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Foraging Guides and Herbal Products for the USA

Tasty Gunk

Just couldn't wait to take the photo without taking a bite.

This post is a little out of season, but if you have some dried wild garlic and nettles (or any other herbs for that matter), and would like a recipe for a tasty way of consuming spirulina powder, a rule-of-thumb basic recipe follows below. The combination may sound weird, but it tastes great in my oppinion, and some of the ingredients are quite strong in taste and disguise the odd spirulina flavour. This gunk can be made thick enough as a sandwich spread, or thinned down as a dip or salad dressing.

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ThisWill Have You Rolling On The Floor.....

April 20th, 2008

New Foraging Guide Out Now

April 15th, 2008

The new Handy Foraging Companion and Hedgerow Herbal is now available for download. If you were put off by the printing process of the Wild Cardsguide, you will be pleased with the new version, which can be printed on paper, and single-sided, if you prefer. For a test run or a sample of the content please check out the guide page.

A Scalpel, a Lead Apron and Latex

March 21st, 2008

Warning - this post contains graphic descriptions of medical procedures. Not for the squeamish.

Doctor knows best. Well, not always. So this grizzly little tale took place a few decades ago, and some of these practices are thankfully something you will only read about in medical history books (or blog posts), but people are still mutilated, irradiated and poisoned even today, and some of it may not be necessary.

The tale I have to tell is one that happened to me back in 1968, and is one of a bazooka being used to kill a mosquito, and how a simple weed could have saved me all the agony back then, and the worry I have carried for the best part of forty years.

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Home Made Vegetable Oil Lamp

January 26th, 2008



If you like candles, live without electricity, or like to have some lighting back-up, you might like this simple little DIY project. An oil lamp can have a number of advantages over candles and mineral oil lamps:

very cheap to run - can even burn used cooking oil

the fumes are less toxic than those of paraffin candles or mineral oil lamps

the production of renewable vegetable oil is less harmful to the environment than petroleum based products (including paraffin candles)

for the extreme survivalist, vegetable oil is easier to store in bulk, or can even be produced on the home farm

due to the wider base, more stable than candles, and the flame of any burning wick falling into the oil will be extinguished

odour free when using olive oil

Making an oil lamp is very easy, quick and cheap, and gives plenty of opportunity for a creative outlet. The basic element is nothing more than a piece of twisted wire, a length of twine, some vegetable oil and a vessel to hold it all in. The photos pretty well show how to do it, but there are a few tips which might help, and save some trials and errors.

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Comment Widget and RSS for Non-Blogs

December 22nd, 2007

If you have a plain html website which is periodically updated, you don't have to miss out on some of the great features of blog engine run proper blogs. Comments and RSS are two of the most obvious and useful features of blogs. At a glance, my site may appear to be a proper blog, but it is a very simple, hand crafted website, with a few third party widgets (check out the page source). The new comment feature is cut and past java script, which is very easy to install, and is run on the supplier's server. The basic code is just two very short lines, one being the link. It is quite basic, but does allow some customization, and above all, it allows communication with your readers. And, if that wasn't enough, it is free. So go and grab yourself the script at JS-Kit.

You can try it out at the end of this post. Just say test, if you like, and no need to delete tests - leave them for others to see how it works. When there is a bunch of them, I will delete them eventually. They have a few other widgets, like rating and polls. If you are worried that JS-Kit may vanish one day, along with all your hard-earned comments, you could copy and paste the comments permanently into your pages, after allowing a set period when visitors can go back to delete their comments if they wish. That is what I intend to do here, after, say, at least a month.

If like me, you have relied on email communication, you may find more visitors responding with comments, as many don't like giving out their email address. With this widget there is no need to register. Oh, and you can even show your face, if you like. Now is that neat, or is it neat?

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Foraging for Wild Food in the UK - Print your own Guide

July 20th, 2007

At last, the long awaited Wild Cards - Handy Foraging companion and Hedgerow Herbal. This downloadable concise, illustrated 88 card pocket guide contains a list of over 350 plants in a handy format, as well as detailed profiles on over 50 common edible plants.


Use like index cards for home reference ......(click to enlarge)


.....or bind them to use as pocket guide

Whether you forage on a leisurely weekend walk, or want to prepare for a potential survival situation, Wild Cards are your handy companions.

This unique guide packs a lot of information into a small space

• list of over 350 plants with basic information on edible parts (colour coded for quick reference), how to consume, and caution notes
• an illustrated directory of over 50 plants with guide to identity, culinary, medicinal and other uses
• month by month chart to availability of those plants featured in the directory
• caution notes including warning features to look out for
• glossary of medicinal terms with brief list of relevant plants
• general information on plant parts, collecting and preparation
• key to colour coding and other information
• find plants by botanical or English name

Read the rest of this entry > and find out how to obtain a copy for yourself.

