Why We Go Hungry in the Wilderness

by RedWolfReturns
“I had just finished my first primitive skills class, and was now striking off alone into the wilderness to apply what I had been taught. Excitement tinged with fear filled my body, and my mind raced about thinking of what I needed to do. In my pack was a good, comprehensive primitive survival “how-to” book and a good, comprehensive edible wild plants book. I was going to survive by my own skills, knowledge and wits. Six days later I emerged, haggard, hungry & humbled. I jumped in my truck and sped toward town, my mind filled with a vision, not so much of spiritual enlightenment, but of a cheeseburger, fries and a coke.”

The first thing I wanted to know when I started pursuing primitive skills was how to feed myself in the wilderness. It seemed to me that learning edible wild plants was the quickest way to do this, so I got a few books and went to a class that taught me the identification, edibility and medicinal qualities of a fairly large number of plants. It was a good start, but it didn't take me very far.

When I actually went to the woods the plants were rarely in full bloom, as they had been in the class or were shown in the book, so identification was often difficult. Also, I didn't really know where to find them, or what part of the plant would be available for use during what time of the year. I wasted a lot of time and energy moving around looking for plants in places where they weren't. I also found a lot of “edible” plants that currently didn’t have any edible parts – they may have fruited a month ago or perhaps would be fruiting in another couple months. And on top of that, I had little more than a vague idea how to pick them and still be sure they would be there next year, or even just the next time I was hungry.

Many of these wild plants were too bitter or sour or plain or fibrous for my palate, and so I soon grew tired of them or made myself sick when trying to eat enough of them to actually survive on. I had trouble digesting many of these plants to get enough nutrients, and quickly got weak and ineffectual if I didn’t eat large quantities of the foods I was used to or went for very long between meals in search of food.

On top of all that, focusing on the plants I knew often blinded me to other possibilities as to what could be eaten (i.e. we often don’t see what we're not looking for). And because I didn't understand the plant's connection to every other plant and animal in the woods, my book-knowledge of a particular edible plant didn't tell me much about what I really needed to know to walk into the woods and get whatever food might actually be available at any given time in any given ecological region or microclimate.

Finally, I came to realize (after a number of years of sharing foraging experiences with many other “modern primitives”) that there are a lot of things we modern civilized folks lack that cause us to go hungry in the woods, and these go well beyond what is commonly addressed by books or outdoor skills classes. In fact, these reasons go well beyond what is possible to address in books or skills classes. It became obvious to me that knowledge and information are simply not enough – not nearly enough – because in the real wilderness there are profound internal abilities and awarenesses we need to develop in order to be well fed. As I now understand them, here they are:

1. Basic knowledge of plants, animals, tracks, signs, etc. (So yes, the kind of stuff you can find in a good edible wild plants book or tracking book is still important, but only the barest of beginnings).

2. A complete awareness of our surroundings through all four seasons. An example of this kind of awareness would be to know where a fifty acre area of wild leek patches might be in a 5000 acre area, even though the leeks only send up their leaves for less than a month during the entire year. Another example would be to be aware of the one week period during the year when white sucker fish are running upstream to their spawning grounds and can be caught in large quantities with minimal effort.

3. A profound connection to our intuition and the language of our relations so we know how to find food instinctively, without wasting a lot of energy on the process. An example of this awareness would be to know how to listen to the calls of Raven in order to join him in scavenging meat recently killed by Wolf. Another example would be to know how to look at a track and connect intuitively to the animal’s state of mind so that you know where the animal is going without actually having to follow the tracks.

4. Adaptability in our ways of thinking about what is edible, as well as better concepts of what constitutes good food. An example of this awareness would be to know how to avoid “rabbit starvation” by eating the high fat-content brains, eyes, spinal cord, and internal organs rather than just eating the lean muscle meat. Another example would be to know that at certain times of the year many of the stomach and intestinal contents of ruminant animals (such as Buffalo, Elk & Deer) can be highly nutritious and a prized part of the slain animal (yet at other times of the year, some stomach & intestinal contents can actually be toxic or even poisonous, so depth of understanding is necessary here).

5. Flexibility in our ways of thinking about how and where to get food. An example of lacking this would be to hunt grey squirrels with a bow and arrow in the early winter without considering that the squirrel has a larder of stored acorn nuts which could also be available for the taking. Another example would be to have one’s mind so focused on hunting big game animals such as Deer that one fails to notice (for instance) a high abundance of mice, voles and chipmunks that could easily be trapped in the area being hunted.

