Is grass edible in a emergency?

Discussion in 'Finding, Identifying, and Preparing Food' started by Arctic21, Jul 1, 2016.

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  1. Arctic21

    Arctic21 New Member
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    Let's say if you had nothing else, does grass do anything? Does it make you sick? I've been curious about this.
     
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  2. richj8am30

    richj8am30 Member
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    People are non- ruminants, so grass by itself is not all that supportive for us biologically. We don't have the exceptional advantage that ruminants have. With their 4 isolated compartments in their stomachs; cows, bulls, and so forth can ferment the roughage and extract necessary vital elements. We require some sustenance blended together with the grass, for the most part a mix of soy and grain would make a more quality meal if you can find the ingredients in that type of situation.
     
  3. filmjunkie08

    filmjunkie08 Active Member
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    I thought grass soup was given to POWs in WWII to keep them alive. Isn't yhere also a soup called stone soup?
     
  4. hades_leae

    hades_leae Active Member
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    So is it perfectly OK to start eating grass? I'm just being serious, I thought it would be like poison the the human body. I never thought to look it up, but you sound like you know a little something about this. What is "ruminants". I would like to know why cows, etc can eat grass and grow big and full of meat for us to consume.

    I just think about eating feathers but my body is full of meat, its just weird. I'm thinking you need to eat meat in order to grow meat.
     
  5. Corzhens

    Corzhens Master Survivalist
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    Have you tried eating grass, you say? Honestly, I haven't but I'm sure that grass can give us indigestion. If you will observe the cattle, they chew the grass and masticate until the grass becomes softer for their stomach. If grass is like vegetables that is easy to digest then the cattle will chew a bit and swallow unlike now that it takes a lot of time before they swallow the chewed grass. Maybe if there is no food anywhere and grass is the only available food around, I can settle by sipping on the grass straw but not chewing on it.
     
  6. Keith H.

    Keith H. Moderator Staff Member
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    I believe during the potato famine in Ireland the people were eating grass, but (A) what you eat is only as good as the soil it grows in, & (B) grass has very little nourishment for humans. It may stop your stomach grumbling for a while, or it could make you throw-up. Either way it is not a long term solution to hunger.
    Keith.
     
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  7. tb65

    tb65 Active Member
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    I don't think grass is edible for humans. If this was the case most people would eat this for vegetables, plus there's an abundance of it. I think that you would have to look for something with more nutritional value. There are some wild edible plants like dandeloins and clovers that you might find anywhere. Still you should forage for a better source of food.
     
  8. richj8am30

    richj8am30 Member
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    Ruminants are animals such as cows, buffalo, bison etc. that are able to graze and get exactly what their body requires from a strictly grass diet. We on the other hand, do not have the specialized digestive tract to get what we need from eating grass as is. It is not a sustainable food source for us at all.
     
  9. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    cows etc can eat grass because they have 4 stomachs and are constantly chewing it as it goes from one stomach to another.
     
  10. katjamas

    katjamas New Member
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    Firstly I don't think that it is even nutritious in any way to humans and secondly we don't actually have the enzymes to digest grass, especially in large quantities.
     
  11. joshposh

    joshposh Master Survivalist
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    Grass is edible. It is non toxic but with very little nutrients for human consumption. Also your teeth will get worn out if you eat too much raw grass over a long period of time. Hence why cattle and rabbits teeth grow continuously because their physiology was meant to consume grass. Human teeth do not continuously grow like that of a herbivore. Hence another reason why humans are carnivorous by nature.
     
  12. RichE8475

    RichE8475 New Member
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    Can we, as humans, consume grass? Sure, however, our stomach has a hard time digesting it. Cows, for example, are able to dye to their four chambered stomach. You would also experience a very bad stomach ache after ingestion, and this could lead to the loss of any nutrients you will want to hold on to. In my opinion, I would look passed the grass, and dig for some insects. Bugs and worms will be a safer food source, and they have a lot of the protein you will need to survive.
     
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  13. Moroccanbeauty2266

    Moroccanbeauty2266 Active Member
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    I guess people can eat grass if it were the only food left. But we are not physically equipped to digest it and this could make us very sick.
    Maybe it would be a better idea to eat edible plants, flowers, etc. that we can digest.


    In WW II they also ate rats when they had nothing else......
     
  14. hades_leae

    hades_leae Active Member
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    That is so weird, I have never heard of that before. How did you learn that cows have 4 stomachs? Every species out there have inner systems that are completely different from humans I guess. I thought that we were all the same on the inside, just different on the outside. That's amazing, I did not know they have that many stomachs, figured it was just a giant one.
     
  15. crimsonghost747

    crimsonghost747 New Member
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    As many have said, you could eat grass but it really wouldn't help much. Ok it would fill you up but seeing as there is grass... that means water... and that means other forms of life. Maybe you can find some berries or fruits, insects would most definitely be around. So there should be better options in the area that provide you with some nutrients.
     