The DCMC Binding System

April 8th, 2007



This binding system is so new, you won't have heard of it. The Dirt Cheap Milk Container binding system is, well, dirt cheap, is made with milk containers, and only came into existence today. As with so many of my tinkering projects, the idea was born out of necessity. A little while back I became enamored by the Circa and Rollabind binding system, or it's European counterpart Atoma and ADOC . At first I asked the same question I have heard being asked since - what is it with these discs? The answer was in Douglas Johnston's post Review: The Levenger Circa System, Part I on the DIY Planner website. The disc binding system is very versatile. Lets look at some of the key advantages:

• add or remove pages
• the book can lie open
• 360 degree turning
• mix and match different sizes of paper in same book
• customize to your heart's content with a punch

You can add and remove pages and customize ring binders, and they will lie open flat, however, you can not fold the pages back. This, and the binding mechanism makes ring binders clunky items. Even if you have a humongous desk (i.e. about 1/10 of a football pitch), the most valuable space is within arm's length, so every inch counts. When you get down to about A7 size, the mechanism makes the binder unnecessarily large, and a standard two ring binder will not accept paper smaller than A7. The one inch spacing on the disc system allows business cards to be punched on the short side. There are small speciality ring binders sold as planners, which can take smaller paper, but the binder size is usually some custom size, and so is the hole arrangement, making the purchase of an expensive punch necessary, and the cutting of paper wasteful.

Wire bound (spiral or twin wire) have the advantage of lying flat, and turning 360 degrees, however, you are stuck with the book you bought, and can not move paper around. A spiral can be threaded in and out, but this is more than tedious. Comb binding is somewhat more flexible, but does not easily turn back on itself, and has the habit of opening up and even braking. The punch and binding machine is a hefty item.

Then there are treasury tags and screw posts, binder rings and bits of string, staples or glue, all of which have plenty of disadvantages as a serious flexible binding mechanism for a planner, notebook, project binder, contact book or whatever else you wish to custom make.

With the disc system you can make any size, any type of book you choose, fill it with your own printed templates, blank paper, ruled, unruled, pockets, fancy paper, anything. There are several sizes of discs to choose from, so you can make a dinky little pocket pad, or a thick year planner with all your contacts under one cover. But there is a sting in the tail. The disc system requires a special punch, which is not cheap, especially if you live outside of the US. That is the point at which doubt began to creep in. By the time I had bought the punch and a few packets of discs, I would not have had too much change from £100. But I liked the idea, and so I began to ponder the DIY route, which, I am pleased to say, has led me to a binding system with all the above advantages, and one I (and probably most of you) could get started with straight away. It requires few tools and materials (even recycles materials) to make the binding mechanism, and uses a standard two-hole punch, which can be purchased for as little as £2.

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Foraging for Wild Food

March 12th, 2007



Have you ever looked at a wild plant, and wondered if it was edible? Foraging is very popular these days, but alas, most field guides on wild plants do not give any information on edibility, and most foraging guides are a cumbersome item to take into the field as an additional item. They do, of course give information on how to prepare the food, along with interesting historical snippets, and other useful data, and are still a valuable item to have on the book shelf, especially if you want to take up foraging more seriously. To lighten your load, I have prepared a list of plants, which will only add a few extra pages to the field guide, but give you that valuable missing information.

The new revised and expanded UK list has details of over 300 plants, which are considered by some publications to be edible. The list includes trees, shrubs, coastal and wetland plants. Details include common name, botanical name, family, caution notes, which part is edible and in what way it may be consumed. Following the plant list is a key, and important information on safety, as well as some additional information, which must be used in conjunction with the list.

Read the rest of this entry > and download the free plant list

Hardware - The Slip

January 28th, 2007

The Slip Method continued



One of the main aids to organizing in the slip method is - you've guessed it, the slip, more specifically the action slip. The little work docket is transient, passing through the system temporarily. It pauses along its route and is given additional information; the where, how, when, who and what. Its behavior is ordered but flexible. It carries a unit of information and is a building block. Detailed description of the process, and how to make or obtain a supply will be found in later chapters. Lets follow it on its journey. It can start from several places. The blank slip is either loose or padded up and resides in a dispenser, a small pocket case, on the desk, the fridge, memo board, bedside table - wherever you place a quantity in readiness. It may even be torn or cut from any handy source of paper. All actions are written in brief on the slip - one action, one slip. Just remembered something that needs doing? Write it on a slip. Just received a bill? Write 'pay bill (and details like who)' and either file the bill if payment is made from source, or place in bag/briefcase if paid away (e.g. at bank or merchant). No more cluttered in box. Anything that needs to be acted on goes on a slip, unless it is a quick job that can be done straight away (see more on that in David Allen's Getting Things Done, or read introductions to GTD on the web).

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Low Cost, Low Flow, Home Made Hydraulic Ram Pump (no welding required)

January 24th, 2007



If you have a water supply (spring, brook or river) below the point where you need the water, and the source is higher than the lowest part of the property, then a hydraulic ram pump may be the solution. Hydraulic ram pumps are powered by a portion of the water running through it. If the cost of a commercial pump puts you off, or the water volume is too little to operate the pump, you can make one to suit your conditions at very little cost. There are two excellent books published by Intermediate Technology on making your own ram pump. One is "Hydraulic Ram Pumps: A Guide to Ram Pump Water Supply Systems" by T.D. Jeffrey, T.H. Thomas, A.V. Smith, and P.B. Glover. The other is "A Manual on the Hydraulic Ram for Pumping Water" by S. B. Watt. I would recommend you get both; they do complement each other. They also explain how to design and build the whole system. The pumps featured in the books do require welding and threading equipment, and the smallest pump has a 2" diameter body which requires a fair amount of water to operate. However, the principle also works on a smaller scale, and I have made a pump from standard brass 28 mm compression fittings, with 28mm, 22 mm and 15 mm pipe (all readily available) and with soldering equipment.
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