Foraging Walk for Beginners in Griffith Park, LA — Foraging Southern California

Food and medicine is growing freely and abundantly all around us, even in major cities like Los Angeles. In fact, southern California holds endless opportunities for foraging.

In this foraging walk, I take you through Griffith Park in Los Angeles to introduce you to some of the common plants to forage. Many of these are plants that Californians know by sight, but have never realized are food and medicine.

I also share key concepts to support you on your foraging journey and encouragement for critical thinking and reconnecting with Earth. This includes the safety, sustainability and legality of foraging.

Transcript: The following is a transcription of Foraging Walk for Beginners in Griffith Park, LA – Foraging Southern California.

Introduction to Foraging Walk

We’re going to circle up now, over here, in this nice little grove. Let’s make the most circular circle we’ve ever circled. With these trees being our guides. Danny, would you bring the book of … the bookcase over here? Of the knowledge books? Does anyone want to wear my hat for the plant walk?
“Yeah.” [Laughter]
[Robin:] If it gets annoying, you can …. [adjusts hat] [laughter] Wonderful! And who would like to be the knowledge carrier for the plant walk? Thank you, Danny. This is Danny. She’s my teammate, traveling across the West Coast. Okay, you’re the knowledge carrier. We will refer to these books. You’re very welcome.
Okay! We have arrived! Did any of you have a little bit of a challenging time getting here with the parking?
Well, let’s take three deep breaths together and let it out. We’re here now. We’ve arrived and for the next two hours, nothing else in the entire world matters should we choose to enter into that realm. [Deep breathing] Ahh.
I thought we could start by going around the circle and sharing our names. And the reason particularly that I would like to do that is because part of the purpose of this evening is to build community. Because when we are trying to forage alone, and we are trying to live an alternative lifestyle alone, it can be very daunting and overwhelming. But when we have friends and people we enjoy being with to do this with, it makes it so much more manageable and enjoyable. But also, I know that we all want to go out and meet some plants. So we’re just going to share out name and nothing else. [laughter] And, we will start with Rachel.
[Participants say their names.]
[Robin:] Robin! And we have Zoya and Matai here because they are going to be filming this plant walk because there’s often so many comments on YouTube saying, “Could you please take us along?” So, we’re taking them along today. And, if you don’t want to be in the video, just let either of them know. Just walk up to them and share in any way that feels comfortable to you that you don’t want to be in the video. And they will make sure to 100 percent honor that.
Before we go out and meet the plants, I’d like to share for about five to ten minutes a little bit of setting the scene to help us get the most out of this evening together. How does that sound to everybody?
[Attendee:] Good.
[Robin:] Alright! So, my name is Robin Greenfield. I’m sure some of you just happened to see this online. Idana? You said you saw it on the Chamber of Commerce? So, some of us have just found this online, others have come with our friends. A small introduction to who I am. I am a human being who is on a journey of doing the best that I can to live in harmony with Earth. And, so, it turns out that to truly live in harmony with it, with this Earth, is a pretty radical thing to do in this society. So, I go to some pretty deep levels to try to live in a way that doesn’t destroy the only home that we have. And my objective is to be the change that I wish to see in the world and to let my life be my message: to take others along on this journey with me, to share my knowledge and my skills and my resources to help us build those things. I think true freedom lies in relationships. True freedom lies in critical thinking and problem solving and in skills. So, I’m here to help create a space that develops that.
And yes, we are about to go on a plant walk, and my goal is to introduce you to about 11 different, common, easy-to-identify plants that grow widespread around Griffith Park, Los Angeles, and southern California. The majority of these plants grow all across this nation actually. They are not plants that you need to fear. You can, if you would like to continue to exist in that state, but I welcome you to let go of that fear, because I’m introducing you to plants that are very gentle, beginner plants to get to start with. Although some can poke and sting you, but they are very gentle, easy plants to work with. Along with that, I will share not just how to identify them, like, how to know this is this plant, and then how to harvest and how to actually prepare it and work with it as food and medicine, so that you can walk away from here with those practical skills. But, I’ll also share how you can be in relationship with that plant so you are doing no unnecessary harm, and even being of service to the plants and animals that we share this space with. So, our objective is not to be takers. Yeah, we actually are going to take some, but we want to learn how to do that in a way where we’re giving as well. And obviously being here in Griffith Park in Los Angeles, one of the largest cities in the country, that’s a great concern. If everybody came to Griffith Park and started foraging, wouldn’t that do harm? We’re going to talk about that today and show you how you can work with these plants in a way where you’re an ally to the park system, and to the plants and the animals and the greater community that lives here.

How many of you here would consider yourselves beginner foragers? Okay, so most of us. You’re in the exact right place. And as new foragers, it can be easy to be, kind of, overwhelmed with all of this. Like, you look out and you just see all this green — this wall of green and you say, “How do I know which ones are edible?” Or you look at this carpet of browns and greens, and it’s, “Which ones are edible? Which ones are toxic?” And it can be overwhelming. So, my encouragement would be, if at any point you feel overwhelmed, there’s nothing to worry about. You can just sit down, lay down, be with the trees, be with the plants. If today you just learn one plant that you walk away from here with, and you’re able to harvest that and work with that for food or medicine, and you do that month after month, year after year, decade after decade, then today will have been an incredibly worthwhile investment of your time and energy and resources. This is two hours, and you can think of what you would get out of a movie in two hours. If you can just learn one plant today, that’s definitely as valuable as watching one movie. So definitely relax into it and … but also know you’re in a great place as far as that because you won’t hear many big words or anything too complicated. I am very focused on teaching people who are new to foraging.
So, a couple notes on that. I am not a plant identification teacher really. I have a relationship with hundreds of different plants, and I can say, “Hey, I know who you are, and I know how to eat you and make medicine from you,” but I can’t tell you how to work with each one of those. It’s just not my skill set to be able to give you the exact ID of all these plants. What today moreso is an introduction. You are going to learn some and be, like, “Yeah, I’ve got that.” But really my job here more than anything is to radicalize you. My job is for you to wake up some, if you’re looking to wake up, to start critically thinking, to realize that food and medicine is growing freely and abundantly all around us. That it doesn’t have to come from the grocery store. And that what’s in a plastic packaging, although they say it’s safe, is not necessarily more safe than what’s growing right outside of our doors.
So, that’s my real objective — is to provide a gateway, and then with that gateway, there are so many foragers who teach. There are many foragers in southern California who teach and share this. There’s books I’m going to introduce you to. So, this can just be a starting point and then go from there into your journey of foraging.

