Don't call friends and family for the purpose of "just chatting because I'm scared to be here alone." No matter how scared you are, it is better to turn off the phone, having previously agreed with the operator about when you will call next time. Number 112 works everywhere, no matter whether you have a connection or money in your phone account.
8. Make noise
If you are lost, don't be afraid to shout. You think that you can attract wild animals with your screams. On the contrary, they will be frightened by your scream and will not come close. Shout, make noise, sing songs, take a stick and hit it on a tree trunk. It is difficult to determine where a person is by the voice; it creates an echo. The source of the knock is much easier to determine. It's best to take care in advance. If you often take walks in the forest, love to pick mushrooms, berries, and hunt, buy yourself a whistle.
Don't run through the forest looking for a way out. Not only can you go too deep, but you can also get injured or fall into a hole. Look around, observe the area from the point where you are. If you see a road or railway in the distance, then you can leave this place. If you follow the road, it will be easier to find you. You may not see the road, but you will hear noise. Then feel free to go to the source of the noise; if there are cars driving on the road, someone will definitely help you. Be careful on abandoned forest roads. Such a road will not necessarily lead you to a populated area.
6. Have a snack
Before your walk, be sure to provide yourself with water. Don’t be tempted by the idea that you won’t be there for long and that carrying water around will be tiring. Remember that a person can live for almost a month without food, but only 3 days without water. But don't eat or drink everything you have at once. You don't know how long you'll stay here. In summer it is not difficult to find food in the forest: berries, mushrooms, plants. But be careful with the gifts of nature. If you don't know what kind of plant you have in front of you and whether you can eat it, don't risk it, you could get poisoned or get an upset stomach.
5. Wear bright clothes
Before going to the forest, think about your outfit. It must contain bright things that can be seen from afar. This way they can find you faster. Lost mushroom pickers can be difficult to find. They dress in dark, discreet clothes. Also, many people hold in high esteem camouflage, in which a person is not visible in the forest at all. If you don't have a bright jacket or trousers, buy yourself a bright vest with reflective stripes. It can be purchased at any gas station. If you take your child with you, buy him a reflective sticker too. This way they can see you even at night.
4. Go down to the pond only if you are confident in your abilities
You see a pond ahead and rush towards it as fast as you can. So that you don’t notice any snags or holes. Be careful, you'll fall and break your legs. In addition, if the pond has a steep bank, you can fall into it and never get out. Go down to the water slowly. If you have children, teach them how to behave around water. Most lost children fall into a river or lake and drown.
3. Report the walk and arrange a follow-up call
It's better not to go into the forest alone. But in any case, inform your loved ones about the walk, tell them your approximate route and arrange a follow-up call. If you've gone for a few days, at least once a day, find an opportunity to let them know you're doing well. Because if you went hunting for a week, for example, and got lost on the first day, no one will look for you, and precious time will be lost. And so, if you don’t get in touch, they can already sound the alarm.
2. Bring a compass
Always take a compass when walking. As soon as you enter the forest, determine the cardinal directions. If you don't know how to use a compass, learn. And be sure to teach this to your children. The end of the arrow should coincide with the letter N, this is north. You just need to remember the number that the compass shows at the entrance to the forest. You need to return in the opposite direction. If you didn’t take a compass with you, but at least know where you need to go south or north, you can determine the cardinal directions with the help of nature. Take a closer look at the trees; moss always grows on the north side. If you come across anthills on the way, pay attention to them, on the south side they are flatter. The resin on the trees comes out from the north side.
1. Build a fire
If you have matches, start a fire. If it's already late and it's towards evening, it's time for you to take care of lodging for the night. You will have to look for firewood for a long time, so don’t delay. At night in the forest, even in summer, it can be very cold. In addition, search engines may notice the fire. It’s better not to run through the forest at all, but to stop in one place and wait for help there. You can sleep during the day and listen at night. They are looking for you; if you fall asleep, you may not hear the call of the search engines. Do not lie down on damp ground, look for branches and dead wood. If you cannot get warm and this has been going on for a long time, connect thumb and little finger. If you succeeded, then your body is coping normally so far. If not, then you become hypothermic. Warm up in any way, run, jump, do physical exercises.