  16. bluebetta

    bluebetta Active Member
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    Why stick to grass when there are so many dandelions and other edibles that typically grow in the same conditions? In most grassy fields one can readily find weeds such as Queen Anne's Lace, which has delicious carrot-like edible roots. Who needs grass when weeds are actually better? Well since you asked, I researched some answers. According to LiveScience.com, grass is nontoxic and edible. However, it will wear down your teeth due to its silica content. Grass is so hard to digest properly that your body will not glean many nutritional benefits from it.
     
  17. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    nope, they have 4 stomachs, it goes into the first one, then they regurgitate it, chew it a bit more, then it goes into the second, they regurgitate, so on and so forth.
    that's why you see them sitting down most of the day chewing.
     
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2016
  18. cecejailer

    cecejailer New Member
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    I don't think so because our stomach wouldn't be able to digest it in a way that will give us our needed nutrients. You can eat grass, but it will probably make little difference in comparison to eating nothing. it might fool your stomach into thinking you're eating something, but when it realizes that didn't satisfy your hunger, you'll get hungry all over again... Resuming, grass is edible and isn't bad for you, but it won't give you any nutrients.
     
  19. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    our digestive system isn't made for eating grass, it probably wont hurt but it wont do much good.
     
  20. My3Sons_NJ

    My3Sons_NJ New Member
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    Of course grass is edible and we consume it every day, or at least varieties of grass. The grass family contains numerous species of plants, one of them, wheat, is provides the highest % of calories consumed by the average American today. Rice, oats, rye and millet are examples of other species of grass plants that we consume regularly in our diet. Even some forms of grass that more resemble our lawn grass, like lemongrass, are edible and are consumed on occasion. If you are speaking purely about lawn grass, then that is non-digestible for us since our systems do not not have the required enzymes to break down the cellulose in it.
     
  21. ukpreppergurl

    ukpreppergurl Member
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    I honestly cannot foresee any situation where I would be in the middle of a field with no preps, and forced to eat grass to survive. The whole reason that I prep is so that I can be comfortable in an emergency/SHTF situation.
     
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  22. joshposh

    joshposh Master Survivalist
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    If you were in that situation where there is nothing left to eat, but the clothes off your back or grass at your feet? I think you, like the most of us would chop some up and make it as palatable as possible, and eat it. It's either that or starve.
     
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  23. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    we may consume grass in the form of wheat but we eat it as milled flour not as grass like cows do.
     
  24. cafwen

    cafwen New Member
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    It also depends on the age and the species of grass course. Very young, tender grass would provide a *very* small amount of energy, but older grass which is more fibrous would cost you more calories to digest than it would provide. Eating the grass seeds which are high in fat and starch, however - that may very well help. Don't forget that rice plants are just a type of grass as well!

    So if you can find grass which is in seed go for that, but definitely look for other greens like dandelions, and eat the flowers too - pollen is a great source of protein which is why bees collect in addition to nectar.

    But you most certainly couldn't survive on grass for long. In fact if you're trying to lose weight, grass would make a fantastic diet food... I did try and 'cook' grass when I was very little. Needless to say it wasn't very tasty. But I did eat a fair bit of it without any ill effects.
     
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  25. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    any preppers who is forced to eat grass in an emergency has failed big time.
     
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  26. FuZyOn

    FuZyOn Expert Member
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    I did my research on this and I came to this conclusion that grass is edible in a survival situation but it wouldn't help you in the slightest. To pull through in a survival situation you need vitamins that you can only get from meat and/or vegetables, you simply wouldn't be able to get anything from grass. You'd end up starving.
     
  27. neoKit

    neoKit New Member
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    Grass can choke you if you try to eat it. I have seen my dog eat grass whenever it wants to vomit. I think that you can find other leafy plants to eat wherever grass grows. But there are other types of grass which can be cooked and softened. You'll have to be keen while cooking because grass contains a lot of germs.
     
  28. hades_leae

    hades_leae Active Member
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    So does that mean that grass will do for our bodies what chips of metal will do for birds, dogs, and other animals that eat plastic and things like that from the trash, and waste that we naturally put out there for them to consume?

    I watched a man dissect a bird on National Geographic, is was because of the big oil rig explosion that happened some years ago, and they wanted to see what the birds were consuming. They saw oil, metal chips, small wood, and other things.

    They don't know how to separate what's not good for them like humans do, so they just eat anything.
     
  29. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    it probably wont hurt you to eat a little grass, we all used to chew grass as kids here, but eating a lot will probably make you sick.
     
