Bread from wood!

I almost fell off my chair when I saw this one.

From "Guide to Wild Foods and Useful Plants" by Christopher Nyerges, Chicago Review Press, 1999.

"First, collect beech wood or another type of wood lacking in turpentine (wood that contains turpentine includes pines, firs, spruces and other conifers). Chop the wood into chips, or better yet, shavings. Boil the shavings three or four times, stirring regularly.

"Next, dry the wood and then reduce it to powder, or to as fine particles as possible. Then bake the wood in your oven three or four times and grind it as you would corn or wheat.

"Wood prepared like this becomes a palatable spongy bread that acquires the aroma and flavor of corn, according to the 'Emigrant's Handbook' from 1854. Leaven prepared for corn bread is best to use with this wood flour.

"If the wood flour is boiled in water and left to stand, a thick, edible jelly results."

If you test this out, please post the results. Bon apetit.

-- eve (123@4567.com), November 06, 1999

Answers

eve:

Have not tried this. But on a recent trip to Seattle, I bought a "yuppie soda". It said that it contained a chemically modified form of pine resin. Who knows?

Best wishes,,,,

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), November 06, 1999.

Joke.

-- SH (squirrel@hunter.co), November 06, 1999.

During the seige of Stalingrad the Russians ate sawdust bread and coffee ground pancakes. Just hope I don't have to.

-- nine (nine_fingers@hotmail.com), November 07, 1999.

Another very good book. Peterson Field Guides Edible Wild Plants isbn 0-395-31870-x Fishing and foraging make for some fun camping trips. The soft inner bark of Balsam fir can be used to make emergency food flour. In the early spring Ostrich fern "Fiddleheads" are excelent, they sell them for about $4.00 a pound in the supermarkets. Cattail pollen is also a very good food flour. Get a book, may save you from having no choice, sawdust bread, soup made from old shoes. You can do much better.

-- && (&&@&&.&), November 07, 1999.

SH:

Nine is correct. This is not really a joke. It has a long history. It has no food value but makes you feel full.

Best wishes,,,,

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), November 07, 1999.

Some of the expensive "diet breads" include sawdust...may be listed as wood fiber on the list of ingredients.

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), November 08, 1999.

Iron Kids Bread has quite a bit of cellulose fibers at a premium price.

I knew Chris long ago. He also is one to eat a poison oak leaf for immunological properties.

-- flora (***@__._), November 08, 1999.

To &&:

That's a great book. Actually I have about 15 books on the subject, and while there is obvious overlap, they all complement each other in the most fantastic ways! Get as many as you can.

I really only just became aware of the wood bread, though.

-- eve (123@4567.com), November 09, 1999.

Z1X47 --

Okay, not a joke ... but of less than questionable value in terms of survival preps: i.e., no nutritional value, no calories, no nuttin'. You might as well re-read Mackinley Kantor's historical novel on the infamous Confederate prison camp, ANDERSONVILLE ..... for equally useful home-making tips on, e.g.: salvaging veggie tidbits from the diarrhetic feces of your fellow captives. Maybe we should start another forum? Captioned TBY2000 Preparation for Death Camps forum .....

Thanks, but no thanks. I'm not saving this one in my 3-ring binder!!

-- SH (squirrel@hunter.com), November 09, 1999.

Another Afterthought! Why re-read Mackinley Kantor, when you can simply bake the book and eat it? Wood pulp! Let's start a new thread: "Using Your Preps: Eating your Survival Guides"

-- SH (squirrel@hunter.com), November 09, 1999.

SH:

I take it then, if you had a choice between nothing and wood bread, you'd choose the former.

Thanking you in advance, then, for projecting forward for us from your armchair and predicting precisely what you would or wouldn't do if you were faced with starvation.

Or perhaps you're just trying to tell us that you'd gladly eat it, but you'd die just as quickly?

-- eve (123@4567.com), November 10, 1999.

Testy, testy ....!!!

Yes, Eve, thanksk for the post, but rest assured that when starving, I do not plan to use my dwindling energy to chop down a tree, or rev up my chain saw, pulverize the hardwood into a fine pulp, shavings, or wood shipcs, boil the shavings three or four times, stirring regularly. When starving, then I do not expect to dry the wood pulp and reduce it to powder, or to as fine a particles as possible, and then bake the wood in my oven three or four times and grind it as I woudl corn or wheat. Etc. Etc.

I've chopped down more than a few trees, and cut a few as well. It's exhausting. If you're committed to this lifestyle, better prepare your "flour" well in advance, Eve.

-- SH (squirrel@hunter.com), November 10, 1999.

SH:

Of course you'd have to prepare it in advance! I thought that would have been understood, but I apologize for not making that clear.

So, assuming it's prepared in advance (anticipating a food shortage) , would you address the points I raised? Thanks.

-- eve (123@4567.com), November 11, 1999.

RH:

Of course you would have to prepare it in advance! I thought this would have been understood from my post, but I apologize for not making this clear. Given this, could you answer my points?

Also, sorry If I came across a little sarcastically. You seemed a little condescending in your posts, so it touched me off. Maybe I'm just a bit too sensitive.

And I previously posted part of this message, but I didn't see it come up. So, look out for a partial-double-post.

-- eve (123@4567.com), November 11, 1999.

Seriously? Would you really prepare tasteless, nutritionally useless, non-caloric flour in advance? Get ye to www.bobsredmill.com, Eve, and order yourself some kamut (wheat) grain, which has the highest protein, trace mineral and lipid levels of anything you can store. Then print out this thread: anytime thereafter that -- with only 50 days remaining -- you get the urge to start working on your wood bread, Eve, please re-read this discussion, then wad it up, pop it into your mouth and CHEW CHEW CHEW. Finally, go order more kamut.

-- SH (squirrel@hunter.com), November 11, 1999.

SH:

No, no, no! I'm only referring to the situation where you can't otherwise buy, grow, gather, shoot, or scrounge anything, and you see your stock is going to be coming to an end soon. Of course that situation may be unlikely, but that is the only one I'm talking about.

And your point about using more calories than you would gain would still be an important consideration. You would certainly have to take a close look at that. But it's not necessarily black and white, given my scenario.

-- eve (123@4567.com), November 11, 1999.

Okay .... Hey, we should be doing this by e-mail, Eve. After all this back-and-forth the concept and method for making woodenbread is now carved -- gouged is more like it -- in my memory. I am going to print out this thread AFTER ALL and stick it in my literature stash, just to please you. And may it never come in handy. Meanwhile, please load yourself up with 100 lbs of kamut or quick oats or cornemal: because I have a hunch ... JUST A HUNCH .... that you're prepping to stay on the sweaty side of life. Best of luck. Go wit God.

-- SH (squirrel@hunter.com), November 12, 1999.

SH:

Funny guy (gal?)! Anyways, on principle, I don't get into private e- mail with forum participants, but thanks for the offer. Maybe it's just my paranoia. You sound like a nice person.

I've got whole grains right now, but you've got me thinking about getting more.

Well, see ya for now, SH. Maybe soon we'll be mixing it up again on another topic.

-- eve (123@4567.com), November 12, 1999.

SH:

Oh, yeah -- thanks for your input. I learned from you.

-- eve (123@4567.com), November 12, 1999.