If you get lost, you won’t starve as long as there are berries, nuts, and mushrooms available. It’s worse when these are absent, your food runs out, and you don’t know how to fish or hunt. Don’t despair: many plants are suitable for food.
Sorrel
At the base of the leaf, near the stem, there is an arrow-shaped notch. The sorrel leaf itself also resembles an arrowhead. It has a sour taste due to the high content of ascorbic and oxalic acids. The leaves are rich in protein as well. They can be eaten raw or added to soups or green borscht.
Clover
Its leaves can be chopped and eaten raw as a salad. They are rich in protein. Boiled clover leaves are used to make purées and soups.
Dandelion
Young, juicy leaves can be eaten raw after soaking in salted water for half an hour, or, if salt is unavailable, soaked in fresh water for two hours to remove bitterness.
You can also eat the roots: wash them, cut them lengthwise, and dry them. Then roast them over a fire until crispy. The roots have a pleasant sweet taste due to their sugar content (up to 10%) and starch (up to 53%). If you roast and grind them into a powder, they can be used as a coffee-like beverage base.
Rhubarb
This plant has large leaves, sometimes wavy at the edges, and a panicle-shaped flower cluster. The flowers are often white or greenish, sometimes pink or blood-red.
In Europe, rhubarb is cultivated as a vegetable. Only the thick, peeled stems are edible—the rest is poisonous. The edible part is very juicy and nutritious. Rhubarb stems are delicious when boiled or stewed.
Fireweed (Ivan-tea)
This tall plant (up to 1.5 meters) has a pleasant honey-like aroma and evenly pink flowers in a cluster that narrows towards the top. The leaves are alternately arranged on the stem and resemble willow leaves.
Fresh leaves and shoots of fireweed are added to soups. The sweet-tasting roots can be eaten raw. Dried roots can be ground into flour to make flatbreads or porridge.
Burdock
A common plant. Peeled burdock roots can be eaten raw (they taste better before flowering). If baked, the roots become sweet and pleasant to eat.
Reed
Found along river and lake shores. This tall plant has a thin stem with narrow leaves and a panicle at the top.
The roots can be eaten raw—they are juicy, tender, and slightly sweet due to their small sugar content. The roots can also be boiled, baked, or dried. Once dried, they can be ground into flour for making flatbreads or roasted for a drink.
Bulrush
Grows abundantly near water. It has soft, light stems without leaves and a modest brownish panicle at the top. The roots of the bulrush are tender and sweet, especially in spring.
Stinging Nettle
Unlike the stinging variety, the dioecious nettle is taller, with long flower clusters and pointed, elongated leaves.
Shoots and leaves can be used in salads after soaking them in boiling water for 5 minutes. Nettle is also suitable for soups.
Cattail
A beautiful plant with a velvety, thick brown flower cluster, often found along water bodies. It is often mistaken for bulrush.
The young shoots are very nutritious and tasty. They can be boiled and eaten, tasting similar to asparagus.
Cattail rhizomes can be baked whole, like potatoes. The roots can also be cut into half-centimeter-thick pieces and dried over a fire. When ground, they can be used as flour for flatbreads and bread. If roasted and ground, they make a base for a tasty and nutritious drink.
White Water Lily
The rhizomes of the water lily (found at the bottom of water bodies) are edible. They can be boiled, baked, or fried.
Butomus
Grows in water, with long, thin leaves and stems. The flower cluster at the end of the stem resembles an umbrella with large pink flowers—one terminal flower and three separate clusters.
The plant’s rhizomes are baked or fried with fat and can be used to make flour or a beverage base (similar to cattail and reed roots).
Conclusion
Do not take plants if you are not sure of their identity. It is better to go hungry than to eat something poisonous. Note that some of the mentioned plants or their parts are only edible after heat treatment or soaking.
