>>1684559Most of my knowledge comes from Eastern USA. Here's a list of what types of foods to go after ranked in order of calorie importance in this region
1. Nuts
Easiest to collect, very abundant, high in calories, easily stored, easy to identify takes lots of preccesing time. Acorns are the most abundant but need to be leached before consumption. Hickory nuts are the best tasting, to cut back on processing time make nut milk. Black walnuts(pic related)/butternuts are also great. Peak nut season is in fall, but can be found through winter into spring as long as there's no snow (especially red oak acorns)
2. Roots and underground storage organs
Less common than nuts, highly nutritious, takes lots of time to dig. Best tubers are hopniss, Wapato, Jerusalem Artichokes. Also good are burdock, wild carrot, cattail rhizomes, lotus tubers and wild parsnips. Corms like trout Lily and spring beauty can be quite abundant but take a lot of time to dig up in any significant quantity. The problem with most roots is that they are full of inulin which is a complex, indigestible polysaccharide that wild plants use for cold resistance. During the colder months plants convert some of it to simpler sugars as anti freeze. This is when wild roots taste best. Peak root harvest is after a few fall Frosts but before the ground freezes so they are easy to dig. early spring is also good before they start growing again. Even still most wild tubers should still need to be cooked for very long periods of time (many hours, even days) to be palatable. If you don't prepare it correctly you will have VERY bad gas. The exceptions to this are plants like hopniss and starchy rhizomes like cattail which can be eaten year round but will still be best in fall when they are full of energy and ready to go dormant.
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