Last thing I think I want to share before we start walking around and meeting the plants — two little things: would anybody be willing to go over there and get my little food rack with all of my foods and medicines? It’s leaning up against the tree. Thank you, my friend. So, right now, I am immersed in a year of foraging all of my food and medicine. Nice to see you with that food rack. Ah, what a wonderful presentation. Thank you. I’ll take it like this. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. So, right now, I am immersed in a year of foraging 100 percent of my food and medicine. And today, here in Griffith Park, is Day 222 of the year. So, I’m about 7 1/2 months in, getting closer to eight months. So, I’m pretty deep into the journey. A year without grocery stores or restaurants. A year of having to, as politely as possible, say no to all the gifts of food people try to give to me. Even if they’re foraged! I’m foraging all of my food and medicine for the entire year. Along with others. If I’m foraging with others, we will harvest together, but down to the salt, the oil, the spices, the calories, the fat, the protein, the sugar, you name it. I’m harvesting, and of course, all of the medicine. So, this is a deep practice of letting my food be my medicine and my medicine be my food. And, I’m really just happy to be traveling across the country right now, and as I’m immersed in this, taking you into this little immersion. So, what we’re doing right now, in part, is entering into a few hour window of … of how I live my life, finding this food and medicine that’s growing all around us.
So, the last thing I want to share is a little, just a small tidbit about my teaching style to help us get the most out of today. Some of you follow me on social media and would have a hard time believing this, but I do kind of get cranky sometimes. Actually, I don’t know if cranky is the right word, but I get overwhelmed. And I get anxious. Overstimulated is the way that I would describe it. And so, some things that we can do to help me to be the best, most caring, gentle, nurturing teacher are … what I’ll do is with each plant, I’ll share, I’ll say, “Here we are with stinging nettle.” And then I’ll share about that plant for maybe three minutes to ten minutes, depending on the plant. And then I’ll say, “Any questions about this plant. And I’ll open it up for questions about the plant. That just helps me to stay in the flow. There’s a lot of us here and it’s hard to create a very mutual flowing experience. And that just allows me to share what probably most of the questions are usually what I’m often about to share anyway. The other second thing is then just raise your hand. Not if you have a question. Not because of a teacher-student dominator type structure, but because it: one, helps to create a system of mutuality, because we’ve all been in groups where there’s one person who asks a question every single time and nobody else gets to ask a question. This helps me to try to spread the questions out so we all get to have those opportunities to be seen and heard and get our question. And it just also helps with my … my mind that gets overwhelmed and overstimulated. And then, okay. Another note in that regard is a lot of us are going to be excited. I want us all to be very excited and talk to each other. And so, my request is, while I’m teaching, while I’m sharing, addressing the group, if you want to have a conversation, just step far enough away so that the group can hear, because a lot of people have a hard time concentrating with their side conversations, and so that I can easily flow as well. I’ve never said this one before and this is one that I’m going to remember. And that is, once I say we’re moving on to another plant, we’re going to keep moving. Sometimes people are, like, “But I want ….” and I’m, like, “We’re already moving. There’s 60 of us. I can’t stop now.”
So, yes. Before we walk to the first plant, is there one or two, like, burning questions, you’re, like, “I’m ….” [points to Attendee] There you go.
[Attendee:] Is it okay to take photos?
[Robin:] It’s 100 percent okay with me. My entire life is creative commons. I don’t own anything that I do. So, for me, 100 percent. Yes?
[Attendee:] [unintelligible]
[Robin:] Yeah. Roadside toxins and such. We will definitely talk about that. We’ll get into that. I’ll save that for probably the latter half. Any others for the moment? Okay! Now who would like to be the bag carrier? With the water and a few of the interesting things that might get utilized today? Anyone? [volunteer takes bag] Okay. There you are. And nobody has to carry this because it is quite heavy.
So. Let’s take two minutes to shake it out, maybe share some hugs with trees, and then in two minutes, we’re going to start from right here. Actually, what I’m going to do is I’m just going to start walking in two minutes … [points] that way. [laughter] Trying some new things out. [chatter] You’re welcome. Thank you!
Okay. Ten plants. [takes drink of water] [walks] The Griffith Park coyotes are our friends.
I can’t …. Ooh, that could be our first tree.
[Attendee:] There’s a deer right here.
[Robin:] Oh, hello dear. Ooh. Is that a male deer with horns, am I seeing?
[Attendee:] Two of them.
[Robin:] Hello, deer. We have come to join you. Ooh … prancing. Huh. Wow. That’s a very nice start. Oh, there they are. Let’s stop here for a moment. There’s two coyotes over here. Is … is anybody afraid of coyotes?
[Attendee:] Nope.
[Robin:] A little bit? Okay. So, let’s take one minute to … if any of us feel any fear of the coyotes at all. Let’s just take one minute to let go of a little bit of that fear. And let’s just feel more and more love for the coyotes. Nothing to fear, lots to love. Umm. Thank you for being you, coyotes! We’re coming over there. You can do as you please at this point. Oh, the dog.

Elderberry

Sambucus spp.

