Growing and Foraging 100% of My Food – All 300 Foods I Ate

Robin Greenfield holding a bowl of foraged food inside his tiny house.
FloridaFood and DietFood FreedomForagingForget Money / Demonetize LifeFreedomGrowing FoodPersonalSustainable Living

Wondering what I ate during my year of growing and foraging 100% of my food?
If yes, then this page is for you!
This year I grew over 100 different foods and foraged nearly 200, totaling over 300 different foods. Thats a new food for nearly every day of the year! I have listed every food that I ate during the year.

I have split the list into three sections: foods that I grew in Florida, foods that I foraged in Florida and foods that I foraged during my trip to the Great Lakes region. I do not have any specific order, however the two sections are generally in order of foods that I ate first in the year and I also started off listing the foods that I had eaten the most. I’ve only sampled many of the foods listed, others are staples that I ate daily or multiple times per week. 
This page does not explain the meals and dishes that I create with the food that I grow and forage. I have only listed each species (or as some would say, ingredient).
You can read my daily log of what I ate here.
You can see a photo documentation of my staple meals and foods here.
You can click on the foods that are linked to learn more about them.
My primary sources of knowledge for foraging in Florida were:
Green Deane (Eat the Weeds) – His YouTube channel and website are a plethora of information.
Peggy Lantz’s book – Florida’s Edible Wild Plants: A Guide to Collecting and Cooking 
Andy Firk – His experts page lists over 50 Florida experts that you can learn from.
In Wisconsin, I checked out a few books from the library, but my primary resources were Sam Thayer‘s books The Forager’s Harvest and Nature’s Garden.

Foods that I grew in Florida:

Seminole pumpkin (seeds, flesh, skin)

sweet potato (white, purple and orange varieties)

yuca/cassava (roots and leaves)

yam (Dioscorea alata– multiple varieties- purple and white flesh)

papaya (unripe green and ripe orange and seeds)

serrano pepper (green and red)

tindora cucumber

Southern peas

honey

purple top turnips

red meat specialty radish

daikon radish

sunflower seeds

Everglades tomato

passion fruit

green beans

pigeon pea

carrot

beet (roots and greens)

onion (bulbing)

cucumber

kohlrabi

celery

ghost pepper

eggplant

jun

honey wine

bell pepper

borage

pomegranate

bees wax, bee pollen, bee propolis

Plectranthus barbatus

Yardlong bean

potato
Perennial greens: moringa, katuk, Okinawa spinach, longevity spinach, Suriname spinach, cranberry hibiscus, purslane, chaya, sweet potato greens, malibar spinach, garden sorrel, Haitian basket vine, Brazilian spinach
Annual greens: roselle/ Jamaican Sorrel (leaves and flowers), collards, kale, arugula, Swiss chard, green wave mustard greens, scarlett frills mustard greens, chicory, lettuce (multiple types), cabbage (green and red), broccoli, paracicaba sprouting broccoli, purple choi sum flowering brassica/ kosaitai, yu choy, tsoi sum, nasturtium, pak choy (2 varieties), Plantago, amaranth (grain and leaves)
Herbs: African blue basil, Cuban oregano, holy basil (2 types), garlic chive, bunching/ green onion, mint (multiple types), rosemary, lemon grass, Italian basil, Thai basil, papalo, ginger, turmeric, green tea, cilantro, garlic greens, dill, fennel, thyme, oregano, tarragon, curry leaf tree, chamomile, garlic, lemon bee balm, parsley, Costa Rican bush mint, yerba buena, lemon balm, sage, dill seeds, coriander, mustard seeds, lavender

Foods that I foraged in Florida:

rain water

sea salt and ocean water

yam (Dioscorea alata)

coconut (meat and water)

mango

starfruit

orange (mandarine, tangerine, wild orange)

lemons

fish (mullet, striped mojarra, shad, crappie, sheepshead, sand perch, largemouth bass, sail catfish, bowfin, sea trout, redfish, crevasse jack, fish eggs)

squirrel

Turks cap hibiscus*

honey mushroom

Spanish needle

beautyberry

avocado

yaupon holly

bamboo leaf (for tea)*

Brazilian pepper

bitter melon

acorn

apple (foraged in Wisconsin)

elderberry

grapefruit

reishi mushroom

seaweed (multiple varieties)

hog plum

wax myrtle (leaves)

pine needles (for tea)

banana

pellitory

hickory nuts

amaranth

US American nightshade

black cherry

blackberries

blue porterweed

blueberries

Bottlebrush tree

Browne’s savory/ St. John’s Mint

chickweed

clover

dollar weed

False hawksbeard

gotu kola

hairy cowpea

bacopa

loquat

mulberry

oxalis

pennyroyal

peppergrass

purslane

red bay

swamp bay

reindeer moss

sea blite

sea purslane

Smilax

Suriname cherry

tropical almond

Plantago

cattail (shoots)

perennial peanut (flowers)

tamarind

monkey orange

Barbados gooseberry

sapodilla

prickly pear cactus fruit

nopal cactus pads

white sapote (two types)

chanterelle (two types)

queen palm fruit

cocoplum

pond apple

glasswort

java plum

sword fern

saw palmetto

camphor (leaves, seedling roots)

horseweed

fireweed/ burnweed

ceaserweed (flowers)

dragon fruit
sea grapes
bacteria (many different species)
yeast (many different species)
insects (I certainly ate some insects in the large volume of greens I ate. I’m sure I ate ants, aphids and other small insects.)

Foods that I foraged on Great Lakes region trip (07/13/19 – 10/04/19)

fruits- apple, crab apple, plum, pear, blueberry, huckleberry, serviceberry, raspberry, blackberry, mulberry, wild strawberry, tart cherry, sand cherry, pin cherry, chokecherry, wintergreen berry, grape, Aronia (chokeberry), false solomon’s seal, hackberry, mountain ash, US American nightshade

mushrooms- chanterelle, cinnabar chanterelle, lobster, hedgehog, bolete, oyster, combs tooth, pheasant’s tail, chicken of the woods, hen of the woods, honey mushroom, puffball (3 species), shaggy mane, porcini, stinkhorn, Suillius

greens- dandelion, amaranth, wood nettle, wild mustard, plantago, wood sorrel, sheep’s sorrel, heal all, lady’s thumb, ox eye daisy, clover, creeping Charlie, hawkweed, wood violet, lambs quarter, purslane, mint, honewort, sow thistle, cow parsnip, sochan, curly dock, Virginia waterleaf, hairy wood mint, winter cress, water cress, garlic mustard, stinging nettle

fish- lake trout, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, Northern pike, walleye, rock bass, bullhead, sucker, rainbow trout, perch, whitefish

wintergreen (berry and greens)

balsam sap and leaves

spruce leaves

goldenrod

horseradish

pineapple weed

deer meat (venison), fat and bone broth (found deer on roadside, hit by car)

rose hip

butternut

hickory nut

acorn

wild garlic

Echinacea (purple cone flower)

cat nip

bee balm

wild parsnip

wild carrot

lotus nut

wild rice
acorn grubs

—-

To learn more about this project and watch videos documenting the year visit: The Food Freedom Homepage.
To read the guidelines behind this project visit: The Guidelines Behind Growing and Foraging 100% of my Food for a Year.
To read about the purpose of this project read: Why I’m Growing and Foraging 100% of my Food for a Year.
To read a log of what I ate each day visit: Growing and Foraging 100% of my Food – Daily Food Journal.
To see photos of my meals and foods visit: Growing and Foraging 100% of My Food – Documented in Photos.

Cover photo by Sierra Ford Photography

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