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Water is vital to your body both as a solvent and as an essential part of many metabolic processes within the body. It helps digest your food, transport waste, and control your body temperature. Without water, these metabolic processes could not exist and your body would begin to malfunction at a cellular level.

In short, water is essential to human life.

And while you are outside, it is easy to get dehydrated. Interestingly, dehydration symptoms become noticeable after 2% of your normal water volume has been lost http://www.skillsforwildlives.com/2012/01/dehydration-its-importance-for-the-wilderness-traveller/

Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tested by archaeologists and found edible. Good to know on your next long trail…

Bulrush is a tall plant (over 2 m) that grows along nutritious riversides. It has large leaves and a distinctive long brown “cigar” at the end of its stems. You can recognize Bulrush by cuttting the leaves: they should be ‘c’ shaped. Many parts of bulrush are edible.

The white of the young shoots is edible, even raw. The rhizomes are a good source of food. After digging a root out, with a stick, it can be peeled. Subsequently, the fibers can be cooked, baked, dried, ground into flour or made into a syrup by slowly cooking them. After peeling, you can crack and break them under water to take the starch out. The roots can easily be baked in an open fire, where the bark serves as protection against fire. After ten to twenty minutes, you can tear the roots and take out the starchy fibers; these fibers are directly edible. Per person, you need fifteen to twenty roots.

Rose hips contain 20 times more Vitamin C then oranges – just don’t eat the prickly seeds, as they cause irritation.

A good way to do so is to make syrup. For this, add 500 gram coarsely ground hips to 750 ml boiling water and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Let the mixture drain through a linen cloth into a pan. Put the pulp back into a pan with 375 ml boiling water and let stand 10 minutes. Pour back through the cloth. Pour all the liquid again through the cloth and boil it until it is about 375 ml. Add to that 450 grams of sugar and cook for 5 minutes. Put in small bottles and seal vacuum.

Never eat black granules that occur between grains. These are known as “ergot”, the fruiting structure of the Claviceps purpurea fungus. Ergot causes hallucinations and is toxic.

Do you have sore muscles after a long hike? Mix 1 spoon of horseradish in a cup of olive oil. Leave the mix for 30 mins, then use is to massage your sore muscles. Instant relief!

In winter, the rhizomes of Bracken form one of the best sources of starch found in wild species. This time of the year the rhizomes are at their best, storing starch deposits of the plant. Soak the rhizomes in water to reduce any toxicity before preparation.

The whole family of Boletus mushrooms is edible, apart from the ones with red or orange spores. The Boletus edulis is very nice tasting, other members of the family may be less tasty

In order to digest food your body requires water – so if you do not have fresh water, do not eat

Lighting a normal candle with a firesteel is easy when the wick is teased out. When did I learn this? On my birthday!