Ahh, yes. Let’s stop here. So, who knows what we have here? Let’s shout it out if you know it. Elderberry! And how many of you have ever had elderberry syrup? Okay. And how about elderflower tea?
[Attendees:] Yes.
[Robin:] Okay. How about elder flowers battered and dipped in elderberry jam? [laughter] Okay! Everybody has something to learn here then. So, this is elderberry and this is a great book to start with for those of you who are here in California who are looking for a way to begin foraging. We are starting with a plant here that is not the absolute most beginners of plants. There’s sometimes confusion and there’s sometimes mistakes about elderberry. But it called to me and it’s here and if we were on the East Coast and this was a black elderberry, I would be able to talk to you for the next hour-and-a-half, but with the blue elderberry, I still have not taken the time to really get to know.
So. How you generally work with elderberry, you’ve heard you can work with the fruits and you can work with the flowers. When it comes to the fruits, you would be waiting until there are a nice dark blue on the blue elderberry, and on the black, they’re like a … like a purple black. And they’re generally going to be soft and plump. So, in this book, they mention that you never want to eat the stems. So, you never use the flowers. [corrects himself] You never use the leaves or the stems. Only the flowers that have become white and fully open. So, this is … umm. This here is what I’m looking for. This nice, really white flower. That’s what I’m generally looking for. And, you can …. There’s a couple things you can do. If you want just the flowers without removing what’s going to become the berry, you can gently do this and remove the flower and the berries will still produce. But often elderberry is so prolific that this is not of concern and you can harvest the whole stems. If I do that, I cut the stem right here, just like that, with the pruners. And then, I’ll take that home and I’ll let it dry — dehydrate. This dehydrates very easily. And then you can use those flowers fresh, or you can store them long-term by dehydrating them. As far as the berries go, the main way that I work with them is I freeze them to keep them long-term, or I dehydrate them. And then I make elderberry syrup and tea and mostly work with it medicinally. But you can also, if you have an abundance, make jam … jams and pies and different treats with elderberry as well. Elderberry syrup is the most commonly known way of working with elderberry. And how you do that is you boil the elderberries in water. Basically, if you have one … about one cup of fresh elderberries, you’ll do about two cups of water. And then you’ll boil that until it’s about half the volume. Then you’re left with … you’ll strain that and you’ve got elderberry juice. And then you do half that, half honey, and then you have elderberry syrup. One other note about elderberry. This is a plant that is one of the most wonderful for spreading, propagating. And getting this to grow in other places.
Who has the bag? Alright. I’m going to actually take an opportunity to take a cutting of this. There we go. So, this is one of the most important tools for a forager, is the pruners. And, what I’m going to do is take a branch of this. I’m going to go with this one right here. And this is a branch. I’m going to cut right here, here, here. [holds up stick] This you can put into the ground and it will turn into an elderberry tree like you have here. So, with this, you can do something called “live staking,” which means you take the live plant just like this. You stick it in the ground just like that, and that can turn into this just like that. It’s one of the most viable plants for doing live staking. And, what you can do with this is you ideally want to plant these in areas with moisture. Obviously, this is doing pretty well here. It’s a pretty dry spot, but elderberry prefers to be in areas with moisture. So, along creeks, edges of lakes, riparian areas. And you’re going to have much higher success if these are getting moisture. And the ideal time to do this is during the dormancy stage. So, not right now when they’re in flower and fruit, but when they’re in dormancy in the winter. So, that … that’s a really nice skill to have. And, you know, talk about harvesting these and not wanting to do harm to the plant, you can literally help this plant to thrive and reproduce. And elderberry is a wonderful place to start that. So, how you plant these is you want to have … I always like to have one node below the ground. This is the node right here where the … where the leaves, where the branches would come out. And, on cuttings, the nodes are where the roots will come out. So, with most cuttings, you want to have two nodes minimum below the ground, but elderberry — roots can come out of every single one of these little lenticels, which makes in incredibly resilient In fact, this can just tip over, touch the ground, put down roots and spread just like that. So elderberry is a very resilient plant. Who would like to plant this elderberry? Okay, here you are.
[Attendee:] Thank you.
[Robin:] May this produce many berries! So. Questions about elderberry? Over here?
[Attendee:] About the propagation. Umm, how long can you store a stick and then still have it successfully sprout?
[Robin:] Well, with elderberries, they’re far more resilient than others. So, it could potentially sit for multiple months under the right conditions. But, generally with cuttings, you want to … you want to get them …. Well, first of all, what you want to do is keep them moist. So, keep them in moist sawdust or in the shade, not in the direct sun. Otherwise, they’re going to dry out. And generally, the sooner you plant them is going to be the better. We’re putting out an elderberry live staking guide through my Community Fruit Trees program in the next couple months, which will go deep into that actually if any of you are wanting to do that. Other questions about elderberry? Right here? Yes?
[Attendee:] Uhh. Medicinal quality.
[Robin:] The medicinal qualities. The way that this is worked with the most is for preventing colds and flu, or if you have a cold or flu, helping to alleviate that.
So, knowledge keeper. I’d like to refer to Rosemary Gladstar’s “Medicinal Herbs.” This is, if you’re looking to get into herbalism,this is a great book to start with. Mary … Rosemary Gladstar is one of the most well-known herbalists in the country. But, there’s literally thousands of herbalists. Does anybody know any herbalists in the Los Angeles area? [points to Attendee] Do you want to share the name or are you an herbalist?
[Attendee:] Maria, and she’s, umm, yeah, the School of the Sacred Wild, there in Topanga.
[Robin:] School of the Sacred Wild in Topanga. Thanks for sharing. Anyone else?
[Attendee:] I don’t know his whole name. He’s Dr. Jay and he’s an Ayurvedic practitioner. He also has his own herbs.
[Robin:] Okay. Thanks for sharing. Does anyone practice herbalism themselves? A little bit here? A little bit in the back? Alright. So follow her home if you want to learn about herbalism. [laughter] You only need to know one herb to share one herb. So, elderberry is a perfect example of that.
So, just for the sake of introducing you to another book and answering this question: “Elderberry, page 134 to 138: Medicinal uses: Okay. Key constituents: Vitamin C, Vitamin A, bioflavonoids, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, betacarotene, iron, potassium and phytosteroles. The medicinal uses are a diaphoretic, meaning they induce sweating, thereby helping to lower fevers. Elderberries have immune-enhancing properties and they’re often combined with echinacea in immune-stimulating remedies for colds. The berries also have powerful antiviral properties and so are helpful in treating viral infections including flu, herpes and shingles. They’re also used for treating upper respiratory infections. So they have many, many uses.”
What I do is, I just enjoy them along with many other herbs. And by doing that, I get sick very infrequently because I’m constantly filling my body full of all the things that it needs rather than depleting it and then pumping it full of the medicines later. So, yes. That’s an introduction to Rosemary Gladstar’s “Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide.” Alright. Let’s walk to another plant now.

