Imagine being a cave person and any time you had a craving for something salty you had to go lick a rock
people are like "who discovered you could eat $thing???" but it was very clearly someone who was very very bored of eating the same three foods without salt, or spice, every day.
@Betty when hungry enough, humans will eat anything. A lot of it might have come from necessity.
@enk_dash_one Yeah, but I think a lot of the greens were boredom. greens aren't really massive sources of calories.
@Betty
@enk_dash_one in early spring if you've been eating nothing but stored food all winter long, even the least palatable of technically-edible early greens become DELICIOUS. I can well imagine being willing to try anything at that point!
@Betty @enk_dash_one years ago I spent one winter following a diet of only eating locally-grown produce and let me tell you, after that many months the first dandelion greens of spring were the best thing I'd ever tasted, even though I have always otherwise found them to be unpleasantly bitter!
@soph_sol what were you able to find? I'm guessing root veg and ...?
@Betty root veg plus increasingly mushy apples, on repeat! technically one can overwinter kale here, with care, but I did not know that at the time unfortunately and it was not being sold at the farmer's market! I also had some jars of home-canned tomatoes and peaches and pickles, but that still wasn't enough variety tbh
@soph_sol this is what I'm talking about. You can definitely see why first nations people were like "those pine needles look like they might taste interesting."
@Betty EXACTLYYYYYYY and honestly a lot of conifer tea is worth drinking even when you're not dying from lack of green food! pine is my least fave because it's pretty bitter, but cedar-tip tea is soooo good, especially with a bit of honey
@shadyspotlight dried berries are another source
@Betty I think I heard rose hips too? Or maybe they're good for something else...🤔
@shadyspotlight @Betty lots of berries and rose hips yes, or watercress sprouts too
really most fresh fruits and veg contain enough to get by on but vit c breaks down easily, including during many preservation processes. So you only have to find a supplement if you’re also eating a diet of mostly preserved foods—a fairly modern phenomena when you think about it!