6. A properly conditioned digestive system. Most of us have atrophied digestive systems (including taste buds) from eating too much processed and homogeneous types of foods (mostly simple carbohydrates, starches and sugars). An example of this is not being able to eat dandelion and other bitter greens, because eating excessive amounts of sweet foods has made one overly sensitive and averse to bitterness. Another example would be giving one’s self a stomach ache eating fibrous raw foods, because one’s stomach is weak from constantly eating heavily processed foods. Yet another example would be getting sick drinking wild water because one’s intestinal flora is sterile from taking antibiotics or constantly drinking chlorinated city water.

7. Experience of our bodies’ capability to go without food, and continual exercise of that capability in terms of being able to stay active & functional. Many people today experience an energy crash after missing more than just one or two meals, because their bodies are used to constant intakes of food. On the other hand, a body that is conditioned by occasional fasting can easily remain active for many days, perhaps weeks, with little or no food at all.

8. The ability to be at peace in the wilderness. We need to know how to conserve calories by not over thinking things, feeding stress with our thoughts, or running around inefficiently. The brain is an expensive organ to maintain, and the more it thinks the more calories it consumes. Stress also increases the need for caloric intake, and saps the body’s energy. Instead of thinking and stressing, we must learn to hear and trust our natural instincts and intuitions. We learn this by cultivating a peaceful attitude in life. Natives around the world have perfected their ability to patiently rest at peace during periods when no effort is actually required, yet remain alert, aware & ready for action as needed. This not only enables them to conserve energy sitting around the campfire so they don’t need to eat as much in the first place, but is also a key survival skill in terms of the patience and clarity-of-mind required during hunting and foraging.

9. The ability to be fully present and in-the-now. We need practice being continually open and aware of our surroundings instead of having our attention dominated by our own thoughts and preconceived notions. Every bit of attention we spend listening to our thoughts is that much attention drawn away from sensing and perceiving the world around us, which can cause us to miss possible food sources (sometimes literally) right under our noses. And every preconceived notion we carry in our minds blinds us to dozens of possibilities and options we might have at any given moment, any one of which might be the key to having our needs met and thus surviving until tomorrow.

10. The ability to be in relationship. We need to be able to flow well with others in a small, intimate group in order to provide not only food, but all of our needs together. We humans evolved to survive as part of a close-knit family or “clan”, and survival alone is simply not possible for us in the long term. Relatively peaceful, respectful & generous social relationships are not just nice things to have in a primitive wilderness environment, they are absolutely essential for long-term survival. Learning how to get along with each other and serve each other’s needs may actually be the most vital primitive survival skill there is, and I think this may be why American Indians have often held on to the cultural or spiritual aspects of their lives (i.e. the parts that bond them together as a people) long after letting go of other things related to their traditional life-way.

Notice that the only quantifiable “survival skill” listed above is found in #1, and the actual “skill” of “edible plant identification” is just a small part of #1. However, #1 makes up about 90% of what one is likely to learn at 90% of all the primitive skills schools, survival schools, and back-to-the-land courses going on in North America right now.

So what does it take to find food in the woods? What numbers 2 through 10 basically add up to is intimacy, and the prerequisites for intimacy are awareness and respect.

Foraging is hard when we are out of touch with our relations, yet easy when we are in touch. This is just like in any relationship. For instance, when I am out of touch with my girlfriend; when I am not paying attention to her, and listening to her, and when we are not communicating respectfully and truthfully, the relationship gets hard. At those times we tend to struggle and fight and get in each other's way. After awhile of going on like that, the relationship turns hostile and becomes an impossible place for either of us to get our needs met. This is analogous to how western civilized man often feels about the wilderness—it is a place where one “struggles” and “fights” for survival, and where life is ultimately felt to be “nasty, brutish, and short”.

However (to continue the analogy), when my girlfriend and I pay close attention to the relationship, when we are honestly and respectfully aware of, and attuned to, each other, then the relationship feels easy and we each get our needs met with little or no effort.

The same goes for any relationship, including our relationship with the wild. Now, (many years after my opening story) I have just begun to glimpse the natural abundance available to us in the wild. And yet it has already become apparent to me that there is plenty of food in the woods. However, if we want our needs met by our relations, we have to learn numbers 2 through 10, not just number one. This takes time and practice.

Just like in a mated relationship where there is no substitute for "quality time" spent together sharing ourselves in the course of our daily lives, in wilderness survival there is no substitute for quality "dirt-time" spent together, taking care of our basic needs while relying on our wild relations. Doing this may seem difficult (just like turning any neglected relationship around often seems difficult), but as one begins to get the hang of it, it also becomes the sweetest joy of life – like falling in love all over again.

And as a side benefit, you eat well too.


[Glenn Helkenn grew up on a homestead in rural Alaska and has traveled all over North America learning & practicing the old ways. He currently lives in the Northwoods of Wisconsin where he is part of the volunteer staff at the Teaching Drum Outdoor School. Feel free to contact him personally at redwolfreturns@teachingdrum.org]