Stinging Nettle

Urtica dioca

Who knows who we have here?
[Attendees respond] Stinging nettle! So, how many of you here have been stung by stinging nettle? Okay, a good number of us. And how many of you loved it? Okay. Not as many. I’d like to share a little bit about how to love the sting of stinging nettle and use it as a medicine for connection with the earth, which might sound very radical to some, but has been practiced for hundreds or thousands of years by many, many people.
I’ll talk about stinging nettle for five minutes, which is a … very much a summary, because this is a plant that I could talk about for easily an hour. It’s a … it’s a really, really wonderful plant to work with. But, I’ll summarize this in about five minutes of talking about nettle and then we’ll get a chance to actually nibble on some nettle for any of us who would like [to do so].
Okay. So before talking about the benefits of the sting, how to work with this as a food or medicine without being stung if you’re not wanting to be stung. When harvesting stinging nettle, if you wear thick gloves, whether rubber or leather, you can prevent yourself from being stung. Another thing you can do if you are okay with being stung some is, generally, you move in an upward motion rather than a downward motion, in my experience. And you just kind of gently pluck, just like that. And I didn’t get stung there doing that. Now sometimes stinging nettle is much more stingy than others. Then, there’s three ways to basically destroy the stingers. One, you can cook it. So, heat destroys the stingers. Two, you can dehydrate it. Drying it destroys the stingers. Or three, you can blend it. And so, most people who blend it are making pesto. Pesto is a wonderful way of making stinging nettle. And that’s a way that you can eat stinging nettle raw. One of the really common ways of working with stinging nettle is to make stinging nettle tea. To do that, you can pick the leaves and the stems and the seeds — the whole portion just like this. Put it into a pot of water, bring it up to a boil, and let that stay at a simmer for a minimum of about 20 minutes. The reason why you do it for longer is that stinging nettle is very high in minerals and the heat helps to bring the minerals out. Many plants that are more high in vitamins as the focus, you don’t want to boil because boiling kills the vitamins. Destroys the vitamins. Ah, yes, Griffith Park. I remember now. [helicopter flies overhead] So, because this is high in minerals, and that’s what you’re really going for, boiling is just fine because heat doesn’t destroy the minerals. And so, that draws out the minerals and you drink that. It’s quite the tea. It’s actually kind of like a broth. You can add salt to it and then it’s very brothy. What I’ll often do is I’ll simmer it. Then I’ll just leave the top on, turn if off and leave it overnight. Wake up in the morning, and it’s a dark green … like so dark that you can’t see through it. Broth. [woods sound] Is that a coyote?
[Attendees:] Yeah. [prolonged coyote barks and cries]
[Robin:] That’s interesting. It is about the time that they start barking. So it might just be that time of night. I never would have imagined that it would be a coyote that would make this difficult. [laughter] Can I keep going? Yeah? [barking and crying continues] So the other way that you can work with this is, you can put it in your soups and stews. You can chop it up if you want. Or you can just add it directly into your soups and stews. [barking and crying continues] It’s a little hard. [Matai walks toward coyote] Oh! Let’s see what Matai can do. Let’s see what happens. Let’s not …. Yeah, it may be the dog. Maybe, if needed, the dog could go to this side of the group. [Attendees discuss] [Attendee:] Maybe they have puppies.
[Robin:] So, adding it to soups and stews. You can also … [laughter as barking continues] Are they actually looking at us? Hmm. Well, I guess we can pick up stinging nettle. There’s another patch over there. So, we’ll … we’ll walk this way a little bit and see what happens.
So, we have another stinging nettle patch right here. Now, if you want to dehydrate stinging nettle, it’s one of the easiest plants to dehydrate. All you have to do is take this home and you can set it on your table, on your desk, wherever, and it’ll take a few days to dehydrate. You can also put it on window screens that are laid flat. That’s a really nice way to dehydrate a lot of greens and herbs. And then you are done dehydrating it and it’s crunchy. You should be able to pick it up and crunch the leaves and they’ll actually flake and be crunchy. That means you’ve removed enough water at that point. Hmm. There are people who say that stinging nettle … you don’t want to harvest it once it’s gone to seed. There are a lot of herbalists who say that. However, my colleague and foraging friend Sam Thayer has researched that extensively and can find no scientific literature whatsoever on that, nor any Indigenous knowledge or folklore upon that or anything. It’s a modern idea that has nothing showing it. So, I have no concern whatsoever with harvesting at any time, as do thousands of others who harvest it at any time. And the time that I harvest it mostly for eating is when it’s young and tender, before it’s gotten really seedy. But, if you’re making tea from it, then any time is a fine time for making tea. Hmmm.
So, as far as the sting of stinging nettle goes, there’s a practice called urtication. This is a … the genus of this plant is Urtica. Urtica dioica is the genus and species. And urtication is the intentional stinging of the body for medicinal purposes. So, if you take this and you sting yourself, for people who have diabetes, this is used to help bring blood flow to the surface. And for people with arthritis, it’s used as a medicine for arthritis on the joints. It’s been practiced for a very long time. There’s actually new science that shows that when we’re stung by stinging nettle it actually releases endorphins in our system. And so, one of the great issues of our time is this, like, depression, disconnection, separation. Often we’re sitting at home in our air conditioned apartments, watching the TV, and we’re feeling kind of separate from it all, maybe a little depressed. And it turns out the answer might be to go out to Griffith Park and get stung by a little bit of stinging nettle. It’s really wonderful medicine.
On that note, I’d like to take a moment …. Well, actually, just to share a little bit. So, this is … this is a plant that you can very … that you can harvest without concern. This is a plant that will come back year after year. And, I’m not sure, I don’t recall actually if this is a native or a non-native, but this is a plant that you can very much harvest. And if you do harvest it like this, it’ll often actually come back and produce more branches. So it doesn’t even kill the plant. So, I would like to take an opportunity for anybody who would like to sting themselves with stinging nettle and enjoy it, to do that. Anyone interested? All right. So just let’s take two minutes to spend time with the stinging nettle and get to know the nettle.
[To Matai:] How’s that … coyotes for the sound?
[Matai:] Umm, you know, I think AI will help lower it.
[Robin:] Yeah?
[Matai:] Yeah, yeah.
[Robin:] I think we’re going to have to walk down there a little ways.
[Woman:] Robin. My son might have to leave.
[Robin:] Oh, hey. Nice to see you. Thanks for coming out. At the house. You look familiar. Oh, good! It’s very nice to see you. Is this your little one? Hi!
[Woman:] Say “hi” to Robin.
[Robin:] Oh, wow. [aside] Nice to see you! [To woman:] I can see the resemblance to your grandma. Very much a resemblance.
[Woman:] Yeah.
[Robin:] Are you learning some things today?
[Boy:] Yes.
[Robin:] Do you enjoy being in the garden with your grandma?
[Woman:] Oh, yes. That’s our favorite place.
[Robin:] Yeah.
[Woman:] My favorite place. Yep. Yep.
[Robin:] Very nice.
[Woman:] Jane couldn’t be here, but yeah. [garbled]
[Robin:] Okay.
[Woman:] They have a wonderful place also in Sun Valley.
[Robin:] Sun Valley?
[Relative:] Shadow Hill.
[Woman:] Shadow Hill.
[Relative:] Same thing, like near the mountain.
[Robin:] Okay. Very nice.
[Relative:] I’m happy I was able to make it. I mean, I don’t have to leave for like 30 minutes.
[Robin:] Okay, good. I think we’ll walk this way a little bit for the coyotes. I mean, I don’t think we have a choice. This is … this is difficult. Like, this has been one of the most difficult plant walks so far. Alright. I’m going to start walking this way to get us moving this way.
Alright, everyone. We have a wonderful guest here. I mentioned … I mentioned that … over here, Friends. I mentioned that there are people here who teach this year around. And Christopher and Helen are going to tell you a little bit about their work here and how you can take their classes.
[Christopher:] So Robin, show them the book. This is a book that I wrote: “Foraging California.” Show them our book that we wrote, Helen. So, if you go to schoolofself-reliance.com, that’s where you’ll see our year-round schedule. And maybe we’ll do one together one of these days. This is one we just did. We’re doing a sequel to it. There … it’s written for anybody in the country. There’s a little … there’s keys and color coding that we came up with to make it easier for people to learn about how to use it and what the uses are.
[Robin:] When are your next foraging classes?
[Christopher:] Saturday.
[Robin:] This Saturday?
[Christopher:] I do something every weekend.
[Robin:] Okay. Every weekend. And then are they at the school mostly or all over?
[Christopher:] Well, we are in “the school.” Where … wherever we go. We go to wild areas. So, you know, from here to Santa Monica to the Angeles forest. Yeah.
[Robin:] So, this is a wonderful local resource to be able to continue learning foraging week after week and deepening your knowledge. Schoolofselfreliance.com. Schoolofselfreliance.com. How many of you have taken classes with Christopher? Okay. Let’s change that soon. Nice.
Okay. Would you? Well …. Okay.
[Helen:] [unintelligible]
[Robin:] Thank you for writing this book.