Now you know how to survive in the forest in summer time. Therefore, prepare thoroughly before each walk. Well, if you get lost, then don’t give up, don’t throw hysterics, don’t give in to despair. Calmness will help you save your life.
History knows many cases of miraculous rescue of people who found themselves in extreme conditions. 17-year-old schoolgirl Juliana Margaret survived a plane crash and nine days of wandering in the rainforest among dangerous wild animals. Surprisingly, shortly before the incident, the girl’s father taught her the skills of being in the forest, thanks to which she managed to escape.
Another case of survival in the forest was included in the Guinness Book of Records. Larisa Savitskaya, a student from the Amur region, survived a plane crash after falling from a 5-kilometer height and, despite her injuries, was able to build a hut in the taiga from the wreckage of the plane and live in the forest for several days until rescuers found her.
Finding themselves in an extreme situation, very often people cannot psychologically tune in to salvation and become lost under the influence of panic, even despite the knowledge and skills they have. How should a person behave when lost in the forest? The rules of survival in the forest are quite simple.
You can survive in the forest if you overcome panic
In 1981, student Natalya Kosorukova, who was part of an expedition in the taiga, fell behind the main group. Rescuers tried to find the girl for more than a month. During this time, she walked 200 km through the taiga. Contrary to the instructions given, the girl moved upstream of the river, not downstream. This made the search more difficult. Despite the fact that she had a magnifying glass and matches in her backpack, she was unable to start a fire.
This incident once again proves that if you are lost in the forest, the main thing is to overcome panic. This is the very first and necessary rule.
Many people who got lost in the forest died of hunger without even using up their food supply. This state of a person was described by the writer D. Collier in his story “Three Against the Wilds”: “A person, having lost his way in the forest thicket, loses orientation more and more, easily crosses the line between sober prudence and feverish panic. Maddened, he rushes through the forest, stumbles over heaps of windfall, falls and, having risen, hurries forward again, no longer thinking about the right direction, and finally, when physical and mental stress reaches the limit, he stops, unable to take a single step.” .
To overcome the surging feeling of hopelessness and the desire to run in all directions at once, you must first stop, force yourself to sit down and ask questions: where was I last seen? Will they be looking for me? What landmarks can I rely on on my way (highway, railway tracks, river, forest guardhouse, village). When panic begins to take over your mind again, pray, read poetry, sing songs, just don’t let this state confuse you - this is perhaps half the success in surviving in the forest.
Natural compasses
Depending on the circumstances under which you got lost or lost, you should decide whether to wait for help on the spot or try to reach people. If they are looking for you, it is better to stay where you are, light a fire and talk or sing loudly.
When your mobile phone is with you and charged. Most often there is no connection in the forest, but there is always the opportunity to call the emergency rescue service 112. It is recommended to use this if you are lost in the forest. If your mobile phone can pick up the operator’s network, you can call your loved ones and ask them to start searching.
If you are sure that there will be no searches, you need to hit the road.
When looking for shelter or people, the very first thing to do is get your bearings and determine where to go. Listen to see if you can hear the sound of water or the sound of passing cars. You need to go in one direction, don’t turn anywhere, not forgetting about the notches on the trees so that they can find you. Moving along the river, you need to go all the time DOWNSTREAM. Do not start your journey in the evening; it is better to stay overnight in the same place than to freeze in the forest at night. If there are few landmarks, then natural compasses, which are well known to us from life safety lessons, are suitable to determine the direction of the path.
Quick construction of a hut
Once you have your bearings on the area and understand where you need to go, you need to decide how much time you can physically walk through the forest before sunset, taking into account that you will need to find a place of shelter, make a fire and get water. The fact is that this part of your survival in the forest must always be done before dark. Try not to overestimate your strength and leave time for rest, especially on the first day of your journey.
