When you are in a survival situation, whether short-term or long-term, you might not have much say in what you eat. If you are in an enormous hurry, short on resources, or simply really unlucky, you might not even have time to cook food.
Some foods are higher than others when eaten raw, and never all raw foods are fit for human consumption. Knowing which of them are fit for human consumption raw could make the difference between life and death, or a minimum of getting sick or not.
Let’s have a look at wild onions for instance. Can you eat raw wild onions to survive?
Yes, you may safely eat raw wild onions. Wild onions contain useful vitamins and minerals, although they provide only a few calories. In addition, it’s essential to be very careful with dangerous toxic plants that look very similar!
The wild onion is a prolific plant that grows throughout North America and around the globe in a single form or one other.
They can provide help to stay alive and complement your food regimen with other harvested wild edibles, providing you with the vitamins and minerals you wish, but they will likely be really hard to tame your appetite for.
There is way more to eating wild onions, raw or not, and I’ll inform you all about it below…
Do wild onions taste like food market onions?
Not a surprise given the name, but wild onions taste very just like food market onions, although depending on where it’s grown, it could taste very faintly onion-like, or it could taste very intense, spicy, and raw in comparison with that what you’re used to.
Also, some species of untamed onion may taste more like a typical clove of garlic than an onion!
In short, when you like onions, you will enjoy wild onions, and when you’ve been blessed with an abundance of other harvested foods, freshly caught fish, or other game animals, wild onions will make an excellent addition to your meal.
Be careful: dangerous plants may appear like wild onions!
Before we go any further, I have to remind you that it’s essential to be very careful when picking wild onions and any wild plants.
However, the wild onion has several dangerous and even deadly doppelgangers that might be found in several regions. Some of those doppelgängers seem so similar that even when you have a look at them side by side you’ll turn pale!
One of essentially the most infamous is the so-called death kamasa small plant that has long been the bane of farmers since it is straightforward for it to search out its way into harvested livestock feed, and even animals mix it up when grazing or feeding on onions and infrequently die from the error.
Death cams produce a dangerous neurotoxic compound that directly interferes with the systems liable for coordination, and in addition normally causes severe vomiting and nausea.
Significant doses cause cardiac arrhythmia or cardiac collapse followed by death.
This is advice the wild forager has heard every season, however it’s price repeating for emphasis: never, ever eat any wild plant that you may have not positively identified, and if doubtful, don’t eat it!
Is it fit for human consumption wild onion leaves?
Yes. Wild onion leaves or greens are protected, edible, and quite tasty when you like onions. They are sometimes picked and used rather than shallots and are perfectly fit for human consumption raw.
Is it fit for human consumption wild onion bulbs?
Yes you may. A head of untamed onion is often very small in comparison with its commercially grown cousins, but remains to be crunchy, nutritious, tasty, and perfectly fit for human consumption raw. Beware, a few of them may taste unpleasantly spicy and tart!
Also, when you can, attempt to a minimum of wash the onion, when you can, before eating it.
Can You Eat Wild Onion Roots Safely?
Yes, you may, although the roots contain little or no nutrients in comparison with the leaves or shoots and the onion itself.
If you need to pick a complete onion and eat it, you may, because no a part of the plant is harmful.
Can you eat cooked wild onions to survive?
Yes, you may and customarily should. Even though wild onions are often fit for human consumption raw, it is nearly all the time higher to cook them.
While this may reduce the vitamin and mineral content somewhat, it should also kill any harmful germs that could be present on or within the onion, and potentially prevent from the nasty case of food poisoning or contracting one other disease.
And even when the general nutrient content drops, what form of nutrition will likely be easier to digest and subsequently more available to your body.
Wild Onion Nutritional Information
It is difficult to attract conclusions concerning the nutrients available in wild onions because the actual content could be very variable depending on the climate, conditions and overall health of the plant.
That being said, we all know that wild onions, while much smaller than commercially grown onions, are generally just like them when it comes to nutrients.
As such, it’s protected to say that the common wild onion can have an honest collection of vitamins and minerals, and like most other onions, the B-group ones will likely be present in addition to thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6 and folic acid . Onions are also normally wealthy in vitamin C.
The mineral content can also be quite varied and definitely price , with an honest boost of calcium, iron, manganese, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus and zinc. Onions, including wild onions, also contain trace amounts of fluoride.
Together, these vitamins and minerals are needed for a lot of body processes, from electrolyte balancing and basic cellular functions to organ health, cardiovascular health, bone growth and repair, and way more.
Even when you don’t love them, even when you don’t intend to make an honest meal out of them, you must eat wild onions when you could find them, especially during a long-term survival scenario.
Where does wild onion grow?
In North America, the wild onion is found throughout many of the continent, especially the eastern a part of the continent.
In the United States, they’re prolific in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, up and down the East Coast, throughout New England, and almost in all places else, including many of the Midwest.
Wild onions are hardy plants that grow well in quite a lot of conditions, from dry, sunny meadows to moist, dense forests and even swamps.
They are also deliberately grown in gardens as a substitute for leeks or chives, and sometimes as an entire substitute for typical onions!
Almost in all places you go, there is a higher than average probability of finding a wild onion when you look hard enough, and you most likely won’t need to look very hard in any respect.
Any health issues to fret about when eating wild onions?
Yes, some specific and a few non-specific. First of all, when you’re forced to rely heavily on wild onions for long-term survival, you are going to have problems because they are not nearly nutritionally complete and do not provide many calories…
Also, one in every of the concerns with all raw vegetables and fruit of every kind is the presence of food-borne germs, each people who may cause food poisoning and others that might be much worse.
While food poisoning isn’t a cause for concern in our modern society, when help is simply minutes away in the shape of specialist care or medicine, it could tackle a terrifying recent light within the midst of a survival situation.
Cramps, diarrhea, vomiting, and the like can quickly deplete your body’s water and electrolyte levels and potentially wear you out when you’re already sick or injured.
For this reason, cooking wild onions is all the time a very good idea when you can, or a minimum of try to clean them.
Finally, onions, greater than most other vegetables, are inclined to cause allergic reactions in sensitive individuals.
This response has all of the characteristics of other food allergies, including swelling, itching, sweating, blurred vision, rapid respiratory, and potentially even anaphylactic shock.
There’s no approach to know unless you get tested, have previous experience handling or eating wild onions, or simply roll the dice and experience no response. The thing is, it is best to know ahead of time!
However, none of this could deter you from eating wild onions, so long as you may have positively identified them.
After all, wild onions are one of the crucial common and safest foods you could find, especially when you’re going to eat them raw.
