On Sun, 6 Feb 2000, Ingrid Bauer wrote:

> Berries here on the west coast of canada are available to harvest from
> beginning of  june to end of october there is so many species.

While berries in general may be available for a long time, each
particular type of berry is not.  They are individually foods
with a short season.

> The native
> here used to dry them and store them in a cake form in cedar box for the
> winter and they were eaten abondantly all winter long. They might have
> practiced that for a very long time ,the technology used being very simple.
> medecinal  and aromatics herbs were easely available ,they didn't use much

I agree that the technology you have described is very simple,
comparable to the technology needed to make some legumes edible.
Simple as it is, getting milk/cheese from killed animals is even
simpler.

> may be but the availabibility was there and don't compare with the
> availability of milk in hunted game .

As I see it, the availability of milk in hunted game would also
be seasonal, tending to concentrate in the spring.  I agree that
the aromatic herbs were widely available, but what theoretically
matters is exposure and opportunity for adaptation.  Since it
probably requires more calories to gather the herbs than one gets
back from eating them, optimal foraging theory suggests that HGs
wouldn't bother much with them.  If a distinction can be made
between a food and a medicine, I guess it's that the medicine is
consumed mainly or exclusively in times of illness, and it may
have properties that make it inappropriate or even dangerous as a
food.

Todd Moody