Solo Overnight Hammock Camping - Bushcraft, Foraging for Wild Food to Eat

Description

I head out into the woods for a solo overnight camping trip with my hammock and tarp. Using Bushcraft, I build a primitive basket from natural materials found in the forest. I then use this to forage the area for wild food and edible plants. Being spring, there is plenty of wild food out there to help add to your meal when on a camping trip or even in a survival situation. I then set up my hammock and tarp, and start a fire using a primitive bowdrill method. I boil stinging nettles to make nettle tea, and live off the land for 24 hours using wild plants that I foraged in the woods. Thanks for joining me on the adventure - Mike

* NOTE - When foraging, always be sure that you can 100% identify a wild plant before you eat it. Be sure to cross reference and triple check the ID of the plant.

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Mike Pullen

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Tags: solo,overnight,hammock,camping,bushcraft,foraging,wild food,eat,woods,solo overnight camp,solo overnight camping,hammock camping,bushcraft camp,primitive technology,primitive basket,natural materials,shelter,forest,forage,wild edibles,plants,edible plants,survival,survival situation,survival food,wilderness living,off grid,living off grid,live off the land,nature,24 hours,ta outdoors,alone,alone in the woods,solo camping,tarp,tarp camping,backpacking

Video Transcription

[Laughter]

welcome to ta outdoors guys I appreciate that was quite a long intro well it wasn't much of an intro is full on so I just wanted to get on with things sometimes it's nice to just two things and then worry about the talking part of things later that does happen in my videos longer time subscribers will will know that but yeah today's been a bit more a bushcraft the overnighter to be honest I did it been a full-on date and a lot of the basket here the Khmer toast basket we've to that kind of like a primitive colitis is a vine which is very common in deciduous woodlands over here in the UK it's also really good wood for the half board of bow drill set or a hand drill set but it's it once you get learn to identify these kind of things your senses just open up to them and to nature and it's it's really amazing and once you start going down the plant root and the botany root it you're honestly it's just an absolute rabbit hole and it tastes it's really hard to get pulled away so as you can see behind me I've set up the hammock and the tarp and the under blanket but no sleeping bags only carried my day pack really with me and crammed everything in there so I mean I I use this as well I can use this as carrying items this is just making use of nature you know I'm gonna take this home and this will get used again in the future I'm not just gonna kind of throw it away just shows you what you can make really as a if you put your mind to it and just a little bit of jute twine as well just to hold the handles together I could have used more clematis cordage but sadly I was running out with the thinner clematis fine so I didn't want to just abuse the whole area and just take everything so I did use some jute twine for that to tie the handles together just got my nettle tea here this is common nettle tea I've just eaten some wild edibles as well that I foraged at earlier what I'm going to do is I actually filmed earlier some clips while I was there foraging of the plants themselves and I went into a little bit of detail about these plants that I was foraging these edibles they are edibles and also I went through if you want to see poisonous ones I think it was just the one actually but one seriously poisonous plant so I'm going to play that clip now I know that it's it goes into a little bit of detail about water edibles so if you're into that sort of thing and living off the land and things like that watch this I think it's probably five minutes long or something like that little short section on some wild edibles and what I've been eating at the moment and drinking as well here and then when you watch that join me back here we've got some more food to cook up gonna chill out and Hammack have some beers and just enjoy the time here in this lovely woodland so this bright yellow coloured flower here is extremely common here in the UK and across Europe and this is the dandelion or taraxacum officinalis actually over 220 micro species of this plant alone it's very common usually found in fields open fields here in the UK it's fairly easy to identify in spring and summer by these large yellow flower heads which are but you know they really stand out but it's actually also the leaves here very to thieves and you can see they're like individual teeth on the lid and that's one of the easier way to identify them when the flower heads aren't on out typically the leaves themselves when eaten raw are really bitter and also the flowers you can use to make wine dandelion wine the roots themselves you can dry out and roast them and they've actually been used to make a substitute a coffee substitute but with less caffeine in it than your kind of standard coffee that you would get there's a lot of history to this plant and historically it was really used for medicinal purposes to treat digestive disorders its anti-inflammatory anti-carcinogenic so there's lots of goodness from this plant that they used historically many years ago but just taking the as usual taking the kind of small shoots the small tips of the leaves are generally a little bit less bitter and you can see that a tooth like shape there now when eaten raw they're just a little bit bitter but again the medicinal wise they've been used to the treat I think it was liver problems and by all problems years ago so very common and often you know walked by quite frequently by by walkers and fields and things like that but actually it is edible so now I'm just gonna follow it forage some of the the smaller leaves and the tips just just the first the top third really of the smaller leaves of the tips I'm not gonna harvest the whole plant because I'd like it to continue to grow here on year so I'm just gonna you know take what a third of the plant really do everything that's