Flour alternatives / baking breads from the wild

[driver]

i've been studying edible wild plants for a short time now, and have been trying to come up with a suitable diet for surviving off the land. one thing i've been thinking on is a way to bake a bread replacment of sorts from only naturally available sources. a bit of reading has brought me to some informtion regarding the use of some dried roots (cattails for instance) as a flour replacement. does anybody have any information as to baking your own breads while lost in the wilderness? even the simplest of recipes and methods are of great importance here.

also curious as to whether there is a method for preserving or drying eggs collected in the wild for later use? or would this even be useful in the preparation of breads and so forth?

[Shamrock1121]

i've been studying edible wild plants for a short time now, and have been trying to come up with a suitable diet for surviving off the land. one thing i've been thinking on is a way to bake a bread replacment of sorts from only naturally available sources. a bit of reading has brought me to some informtion regarding the use of some dried roots (cattails for instance) as a flour replacement. does anybody have any information as to baking your own breads while lost in the wilderness? even the simplest of recipes and methods are of great importance here.

also curious as to whether there is a method for preserving or drying eggs collected in the wild for later use? or would this even be useful in the preparation of breads and so forth?

I've experimented with many types of flour derived from all sorts of beans, seeds and grains. I have a bevy of mills for preparing flour, flakes, and chopped grain, as well as experience using them whole.

I have yet to find a source for cattail (root) flour. I hestitate to use locally grown because they always seem to be where there is farm or city run-off and I just suppose the stuff is full of chemicals from farm and yards being treated with all the toxins they call "fertilizer", and petrolium products that run off streets. Although cattails are easy to find, I'm suspect as to the safety of eating them, except in an emergency. There is gluten in cattail flour, but not enough to use like you would wheat flour. The extraction method is tedious, from what I've read.

From my file: To extract the flour or starch from the cattail root, simply collect the roots, wash, and peel them. Next break up the roots under water. The flour will begin to separate from the fibers. Continue this process until the fibers are all separated and the sweet flour is removed. Remove the fiber and pour off the excess water. Allow the remaining flour slury to dry by placing near a fire or using the sun.

Use caution... there are also a few poisonous plants that grow along side cattails. Blue flags (iris) and yellow flags (iris) are poisonous and also have tubers. So make sure you have cattails. Winter is supposed to be the best time for harvesting cattail roots, although you can collect the roots anytime of the year, but for flour, winter is the better time.

Even the recipes I have using cattail flour also includes wheat flour.

I'd suggest learning how to "cook" grains and beans in a thermos with boiling water, rather than long-cooking methods. They "cook" overnight, or if you are on-the-go. I'd also suggest learning how to make/use sprouts and wheat grass.

Flat breads, such as tortillas, are one of the best things you can make quickly and easily, using a variety of grain flours. "Instant" refried beans and bean soup can be made by boiling bean flour. Pancakes can also be made from a variety of flours and the pancakes can be used for "bread" and travel fairly well, if need be.

Here in Kansas I'm surrounded by millions of bushels of grain. The worst case - live off my storage grains, and take advantage of gleaning fields in the early summer (wheat, barley, oats, rye) and late fall (milo/sorghum). Even if the fields haven't been worked (planted), you'll find lots of "volunteer" grain to be had in any field where it has normally been planted (not to mention all the elevators storing grain). Wheat would be one of the easiest things for me to find.

All the grains I have in storage can be used to grow more. The first "grain" I'd make sure I grew is amaranth - which is a cousin to pig weed (pig weed can also be used for food). You can eat the leafy greens like spinach and chard in the spring, then harvest the thousands of tiny seeds in the fall. Amaranth usually reseeds itself. It's a high-protein grain and is a very nutritious "grain". An easy way to prepare it is to pop it. Heat a wok or large saucepan (nothing with low sides) over high heat. Add 1/4 c. amaranth and stir constantly until most of the grains have popped and those that do not pop are a shade or two darker. Remove from the pan. Repeat, if you need more. Serve in a bowl with milk and fruit. Sweeten if you'd like. The popped amaranth will keep in a tightly covered container for several week.

Another flour I've worked with is mesquite flour, but it works best in conjunction with wheat flour. This is a traditional Native American food and it is produced by gathering ripened seed pods from the mesquite tree and grinding them into a high protein flour. You can find lots of recipes using mesquite flour if you Google the subject.

I've also done a lot of recipe development using white sorghum flour (locally grown/milled).

About eggs... There are ideas for storing/keeping eggs, but I always err on the side of food safety. Poor food safety practices will be the death of the ignorant in bad times, more so than lack of food. Dehydrating eggs at home is considered unsafe, although you'll find instructions for doing so online. I have powdered eggs in storage, and would also use "goop" made from flax (which will readily grow from seed) and water as a viable egg substitute.

I keep large quantities of chia seeds on hand, and this is the food I'd pack first in an emergency situation. I could survive on chia seeds and water, if need be.

"Bread", would be the least of my worries. People expecting traditional breads, should the SHTF, have probably never made it and don't know the difficulty doing so even in a modern kitchen. Simple flat breads, such as tortillas, would be the way to go.

-Karen

[CarolAnn]

The trouble with cattail roots is. . . they taste like crap! :P
Or, at least, they taste like mud which isn't all that tasty.

It's too late this year to collect cattail pollen, but that is a whole lot better to eat. Each male flower spike will yield about a table spoon of yellow pollen. Here's a site that tells how to collect it and use it: http://www.primitiveways.com/cattail_pollen_pancakes.html

I've read that the native Americans used acorns for flour. They ground them and then washed the pulp a lot to remove the tannic acid, which makes them so bitter.

Amaranth seeds also have been ground for flour (commonly called pig weed - but I'm not sure which varieties are good to eat.)

I also agree with the wonderful tortilla idea - LOTS easier and faster to prepare than bread, not matter what you've ground up for flour!

[JAK]

One approach might be to see what grows well in wild habitats without a lot of cultivation. Clear a little, dig a little, sow some seeds, selectively encourage some trees and bushes and plants at the expense of others. I don't think hunter-gathers were ever pure hunter-gatherers. I think there has always been a continuum between hunting and herding, and between gathering and growing.

Not to hijack the thread, but what I am saying is there should always be two simultaneous approaches, and the third logical default.
1. See what grows well locally that can be useful.
2. See what is useful that can grow well locally.
3. Encourage the above, and discourage the rest.

Here in New Brunswick the local natives would have encouraged local sources such as Sugar Maple, Paper birch, Fiddleheads, Blueberries etc, Butternuts etc. but they would also have obtained lots of seeds by trading to the South and grown that also. Corn, Squash, Beans, are most famous, but there would have been many local varieties and knew ones constantly being tried and developed. Also, wild rice and other such grasses would have been grown along the St.John River where it floods seasonally. Probably many root plants we have forgotten about. We used to have woodland caribou also. They went extinct as a result of the early logging industry. I would think they would have been herded somewhat. Different thread.

So what is the easiest grain to grow and make flour from?

Spelt? Buckwheat? Wild Oats? Wild Rice?

[annabella1]

Flax seed meal makes a good egg substitute in baked goods. The gelatinous mass you get when you add water to it has a lot of the same properties as eggs. Flax is easy to grow, the seed stores well, there are lots of other uses for the rest of the plant. Just be sure and only grind as much as you need that day because anyleftover will go rapid quickly.

[alma]

Great posts. thanks a lot. I'll have to print them all up for future reference.

I have some oatmeal flour purchased recently. Didn't we use potato flour once? I think so, but forgot any more details.

Maybe someone will fill us in on how to use them, unless i've missed them in the above posts. Late at night. half asleep. love, alma