If it is already approaching evening, it is better to spend the night on the spot, building a hut. The best place to build a hut would be a hill near a small pond, covered on one side by a dense forest from the wind.
The material for constructing the roof of a hut can be spruce branches or moss rolled into a carpet. However, at the beginning it is necessary to make a good support and sheathing of dry branches. For the supporting structure, you can choose two parallel trees or a felled tree. For better shelter from rain, spruce branches can be covered with grass or fern. Moss covered with spruce branches can be used as bedding for sleeping. The side open parts of the hut should be located towards the dense forest. The steep parts of the roof can be facing places where the wind will blow - clearings or clearings.
After arranging a place to stay for the night, you need to get a fire and make a fire
Experienced tourists advise always taking matches and a folding knife into the forest. If you still forgot your matches, then there are many options for lighting a fire. However, we will describe the simplest method below. Before starting a fire, you need to build the fire itself so that there is dry grass and moss below. The next layer will be pine needles or thin sticks, then tree bark and only thick sticks on top.
Now about how to make fire without matches.
- Find a dry straight stick, dry moss, dry grass or wood dust, dry wood.
- Make a bow from a dry stick and shoe laces.
- Make a small hole in dry wood.
- Then insert a stick without knots into the hole, thread the bow through it, and quickly twist the bow string around this stick. The result is powder-dust, in which a spark will appear. Then the spark should be transferred to dry grass or dust from a tree.
After the fire is lit, you should prepare a supply of firewood and cover it with spruce branches or put it in a hut. You should only search for water and food after lighting a fire.
Feeding in the forest and obtaining water
Many years of research have shown that a person can live much longer without food than without water. In hot weather, dehydration can even kill you within a few hours. Therefore, the first thing to do before cooking is to get water, purify it and boil it.
If there are natural sources of water near you (streams, springs, lakes, swamps), then it is enough to boil this water after filtering it through charcoal and disinfect it from bacteria. Good herbal antibiotics for disinfecting water are rowan berries, sphagnol moss, birch chaga mushroom, chamomile, St. John's wort, lingonberry, willow bark, oak bark, and juniper branches.
If there are no natural sources of water nearby, then you can use the method of collecting dew and condensation from trees and plants. Any clothing is suitable for collecting dew. Dew is collected early in the morning from non-poisonous plants by rubbing clothes over them. Then squeeze the fabric into a container and boil it. If you have a plastic bag with you, you can use it to collect liquid from tree branches. You just need to put the bag on a branch, tie it with a string and wait a few hours.
Homemade cooking utensils
You will need containers to boil and collect water. It’s good if you manage to find an iron can or any other container left in the forest by carefree tourists. You can make a boiling container yourself.
To make dishes for boiling water and cooking, you need to take thick birch bark and cut an oval or rectangle out of it. Wherein white side should be inside the pot. The edges are moved and clamped with a homemade wooden clothespin. Such utensils cannot be used on an open fire, only for cooking over charcoal.
When you have a small supply of water, a shelter has been built and a fire has been lit, then you should think about getting food. You can feed yourself in the forest at any time of the year. It is enough to know about the beneficial and nutritional properties of the plants around us. It turns out that in the forest you can prepare flour, bake bread and even cook porridge.
The simplest and most nutritious source of food in the forest are trees, wild herbs, berries and mushrooms. We list below the most common options for preparing food in conditions of survival in the forest.
- Birch
- Birch sap contains vitamins and other nutrients, is easy to extract and does not require purification
- You can make tea from birch bark.
- Pine
- You can brew tea containing vitamin C from pine needles
- the crushed inner part of pine bark can be eaten
- To obtain grain from pine bark, you need to plan the inner layer of bark in the form of strips. Then dry the strips and crush them. This cereal is very high in calories. By mixing it, for example, with burdock or dandelion root flour, you can bake bread and flatbreads.
- Linden
- Linden leaves and the inner bark can be eaten.