in thirds there's a nice small chute there that would be a little bit less bitter than the other ones collector get them out of this you have to be wary as well if you're in the UK where there's so much common footfall from people and dog walkers try not to pick these from areas that you know dogs would access because they obviously urinate up plants and things and you don't want to really be eating that to be honest they have no real kind of strong scent to them a very because they're growing amongst the grass it's a very kind of grassy scent but nice enough all the same just be aware of other plants around species just in case you make sure when you're pulling any leaves off that it is attached to the plant you are looking for because it's very common to or could be quite easy to mistake it for a different plant without knowing that you're picking that plant nearby and it could be a poisonous one here's another very common wild edible that's found under hedges and ditches and streams and where there's damp and shaded areas this is called a cleavers or goose grass the latin name is gallium a purine it is a wild edible and actually one of the easiest ways to identify this plant is is by the touch because underneath of each each leaf there are backward facing hooks that basically help it to cling on to other vegetation and the fruiting seeds do this as well and if you just gently brush your finger underneath it you can fill these hooks almost like velcro and these are often your land identify these without even realizing it as it as a kid as youngsters we used to find these in the hedgerows and you'd throw them at each other and they would stick onto your clothing and it would be it would give us all quite a laugh but actually that's one of the most the easiest way to identify it it is edible it's not so palatable raw but if you soften it by steaming them or add them to a soup or a stew and macey it just a little bit more tasty native to wide regions of Europe and it's now I think it's naturalized throughout the most of the US and Canada now so it is a pretty common wild edible to some people it can cause contact dermatitis which is basically like a localized skin rash upon contact upon touching it so just be aware of that it doesn't well with me personally maybe it's perhaps those people who have sensitive skin now the reason it's called goose grass as well another fun fact is because geese actually really really enjoy eating this not only humans do but geese do as well hence the nickname goose grass cleavers are in the same family interestingly cleavers are in the same family as coffee so the fruits you can be dried and roasted and used as a coffee substitute but it will have less caffeine in it than a traditional coffee when harvesting it I tend to only take the top the top section I don't I don't like to have personally too much stem it's not really necessary for me and also it will encourage new growth by just taking these top sections there also be a lot less bitter a bit more sweetness because that's where all the goodness is getting pumped into for the plant especially at springtime it's all getting pumped into the to the top of the plant whether the fruits and the flower heads would normally grow so I just take the tops of it and it's so common around here so I'm going to take a fair amount because there it is really really common but it's you can eat it raw you can't eat it raw it's just a bit of a weird sensation with the hooks it kind of clings to your tongue it's almost like eating sandpaper in a way not that I've ever eaten sandpaper but it's much better if you steam it trust me but yeah like I say raw it's not um it's not it's not nasty as such it's just that it's just the texture when you eat it raw it's that texture that's not as nice but again not like the smaller shoots will there certainly be nicer so this stretch along here of this wooden list is typically very common for cleavers or goose grass because there's really shaded areas you can see that by the trees up here on the right almost lord of the rings' esque this path there's plenty of nettles here as well which is something we'll come on but if I show you it does tend to grow among metals if I show you just here there it is growing there just up against that tree just there in amongst the metals more over to my right to stay there here and there is just a bed of green around me most of it is the common stinging nettle but so I mean by sticking to your clothing I just dropped brush this across my leg here it sticks the sticks and it hangs there you can almost throw it on yourself and last of the wild edibles of today but by no means the least hopefully most of you will recognize this it is the common nettle or stinging nettle as most of us will remember it by Atika die oka or die o so it's very common it's very easy to identify most people end up identifying it accidentally by stinging themselves on it because it's full of tiny tiny hairs which you only really see when you look at it very very closely and this has inject hypodermic histamine into your skin which causes irritation and stinging often redness and soreness I don't know why I'm touching it but if you touch it generally when you touch them very lightly that's when they will sting you if you grasp them they tend to not sting as much just I don't know whether that's an old wives tale but I found that as well when I when I brush past them they sting but when you grab them they don't sting as much maybe don't try that at home kids you'll find out eventually what it feels like surprisingly there's a serious amount of goodness that comes from stinging nettles but what's most surprising is that actually the protein content that they can produce I think it's something like up to 25 and the right time of year you can get up to 25 percent of the leaf itself is protein they're rich in vitamins A and C and calcium as well topmost leaves these small ones here they're the most tender they'll have the most goodness in them probably the best taste as well again like the dandelion the larger leaves will be a little bit bitter they are edible but they are also great in a tea as well and by boiling them or steaming them over a fire you can actually

