> did CAS live in part off the land, hunting & gathering?


I rarely contribute as I have less knowledge of CAS than most here and am just a fan. I am however fairly familiar with the Auburn area. I visited it on many family trips as a child and my parents retired there. So this is based on that. There is frankly not much to gather in the Auburn area.

The area is rather hot and dry and there just aren't the "nuts and berries" one reads about in certain types of fiction. Of course the Native American Indians of the area did survive off the land, but they ate such things as grubs and insects which even their modern day descendants who try to maintain a few traditions do not eat, so I doubt CAS did!

The Natives main source of food was of course (at least "of course" for Californians) acorns. These are plentiful but have to be carefully prepared so that they are not toxic. When this is done, they are nutritious, but very bland. I am fairly certain few, if any, White Americans of CAS's time prepared acorns, some do now. For special occasions Natives prepared them in CAS's time and still do in modern times.

Two wild food items that CAS may very well have gathered are manzanita berries and Miner's Lettuce. Manzanita berries are tasty, but large quantities of them cause stomach upset. Miner's Lettuce is easy to spot and delicious. Almost everyone in the area has picked some at one time or another. Neither would be for sustenance, rather just because they are readily available.

Thanks very much for these insights, weorcstan. They help to flesh out ED's collective understanding of CAS' daily life.

--Sawfish

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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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