“Ever eat a pine tree? Euell Gibbons”
Yes in Scouts. It will prevent scurvy as will pine needles tea.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/rm/pubs_other/rmrs_2009_ostland_l001.pdf
100% this.
[The cambium is a thin, nutrient-rich layer between the outer bark and the wood that is high in vitamins (A and C), fiber, and carbohydrates. It can be eaten raw, dried, ground into flour, or boiled to be added to soups or fried like bacon. ]
You can also eat the cotton tail tuber, and new shoots too. Dandelion tap roots, leaves too.
[Edible sedges
Yellow nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus): The most well-known edible sedge, this plant produces small, almond-flavored tubers called tiger nuts. They can be eaten raw, roasted, or dried and ground into a flour. In Spain, they are used to make the milky beverage horchata de chufa.
Purple nutsedge (Cyperus rotundus): A relative of the yellow nutsedge, its tubers are also edible but often described as having a stronger, more bitter or menthol-like flavor when fresh. The flavor mellows after drying.
Northwest Territory Sedge (Carex utriculata): Native to the Pacific Northwest, this sedge has edible roots, stems, and seeds.
Straw-colored flatsedge (Cyperus strigosus): This sedge produces an edible bulb-like base with a nutty flavor, though some describe it as tasting like menthol. ]
[Edible grass rhizomes
Quackgrass (Couch grass):
Preparation: Dried and ground into a flour to add to bread, or roasted to make a coffee substitute.
Other uses: Can be boiled to create a sweet syrup, or the young shoots can be eaten raw.
Bear Grass:
Preparation: The rhizomes can be roasted or boiled to reduce bitterness.
Other uses: The seed pods are also edible before they open.
Yerba Mansa:
Preparation: The aromatic roots are chopped and used in salads or cooked with fish.
Lalang Grass:
Preparation: The rhizomes have been used as a survival food, particularly in parts of East Asia. ]
Anyone who has survived pun intended the C level SERE school can attest to there are many roots you can eat. A good indicator is look for wild boar sign , where they root you eat.
There is always more kcals in gathering food just sitting there waiting for you to eat it vs chasing down and tying to kill a game animal. It’s fantasy to think otherwise. Again you learn this absolute fact in survival school. Snares, traps and dead falls are a separate part of any course. Let the kcals come to you.
When early European explorers arrived in Canada suffering from scurvy, the Indians showed them how to use pine needles for a rapid cure. I want to plant some Arbor Vitae (tree of life) shrubs at my country place for survival medicine.
I have seen instructions from our Great Depression saying one can use powdered grass mixed with flour for bread and baking. I don’t remember the exact figure, but it was somewhere between 10 and 25%. Lambs quarters (plant) and sorel (somewhat lemony flavor) are 2 plants I have used in salad or to cook.
Given that our hominid ancestors were not fuss budgets, I imagine they enjoyed the grain and grass, partially digested, contents of animal stomachs and intestines. Thus plenty of time for larger molars to evolve. In early phases they might have been eatinb the entire contents of rabbits, and other small mammals. As they became larger and more skilled they would have been killing larger animals like antelope, pigs, and eventually bovines and mammoths, still eating digestive contents.