get rid of the the hypodermic needles basically the hair like follicles on them which cause the stinging so generally I would I would recommend personally boiling them and having nettle tea if you haven't a really really nice lot of medicinal history to the nettle used traditionally to treat kidney and urinary tract disorders so lots of goodness lots of goodness so I'm gonna harvest these and I am actually harvest these down by the bottom of the stem obviously I'm not gonna pick the leaf you can use gloves and just pick the leaves I'm gonna harvest these lower down by the stem itself what you can do as well is just wrap your your hand in your jacket if you can and use your jacket as a clamp to stop yourself getting strong it's one of the ways and methods that I've done before that's good enough to fit in the basket that I've made so this plan here quite a unique looking plant is actually a poisonous plant it's not edible the common name is lords and ladies or wild Arum but its latin name is aron maculatum or maculatum also known as the coo coo point i believe again it grows in shady places under hedges and woodlands it's very common especially in this area at the moment where I'm foraging all parts of this plant contain calcium oxalate crystals which which basically can can cause severe irritation inside your mouth and your throat found throughout Europe I'm trying to think of how not to get demonetized from saying this but basically what you have here is what's called the spadix the male part that part of the plant and then you have the Spade this is kind of structure on the outside the leaf like structure on the outside of it and the reason why it's called lords and ladies is because the spadix here the male part well basically it's representative of the male and female genitalia need I kind of say more to be honest then we can all guess which part of the plant looks like the male reproductive system fairly self-explanatory there I don't need to go into detail on that this plant is extremely poisonous

especially the in autumn tymek you get bright red berries they go Orange like and they're bright red and they look lovely but they are incredibly poison and they do you do see small bite marks out of them sometimes and it's usually from small rodents and things like that but these berries contain oxalates of saponin which basically have needle shaped crystals which which is what causes the irritation in the soft tissue in your mouth if you eat it and swelling and things like that a thing if I'm not mistaken this is one of the most common causes of hospitalization for people who pick wild edibles this plant because it grows in amongst Ram syns or wild garlic and at an early stage it's very very similar to the Rams and the wild garlic which is obviously one of the most common wild edibles that you can get so just be aware of it I'll just show you the leaves as well it has big arrow shaped leaves to it which are which are kind of glossy on the top

