Food guides

Wild food: catch it, pick it, clean it, cook it

Food comes last in survival: you can last weeks without it, but only days without water and hours without warmth. When you do need it, these guides show what the survival manuals teach for animals and plants found across much of the US, with the usual rules beside each method.

Before you rely on thisEat a wild plant only when you are 100% sure what it is. Outside an emergency, your state's hunting, trapping and fishing laws apply.A learning tool, not a replacement for training. In an emergency, call 911.

Animals

Catch and prepareSquirrels and chipmunks

Gray, fox and red squirrels live in every woodlot, are easy to find, and give a small, clean, tasty meal; chipmunks are too small to be worth it.

Catch and prepareCottontail rabbit

Cottontails live along every brushy edge; one rabbit is a real meal, and it is the easiest animal to skin.

Catch and prepareGroundhog (woodchuck)

A groundhog is a big, fat ground squirrel that lives in one burrow and feeds in the same field every day, so it is easy to find and gives a lot of meat.

Catch and prepareRaccoon and opossum

Raccoons and opossums come out at night along every creek; both are fat, filling meat once they are cleaned well and cooked all the way through.

Catch and prepareMuskrat and beaver

Muskrats live in every cattail marsh and beavers in the bigger creeks; both eat only plants, and their dark meat is rich and good.

Catch and prepareWhite-tailed deer

One deer gives 40 pounds or more of meat, plus sinew for lashing and a hide; this guide walks through bleeding, gutting, skinning, cutting it up, and smoking…

Catch and prepareFrogs

Bullfrogs and green frogs sit at the edge of every pond; the back legs are white, mild meat that cooks in minutes.

Catch and prepareSnapping turtle and softshell

A big snapping turtle has a lot of good meat, but it is dangerous to handle and hard to clean; small turtles are barely worth it, and box turtles are never…

Catch and prepareFish and crayfish

Fish are in every pond, lake and creek, easier to get than most animals, and they gather in deep pools, under overhanging brush and around sunken logs.

Plants

Pick and prepareAcorns

Oak trees drop piles of acorns every fall, and once you wash out the bitter part they make a filling mush or flour.

Pick and prepareBeechnuts, chestnuts, walnuts and hazelnuts

These nuts are full of oil, so a small pile feeds you a lot, and none of them need soaking like acorns do.

Pick and prepareBerries and wild fruit

Wild berries are quick, sweet energy you can eat right off the bush, as long as you know exactly which bush it is.

Pick and prepareWild greens

Everyday weeds like dandelion, nettle and plantain are some of the most nourishing food outdoors, and they grow almost everywhere.

Pick and preparePokeweed shoots

Young pokeweed shoots are an old spring green, but only when picked small and boiled twice; every other way, pokeweed poisons you.

Pick and prepareCattails

Every marsh is a cattail grocery store: tender shoots in spring, green heads and yellow pollen in early summer, and starchy roots all year.

Pick and preparePine needle tea and inner bark

A pine tree gives you vitamin C tea from its needles, sweet inner bark and seeds, even in the middle of winter.

Pick and prepareSassafras and mint teas

Sassafras root and wild mint make warm, good-smelling teas that can settle a stomach and lift your mood.

Pick and prepareWild onions, daylilies and spring beauty

Wild onion bulbs, daylily tubers and spring beauty roots are small, starchy, filling foods you can dig with a stick.

Pick and prepareMaple and birch sap

In late winter, maple, birch and sycamore trees run with sweet sap you can drink like water or boil down into syrup.