I Foraged 100% of My Food for a Year Short

Introduction to Experiment

There’s nature. And then there’s us. We are separate. That’s the belief of many today, and when we walk down the aisles of the supermarket, this belief is only deepened. But I have a belief that this separateness is an illusion. That I am nature and nature is me. So to put it to this test, I decided to step away from the grocery store. And this time I would not even grow a garden. Instead nature would be my garden… I would now forage 100 percent of my food. Every single bite.

My Foraged Diet

Over the last year I foraged 280 different foods. Wild rice for calories and sustenance. Acorns as a second source to sustain my energy. Fish for the foundational fat and protein. Deer as another staple as well. Dozens of greens packed with nutrients and vitamins… stinging nettle, watercress, dandelion, lamb’s quarters, basswood leaves and dock. Wild veggies… mustard stems, milkweed pods and cattail shoots… and roots… parsnip, burdock and dandelion. Fruits… serviceberry, autumnberry, mulberry, nannyberry, highbush cranberry, chokecherry, black cherry, aronia and wild grape. Black walnuts, hickory nuts, pecans and hazelnuts provided me with much fat and calories. I ate hundreds of pounds of mushrooms… Spices filled out my meals… Seaweed was a source of minerals. The herbal teas brought me much joy. Maple syrup satisfied my sweet tooth. I even harvested my salt from the ocean, and my drinking water came exclusively from wells and springs.

Food as Medicine

For the last year nature has not only been my garden and my pantry, nature has been my pharmacy too. My food is my medicine; everything that I ate was a medicine. For me, there is no separating the two.

Challenges

Can the Earth provide us with everything we need? Every cell in my body is starting to say YES! But that doesn’t mean that I expect perfect health. I did struggle throughout the year. I had my highs and lows and I didn’t always manage to get everything I needed. This was without a doubt one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done. While on a two-month tour out West in an unfamiliar ecosystem I ran out of my staple calorie of wild rice and then I had to ration the acorns I had left. And yet the greatest challenge of all was deciding what counted as foraged and what was grown by humans. Because more than ever before I have seen that humans are not separate from the Earth.

Illusion of Separateness

After 15 years of exploring our food system, I have come to believe that the greatest threat of our time is the belief that we are separate. The belief that we are separate from Earth. Separate from the plants and animals. Separate from one another. It is what allows us to exploit and pollute the land and water. Oppression within our society: racism, classism, sexism. It all has its roots in the illusion of separateness.

As for me, this illusion of separateness is dissolving. Everywhere I go, I am with my friends. The plants and animals are my relatives. I am never and can never be alone. Through being in relationship with the life I share this home with, I am becoming whole and complete within. I know that I am not a cancer upon this Earth. I belong here. I am home. I am home everywhere I go. I am home inside of myself. I am in love with it all.

Millions are awakening and realizing that the Earth can’t handle the status quo much longer. That we can’t keep up with this disconnected way of living. That in it, is the demise of not only the Earth, not only the plants and animals, but of humanity too.

Community

If you feel this, you are not alone. And I didn’t do this alone. I did this through community. Many foraged food with me, making many hands lighter work. Foragers took me to their honey holes as I traveled through their land. All my knowledge is from those before me and relationships with foragers today. In community lies the solution to all of our societal woes.

The answer is not for everyone to forage all of their own food and medicine. That was never the point. That’s not my message. My job is to radically show that another way as possible.

As I’ve traveled the country, living my message while sharing this knowledge, I have seen the fires growing inside of many. They have told me of how they no longer see the Earth the same. That they are reconnecting to Earth through foraging, and they are feeling more meaning, purpose, aliveness, hope and joy than ever before.

Solutions/Call to Action

It’s time, my friends. Question your food. Where does it come from? How does it get to you? And what is the impact that it has on Earth? If you don’t like the answer, let’s change the answer together!

Start with one plant. If you learn one plant per month for a year, that’s 12 plants. That’s a radical new way of existing in your environment.

Go on a foraging walk with a knowledgeable forager. Join us at Foraging School!

Practice natural gardening. Source local food; purchase whole foods. Join us in planting 1 million Community Fruit and Nut Trees.

Listen to and learn from Indigenous people. Listen to Indigenous women. Support Indigenous food sovereignty. Get land back into Indigenous hands.

Elevate the women in our community.

This does not need to be a lonely journey. We can do this together in community.

What’s Next for Me?

As for me, well, there’s no going back to the global, industrial food system after this. My pantry is stocked with foraged foods, and I’m now eating what my community forages too.

If you’re feeling inspired and hopeful right now, let’s get this message out there together. Please like this video, comment with what’s alive and you and share this with your friends, your family, your community, anyone who would benefit from this message.

Let’s take care of Earth… together!