Disclaimer:
I Am far from an expert on the ins and outs of the
hunter-gatherer lifestyle. As interested
as I am in the topic, I find that my distaste for all stages of food
preparation makes it more likely that my hair will grow back than that I might become someone you should look to for guidance on what to eat in the wild. I do know a little bit about Kayak Bill,
though.
I have great admiration for individuals who have learned to
live off of the land and sea and I hope to someday attain that knowledge. For now, I will study the accounts of foragers,
fellow paddlers and the rich history of our First Nations who host our visits
to their territorial waters. Perhaps the
most celebrated BC Coastal paddler of our time who succeeded in living off the
land was Billy (Kayak Bill) Davidson.
Obviously, fish played a primary role in his diet for its nutritional
value and because it was so easy to come by. He also ate a lot of clams and mussels. Mussels were a favorite for their size and
flavor. Large mussels provided “steaks” that
were easy for him to prepare. Whether he
was ever sick from PSP is not known to me.
Though there are many types of “vegetables” that grow on or
near the shoreline he primarily ate Goose Tongue, Sea Asparagus, Wild Carrot
(Queen Anne’s Lace) and Wild Pea of some sort.
The flowers and buds of the Wild Carrot were eaten and as far as the
Wild Peas go, he stuck with new branches that were still curled up like a
bud. The peas, themselves, were not
eaten. While Goose Tongue and Sea Asparagus
are easy to discern, both Wild Carrot and Wild Peas look very similar to poisonous
plants that can be lethal. I’ll pass on
those two.
Bill would also harvest deer and seals. Seals became more important to his diet as he
moved further out from the mainland and his First Nation’s sources of Oolichan
grease. He had been utilizing Oolichan grease
for dietary purposes but the Oolichan fish is rendered down to oil by the
ton. It’s a messy process that requires
infrastructure and labor. Not something
that a solitary individual would provide but he found that oil rendered from
Seal blubber replaced his need for Oolichan.
Bill would choose a small-ish seal to shoot so that he could
manage getting it back to camp. He would
skin it and then remove the blubber layer from the meat. The blubber was cut into small cubes about 1”
square. Any smaller than that and it was
too small and slippery to handle. The
cubes of blubber melted down to oil when put into a hot flying pan. The oil was poured into containers for
storage.
The meat was cut up into pieces that would fit in his large
pot and boiled until it fell off the bone.
It was removed from the pot and the oily water was thrown out and replaced
with clean water. The meat was squished up
by hand into a hamburger-like texture, mixed with sea water and made into
patties. The patties were then smoke
dried over the fire, placed into stacks and stored.
To prepare them they were put into water overnight and allowed
to rehydrate. He would put some seal oil
in a pan, add the seal burger and cook. He
claimed that the seal oil tasted like bacon grease and that the seal meat was
indistinguishable from tender beef. He felt
that the “too-strong” flavor that kept folks from choosing to eat seals was
mitigated by pouring off the initial water and boiling it again with fresh
water.
Next came the flour and rice. These staples were brought from town. Usually Shearwater. The flour was used for making chapatis. He mixed sea water with the flour and added
oil for flavor. The chapatis were made
over the fire, dipped into oil and eaten.
Rice would be prepared with chunks of fish, bivalve, seal or “vegetable”
added.
When Bill traveled, he would carry a container of blubber
oil and a stack of dried seal burgers. The
oil would last as long as bacon grease before turning rancid. Goose Tongue and Sea Asparagus are everywhere
so they could be quickly be gathered most anywhere that he camped.
Aside from using the seal oil for food he used it on a rag
to keep his knife and tools from rusting as well as oiling his .22 rifle.