- Oak
- Acorns can be ground and made into flour for making bread.
- Willow(since willow is a moisture-loving plant, it is an indicator that there is a body of water somewhere nearby)
- The inner part of the bark can be eaten.
- Nettle
- Nettle leaves can be consumed in the form of cabbage soup and decoctions.
- Sorrel
- common sorrel often grows in forest clearings and meadows; it can be eaten unprocessed in salads (for example, with dandelion, nettle).
- Dandelion
- scalded dandelion leaves along with nettle and fireweed leaves can be consumed as a salad
- Roasted crushed dandelion roots are consumed as a “coffee” drink.
- Blooming Sally
- fresh roots can be eaten raw or cooked in place of asparagus or cabbage.
- Roasted fireweed roots can also be used to make “coffee.” Flour is prepared from the dried and crushed roots of fireweed, then bread and cakes are baked.
- The dried leaves are brewed and a delicious tea is obtained.
- Burdock
- known for its valuable and beneficial nutritional properties. In besieged Leningrad, burdock roots were used instead of boiled potatoes. You can also bake it in coals.
- woodlouse
- Chickweed weed can also be useful for making salad or soup. For salads, you can eat it unprocessed.
- Oxalis (hare cabbage)
- rich in vitamin C, apple and folic acid. Can be consumed fresh.
- Cattail (colloquially reed)
- Suitable for cooking flour or porridge in water. Cattail root is cut into pieces, dried and ground. Young shoots are cut and boiled (vaguely similar to asparagus).
If you feel that plant foods do not have enough calories to overcome the difficult path, then it is possible to prepare nutritious protein foods. The forest is rich in protein food:
- wild bird eggs found in nests,
- earthworms - soaking them in running water and further cooking allows you to make the worms a valuable and safe food for humans;
- frogs (tastes like chicken, must be skinned and fried)
- mice.
You can also eat mushrooms and berries in the forest, but only if you are absolutely sure that they are not poisonous. Don't be discouraged if you don't get food on the first day. Drink more warm boiled water. This will reduce hunger and keep you warm.
How to protect yourself from wild animals in the forest?
Often, people lost in the forest, in addition to the feeling of hunger, are also overcome by the fear of meeting wild animals. In the central zone of our country, such cases are extremely rare, especially in the summer. Animal attacks only occur if a person comes extremely close to them and prevents them from passing along the paths. In the forest you need to be extremely observant, try to notice animal trails, ravines, dens and avoid them. In addition, letting animals know about their existence in the forest is not only possible, but also necessary. When moving through the forest, talk loudly and try to step on cracking dry branches. When choosing a camp site and a hut, you should mark your overnight location within a radius of 50 meters with your own urine. In the same way, the animals themselves mark their perimeter.
Forest first aid kit for survival
Do not forget that in such extreme conditions the risk of hypothermia or contracting an intestinal infection is quite high. Therefore, it is necessary to know about the simplest natural medicines that you may need.
- For indigestion, dysentery, stomach pain - oak bark tea, charcoal inside.
- Antipyretics - chew willow bark (the bark contains salicin, similar to aspirin), oak bark tea.
- For insect bites, treat the wound with dandelion or plantain juice.
- Snake bite - suck out the poison from the wound, apply a string to the wound.
- Wounds, ulcers, cracks - oak bark, ash, pine resin, boiled blueberry leaves (purulent wounds), St. John's wort tea inside.
For any inflammatory processes - a decoction of lingonberry leaves, chamomile, St. John's wort, blueberry, Icelandic lichen.
Of course, there are situations in which a person is forced to survive in the forest as a result of a natural disaster, such as a forest fire or an airplane crash.
But most often, people get lost when going to the forest to pick mushrooms and berries in the summer, because they cannot assess their own strengths and do not know the simplest skills of behavior in the forest. The main mistake of people lost in the forest is that they incorrectly prioritize their actions and begin to think about food first. Uniform distribution only physical activity in search of food and shelter will help to avoid overwork and save life.