Wild Mustard

Hirschfeldia incana

Okay. We’re gonna learn about wild mustard now. How many of you have eaten wild mustard before? Okay. So the reason that I am particularly excited to share about wild mustard is because it is one of the most common plants in southern California to forage. It’s available for a large portion of the year. And it’s edible in numerous different ways. What I personally love about wild mustard is that when it’s in its prime time, I can eat a pound of this per day. So, this is a food that can actually help me to truly break free from the grocery store. And this can be my primary vegetable for over a month of time. You can eat any part of this mustard. There’s many … I’ll share first. There are many species of mustard. Mustard is … the mustard family is one of the safest families of plants to work with as far as foraging goes. Whereas the legume family and the carrot family have many toxic plants that you really have to watch out for because some of them are toxic enough where you can die if you make a mistake. The mustard family is … you’d have to be really not paying attention to anything you’re doing to die from a mustard family mistake. They’re a very beginner family … very forgiving. And there’s many edible species of mustard. I probably eat about a dozen species of mustard in my travels across the country and they vary quite greatly. So, this particular here … is this black mustard?
[Christopher:] Mediterranean mustard. [unintelligible] Hirschfeldia incana. Formerly known as Brassica geniculata. You can use it like all the Brassicas.
[Robin:] Oh. Okay. And you said Mediterranean mustard?
[Christopher:] [unintelligible]
[Robin:] Okay. Mediterranean mustard. That’s the nice thing about this is you don’t need to know exactly which mustard it is to eat it. It’s totally fine if you don’t know exactly which mustard it is.
So. What we’re looking for with the mustards is if you’re out and about and look at a flower bud and think, “That looks a lot like broccoli.” That’s your way to tune in that you might have a wild mustard. So, around here you have wild radish — is another common one. That has the pink flowers — pink, purple, white flowers. These ones have the yellow flowers. So, they have four petals. That’s what you’re looking at. And, again, as I said, I’m not, like, a plant ID specialist. I’m more of an introducer and you’ll start to see … wow! Mustard is really growing all over the place. Sometimes you’ll be driving down the highway or the interstate and you’ll see miles and you’ll see mile after mile after mile of mustard.
Now, this is a plant that’s considered invasive. Wait. [looks at Christopher] Is this one? This one. Yeah.

