HEALTHY EMERGENCY FOOD

For those who live in small towns or outskirts of big towns it is easy to harvest natural and heath food from the surroundings. There are the familiar escaped plants from cultivation found along roadsides, riverbanks, jungle fringes such tapioca, yam, kangkong (water spinach), banana, papaya, coconut, jackfruit, bamboo that can provide edible shoots, fruits, juice, and roots to be eaten directly or for cooking. Dispersal of seeds and other forms of propagules of these plants are usually incidental discards by people.

There are many wild plants that have edible parts that grow in their  natural or modified habitats. The young leaves of some ferns, wild bamboo shoots, mushroom types, water lilies are good for cooking. And there are ulams - pegaga types, mata pelanduk, cabang tiga to add flavour. The larva of sago beetle is good for protein and usually fried or even eaten raw as in Sarawak.

For sometimes now I have been harvesting cabbage (umbut) from young escaped oil palms in the farm or along roadsides. It is quite a laborious task to get the shoot but worthwhile. The taste is not as good as cabbage of coconut or nibong when cooked (masak lemak). 

The beauty of these emergency food types is they are organic and free for the taking.