Written By Peter G. Drake
Illustrated by Rich

In this section, we will be looking at food and water - where to find them and how to make sure that they are safe. Although coming towards the end of the series, this topic is extremely important, because if you are stranded without food and/or water, things very quickly begin to look very bad indeed.

Water

The best and safest way to purify water is to boil it for about five minutes. There are, however, other ways to make sure that your water is safe to drink:

1. Add five drops of iodine to one litre of the water and let it stand for one minute. If the water is very cloudy, double the dose. (Caution: Make sure that you do not exceed the recommended amount of iodine.)
2. Add a water purifying tablet - there are a number of different makes of tablet on the market. The main drawback with purifying tablets is that they taint the water.
3. There are a number of survival straws and filters on the market. These are generally very good but are rather expensive and will only produce a small quantity of water at any one time.

1. Try to avoid taking water from any area of a stream or river bank where animals drink.
2. Never drink water coming off an ice-cap or glacier which is 1milky', as it contains fine particles of rock debris which can cause very bad stomach cramps.
3. If you come across a pool of water with no signs of life in or around it, leave It alone - it may be poisoned.
4. If you have to melt snow to produce water, remove the surface layer, use hard-packed snow or small amounts of snow at a time and it possible have a small amount of water boiling in the bottom of the pan while you are melting the snow.
5. Ice is much easier to melt, and will produce more water for a given amount of fuel than snow.
6. Never drink your own urine. It is extremely poisonous.

Food

Although we are used to three good meals a day here in Britain, that amount of food is ju@t not necessary, so food comes only third in the list of necessities, after water to drink and shelter from the elements. Depending on the time of year, even lighting a fire for warmth is more important than finding food.

The following are some simple rules d you decide to try your hand at trying to live off the land. However, a short booklet like this cannot hope to teach you all you need to know if you are going to collect wild food safely, so why not get a person from your local natural history. society or museum along to describe useful plants or, better still, go for a walk in the country with an expert who can point out Clants, fungi, animals and so on? There are also a lot of ooks on the subject - some of them are listed next month, in part six.

1. Do eat all kinds of ~mammal and bird flesh, do leave t@ie offal.
2. Do eat the flesh of reptiles but never the skin.
3. Do eat fish only if you know what type it is - there are a number of fish which are unsafe to eat. Only eat fish that look like fish(!), and only ones with scales.

1. Don't eat any plant with milky, sticky or bitter tasting sap.
2. Don't eat any plant or fungus which is brightly coloured.
3. Don't eat any fruit which is divided into five segments.
4. Don't eat old wilted plants.
5. Don't eat anything which has an unpleasant smell.
6. Don't eat any fungi with white gills, rings around the stem and a cup-like appendage at the base of the stem.
7. Don't eat any plants or fungi which have signs of worms in them or are decomposing.
8. Don't set traps in a'reas where domestic animals may get caught. If you must lay any traps, you should visit them regularly and take them down before you go home.
9. Don't think something is safe for human consumption just because animals and birds can eat it.
10. Don't eat shellfish collected from fresh or salt water sources unless you are sure that the water from which they have come is not polluted.

Cooking

Roasting: For this method you will require a good bed of embers. For larger animals and birds you will need a spit construction over the fire.

For smaller animals or fish, the best Way, in my experience, is to peg them out on a board or a flat piece of wood and stand. this up next to the fire to form a kind of reflector.

Baking: This method is useful if you want to cook a meal while you are away. Dig a pit around 60cm (2 feet) deep and 60cm (2 feet) across. Now light a fire in the bottom of the pit or heat enough stones to cover the bottom of the pit. Place a layer of soil over the embers or stones, then put on the food which you wish to bake. Cover this with more soil and then light a fire on top of that. You can now leave this for an hour or more, depending on how big the thing is which you are cooking.

Grilling: For this method, you will need sorr.e kind of grill made eitherfrom a normal grill orfrom green sticks, and a hot bed of embers. The disadvantage of grilling food is that it tends to dry out.

Boiling: You will need some kind of container for this method and, a you do use it, try to use a fire which is not too hot.

There are many variations on the methods and much has been written on the subject, both in this Magazine and elsewhere, but like all the skills which we have talked about in this series, practice will (hopefully!) make perfect.

Programme ideas:

• Have an evening cooking without using utensils.
• Invite an expert to come along to your Troop or Unit to give a talk on edible plants and follow this up with a visit to the surrounding countryside with him.
• Make a chart that can be used as a training aid, showing plants which can and cannot be used as food.
• See which plants make good drinks when boiled - nettles and heather, for example. Why not try to prepare a whole meal from natural foodstuffs which you can find in the countrysidia? Invite your Group Scout Leader along!