Edible Plant Survival Project

This past week I spent another great week at Marty Simons survival school for his “Wild Edible Plant Survival Course”. Here is his description of the course from his web site.

“WILD PLANTS INTENSIVE. Due to popular demand we have added this new course devoted just to the study of wild plants. We will spend the entire week learning to identify over 70 edible and medicinal plants. Not only will you get to see the plants, but you will also learn how to gather, harvest, and prepare them. You'll even get to eat some delicious wild plants. You'll learn how to make all kinds of healing salves, cough syrups, mixtures, essences, soaps, and tinctures from over 35 common plants. You'll also learn how to make flour and natural dyes. All materials we use during the course are natural and do not contain any petroleum products. Everything you make will be yours to take home. This course will be held at our base camp, but there will be many side trips taken to special areas. There is no prerequisite for this course. As with all of our courses, each night we will have a great campfire and interesting and informative group discussions. “

This is the second time I took the course. While making the four hour drive to Marty’s survival school, I was concerned that I was wasting my time because I ha done it already, but I got over that really quick. While I have been studying plants for quite a while now, since there are over 365,000 plants in this country and two thirds of them are edible, I never stop learning. Marty and George’s knowledge is amazing. Between the two of them, not one plant goes un-named. After taking the course a second time, I now know well more than twice what I knew before taking the course.

Of course the challenge is to retain this knowledge and build on it. Every day I look at the plants around me to see if I can identify them and their uses. Some plants are edible, some are medicinal, some are good for making cordage and much more. There are very few that are poisonous and even if they aren’t edible that doesn’t always mean it will hurt you. But it is very important to be careful and know what you’re doing. Once you learn just a little bit it is amazing what you can find. As Ron and Karen hood from Survival.com say, they love “ground groceries”. That’s a great way to describe it. Edible wild food is all over the place. I look at the knowledge I gain as a survival project and am always learning more.

I highly recommend Marty’s survival school. Not only does he know his stuff, but he is very laid back and has a great sense of humor. As soon as I get to the school, all my stress goes away. He makes a very comfortable and fun environment that is great for learning. Check out his web site and see the other survival classes that he offers.

CampingSurvival.com. It's not about the END OF THE WORLD - It's not about surviving a hypothetical PLANE CRASH - It's about the SATISFACTION YOU GET knowing you can take care of yourself and/or your family in ANY SITUATION, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE!

Mullein in the sandbox	The group in a field of milkweed	One of my favorites. Milkweed
Dandelion. It doesn't get any easier	Staghorn Sumac	Beware! Poison Ivy
Marty and me going through the book	Burdock. Another one kids know	Wild leeks, Ramp. Onion Family
Willow Tree