Collecting plant foodstuff in the Canadian wilderness of Alberta during winter?
Context:
I'm writing a story that will have two people forced to spend the winter (late November to mid-February) in the middle of a forest (Alberta, Canada). They'll have food but it'll be mostly bread (they have flour + yeast), dry meat and potatoes or beans (whichever turns out to have a better balance weight-nutrients-store life). I wanted the characters to collect plant foodstuff to enrich their diet.
Question:
According to this website, the ground in the Edmonton area can have an accumulation of snow from 1cm (0.4 inches) to an average of 18cm (11.3 inches). Common sense dictates that the deeper the snow, the harder it will be to collect plant foodstuff, however, in the best case scenario (snow 1cm deep), would it be feasible to collect roots (like broadleaf cattail rhizomes or wild onion) or rose hips (since, not being roots, would be more visible, if they exist)?
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1 answer
This is really a comment, or several of them, but too big to use the comments mechanism.
- Alberta is a big place with quite varied climates. In particular, you can divide the province into the Rocky mountains at the southwestern edge, and the plains in the east and north that cover most of the place. There is also a large difference between the nearly arctic conditions in the north and the more continental conditions in the south.
- In most parts of Alberta "winter" starts well before November and extends well past mid February. That's OK if your protagonists get into their mess in November and get rescued (or whatever) in mid February. It's not OK if you think that the conditions lighten up in February somehow so they get themselves out, which they couldn't do in January.
- Relying on finding edible plant material in winter isn't going to be a successful survival strategy. In winter, you'll have to be trapping, fishing, or hunting. What you trap, fish, or hunt and therefore what strategies you need depends on what area you are stuck in. The plains will be different than the mountains, for example.
- Unless you're stuck in the north of Alberta, you're probably better off trying to get out than surviving in place for a whole winter. That changes your priorities.
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