# Survival > Foraging & Wild Edibles >  Salt

## Arborius

I read(My Side of the Mountain) you could boil hickory twigs to obtain salt for survival  preserving or seasoning in the wild. Has anyone ever tried this how do you do it and are there any other ways to obtain salt in the wild?

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## Rick

That's actually a great question. I can't answer the hickory twigs thing but I do know a bit about salt. It's actually a pretty common mineral in nature. The Midwest was, at one time, a shallow salt water ocean and once it dried up all that salt was left behind. Halite or rock salt is the salt left over from those oceans. As streams and rivers erode the landscape they uncover those salt deposits and you can find them as a surface crust or layer on swamps and wetlands or even dry lake and river bottoms. 

Animals are really good and finding natural salt. Deer will frequent a natural salt lick as will domesticated animals like cows. 

There happened to be a very large natural deposit in southeastern Illinois and a slave house located in Saline County used slaves to mine the salt deposit, which supplied Arkansas, Tennessee, part of Louisiana and Texas.  

Natural salt springs were also found in New York near Syracuse. Part of the reason the Erie Canal was built. They have also been found in the Appalachian Mtns and in Michigan.

Of course ocean water is another source.   

Did you know the Mississippi River is actually a salt river? It is although it's salt volume is pretty low. About .002 percent. It picks the salt up from the various tributaries as described above. 

In some places in the U.S., salt deposits can range from 1000 to 3000 feet deep. 

So how do you find it in nature? Look for those crusty layers I described above or creek banks where there is evidence animals have been digging in the soil.

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## BraggSurvivor

I think you can get more salt from licking your own armpit that getting it from hickory twigs.

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## Rick

I don't know about you but I physically could never lick my armpit and emotionally wouldn't want to.

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## BraggSurvivor

> I don't know about you but I physically could never lick my armpit and emotionally wouldn't want to.



What are you saying? You would if you could but you cant so you wont?

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## Rick

No, I won't and I don't and I couldn't and wouldn't. I shudder at the thought and you know you shouldn't.

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## NorthWindTrails

Actually ... I have heard that about Hickory twigs in several places (I also read "My Side of the Mountain", but have heard this elsewhere). If we are going to practice skills that could someday save our fannies, we should EXPERIMENT as safely as possible, but experiment none the less. I have heard that "Shag Bark" Hickory is the variety to look for when extracting salt. Having said that, I also must say I have yet to actually TRY it. As soon as I can, I will try this, and get back to you.  NorthWind

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## Smok

Why not burn the Hickory first and then boil the ash seams it would be easier and more productive

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## Arborius

I can find references to Hickory Smoked Salt online but no instructions on how to produce it. According to the "My Side of the Mountain" book it is produced as a black substance that coats the container used in the boiling as the water evaporates. 

"My Side of the Mountain" I first read this book in 8th grade and just bought it to read to my kids. Its a kids book but I think everyone on this site would enjoy it, so check it out.

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## Rick

Why do you want to extract salt?

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## Beo

To eat and dehydrate in a survivl situation rick... what are you thinking.

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## Rick

Well, silly me. There you go. 

I suppose if you wanted to acquire some for preservation of food stock but acquiring it from twigs and bark sure won't give you enough to do anything with. In a survival situation, you can get all the salt you need from the food you eat if your diet is reasonably balanced. If you're packing food then you probably have way more salt than you need. 

Salt depletion from water ingestion is possible is you drink too much but that's about the only thing I can think of that would require additional salt intake.

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## trax

OK, three things. 
1. Save them little salt packets they've been throwing in with your drive through orders.

2. Arborius..what's that picture in your avatar

3. Rick, your first posting here made me think of a really long, boring installment of Jeopardy, could you have formed it all into questions? Well, maybe next time. (this major north american waterway is actually a salt river. What is the Mississippi? I'll take Hollywood Legends for 800 Alex)

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## NorthWindTrails

I just read in Ellsworth Jaeger's book "Wildwood Wisdom" that a plant supposedly grows all over North America called "Colt's Foot" that some native tribes would harvest for the salt content. Interestingly enough, like Smok's suggestion, they rolled the leaves up and let them dry. Then they carefully burned the leaves on clean, flat rocks and used the ash for it's salt. I am doing more research to find out what these plants look like around here, and I'll let you know what I find out. NorthWind

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## Rick

Any backwoods numpty knows his avatar is a fish trap. What a goober.

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## trax

thanks Twink, nice to be reassured that I'm not a numpty. I don't trap fish

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## Arborius

> 2. Arborius..what's that picture in your avatar



Its a fish trap to coral fish into a small area difficult to escape to make it easier to spear or net them

Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.

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## trax

See? Twinkie? HUH? You see that? Nice explanation, nice clear picture, no bitterness, no acrimony, no namecalling (numpty, goober) Now isn't that a nicer way for people to get along? HUH? Isn't it? Shame, shame on you Twinkster.....You guys see what I have to put up with, just for asking an innocent question...? yeesh....goober indeed. Who's the goober now? HUH? You are that's who. Ha!

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## BraggSurvivor

Cant we all just get a bong?   :Cool:

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## Tony uk

> Cant we all just get a bong?


Yes a bong, and being the nice, loveabal member you are Bragg you will send me one to  :Big Grin:   :Stick Out Tongue:

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## bulrush

Letting ocean water evaporate is good. You will also get trace minerals from that. 

