Although animals can supply a number of materials very suited to making tools, clothes and other equipment, plants are the main source of materials and food.

The list of things you can make from plants is endless, String, rope, dyes, spears, clothes, huts and shelters, glues, waterproofing, fuel, fire-lighting materials, a huge range of  good medicines and even first-aid to stop bleeding, make splints and internal and external antibiotics.

Some plants are indigestible, some are of poor quality, others need a lot of preparation or require poisons to be removed from them. Still more are available for a very short time of the year, others are so poisonous that they shouldn’t be used at all. Some are good to eat but are too easily confused with very poisonous ones. Most plants have parts that can be used and parts that can’t. Some are very nutritious but dangerous if you eat too much. Some may harbour very nasty parasites.

In our level one training you only need to know 20 food plants and a little emergency (bleeding and antibiotic) medicine. By level 3 the minimum is 80 edible plants and medicinal properties that will cover a wide range of problems.

Hunter-Gatherers in the world today may use a small variety of plants when living in extreme conditions, desert or tundra for example. But they are still likely to use more varieties than even healthy eaters in our society that are unlikely to use more than 20 fresh fruits and vegetables regularly. In areas where food is abundant the indigenous populations may know hundreds of plants and may be aware of dozens uses for each one (this amounts to a gigantic body of knowledge). In addition they may also know dozens animals, from insects to mammals, their life-spans, breeding cycles, calls, tracks, migration patterns, favourite foods and can tell age and health etc. from droppings.

Hunter-Gatherers tend to have very low rates of heart disease and cancer. Their diet contains high levels of anti-oxidants that reduce the likelihood of cancer and high levels of natural heart-stimulants and chemicals that prevent hardening of the arteries.  Maybe they would see our getting medicines for these diseases the same as our getting dietary supplements. They also eat antibiotics that bacteria can’t get immune to, one reason why Hunter-Gatherers frequently get fewer infections and recover faster.

Such super-healthy food can easily be found in countryside of Britain and Europe (actually quite a lot of super-foods can be found in shops) and would have been eaten or grazed* or used for cooking by our Hunter-Gatherer ancestors.

*Grazing: Taking a bit of a plant to leave it alive, rather than eating the whole thing and killing it.

The journey from barely noticing all the green stuff around you to knowing what it is and what you can do with it is one of the most fascinating in life.

 Since starting my training, I can't walk anywhere without checking walls, verges and trees for possible sources of food, materials and medicines.”

R. Wilkins: Survival Student.