What COULD you eat, right now?

[Satya]

If you went outside of your comfy, environmentally-controlled home, what could you eat?  I have hens, a dog, 3 cats, 5 tropical fish, cactus and some parsley growing on my property right now.  I have local pecans, which store well in shell.  Nearby are horses, goats, cows, wild turkey, deer, possums, coyotes, raccoons, squirrels, other birds and water fowl.

The more I think about survival in the REAL WORLD, the less plant foods factor in in a big, regular kind of way.  Fruits must be preserved by drying outside of their very limited harvest time in my region.  Herbs can be dried, but vegetables are also only in summer.

So, what could you eat, and where are you generally?  I am in North Texas, USA.

[yon yonson]

yeah, i came to realize this as well. without modern commerce and agriculture, meat becomes paramount in the diet. for me, i live in austin, tx and i COULD eat: deer, insects, squirrels, birds, and other animals, along with pecans and purslane is a pretty widespread weed here. almost no fruit im aware of. i guess outside of austin there are prickly pears and peaches and other seasonal fruit.

[goodsamaritan]

I would have to get out of the big city... there is nothing here that can sustain my family if money was disrupted.

I would prefer to live by the sea side.
Go shell picking, clam picking, fishing. 
Our unpolluted seas are abundant sources of food.
When I visited Palawan, our last frontier, I met people who hardly needed any money to eat.
Learn to be a self sustaining fisherman.
There are still coconuts and bananas by the sea side.
And we can take care of some chickens and pigs and plant vegetables.

[RawZi]

   Walnuts, deer, water-fowl ..

[Raw Kyle]

Probably small mammals and birds if I could build a workable trap, as well as any edible plants I could find in the small woods patches around that I would identify with this deck of cards I have with edible plant descriptions on them. Probably not enough to get by on. There are some lakes around but I don't know about the fish, whether there are many or this time of year.

[donrad]

Unfortunately we can not live and eat like our Paleo ancestors did. They either moved north and south with the seasons (perhaps following herds of animals doing the same) or lived in mild climate areas near bodies of water that moderated the temperature.

That is all they did all day is hunt and gather. We have color vision to pick and gather fruits and veggies. We have big brains to remember where food is and when it ripens. Everything about our bodies is fine tuned through billions of years of evolution to be good hunters and gatherers (except for the procreation parts).

I recently found an old picture book about Eskimos. It showed a picture of them drying fish "to get them through the winter".

It would be nice to live in Kansas in the summer when I can live off the garden and small animals and eggs, and then go to Mexico for the winter and eat fish and fruit. Perhaps when I retire.

Since we can't live like our Paleo ancestors, we have to buy as close approximation. Our bodies are perfectly adapted to that food and lifestyle: No disease, feel good, age slowly, lots of strength and energy. There are a lot of good books on the subject, most have just come out recently.

[TylerDurden]

Well I live in concrete-filled London, but in other favourite past european haunts, I'd have forests of local garlic to pick, the occasional piece of fruit in the (late)summer(even in London, come to think of it), some wild mushrooms, some snails.Deer or wild boar if in Austria.

[William]

Deer, beaver, squirrel, ruffed grouse, bear.

Before the European immigrants ate them all, there would have been moose to dry and mix with bear fat for the winter's pemmican. Probably venison would do as well.

[MaverickHunter40245]

I live in a Louisville suburb.  There is a little wilderness nearby within walking distance, and the houses have medium size yards with a few trees.  So, there are some birds and squirrels.