they're almost venus in the way that they're they're structured this is probably the easiest part to identify for it but if I try and show you one here over here for example this one for example is in the early stages and you can see that over here I touched them before but I recommend to not touch this people there's the the one we just saw similar there with the spadix and the Spade here but here's the one in the early stages and you can see it's just a tubular structure if you can see that just just a tubular structure but it's actually incredibly poisonous so just be aware of that and look up I get yourself an ID book and just look up on this plant once you'll be in it once you're able to identify it you will be able to find it almost everywhere in dark deciduous woodlands here in the UK so yeah keep an eye out for it lords and ladies so I hope you enjoyed that it's just a little insight into some of the wild edibles that certainly I eat at this time of year this spring is we're well into spring now and when springs in full flow that's kind of the plant species that are widely available in meat in a particular area that I'm in most of those were actually all of those were found in a deciduous woodland that's because it's it's much richer in the deciduous woodland there's much more wildlife flora and fauna and it's just like going that I've done a lot of my videos in a coniferous woodland and I you know the count the bush graph camp and everything like that is in a coniferous woodlands so makes a change now to come to a deciduous woodland and just enjoy you know time in a broadleaf forest so I'm actually in a small woodland it's all it's all deciduous there is one Scots pine tree to my right but it's all deciduous other than that mostly silver birch some lovely old oak trees here as well but again it's mostly burst there's some rhododendron bushes which is the greenery that you can see generally in the background the Nettles as I said earlier they're coming up now the bracken is starting to rise as well it's just a really good time of year temperatures are warm we're out we're in double figures now which is so nice it's been great we've had one hell of a long winter then about you guys where you are in the world but certainly here in the British Isles we have had a really long winter it's only just come out of it everything's very late this year but it's nice that spring is you know finally arrived which is great which is why I'm hammock camping so I'll talk through I think I'm going to talk through all the hammock setup and everything like that tomorrow just in the morning briefly because you know I've done so much work today it's nice to just leave that to tomorrow so I'm enjoying my nettle tea here this is just net stinging nettles see if I'll show you there's number of different ways that you can make nettle tea this one was just steeped but you can see it goes that lovely dark color almost like coffee dark color asters I've left the leaves in there the nettle leaves because the kind of hypodermic nurse of the tiny hairs on them the sting essentially that is eradicated once you put them over heat you saw me heating them over fire but also if you put them in boiling water that also eradicate that as well so you didn't get this thing all the burn and as I said earlier it's packed full of vitamins and you can almost can feel that it tastes like it's got goodness to it that it's good for your body and those forages up there I'm not a huge forager I'm relatively new to it on though expert you know I'm not an expert always say that I'm on expert I'm just showing you what I got what I do and I know that in the wild food and foraging scene here in the UK that the common nettle is probably one of the most sought-after

you know it's it's obviously very common but it's probably one of the most used wild foods around that and RAM scens and obviously the berries berries and everything like that in autumn time but nettles because it's so communist everywhere you can use it for cordage as well greatly misunderstood plant really the stinging nettle I'm on the lucky jack American pale ale actually sent to me by subscriber Jenny working my way through your beers Jenny so thank you guys I think I'm gonna call it a night to be honest the birds are still going nuts

