T2K Cuisine - Food in the aftermath

[Webstral]

I have just started an exciting book I received for Christmas. The book, Nature's Garden: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants, is a daunting tome filled with photographs and tables. However, the author's first chapter introduction to the book reads, well, deliciously. I'm greatly encouraged that this otherwise intimidating work will be digestible. I put this book on my wish list so I would have another resource for the distinct approach the Black Watch takes to (relatively) large scale survivalism in southern Vermont. The author goes so far as to address the issue of sustainability of edible wild plants, which has been one of my concerns with the Watch. I'll come back with notes as I wade through.

[Olefin]

I think that character backgrounds may also influence the ability of characters to gather food or find food even when its all around them. Not sure how many people watch Survivorman, a TV show about one man survival. It always amazes me how he manages to find something to eat that I would have never thought was edible. A party of characters who grew up in city probably could walk right past edible plants and never know what they were. Or not realize just how much food can be had from an animal (still shake my head ever time in the Survivor TV show that they catch fish or get chickens and throw away the bones - hasn't anyone ever heard of making broth?) and not properly be able to butcher it.

I think that cuisine in the T2K world is going to have a lot of things on the menu that people normally wouldn't eat - for that matter look at the Walking Dead episode that just aired tonight - who is up for a nice meal of fire roasted dog?

[jester]

Or reading any of the other books about wild edibles be it the Military Survival Manual or any of the other books out there.

Mustard plants are almost entirely edible, the same goes for cat tails and dandelions.

Or just going off of one of the lines from the survival manual, "If it walks, flies, swims or crawls it can be eaten!"

A lot of it comes from mindset and cultural morays.

When do we discuss survival cannibalism?

[unkated]

A couple things from skimming through this

1. Once upon a time, I devised a New England campaign setting, before Howling Wilderness came out. My New England was much more settled and centralized; it included (forcibly) recultivating the potato country of northern Maine. (As well as some large chunks of New York, CT, and Massachusetts.
   
2. The fishing industry will take a couple years to figure out how to re-rig for sail. (say 1998-2000) OTOH, the lack of fishery for a couple of years and the reduction of international fishermen will greatly allow the fish stocks to come back.
   
3. I'm picturing a scene in a post-apocalypic bar...
   Barkeep: "Pepsi! We ain't had none since..."
   Tough guy: "Listen, you! The Cola Wars is over..."

Uncle Ted

[Olefin]

Originally Posted by unkated

A couple things from skimming through this

1. Once upon a time, I devised a New England campaign setting, before Howling Wilderness came out. My New England was much more settled and centralized; it included (forcibly) recultivating the potato country of northern Maine. (As well as some large chunks of New York, CT, and Massachusetts.
   
2. The fishing industry will take a couple years to figure out how to re-rig for sail. (say 1998-2000) OTOH, the lack of fishery for a couple of years and the reduction of international fishermen will greatly allow the fish stocks to come back.
   
3. I'm picturing a scene in a post-apocalypic bar...
   Barkeep: "Pepsi! We ain't had none since..."
   Tough guy: "Listen, you! The Cola Wars is over..."

Uncle Ted

Great idea for an adventure there - your team gets hired by an "entrepeneur" who wants to have you retrieve the formula for Coke from the vault where it was stored in order to restart syrup production and thus giving him the only operational soft drink facility in the Western Hemisphere

[.45cultist]

Many a chicken wound up in a GI camp over the years. A fond tale from the Congo was an ex-legionaire saw the French misdrop supplies and ran to hide a crate. After lying to the troops looking for this crate, the unit enjoyed a French General's field food. Whole can chickens, truffle sauce, decent wine, etc.

[The Dark]

Originally Posted by jester

Or reading any of the other books about wild edibles be it the Military Survival Manual or any of the other books out there.

Mustard plants are almost entirely edible, the same goes for cat tails and dandelions.

Or just going off of one of the lines from the survival manual, "If it walks, flies, swims or crawls it can be eaten!"

A lot of it comes from mindset and cultural morays.

When do we discuss survival cannibalism?

One of my hobbies is visiting Native American archeological sites, and quite a few of them have books on what was eaten, with some including recipes. As long as there's someone to identify the plants, that sort of book would be useful.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Olefin

I think that cuisine in the T2K world is going to have a lot of things on the menu that people normally wouldn't eat - for that matter look at the Walking Dead episode that just aired tonight - who is up for a nice meal of fire roasted dog?

My dogs eat before I do.

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

My dogs eat before I do.

If you train them right, your dogs can help you eat better than you ever would without them. Ask any Racoone, bobcat, or deer (which is why it's now illegal to hunt deer in PA with dogs).

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Just came across this bit of info and thought it was appropriate for T2k.
Forget wasting your grenades to catch some fish, try fishing with car batteries!

You take the battery, hook up some jumper leads/cables and then throw the ends of the cables into the water. Make sure to remove the cables from the water before retrieving fish
Allegedly it will stun or electrocute the fish.
Who knows, maybe it really does work? But even if it doesn't work too well in the real world, it might make survival for the PCs a little easier in the game world.

[.45cultist]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

Just came across this bit of info and thought it was appropriate for T2k.
Forget wasting your grenades to catch some fish, try fishing with car batteries!

You take the battery, hook up some jumper leads/cables and then throw the ends of the cables into the water. Make sure to remove the cables from the water before retrieving fish
Allegedly it will stun or electrocute the fish.
Who knows, maybe it really does work? But even if it doesn't work too well in the real world, it might make survival for the PCs a little easier in the game world.

That's how the fish and game get fish to test for illness and contaminants.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

That's interesting! I was treating it with all the caution normally given to anecdotal claims but it seems that it's actually viable.
For the record, I don't have any doubt that you can use electricity to stun/kill fish but I did doubt whether a car battery would have enough amperage to achieve it.

[WallShadow]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

Just came across this bit of info and thought it was appropriate for T2k.
Forget wasting your grenades to catch some fish, try fishing with car batteries!

You take the battery, hook up some jumper leads/cables and then throw the ends of the cables into the water. Make sure to remove the cables from the water before retrieving fish
Allegedly it will stun or electrocute the fish.
Who knows, maybe it really does work?

<SNIP>

I don't know about fish but sticking an electrified rod into the ground _will_ make the earthworms come sliding out--my brother used to do this to get worms for fishing.

[Draq]

Has anyone made a table for randomly foraged food in the European theatre? What kind of edible food grows in the wilderness?