  30. ukpreppergurl

    ukpreppergurl Member
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    Okay, I'll play along. Please tell me some scenarios (realistic, please, not a zombie apocalypse or anything else ridiculous) that you can foresee which will result in me being in that position.
     
  31. ukpreppergurl

    ukpreppergurl Member
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    Thank you!
     
  32. joshposh

    joshposh Master Survivalist
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    It's the prepper without the intuition or inability to think out of the box will fail at any task. You adapt and overcome.

     
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  33. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    there are plenty of other things in the wild we can eat, we don't have to resort to eating grass. the trick is to know what is edible in one's location, only the unprepared will be reduced to eating common field grass.
     
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  34. joshposh

    joshposh Master Survivalist
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    If you read the original post, my replies are directly related to that. He asked if grass is edible? All of my answers stick to that question, and I don't go off the path and say eat something else, like eating something else in the wild. I already proved the point that you can eat certain types of grass.
     
  35. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    we cannot eat normal pasture type grass, its full of something called cellulose which humans cannot digest.
     
  36. Prairie Dog

    Prairie Dog Expert Member
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    Grass is edible, in fact mecessary.
    We receive vitamins and minerals from it. However, as the bulk of your diet, no. As many have pointed out we lack the necessary digestive tract to make use of the cellulose that grass is basically comprised of.
     
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  37. Mekada

    Mekada Master Survivalist
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    As far as I know some of the some of the people in hungerstruck parts of Africa do eat it. I don't imagine that it tastes very good but I know they wash it and then boil it.
     
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  38. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    i wouldnt recommend it, it will cause more (digestive) problems than it will solve.
     
  39. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    it "may" be possible to grind up grass SEEDS into a form of flour and bake that, after all every type of grain originated from some form of grass that grew in ancient times. how feasible this is I don't know, but i'd give it a try, but only as an emergency.
     
  40. remnant

    remnant Expert Member
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    I suppose that in am emergency, anything can do as long as it does not hurt the digestive canal or poisonous. Grass is marginally edible if you eat the succulent part, some have sugar and packed with some mineral elements. You can swallow the soft case but just chew on the tops.
     
  41. appleandcinnamon

    appleandcinnamon New Member
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    I don't think so -- the appendix in our intestines is a remnant of what used to be part of a grass digesting organ. I don't think we produce the enzymes necessary to break down grass cellulose. Sure, eating grass might fend off hunger, but I doubt you'd be able to digest it.
     
  42. Tumbleweed

    Tumbleweed Expert Member
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    Greens (which are leaves) and grasses are hard for a human to digest when just eaten like we would eat a fruit or vegetable. They DO have a lot of nourishment however. The problem is that a person would have to sit and chew on each mouthful of grass for a long time before it would break down in your mouth, and most people barely chew any food enough to start the digestive process.
    I started learning about making green smoothies, which are basically processed leaves and grasses that you put in a blender and blend it until it breaks down the cell walls, and then your body can digest this food and get the nutrition that it has.
    Unfortunately, most of us will not be able to just put something in a blender when it is a survival situation.
    I think that a person could possibly make grasses digestible if you used a mortar and pestle , which is basically some kind of stone bowl and another rock to pound it with. This is something that could probably be found, unless you are somewhere that there is not any rocks.
    If you pound the grass until the cellulose breaks down, then you can cook it into soup if you have a fire, or at least have a better chance of chewing it up if not.
    Before you resort to trying to eat grass, it makes more sense to eat some of the wild leaves that are edible, like plantain, clover, and wild violets or dandelions. These can all be eaten either raw or cooked; but again, when raw they require a whole lot of chewing before you get the food value from them.
    Also, eating greens is somewhat of an acquired taste; so it is something that a person should start doing before it becomes an emergency.
    Making green smoothies is a great way to start, and I wholeheartedly recommend Victoria Boutenko's book, "Green for Life", which explains in great detail about the process necessary for humans to eat and thrive on leaves and grasses.
     
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  43. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    Lordy what a mess. In general "grass" is NOT something that you will benefit from eating. Grass is a generic word that represents narrow leafed plants. Now that said, PARTS of certain grasses are eatable. Rice and wheat may be grasses but you don't eat the entire plant. Corn was originally a grass . You are just eating the seed pods that have been bred for centuries to be better than their originating plants as a food source.

    You DON'T usually eat the rest of the narrow leafed plant. This is true of many plants. Even in this there are exceptions such as sugar cane. The newest part of a plant, the roots or the seeds may be very nutritious but just eating random narrow leafed plants is a good way to starve to death. When it comes to plants there are broad leaf plants and narrow leaf plants. Among the broad leaf ones there are quite a few that have leaves that are good eating. Among the narrow leaf plants the seeds are what is eaten.

