This is probably your best shot at survival according to family friends that actually survived starvation sieges. At Stalingrad and Leningrad paste and glue were often eaten to survive, but they were made of different substances (more organic components) then what is produced now.
If society collapsed while I was somehow trapped in a warehouse full of nothing but bud light lime, I’d eat the cardboard cases first.
Glue was frequently made of boiled-down animal hides, and was frequently only a step removed from gelatin.
In fact, the 19th century recipe for “Composition” (used in places where we’d use rubber or plastic, as in ink rollers) was a mixture of molasses, cow-hide glue, and some sort of tempering, like chalk (which wouldn’t stop a really hungry person).
I saw on a website where one guy made a modern substitute out of melted Gummi Bears and sugar.
True - in general, it’s related to whether the acorns overwinter or not. Species with acorns that sprout as soon as they fall, and put on a little growth before winter sets in, tend not to be bitter. Species that sprout in the spring tend to contain tannins to preserve and protect them while they are dormant.
Mushrooms typically contain rather little nutrition; you might be able to consume enough of them to survive if you dried them and ate them dry, but in their fresh state, they’re 90% water by weight.
I’d consider turnips, rutabagas, parsnips, and, in a pinch, oysters.
Hmm, so lets say in a long-term scenario, would it be to your advantage to try and breed rats/mice/vermin you find rather than eat them immediately?
Some expanding foam insulation is corn based. Some plastics, especially the biodegradable stuff, I heard is cellulose based. Dandelion, burdock roots, carnations, daisys, roses, tulips, cattails.
A biggish problem is that a lot of the stuff we have mentioned, including wild and ornamental plants, is likely to cause gastric upset. When you are already starving, vomiting and diarrhea can be the final nails in your coffin. People not uncommonly get the shits from unfamiliar foods. For that reason, among backpackers, preppers, and such, it is considered wise to have spent a day or so actually living on the foods you intend to use or stockpile. It is, at best, awkward to find the energy bars that you packed give you the screaming squits when you are 25 miles into the bush. Many “edible” plants, in my opinion, are likely to cause problems if eaten in quantity by a person who does not normally consume them at all. One might be better off digging in the soil around those plants for earthworms and grubs to roast and eat.
lady fingers they taste just like lady fingers