Review by Bushcraft.Nu
The book Surviving on Nature’s Conditions is one of the earliest books that actually looked more closely at the edibility of plants. The authors weren’t content with just listing different edible plants! They also analyzed the nutritional value, usefulness and other properties of the plants! This means that you can use the book as a reference in an emergency. This way you can more easily assess whether different plants are suitable to look for in your situation! A plant that gives you 150 calories, but costs 200 to grow is a net loss. Thus, it may be better to ignore looking for plants! Then you can instead rest and conserve energy or collect wood for a fire!
About the book “Survival on Nature’s Conditions”
There are relatively few survival manuals written for civilians that actually measure up to be called survival manuals. This is, in my opinion, one of them! It contains plenty of practical tips and advice that you can easily try yourself out in the forest. A thesis that the authors pursue in the book is that it is rarely appropriate to hunt wild animals during a survival situation. Instead, one should first of all think about whether it is worth looking for food at all. You can get by for a couple of days without food, a little longer if you only take in carbohydrates. Because it requires at least 500 kcal per day for the brain to function properly. Especially if you prepared by e.g. fast sometimes.
In addition to focusing a lot on food and our daily needs, it also describes how to build simple shelters, navigate without aids, start a fire, and manage personal care under simple conditions. At the end of the book there are also a number of tips on things you can make from what nature has to offer, such as shoes and soles, cookware, eating utensils, strings, bow & arrows, etc.
Opinion
+It is a book with very practical tips where the authors seem to have a lot of experience with the various techniques. I really appreciated the detailed descriptions of the edible plants and their nutritional content. Most books in this category often feel like they are aimed at the military and thus often focus more on things that are not always relevant to civilians in emergency situations. The fact that you are also more realistic with what type of food is relevant in a survival situation (plants, fish, and by extension possibly small game) is also nice!
– Unfortunately, the book is quite messy, which lowers the rating somewhat. However, it is not a book that you read like a novel but works more like an encyclopedia so it is forgivable given a good table of contents!