    Cattle, as Lone Wolf said, have 4 stomachs and will eat for a long time and then go and just stand or lay there and "chew their cud". It is relatively easy to tell the animals that can and do eat basically grass. They have one common feature. They all have a big protruding belly. If you will look at a gorilla you will notice that they have huge bellies. That is because they eat bamboo.

    Animals that eat meat tend to have a MUCH smaller more stream lined digestive system. The ability to eat various different things among mammals has to do with what sort of bacteria they have in their intestinal tract and how much of each kind. To a small extent our internal bacteria are adaptable and so what you normally eat will get well digested and if you go and eat a bunch of foods that you have either never or seldom eaten you will get an upset stomach. This is why if you are lost in the woods and find a big berry patch YOU LEAVE THEM ALONE unless you regularly eat berries in quantity at home. In the short term even things that ARE nutritious may have devastating effects on your digestive tract if you are not used to them.

    Grass is a random term and you don't just go along eating random plants. You will probably make yourself sick at the very least and may poison yourself.

    Dogs do NOT choke on grass. They eat the grass instinctively as you might eat an antacid pill for indigestion and also to kill and rid themselves of parasites. All members of the canine family have the ability to eat almost anything then throw it back up. This is how they feed their pups after they start weaning them and they do this to check out whether a rotten meat can be eaten or is bad for them. It is hard to give a wolf food poisoning. Dogs will get worms and die yet wolves and other wild canines don't suffer that problem to the same extent. They worm themselves. Dogs still have that instinct but don't know what to eat to do it.

    You are far better off to spend a few bucks on a few books and aquatint yourself with what plants in the area you live are eatable and only eat random unknown plants in situations where you will starve to death otherwise. The inner bark of some trees is a usable food source. Become informed!!
     
  44. Ystranc

    Ystranc Master Survivalist
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    Break narrow leaved grasses down into two groups, flat grasses and three sided grasses. The seeds from three sided grasses are nutritious but need to be milled and cooked in order for them to release the starch and sugars contained in them. The grass itself contains beneficial vitamins and minerals but is very low in everything else except fibre. Again, cooking it or wilting it over fire makes it digestible. The roots of dandelions and of dock weed are full of starch which again needs to be cooked before consumption. Dandelion, sorrel, nettles, ground elder etc. are all edible.
    The biggest problem that I see with inexperienced people eating grasses, their seeds or even ground nuts(peanuts)is the risk of ingesting a dangerous fungi called ergot, milling and cooking it will not make it safe, currently a lot of foodstuff is downgraded to'unfit for human consumption'because of the risk of ergot. To avoid risk of fungal infection the moisture content must be at its lowest possible level when you harvest the grass or seed and it needs to be stored in a well ventilated, dry vermin free environment.
     
  45. Ystranc

    Ystranc Master Survivalist
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    In a life or death situation I suppose you could also eat the stomach contents of a ruminant species as the Sami reigndeer herders have been known to in order to get essential vitamins during the depths of winter. (Contrary to popular belief we can't live on meat alone) Since ruminants have the enzymes necessary to break down the cellulose in grasses and moss and would have done the first part of the job for you.
    I'm not saying it would be nice but it would keep you alive.
     
  46. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    Isn't Ergot the fungus that when it grows on rye it releases something that is basically LSD and the possible cause of things like the Salem witch trials and such? Makes people psychotic and delusional? JAYSUS talk about turning a bad situation into a freaking NIGHTMARE!!!
     
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  47. Ystranc

    Ystranc Master Survivalist
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    Yup that's the one, an ergot victim has a really bad trip, then recovers his senses just in time before his organ start to fail...bad medicine or what?
     
  48. Mohidul Alam

    Mohidul Alam Active Member
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  49. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    The problem with the original question is that there is no valid yes or no answer. It is like "Can you eat mushrooms and berries?" Sure you can. Some are very tasty and nutritious, some will turn your world sideways and send you on a trip, some will make you sick as a dog and some will kill you dead as a hammer. If you know which are which they are a great food source. If you don't have a clue DON'T eat them.

    This like most things has more to do with your knowledge than any wide generic answer. Parts of some grasses are great food sources, Some are useless and a few are probably toxic. If you walk around randomly eating things that you don't know anything about it is not going to end well.

    Grass covers such a large range of plants. I would hesitate to give a simple answer. Where I live there are grasses that have seed pods that are similar to the predecessors of corn. The little pods are only about and inch long but are tasty. I know that they are only in wet places so even in Texas they are not common except as lawns in wetter parts of the state. What good would that knowledge be to most people? NONE! You need to know about the plants that are common around you and where you plan to bug out to. Cattails offer a lot of eatable material. That information is useless to people in arid areas.

    Preppers need to prepare and that means you need to learn about the things where you LIVE so that if needed you can browse for food.
     
  50. Oldguy

    Oldguy Master Survivalist
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    I prefer to let herbivores process the grass before I eat it:D
     
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