it's ten o'clock and I'm going to bed in the clothes that I walled a three-on-one jacket with the police bushcraft pants obviously my boots I'll probably take off I might get them on Archie I've got no sleeping bag no war blanket for this one I've just got the under blanket at the DD on the blanket which is synthetic but it's got thermal properties to reflect the heat back onto me that's why I mean I've had that so that I didn't need to bring a sleeping bag because this packs down a little bit smaller it's nice because I don't have to maintain fire now because I'll be warm enough tonight things going down to about 9 degrees so although that's fairly warm with a draught called grass coming through that will be you know if I didn't have this under blanket I'd be feeding it there's been a great day enjoyed it thanks very much if you're still sticking around I appreciate it and we'll probably see you guys tomorrow in the morning morning guys been a bit of an interesting night with lots of rain pretty noisy on the top that's ok on and off not gonna hang around hanging around I'm gonna hang about too much this morning just get some breakfast on pack up the gear and get going to the fire game so what I'm waiting for my porridge to cool down a bit I just run you through my setup so the hammock is the deed all this is didi cuz I like their gear British company I just enjoy using ok I have done four years so this hammock is the frontline hammock and it's got the the mesh the mozzie net basically that can come down because it's got spreader bars here and that means when you zip it for those kind of well at this time of year spring summer when you zip it up you can be completely concealed in it from the bugs and the mosquitos and things like that so if you're camping near water or you like to camp near water this is quite a good solution I think they do a jungle type hammock as well which is not as robust as this one I think it packs down to a smaller size but the front like that's brilliant there's space underneath for a mattress as well the other side that you can put a mat under or a thermal blanket underneath nicely sized my head torch from last night and then underneath that to keep me warm because I've got no sleeping bag this is the under blanket and essentially what that is is a synthetic almost like a synthetic half a sleeping bag if you cut it in half and that just sits underneath you and you need a little bit of a gap covering a couple of inches to bounce that heat back from the bottom of the under blanket up through to the hammock itself and into your body so just handy it compacts down really small about that small it's just a little bit smaller than the sleeping bags that I have anyway there's a just that there's that there is adjustments on this elasticated adjustments and bungee cord around most of this on a blanket so you can cinch it right down like this and it tucks it basically tucks in even closer to you on those sort of windy days I listened it quite a bit last night so I know cinnamon again that's on bungee straps so there's lots of give when there's wind this is new for me this setup which is actually holding my hammock up and this is basically called Whoopie slings these are the this is the DD version of the Whoopie slings and it's all weaved into itself it's really clever and once you set this up it's a little bit tricky to set up from the normal webbing straps so once you do I'll show you how to adjust it so if I pull this this is like the tag end if you imagine if I pull this towards me it tightens the my cup and you can see that it's pulling all that cord and hammocks now coming tighter tighter tighter and it's raising up in the air so now it's up higher and then I can loosen it by this loop here and just pulling that back through and that now loosens the hammock and makes it sag down so if I show you if I show you from back here look at the hammock here now it's sagging so there's lots of slack in it to put some more tension on it I grab the tag end of the Whoopie sling put it back towards the tree and that's now adjusting it and if I let go the hammock now sits much higher and this can take my weight really easily to loosen it I come up here and I just pull that back through just pull one of these loops like that and that lowers the hammock and it's just much more much easier to adjust your hammock to the right tension that you would like so that is the the Whoopie slings I'll pop a link in the description to the Whoopi's things and all the gear that I've got here just in case you're interested the great thing about the Whoopie sling is that with this tag end it actually acts as like a drip line where you where I would normally tie some prophets and some loops off here to prevent water dripping down coming down this channel of on the line down into the hammock and getting my hammock wet this acts as a natural drip line anyway so any water around water that lands here which is outside of the tarp this bit it will trickle down here trickle down the drip line and not go anywhere beyond into the hammock itself I could for safety factors tie some project knots up here if it was torrential rain for it to be honest they don't really need it so I'm gonna pack my hammock away now I've got my dry bags and everything just clipped up here underneath the top so I'll take those off the first thing I need to do to packet ways get to take the elastic down which is holding up the bug net the fly net so I've taken the elastic off which goes to the tree then inside here is basically what they call spreader bars which is similar to their tent tent poles that you get two of these each side and that just keeps the width of the knit and shape of the net very easy to do just pop them in and out turn not to lose these I put these straightaway on top of my dry bag next is the under blanket and that comes in its own stuff sack like a sleeping bag stuff that we just undo the carabiners it's attached up on my main the main hand line here by some carabiners because it's pretty wet today even the ground behind below me is pretty wet and we try and keep it off the ground I pack it away it's all attached to the hammock by bungee cords and carabiners baby carabiners so essentially that's the the under blanket there but I can compress that even more if you watch just like sleeping bags he's got the adjustment nylon straps qualities as well so if you look there that's almost like quarter took a good chunk about this far off of what I had originally and that's how I've been able to pack it into my day splay bag like I have so that's the under blanket done so this is the hammock sleeve it's just a protector now you didn't have to have these obviously you can just use simple hammocks this is just what I use I know that does is it helps me to put a hammock up in the rain and it just protects the hammock up if it's raining when I've not got the tarp up this just protects it and just protects the hammock from general damage makes it easier to pack away so it's just again like a stuff sack and then all you do is just open one end keep the other end closed and tight open one end that's now really easy to pack away I then keep my hammock in another stuff sack here just to make it easier to see take it off the tree huggers get the Whoopie slings in first

