So, what exactly, if not animal foods, do you figure our
ancestors ate in the middle of winter? (Say those who
lived in the snow covered parts of the  world).
>Digging up nutritious roots from under feet of snow all winter long?

ahem.  Jumping in here. I don't know if this was true of our
ancestors, but they had to be pretty resourceful or they wouldn't
BE  our ancestors.

Natives (BTW, this term not a perjorative here, nor is Eskimo.
Let me know if you find them offensive and I will work with
you.  Native is used more of a collective which includes Inuit,
Yup'ik, Athabascan, Aleut, etc.) who have access to the
caribou herds have a recipe for soup that uses contents
of caribou stomachs.  'Bou's particular diet happens to
be lichen, and how micronutrient dense that is, I wouldn't
know.  I know that the caribou require the presence of
microorganisms in their gut to convert it to usable protein
for them, but what humans get out of this brew, whether they
eat it for the protein content or the veggie stuff, don't know.

So instead of digging up the greens (so to speak) themselves,
they let the 'bou do it, then ate them for their trouble.

In the recent past, before home freezers were available, they
also put up berries, greens, etc, by picking them in season,
sealing them in baskets, and burying them in permafrost grounds.
Midwinter they would dig these up and chow down.  People who
followed a subsistance way of life  in the region did not for the
most part simply  travel and wander in search of food, but had
definate territories in which they would cyclicly travel.  Fish camp
in winter, good hunting areas in summer, migrating birds in spring
and fall, etc.  So they would remember where they'd stashed this
and come back, sometimes years later.  Also buried fish, meat, etc.

There is a local legend about two old women who were left behind
to starve and ended up saving their people with just such a cache.

THought you might find this interesting: There is a fly that lays
its eggs under the skin of the caribou.  Eggs grow into larve there,
crawl out and repeat this cycle. By fall or winter, when caribou are
 being skinned out, these are about the size of a tater tot.  They are
considered quite a delicacy.  Kids pick them out still wriggling and
bloody and pop them into their mouths, then grin.  Disconcerting.
Feeling a wee bit squeamish?  The people who followed this
practice stayed alive under incredibly tough conditions.

regards,
the other Kathleen

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