Legality of Foraging

So, this is a plant that’s considered invasive. Now, foraging is not technically right here in Griffith Park. Does anybody have my … where is my computer bag carrier? Person who is carrying the bag. So, I would like to read a small note here. So. What this says: “Los Angeles Municipal Code, Regulations affecting park and recreation areas: Within the limits of any park (which would include Griffith Park), within the city of Los Angeles: No person shall remove any wood, tree, shrub, plant, turf, grass, soil, rock, sand or gravel. No person without permission from the board or Department of Park and Rec[reation] shall cut, break, injure, tamper with, deface, or disturb any tree, shrub, plant, rock, building, cage, pen, monument, fence, bench, structure, apparatus, equipment or property; or mark, paint, post, or write upon any building, monument, fence, bench, or other structure.” As far as I know, this ordinance was originally passed in 1979. Over 40 years ago. So, if you read the law, it technically says, I mean, it doesn’t technically say, it says that you are not legally allowed to eat this mustard. [eats mustard] [laughter] But, if you ask any of the park rangers here, and you share, “This is a plant that’s considered invasive. Millions of taxpayer dollars are being spent to literally remove this plant — destroy this plant, kill this plant.” If you ask any park ranger if they have a problem with you enjoying this mustard plant, I’m going to say that almost every single one is going to say, “Absolutely not! We have no problem with that whatsoever.” You read, you heard those rules. This was … this was grouped in with benches and rocks. This is not … this is a very different scenario. So I very joyfully enjoy eating these plants, even when it’s technically illegal, even when it’s technically against Code, and the reason why is I follow Earth Code. I critically think. I ask,
“In harvesting this plant, am I doing harm to the Earth, to the plant, to the animals that live here with this, to the greater community?” And, if the answer is, “No,” then I follow Earth Code. If the answer is, “Yes,” this is a plant that is actually protected because it would be over harvested and it would harm the plant and it would harm the ecosystem, then that is a code that I will joyously follow. So, my encouragement to you is we all have to decide how much we want to follow the rules, the laws. And we also have to look at what’s the derivation of these laws. They are often designed to prevent the people from being free human beings who can take care of themselves and take care of one another. And a lot of the laws around foraging actually go back to new Jim Crow era, preventing people who were recently freed from slavery from being able to harvest their food from the land, because if they couldn’t harvest their food from the land, then they were forced back into something equivalent to slave labor. So, if you really look at the derivation of a lot of these laws, they’re not based on serving the people. So, who wants to break a little bit of a city law and eat some wild mustard right now? Let’s take a break for that. Come on up. Enjoy a little wild mustard together. [Attendees gather, taste plant] It’s got a kick! Okay. Anyone want to share how they feel with that mustard or how it tasted to them?
[Attendees:] Broccoli! Broccoli!
[Robin:] Broccoli! Did it taste illegal? [laughter] Did it taste like you were doing any harm to anyone? Okay. So. Some of the basics around this. You can eat the flowers, the seeds, the stems, the leaves. The whole portion is edible and some people even do work with the roots. You can eat these in numerous different ways. You can just nibble on the flowers, you can add them to your salads. Mostly, I like to cook this because it’s quite strong. It’s got quite the kick. And if you want to eat a lot of wild mustard, the way to do that is through cooking it. I like to saute it in olive oil if I’m in a state where I have olive oil, but you can use any fat that you have, adding it into your soups. I think the way that I … the most wonderful dish for me is in the springtime, when this is young and tender, and you’ve got new shoots coming up, you can break off those tender shoots where they’re bendy, and that’s kind of like asparagus, or broccoli rabe, broccolini or whatever it’s called. And then you can just take those and you can saute those or you can sort of roast those, air fry them, however you work with them. And that is top quality wild foraged foods. So, in the summertime, they’re going to be a lot stronger. The strong mustardy … the strong spiciness … comes with more heat. In the spring, it’s going to be more mild. And then, once the seed pods develop, when the seed pods are young and tender, and they’re still bendy and flexible and green, those are nice to eat just like that. Once they get fibrous, they’re less desirable. But any time before that, you can also pickle them as well. The wild radish is a wonderful one to pickle. Those can get to be pretty good-sized pods and you can put those in vinegar or a salt brine and lacto ferment them. So, edible at any time, but just gets to have a stronger flavor.
The question was, of course …. Okay. So we were talking about Earth Code, so you want to make sure that when you’re harvesting this that you’re not spreading it, right? Because this is a … this is a plant that is a … that is considered invasive, like I shared, so harvesting this is an ecosystem service. But if you harvest the ripe seeds and you scatter those around, that’s not an ecosystem service. That’s destructive. And I just noticed. All this mustard back here. Lots of it. So, how you would harvest it is before it has gone to seed, every time you’re doing this you’re preventing … you’re producing … you’re removing what could have been seed. But what you do if you really wanted to remove this, you have two ways of going about it. Cutting it all the way back to the ground …. But really, if you want to get rid of this, you would actually pull this up, and what I do is, I do it gently so the soil is minimally disturbed. I put my fing … my hands down right here next to it, cradling it, and then pull so as to disturbing the soil the least amount. Because we do have problems with erosion, you know, it raining and then losing our soil. So that’s a way to disturb the soil the least. Questions about wild mustard? Anything that you would like to add, Christopher?
[Christopher:] Did you ever harvest the mature seeds?
[Robin:] So, what I was thinking of, you know, the legality part, I don’t even concern myself with, but it’s usually illegal on the books, but rangers won’t fight you about this. There was a hard-nosed guy once way up north and he said, “That’s not legal.” And I said, “But dude, you guys go out and weed whack all this. And he said … he said …. We had a little bag. We were gonna make salad. He was going to write us up, it was, like, $50 or $60 fine if we didn’t dump it. So we dumped it. When we left, we collected our stuff. But people will like it when you harvest it. So, when it’s a dry field … remember at your park? We had a whole dry field when it’s yellow and brown. So, I carry a yellow … like a plastic bucket and I fill the bucket so it’s all crumbly. And then just take all the stuff out and then the seeds go to the bottom. It takes me about an hour to get a cup of seed. A guy once said to me at the San Francisco Herb Company, it’s like $3 a pound. I said I’m not doing it for the money. Because it took me an hour to get what I could have paid $3 for. I said, “You’re missing the point.”
[Robin:] So wild mustard seeds that you can then make mustard from, which is a wonderful treat. The black mustard grows in southern California and that makes the most primo of the mustards. You can do it with any of the mustard seeds, but some make pretty inferior mustards and some make much better mustards. I am hoping that I manage to be here during the seed harvesting time because I could really use some mustard for my meals. I’m lacking in some mustard. Other questions about wild mustard?

