Keira Oakley

As for carbs I'd go for chestnuts, pumpkin, dried fruits, honey.
The more fibery the food, the less calories you get out from you effort. I have eaten a lot of veggies, herbs, leaves etc in my past, as a longterm vegan, but now I go for what is around, local, seasonal and adapted to the place... I love bananas for instance. But nowadays, if I get a craving (which happens, as a former fruitarian), I go only for dried ones. Somehow, "fresh" bananas, even super "ripe", do not satisfy me the way they do when in the tropics... And also knowing that they have been shipped half way round the world, where these banana cargos are considered "bad luck" among sailors because of all the spiders and rats that escape from the bananas and really bother the sailors and workers on the ships....
Sure, I love my exotic spices, once in a while coconut cream etc, when staying in the north, but stuff that is more or less local somehow tastes better.

Mick Fisch wrote:I'm stuck on the oil/fat production question.  Carbs I can get, but historically the most prized item and the hardest thing to get a lot of was fat (ok, I can hear you guys already gearing up about olive oil in the mediteranean, pork fat in northern europe, coconut in polynesia).  Every culture has come up with some solution, but we need fat.

I have been thinking about that one as well... I was a fruitarian for some time, and then it is recommended to eat very little fat, actually much less then we would dream of. Imagine, if eating avocados, being recommended to eat only one third, otherwise your you'd have exeded your fat ration (and fruitarians eat no oils, and normally no nuts). It is actually possible to live with less fat, especially in warmer climates. This is my experience, the colder it gets, the more we crave fatty foods.
I really don't believe in seed oils. Bacon, nut oil are some options for colder countries. One way of getting live animal fat (but not in that big quantities) is to raise waxies, that is, waxworms, they are living in beehives and live off the honey, and are very fatty and tasty... yeah, I know, most people are not ready for this, but somehow, grubs will become more common in the future, also for proteins and zinc, etc... (most vegans/vegetarians have a copper overload, and not enough zinc, found mostly in meat and grubs)

I still believe that we eat too much fats. I realise how easy it is to overdo the fats, but also that it really is possible to live on less fats. Better to go for high quality stuff.

While camping in Sweden years ago I woke up 1 in the morning, my heart pumping hard, from the loud "barking" of a moose 10 meters away. It was clearly very annoyed to see me/my tent there. I can say that moose is the animal I am the most afraid of... This was a very angry animal, and I was lucky that it went away after a minute of loud shouting. The whole forest was awake by its tantrum.

what about some guerilla composting? In Sweden (unlike Germany), there is no way to compost "officially" your scraps and peels, so I have found some semi-wild dark corners in a central city park where I put my compost, where no-one goes, and the rabbits/hares in the park love it.

There's a fine balance concerning fruit sugars: on one hand we love them and get energy from them, the brain really love to get a sugar boost, on the other, it can feel too much, one can really overeat on it...
But take the opposite scenario: eating only leaves and herbs and seeds that are so full of fibers and devoid of calories, that they in the long run will not nourish us: I've seen this happen to long term raw vegans: stomach always full and working hard to digest these fibers and anti-nutrients... but not getting enough energy and getting seriously malnourished
So fruits are easily absorbed in the body, the trick is to not overdo it. Trust me, fruits can become addictive, that why it's good to find other foods as well and not become obsessive about them: I've seen this behavior too many times, especially in Asia, where many westerners come to become fruitarians on their backpacking holidays and "start a new life". I believe in variety.

Btw, acorns from oaks are popular with pigs... a nice way of feeding them the way they used to eat in the wild.

Yes, I know about having too much sugar, used to be a fruitarian, and many fruits today are unnaturally sweet.
I know what I would grow as a complement> CHESTNUTS.
After my fruitarian times, I long for warm, and starchy food that is not grains. I do like sweet potatoes and yams etc, but chestnuts are really delicious and can be cooked in many ways, roasted,  in salads, soups, desserts, stews, or with meat if you like, AND... they grow on trees, unlike the roots that you need to dig up, you just pick 'em, but ok, they have a bit of skin to deal with, but still, I know that that is a tree I would grow... Chestnuts were much more widespread before grains took over, in Asia, Europe, America. Not sure if they grow in your area.
And... PUMPKINS are also nice, even though they don't grow on trees, but they can be very satisfying as well.

Jesse Fister wrote:I once did an experiment with a survivalist author in which we cooked a song bird that had accidentally fallen into his mouse trap.  We cooked in Navajo style.  That is, we took the intestines out and then cooked it in the fire until the feathers had burnt off.  Then we pounded the bird into a small cake - skin, brains and all - which we then ate.  I was surprised at how many calories we got out of it.

"Navajo style" lol, honestly, would learn more about this kind of cooking. Do you know the name of the survivalist author? Or some website where I could get more info...?
I have traveled a bit in asia, and there, lots of "weird" parts of animals are eaten. For instance, a dish I saw a lot was a salad made of greens and slices of buffalo skin.

Used to be a longterm vegan. My cravings at that time depended on how long I've been at it. What I can say that many vegans love pumpkin. Most are addicted to chocolate, so some desert that includes some cacao would be popular. Something sweet. And: some oil/fat rich dip or sauce or dessert or other could also be popular, especially among raw vegans: they eat a lot of nut butters and love to drench some food in "healthy", raw, organic oils...
And many love tofu or other soy related foods, but if you truly care for them, i would  avoid that stuff, as tofu is not not good for anyone.
Good Luck!

If I would choose for myself, of what I like to eat, (i don't see food just as fuel, and some things I like more than other), I would say, as my first choice - when taking into account easily available calories in relation to work etc and storable as well, and the fact that there are really tasty: CHESTNUTS! If I had a piece of land, I would plant loads of these trees...
I would also go for lots of fruits trees:... APPLES are totally amazing: you can use them in so many ways: juice, cider, dried, in desserts, in salads, baked in the oven...  and there are so many varieties and tastes.
And also a bit of nut trees, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, maybe some beans. Squash is also a good option, but I'm not really sure how long/well they store.