Flour

[Matt]

Where is a good place to get improvised flour...? I've heard about using sedge seeds, but little else...

Cheers,

Matt

[Tony]

Acorns, hazel nuts, sweet chestnuts are all very available and easy to experiment with

[Kev P]

I tried pendulous sedge carex pendula seedsfor the first time this weekend. They were relatively easy to gather in reasonalble amounts and winnowing away the husks was no problem. Once ground, mixed with a bit of water and cooked as dampers they were a bit bland but ok. No worse than if they had of been made with wholemeal flour.

As Tony mentioned acorns work well and taste good.[/i]

[Keith_Beef]

Acorns, hazel nuts, sweet chestnuts are all very available and easy to experiment with

In some parts of France (mostly South-West), the Chestnut tree has been called the "bread tree". During the 16th to 19th centuries, chestnuts were a staple food for rural folk. According to one book on traditional food, an agricultural worker would eat 3kg of boiled chestnuts for breakfast!

My brother-in-law tried to make chestnut flour last autumn... Small chestnuts... it took him a *very* long time to get enough flour to make four or five pancakes.

Acorns are much more plentiful, but are they really edible? Not just non-toxic, but nice to eat?


Keith.

[Martyn]

do you need a grain mill to make the flour?

Oh, cool website...
http://www.countrylovers.co.uk/wildfoodjj/index.htm

Looks like a good book too..
http://www.countrylovers.co.uk/wildfoodjj/rwfg.htm

[bushwacker bob]

on a slight tangent - the staple diet of the Roman armies was wheat, ground in the field into a very coarse wholemeal flour.This was made into bread with the addition of BEER! this vital real ale addition contained the yeast to make real bread (with a splash of olive oil and salt)I know its not really bushcraft but its pretty good damper.

[ESpy]

If you're going to use beer, I'd suggest a bottle conditioned one rather than a tin. Whilst the CO2 in the tinned stuff wil raise the dough a little bit, there is actually some yeast in the bottle conditioned!

Shepherd Neame Spitfire gives a good yeast for homebrew, too - practically explosive growth in comparison with the dried stuff (even after making a starter culture).