Prickly Pear / Nopales

Opuntia spp.

What country? What countries, like, is this an important part of their staple foods?
[Attendee:] Mexico!
[Robin:] Yeah. Nopales. So, this is a plant that is a wonderful food to work with and it is an easy one also to propagate and grow. So. What you’re looking for with these, so, nopales or prickly pear cactus … some people want to harvest them for the pads … to eat the pads. Other people harvest the fruits. This is another one that I wouldn’t consider the utmost of beginners because they’re protecting themselves with … some people would call them spikes,
but really what’s not the issue is the individual little cactus spikes, it’s the glochids. So, glochids are little hair-like spikes that really easily break off and get … they get stuck … they get stuck in your fingers or your mouth and they kind of hang around for awhile and it’s not the most pleasant. It’s okay. But, every year or two, I make the mistake of trying to eat the fruits while I’m out and about without a knife, breaking into them and I get the glochids stuck in my mouth, and then I’m kind of frustrated for a few hours or so and I remember not to do that anymore. So, what you want to do is you want to find the varieties that have minimal glochids. Some are just really hard to work with. Others, like this one right here …. I mean, I’m holding this one in my hand and I’m actually not having any glochids, just the little spikes on here. And so, this is a pretty ideal one for harvesting. The plant is right back here. And while I was walking around, I took a few pads out so we could stand right here so that we weren’t all having to go all the way up there. So, that’s where it is. And so, how you work with this is you’re going to be … ooh, I do have numerous in my fingers right now. [laughter] I’m being way too liberal. So, how you work with this is you harvest the young pads. They’re going to be a brighter green versus, like, the older ones. And they’re still going to be tender. They should be bendy. That’s what you’re looking for. Bendy and a brighter green. And then, what you do … you could wear rubber gloves or leather gloves. You want them to be relatively thick. What I do is I take a knife …. Does anybody happen to have a knife on them? I don’t usually have my knife. Thank you! Actually, I usually do, but, umm … this one here. Okay. So, what I do is I go right around the edge first. Generally there’s often a lot that are centered or that are around the edge. So, I just go ahead and cut just like that. And some people would say, “Oh, man, you’re wasting!” But these are the same people who are walking past this and never eating it. [laughter] Once you start eating wild foods, and you start growing food in your garden, you see that you have to trim off some. It’s just part of it. It’s just part of the scenario. When you’re eating from the grocery store, you don’t see that part. But once you start harvesting wild foods, you have to process. And efficiency is actually pretty important because all of us are fairly busy. The main reason that a lot of us are still going to the grocery store is because it’s time efficient. It saves us time. So, if you want to eat a lot of wild food or do a lot of gardening, you need to learn some tips for efficiency. If you just want to eat a little bit, you can lollygag around all you want and efficiency is not important. But if you want to eat a lot, efficiency is important. So, basically, you’re just removing those glochids. And then, with this … once those glochids are removed, umm, that’s a really nice treat. That’s a wonderful little treat just like that. Has anyone ever not bitten into a cactus that wants to do it? And we can watch your face? [Attendee tries cactus] Let’s see what you think.
[Attendee:] Umm. That’s good. You want to try it? [child shakes head no] [laughter]
[Robin:] Alright. Down here. Rachel. Oh. That’s really nice. It’s, like, moist.
[Attendee:] Like a cucumber, right?
[Attendee:] It’s good.
[Robin:] I could see that. Okay. My cactus pad has officially been taken from me. It’s not coming back. [pad is passed around to the Attendees to taste]
So, that’s a little bit about the cactus pads. And then, as far as the fruit goes, basically what I do is I just cut the fruit in half and then scoop out the insides. And careful not to get the glochids into my fingers. And the inside is often a bright pink. It’s got seeds that I just spit out. You could put it through a colander. It’s a … it kind of reminds me of a dragon fruit in a way. Oh. I was not paying attention. [laughter] So, yeah. It’s a pretty simple one. It is a nice beginner one. This is growing all over Los Angeles area and generally not eaten. I would encourage harvesting this primarily in the, you know, … they’re growing in … in … in people’s yards and in public parks and enjoying them. And then also, you can take pads just like this and you can plant these pads. And one pad will … can grow into a whole cactus. So, if you take this and you plant this, you’ll have my bite mark and that will stay in there for years. Who would like to plant this at their home as a memory? There you are.
[Attendee:] Thanks!
[Robin:] I look forward to seeing that. How that bite mark forms in the years ahead. Questions about nopal or prickly pear?
[Attendee:] Are there any other varieties that you should watch out for?
[Robin:] Watch out for as far as toxicity?
[Attendee:] Or variety.
[Robin:] Well, you know, this is one of the ones that I’m touching on briefly because I don’t have a deep experience with a lot of the cactuses. Enough that I harvest prickly pear or nopal dozens of times. And it’s pretty easy for me to look at it and know what it is. But cactuses are a good group to work with because there, as far as I know, is no toxic cactus. But there are things that look like cactus that can be toxic. But true cactuses are a very easy group to work with in that regard. And a lot of the cactus fruits are edible. So, you can explore the cactuses further if you want to learn about that. Other questions about cactuses?

