Biggest rose bud I've ever seen. Victoria B.C July 2014
I forget why now, but I was reading up recently on the Internet about Alferd Packer, an American famous for allegedly having eaten other Americans.
The story is that Alferd and five companions headed out -- against the sage advice of a local first nations leader -- into late season weather in search of gold. They were poorly provisioned, the going was hard and after weeks on the trail they were out of food, starving and immobilized by bad weather.
The sole survivor of this ordeal, Alferd, was seen coming some months later into a town, well-fed looking, his pockets brimming with gold coins.
An individual made suspicious by Alferd's account of what happened investigated and found to his horror human remains on the trail - Alferd's companions - at least one headless and all showing signs of having been gnawed upon.
The surmise of the good townsfolk was that Alferd had killed, eaten and robbed his companions and, so charged, Alferd was incarcerated.
The snippets of information scattered randomly over Wikipedia and other sources of rumour and half-truths said that Alferd had made three contradictory confessions.
I drove myself a little crazy trying to find those three confessions on the Internet but find them I did.
The grisly details about anthropophagy are not the only things that pique my interest. Stories of wilderness survival often contain other useful information.
In two of Alferd's three confessions he includes details of how he searched mountainsides for food, in particular he searched for wild rose bushes containing rose buds (now called rose hips) that could be boiled and eaten.
Rose hips have been food for humans since the stone age apparently and are good sources of vitamin C and anti-oxidants, so, while you may still eventually die in the wilderness, eating rose hips will ensure you suffer from neither colds nor cancer.
You are also well advised, per the photo above, to lose your path and not have groceries at the south end of Vancouver Island, where the rose hips grow to a great size and can feed a multitude.
Thanks for reading!
Have a great week!
Karen
Rose hips have been food for humans since the stone age apparently and are good sources of vitamin C and anti-oxidants, so, while you may still eventually die in the wilderness, eating rose hips will ensure you suffer from neither colds nor cancer.
You are also well advised, per the photo above, to lose your path and not have groceries at the south end of Vancouver Island, where the rose hips grow to a great size and can feed a multitude.
Thanks for reading!
Have a great week!
Karen
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