When you sweat you release salt, potassium, and other minerals. Sodium chloride replenishes the sodium part, so salt is very important. You might do some research on where the ancient Egyptians got their "salts" to make mummies. ("Salt" is also a generic term for a class of water soluble compounds.) They used sodium chloride, salt peter (potassium nitrate?), spices, and some other things.

You could also go to downtown Detroit, drill straight down. Underneath Detroit is a HUGE salt mine. It was going for like 80 years, and I think they stopped taking salt out of it because they thought it might destabilize the city.

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## flandersander

Does anyone know if its possible to sterilize the massive salt content of alkali? I know there are lots of alkali sloughs around here but i'm not sure if you could boil the water out and use the salt to salt foods or make a sort of bush jerky. does anybody know if it would work? I think you might have to wash your pot quite soon after boiling alkali as it will rust like crazy!

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## Rick

There is a wee bit of difference between an alkali such as sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide or calcium carbonate and sodium chloride. I'll make my jerky at home.

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## Catfish

> Why do you want to extract salt?


Salt is essential in a survival situation.  When you're barely clinging to life, there's nothing worse than bland french fries.   :Wink:

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## launchpad

salt is in blood old timers usd bufflo blood in there bread sow it wood ries its good to insted of flour us acorns

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## canid

yeah; that or a primitive artistic depiction of a mushroom cloud which also happens to catch fish...

as for food preservation: why not just use the firewood you intend to use to boil the plant material to smoke your food instead. it would last longer that way.

interestingly enough, the salt potassium carbonate [carbonate of potash] can constitute up to 10% of wood ash.  this salt is also hygroscopic and is used widely as a dessicant in various manufacturing processes. it will aid in the drying of meats as salt does, and all the better [and quicker] if combined with smoking or full sun drying.

i like smoking mostly because it helps keep insects away, though of course it also contributes it's own to the flavor and keeping power of the food.

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## warman87

i read somewere that you use the roots of a hickory tree and boil them and it produces a brownish black goop on the bottom of the container then u just evaporate the water and let the goop dry and you have a sort of basic salt or you can lick the inside of some caves

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## nell67

Lick the inside of the caves?? Ugh,bat guano :EEK!:

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## MCBushbaby

In the bush you can use a simple pot setup to boil away the water from urine, salt water, or sweat (for sweat you may need a large fat man who perspires like a tap).  Similar method to make maple syrup from watery sap  :Smile:

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## Rick

Mitch - You're joking about the urine, right? Urine is a combination of water, electrolytes, nitrogen, acids or alkalines (hydrogen ions or bicarbonate ions), dissolved heavy metals, glucose and even bacteria (the urine itself is sterile but it can pick up bacteria from the surrounding skin when excreted) and urea (or carbamide). All of that would be left behind (except the water) once the water is boiled off. I'll stick to my salt shaker.

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## MCBushbaby

> Mitch - You're joking about the urine, right? Urine is a combination of water, electrolytes, nitrogen, acids or alkalines (hydrogen ions or bicarbonate ions), dissolved heavy metals, glucose and even bacteria (the urine itself is sterile but it can pick up bacteria from the surrounding skin when excreted) and urea (or carbamide). All of that would be left behind (except the water) once the water is boiled off. I'll stick to my salt shaker.


I wasn't going to go into details but phospherous was discovered from urine by alchemists in the 1600s.  From wikipedia:



> * Boil urine to reduce it to a thick syrup.
>     * Heat until a red oil distills up from it, and draw that off.
>     * Allow the remainder to cool, where it consists of a black spongy upper part and a salty lower part.
>     * Discard the salt, mix the red oil back into the black material.
>     * Heat that mixture strongly for 16 hours.
>     * First white fumes come off, then an oil, then phosphorus.
>     * The phosphorus may be passed into cold water to solidify.


For salt extraction just keep the salty layer and discard the rest.  True, a little more complicated than just boiling down.

I'm admitting I've never done it myself, and never will most likely, but it's been discussed on other sites before for backwoods meat salting

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## Rick

I would never do it because of the other stuff that's contained in the urine. Salt is just too plentiful to do something like that.

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## trax

Phosphorous was discovered from urine? Oh my God, I'm just imagining some guy that got up for a pee in the night and it was _glowing_  :EEK!:  :EEK!: . Bet that scared the piss out of him, LMAO :Big Grin:

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## crashdive123

> Phosphorous was discovered from urine? Oh my God, I'm just imagining some guy that got up for a pee in the night and it was _glowing_ . Bet that scared the piss out of him, LMAO


What????  You never slept between the missile tubes on a submarine?

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## bulrush

Only some types of phosphorus glow and are unstable in air. There are several types of phosphorus, red and white I think.

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## Rick

Yeah, but look at his avatar. He glows red. I'll bet cars come to a screeching halt when he walks down the street.

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## trax

> What????  You never slept between the missile tubes on a submarine?


As a matter of fact I haven't, but now I'm thinking...hey I should go camping with crashdive...stick him alone in a tent with food and ta-da!...microwave!  :Big Grin:

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## Rick

Ah, but does he ding when the food is ready?

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## trax

Well he will, just don't believe that thing in front he wants you to grab is a timer....know what I mean?  :EEK!:

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## crashdive123

hey it's a bell.  Ding.....Dong....you decide.

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