What are we doing to ourselves?

[Dave Bailey]

Driving down from Kirkland Lake to Toronto yesterday, stopped at a roadside picnic area to stretch my legs. Sauntered down to the river to check out the fishing possibilities, near where a woman was standing with two children. Noticed a wild raspberry bush, so I plucked off a couple of juicy ones and popped them in my mouth.
She: (with furrowed brow): "What are you eating?"
Me: "Wild raspberries!"
She: (furrowed brow and frightened sneer): "What?"
Me: "Wild raspberries." Plucked another off and showed it to her.
Child: (with a slight look of wonder) "Mom, can I have some?"
She: (with confused shaking of head) "No, no, I don't want you eating wild stuff." (leads them away from obviously crazy person)
Now, there are good reasons to teach your children not to eat whatever they find in the wild, some can be poisonous. But she couldn't even recognise a wild raspberry, and not even when I showed one to her. How the hell do people become that detached from nature?

[Whitespinnerbait]

How the hell do people become that detached from nature ??

 

By living in a High Class neighbourhood :sarcasm:

[ch312]

You mean they aren't made in the back of the grocery store? Ya know, right beside the machine that makes steaks and drumsticks...

[colin519]

Food comes from a shelf or a freezer. I'm 28 and of all my friends love the outdoors but lack actual knowledge about it. Going up north means going to a cottage to drink beers and listen to music. 'Roughing it' is going any where with mosquitos.

 

You've gotta make an effort to teach children this kind of knowledge and very few people do.

[AKRISONER]

These are the same people that call "going up north" going to wasaga beach.

 

I wouldnt complain, more wild raspberries for you...delicious.

[misfish]

I call it ignorance.

 

 

 

You mean they aren't made in the back of the grocery store? Ya know, right beside the machine that makes steaks and drumsticks...

 

Exactly my point.

[thegrumpyfisherman]

 

 

I wouldnt complain, more wild raspberries for you...delicious.

 

 

 

I tell myself this all the time AKRISONER, on one hand I'm amazed more people never experience the "real" outdoors, on the other if they did it would be ruined lol

[solopaddler]

You should have fell down on the ground and started writhing in pain. Her head would've exploded.

[fishindude]

^ like this right:

[bigugli]

Far too many in the urban environment have no real idea about where their food comes from. Nor is it possible to educate them.

 

Don't worry, the first real crisis modern society has to face and the citiots will be dropping like flies

[AKRISONER]

imagine what would happen if the grocery store shut down and the power went out...oh boy

 

I take a lot of pride in the fact that i could easily supply myself with food, shelter and vegetables...the winters would be a little tougher, but id definitely just eat a lot more fish.

[kickingfrog]

Imagine what would happen if someone did something that was completely natural to them but not to the people around them?

 

Many of us think that our own way is the only way and can't understand anyone's other way.

 

 

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/christina-david-former-nunavik-resident-takes-credit-for-plucking-bird-on-montreal-metro-1.2719136

[Ralph Field]

Perhaps she grew up in a country where raspberries didn't exist.

[Wagoneer]

Yeah, "camping" and backwoods camping seem to be two entirely different things anymore. When I say I'm going camping to people I have to explain that I'm not going to a provincial park to drink and party, I'm going way up north and getting lost on logging roads for fun.

 

I usually draw the line between the two by whether you have to poop in the forest or in a toilet. People seem to understand that the best.

 

It is sad how many people have no idea how to survive away from civilization. And I'm not talking about Survivorman stuff, I'm talking about just basic outdoor knowledge to get by. It's a rare thing.

[Rod Caster]

Try offering people raised rabbits and wild mushrooms haha... but raspberries? Pretty hard to mistake those.

[Fisherman]

Fortunately those are the ones that will perish when poop ever hits the fan.

[Musky or Specks]

Yeah, "camping" and backwoods camping seem to be two entirely different things anymore. When I say I'm going camping to people I have to explain that I'm not going to a provincial park to drink and party, I'm going way up north and getting lost on logging roads for fun.

 

I usually draw the line between the two by whether you have to poop in the forest or in a toilet. People seem to understand that the best.

 

It is sad how many people have no idea how to survive away from civilization. And I'm not talking about Survivorman stuff, I'm talking about just basic outdoor knowledge to get by. It's a rare thing.

THIS IS A THING

 

http://www.fodors.com/news/the-beginners-guide-to-glamping-6854.html

[SirCranksalot]

I'm happy to report that our kids grew up with an awareness of the natural world and that our grandchildren are probably more aware than their parents were at that age. one 7 yr old granddaughter is quite into snakes, frogs, lizards etc.

[can u fish]

You should have fell down on the ground and started writhing in pain. Her head would've exploded.

Good one Mike.

[Dave Bailey]

You should have fell down on the ground and started writhing in pain. Her head would've exploded.

 

Dang, I missed a golden opportunity!

[Joeytier]

^ like this right:

Hahaha...classic.

 

And yeah, it's pretty startling to think that this is becoming the prevailing mindset.

[Canuck2fan]

Seems about right for someone who has never been in a garden much less the wilderness... One time my sister was babysitting a lad of 8 for the summer. Whose mother was here in town acting at the festival. He had only ever been in Toronto until then.

 

So my Dad decides we should teach him to fish, and we made plans to head out one night about 6PM to a spot where you could always catch something and quickly. As we are driving out to the ole fishing hole about 10 miles out of town. The lad jumps up off the seat and into the back of the stationwagon and goes LOOK AT THOSE.... THOSE WHATEVER they are!!!!!!. Those would be dairy cows.

 

So Dad decided we should turn around and take him around him over to the farm where my Uncle was working part time as a dairy hand. Talk about having someone have their head explode, when we showed him the milking process that evening...

 

He was a smart kid just never had ever been exposed to ANYTHING RURAL.

 

Every time I saw him years later on the sit com he wound up working on, or in a couple movies he has been in lately. I always get a chuckle about how his lack of country knowledge cost us a fishing trip... LOL.

Edited July 29, 2014 by Canuck2fan

[Nipfisher]

Happens with fiddleheads too. People be like...."You're eating ferns?"

Dave next time you are driving back from up North drop a PM to a few of us Northern members. Maybe we could meet for a coffee break.

[Big Cliff]

I think it is really sad that mother nature has so much to offer and so few know how to access it. Unfortunatly it seems that many more do know how to abuse it though.

 

Wild leeks, mushrooms, wild rice, fiddleheads, apples, a huge range of berries, making pickels, jams and jellies, jerky, mint, maple syrup, birch vinager, and all the fish and game we could want; the list is almost endless.

 

My kids grew up knowing how to set snares, preserve foods, hunt and fish, we never did have a lot of money but they could both survive off the land for quite a while if they needed to. Me, not so much anymore, Sue and I would be ok until our meds ran out then it would be anyone's guess LOL.

 

One of the best books I ever owned is called "Back to Basics". It should be required reading in every Canadian school! Check it out if you get a chance, it covers most of what anyone would need to survive off the land including building shelters and starting fires.

[BillM]

Eating 'wild stuff', heh. She's probably one of those people who shops at Whole Foods and only buys 'organic'