One of my readers, Cindy Donahey, writes to me about many interesting things in response to my posts. One of her comments about my recent Wild Grape Vine & Pollinators post caused me to do some research. She wrote “you can get water from cut grapevines that is clean to drink,” and I found she’s correct. You can use grape vines as a source of water.
Researching a number of survival websites, I found “grape vines (the genus Vitis) can yield water throughout the spring season in North America. Use a good woody-plants field guide to make certain you’re dealing with a grape species. Small vines about a half-inch in diameter, cut a few feet above ground, will drip water for some time. Larger vines in which a notch has been cut will gush water. Again, be sure to use a trusty identification guide. There are some toxic vines out there that produce sap that would not be good to drink.” (Outdoor Life)
Hopefully, I’ll never be in a position where I have to seek out grape vines for a water source, but this was an interesting fact. I continue to be awed by nature.
For more information about actually obtaining water from vines, see Here is how to Find a survival Water Source in Vines.
People dried a lot of food back then. You would place the cut vine in a mixture of dried meat, vegetables and bread in the evening, and in the morning, drain the water back into the bottle. You have to find big enough vines. The robber barons of our industrial age bought canned vine and tree water. It can be most easily retrieved from sugar maple trees. I used to attend these canning club lectures when I was a kid.