I was out on a little walk today, and thought OK let’s do a little prepper thinking. What if….I needed to find food, start a fire etc. It’s winter time and things are looking a bit bleak where I am hiking, what food is available quickly? I immediately went to my favorite place, the fallen tree.
With my trusty, always on me leatherman, I popped open the bark to find.

Food! Termites…though a bit intensive to collect, they are nutritious with high levels of protein and fat (badly needed in cold weather).

I decided to think a bit bigger. Looking on the ground I was surrounded with pine cones…ooo pine nuts!

Unfortunately these pine nuts had been on the ground a bit too long and had turned to mush. So I moved on and spotted a good sign.

The game trail was well used with some fresh sign from the night before by a raccoon.

The great thing about racoons, especially in Florida, is they are excellent scavangers. Find where a racoon has gone to eat and you can find some good eats (crabs, mussels, etc.). Raccoons themselves are also very good eating though they run a risk of carrying diseases (true of most wild animals).

Then I found the big sign..

Wild boar tracks which lead to a large wallow area. This gave me the indication of a good size group of wild pigs in the area. Setting up a dead fall or careful hunting position could produce a large amount of food in short order. So next time you are out on a walk…look around and see what food is available. Don’t worry salad fans, I’ll get to plants next…..