managed to get the porridge just right finally take me years these are the tree huggers as well that I got with the whoopie sleeves they're much better quality tree huggers and they've got a really nice strong like carabiner to them these ones and much prefer this so that's fine in it last night anyway it helped me up I just put these carabiners oh yeah I forgot this is the the new I used the DD 3x3 tart normally which is the top I use in all my videos you can see I'll pop a link to that one in the description below but they've upgraded now and they've got I think it's called the pro top and it's just got more tie up points I think it's got 24 something now compared to the last on which I think was 19 so 24 tie up points is a ridiculous amount there's so many options for configurations to set up but the the addition they've added to this one as well as they've got the rivets here where you can put state tent stakes in or so you can pin it down for ground shelters and also you can use it for with walking poles they've got these rivets here which i think is a great idea so one of the new additions of feed the prototype is they've got this velcro underneath here which you can use to lash your paracord to or your cordage to for your tie out points on your top it just needs to be enough to be gay and that velcro just keeps it all nice and tight I think that's brilliant idea because often when you're pulling out the soft stack it just put foot yards to your cordage it just falls out and it could becomes a bit of a mess so that's a really neat little organization point there but it's also if you see here I've got these these poppers so I've taken my hammock down now but if you imagine my hammock is inside there I've left the to tie up points in that corner and this far corner and I've taken these ones out what you can do is actually button this whole corner together so buttoned it together and essentially what that does is it it closes the tarp down so if I have wind coming from this way and I was in the hammock and the wind was coming in I can still be in the hammock but it's

much more enclosed and you can use those Ribbit's for setting up tents style top shelters as well tie up points done this is just a tour top pitch quickly sleep nice and quick again this one is this a simple loop and a stick just tension pulls in on itself it's nice to fast to get down fires out Dixon feet posing a stick it's soaking like the ground anyway but good to be safe Leave No Trace at all I will talk through that in a video coming up soon but let me just show you how I packed it I had a lot of food and the beers and everything we're in one of these it was this side pocket so basically on the blanket those sloppy I've slaughtered the axe down the side the hatchet when I forged a Dalek steel that was on the inside but that can fit on the outside now because there's less stuff in the side pocket so then it went the top in there although that's pretty wet so I might put that on the outside now I had my hammock on the outside to begin with

yeah that's pretty wet say I wouldn't I shouldn't put my hand up coming outside really it's just it wasn't raining over let's try it last time my tarp was in my hammock was on the outside so we're gonna try but it was water bottle and canteen set is lying down pour it in the pouch which is since got thinner I've used some wash cool now my frying pan which is ice over there now my frying pan was in here to begin with but now it's pretty gunky I'm just gonna carry it because Oh

in fact I'll put my frying pan in my baskets I'm carrying that I sit that is the backpack fully packed well guys thanks so much for watching this video all hooked up now the backpack and everything basket I hope you enjoyed it - preciate it if you watched it all the way through if you enjoy this type of video do hit the subscribe button and tick the little bell so you get notified of when I upload videos and yeah thanks so much for watching guys and I'll see you soon in the next episode you