Survival Food

Modern Day Family Foxhole

Online Editors — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:32:53 -0500

by Chad Love

So what would your family do as the world is being vaporized by mutually assured thermonuclear destruction? Well, if you were lucky enough to be a proactive Popular Science subscriber in 1951, you'd probably be cozily hunkered down in your "family foxhole," where you’d be blithely going about your business, cheerfully and wholesomely preparing for Armageddon as untold megatons of radioactive hellfire rained down from above. Because that's just how make-believe families in the '50s-era rolled... Cool stuff, sort of a "Leave It To Beaver" meets "On The Beach" mash-up ...via BoingBoing.

What do you think would be the modern equivalent of the family foxhole? How would you build it, what would you put in it, and if you had to use it, would you be nearly as happy and nonchalant as the family on the cover? And just how good are those Russian guns?

Your Chance to Talk to Bear Grylls This Afternoon

Sarah Smith — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:48:11 -0400

--Chad Love

Want to ask Bear Grylls what raw camel testicles or really, really fresh frog legs taste like? Well then here's your chance. The Man vs. Wild star will be chatting with fans and taking questions this afternoon. All you have to do is log on to www.Reddit.com at 1:30 p.m. EST and Bear will begin answering questions from fans. Video and text responses to selected questions will be posted to the site as well as the Degree Men YouTube Channel that same afternoon.

Jim Baird’s Arctic Adventure: How to Make Bush Bread

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:13:32 -0400

There is nothing like having some fresh, hot bread in the bush. Have you ever tried to bring a loaf of bread on a camping trip? It doesn’t end well. Your bread will be smashed and moldy in no time. Pita works and will save for three weeks if vacuumed sealed, but it’s hard to beat a steaming-hot piece of fluffy bush bread coated with margarine, peanut butter, and jam. Honey, maple syrup, or molasses are also great. When I get to frying it up, I like to build a little inventory so I’ll have some for the next day or two. It keeps for about five days depending on the temperature.

Bush bread is more commonly known as bannock, but I’ve also heard it being called trail bread, grease bread, or Indian bread. It has been a popular food throughout the north for hundreds of years. There are many different recipes for it, each one a little different. Here’s the recipe I used in the Arctic. For my summer trips I bring margarine instead of butter because it doesn’t go bad. Any type of fat will do, the voyagers often used bacon grease.

Backyards Become Oases For Wildlife During Drought

Online Editors — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:26:37 -0400

--Chad Love

As the drought afflicting the southern part of the nation deepens, wildlife is moving out of the woods and into our yards in search of what little food and water is available.

From this story in the Houston Chronicle:
The rat looked dead. It was face down, arms splayed, in the big shallow pan of water placed near the fence as succor for the wildlife suffering in adjacent woods left blistering hot and deadly dry by Texas' ongoing drought. Every morning, we'd fill the pan with clean, cool water and then watch as a steady parade of wildlife trickled from the woods to slake their obviously considerable thirst or nibble at the mix of millet, sunflowers, shelled corn and other food we scattered for them. There were cat squirrels, swamp rabbits, possums, coons and all manner of birds. It was an all-day procession, a sure sign the deepening drought was causing wildlife that normally survived by living wary and crepuscular lives to do something they normally would not do - abandon the cover of the forest and expose themselves in a wide-open yard during the middle of the day to get a drink of water or a bite of food...The rat, it turned out, wasn't dead at all. It was simply floating in the water, trying to keep cool and hydrated.

Arctic Adventure Gear: The Equipment That Got Jim Baird Across The Frozen North

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:21:44 -0400

Jim traveled 555 miles by snowmobile with his brother, Ted, unsupported, over frozen Great Bear Lake (ice-fishing for monster lake trout), cross-tundra to the Arctic Ocean, then across the sea ice of Victoria Strait to the hamlet of Uluhoktok. Read The Adventurer blog to follow along on his trip and his next adventure: an ATV trek through the Northwest Territories' Mackenzie Mountains to reach prime Dall's sheep habitat.

Jim Baird’s Arctic Adventure: Why I Did The Trip

Dave_Maccar — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:45:41 -0400

Why did I do this trip? That’s a question that I don’t actually have a solid answer for. There are several reasons, but I always find myself sputtering when asked. I know that sounds a little odd. I traveled 755 miles through the frozen Arctic by snowmobile while camping out in sub-zero temperatures with polar bears, dangerous ice conditions, and blizzards all constantly looming, and I can’t think of a solid reason why.

George Mallory said it beautifully when he was asked: “Why do you want to climb Mount Everest?” His reply: “Because it’s there.” Mallory died attempting to climb the mountain. I am not a mountain climber and I can’t relate to his fate. It does remind me to stay safe. I can relate to his answer, though, and I’m going to roll with it.

Jim Baird’s Arctic Adventure: Reflections From Back Home

Dave_Maccar — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 12:09:47 -0400

Now that Jim Baird is back from his two-week-long Arctic adventure, we thought we’d catch up with him to talk about the highs and lows of his trip and hear about how it feels to be back home.

F&S: What’s been the toughest part as far as readjusting back to “normal” life?
Jim Baird: Seeing so many people around me. I felt a little claustrophobic at first. Also, it’s a different mindset when you only have to focus on regular daily activities—and not on your survival. This makes you feel complacent to things that may have seemed stressful before. That’s a good thing.

F&S: Ten years from now, what memory of the trip do you think will stand out as the best?
JB: When I was driving on the smooth ice of the Amundsen Gulf in awe of the scenery and I first got the feeling that we were going to make it. Sometimes it’s the scary memories that stick with us. This way we learn from them and are safer next time. It’s a survival instinct. In the future a dangerous moment from the trip may end up being the “best” memory because it could end up saving my life. It is also often an exhilarating feeling to have survived something dangerous. I learned from being chilled to the bone as the sun rose over Prince Albert Sound. I learned from realizing there was only an inch of ice under my feet at a pressure ridge on Great Bear Lake. I definitely learned from coming close to driving off a canyon wall as we traveled in the dark. I will remember these things as part of the adventure and cherish them—but at the same time remember not to let them happen again.

What’s Your Favorite Truck Stop Grub?

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 10:52:54 -0400

In the October issue of F&S, contributing editor David Draper compiled a grocery list of a weekend’s worth of food that you can get at a typical truck stop...all for less than $20. Draper did a great job of making his cash go as far as possible and including all of an outdoorsman’s dietary essentials: caffeine (Mountain Dew and coffee), sugar (a Whatchamacallit and sweet roll), protein (jerky and, well, more jerky), and some stuff that’s actually healthy (water and apples). But after he turned the assignment in, I joked with him: “How could you leave out the Salted Nut Roll?!”

Eating Insects For Survival

Online Editors — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 22:44:26 -0400

THE FIRST TIME I floated Montana's Smith River with John Hirvela, the only food we took was a sack of potatoes and a shaker of salt. My friend assured me this was all we'd need. We'd cook trout and round off every meal with watercress salad gathered at a spring about 10 miles into the five-day float. · It was the kind of plan that sounds better at home than it does once you've launched your canoe. Especially when it rains and the color comes up on the river.

Montana Hunter Lost for Two Weeks Found Alive in Big Horn Mountains

Online Editors — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:23:04 -0500

From the Billings Gazette:
Lost in the Big Horn Mountains, presumed dead by family and friends and hallucinating because of too much wind and too little food, Travis McMahan, stumbling up a creek, found a dead fish.

“It looked all rotten,” he said. . . . “I cut its head off and skinned its back,” he said of the fish. “And there was good meat in there, so I ate it.”