Black Nightshade

Solanum nigrum

We’re going to talk about black nightshade, American nightshade, which is right here. So, who knows what family this is in?
[Attendee:] Eggplant, potato.
[Robin:] Yeah. The nightshade family. So yeah, along with eggplants and tomatoes and what else is in that family? Peppers. So, this is a family that has a lot of toxic plants. A lot of people even don’t like to eat even the edible nightshades because they don’t think it’s the most ideal for their system. So, the nightshade family is one that is, again, not the most beginner of them. All the super beginner ones are stuck in the places where I can’t get to as easily. So, I keep ending up at these ones. But, this is … this is a really nice one to know. So, this is a plant that has a lot of confusion around it. Many people will tell you that this is toxic. And even if you call Poison Control, and you tell them that you just ate the American nightshade berry — these little black berries right here — they will tell you that you have just poisoned yourself. [nibbles on berries] However, these have been eaten by billions of human beings. And, according to Sam Thayer, the leaves of this are one of the most staple greens around the world. Especially in Africa and Southeast Asia. Over a billion people eat these greens, I am told. And I’ve met people from India, where these are a staple food for them in India. So, there’s numerous ways to work with this. The black berries — which I ate the only two that there were. It’s not really the season right now, although I did find them in abundance in San Diego, I think it was. I don’t remember where I was. Within the last week, I ate a whole handful of them. They can kind of flower and they can … they produce fruit at random times, but this is not your primo time for them. So, right now, there’s mostly flowers on here. So, how you can work with this as food. So. The berries you can eat when they are dark and they have fully ripened. So, when they’re a nice, dark, purplish black. The flavor of them is described as sort of tomato-like. I describe them as the flavor of golden berries or ground cherries. That’s what they taste to me like. I really enjoy them. They’re a really, really tasty fruit. And … but you don’t eat them when they’re green. When they’re green, they are toxic. Although I’ve talked to people in India who … well, actually, you can cook them when they’re green. I don’t have any experience with that. So, I can’t give you any advice on that, but you could look into that. I only have eaten the ripe berries. But, I’ve talked to people who do fry them and also make, like … they’ll, like, ferment them as well. Pickle them. And then these leaves are also edible. But the leaves are only edible when they are young and tender. So, the new leaves, in the springtime. At this stage, none of these leaves are in the stage that you would eat them. It’s going to be before they’ve gone to flower. And, so, it’s going to be a different looking plant at that time, because you’re not going to be able to identify it by the flowers. The flowers are the way to really easily identify this plant. Most of the flowers on this are not open, so it’s not the most ideal plant for us to learn from. But, you’re looking at these … these white flowers. On the toxic one that this is confused with, you have much larger, I believe, purple flowers. And that’s not a common plant. So, this is a very common plant. You’ll see this growing in your garden, as a weed in public parks. It’s grown all over … all over Griffith Park. And you also, when it comes to the greens, you also cook them. So, cooked greens or ripe berries … cooked YOUNG greens, or very ripe berries are the two ways of working with this. And I, … the first probably 15 times I ate black nightshade, I still felt a little anxiety, because of all of the … all of the people out there …. It’s even still listed in, you know, in plant books as toxic. And so, just with all of that, I still felt anxiety around it. But, it was only within the last year or two where now I put handfuls of berries into my mouth and I have no anxiety about it whatsoever and have finally built that safe and comfortable relationship with a plant that, again, literally billions of people have a relationship with. So. Questions about American nightshade or black nightshade? The scientific name is
Solanum nigrum. But, let’s take out one of Sam Thayer’s books for this. Yes. His “Field Guide.” And there actually are four different species, I believe, of the black nightshade. So, let’s see what it says in this book. This book has 750 different plants that you can forage. It’s the most … it’s the most comprehensive foraging book that has ever existed on the face of the Earth and it just came out two years ago. Sam Thayer is just an incredible resource for learning foraging. He’s been doing this for over 40 years. Nightshade. Black nightshade. Page 606. So yeah. Solanum nigrum species complex. So, there’s numerous different species or subspecies. Once considered a single species, but closer observation has revealed multiple distinct genetic groups within that population. So. You can see the nice, big, beautiful berries here and then you can see the young and tender plant here. So, these foraging books are really useful because, you know, here you see it at one stage, but this book shows it in multiple different stages. So. Who thinks they might try a black nightshade for the first time this year? Okay. A few of us. A good handful of us. And how many of you have had black nightshade berries before? Okay, just a few of us. So. Any other questions about black nightshade?
[Attendee:] Why is it so divisive?
[Robin:] Well. Okay. The toxic lookalike is very toxic, where it’s deadly nightshade and you can die from eating it. And. But, it’s very obvious. You can easily tell them apart. If you look up Alexis Nicole Nelson, many of you know of her. She goes by Black Forager on social media. She has a video that teaches about this and she believes that it’s an example of botanical racism that dates back with this plant where it’s, like, you know, plants that are from Europe they’re more likely to call them naturalized when they’ve come to this area whereas they’re more likely to call a plant invasive if it’s come from Africa or Southeast Asia. So, you could look up her video about black nightshade to get more … to get more of the education around that. Yeah. Yeah.
[Attendee:] [unintelligible]
[Robin:] The flower is white. Yeah. The flower is white. And it has a yellow interior generally in my experience. I wish … I wish that I had the more open flower here for you to be able to see it, but right now along the edges of this park, there’s a lot that have the open flowers that you can take a look at. So, it’ll have, like, a yellow center.
Well, thank you coyotes for welcoming us back. They seem to be okay with is being here right now. We’re going to go walk over to the California bay, which is right across, over here. And meet the California bay.
Thank you.

California Bay

Umbellularia californica

California bay. Page 44. Okay. This is a plant that I am … I’m quite excited about. How many of you know of California bay? Okay. So, this is a native plant. And, as a native plant, versus the mustard that we met earlier, this is one that you want to know what you’re doing a little bit more, I would say, and develop more of a relationship with. At the same time, California bay is quite abundant in Griffith Park. It’s one of the more common trees and there’s a lot of California bay. So, it’s definitely one that you can work with. You don’t need a lot of bay leaves in order to get the medicine that you’re looking for.
This plant can be worked with in numerous different ways. You can harvest these leaves and use these as a bay leaf. If you’re looking for the exact same bay as, like, the bay rum, the bay that you would buy at the grocery store, you’re potentially going to be disappointed. This is its own unique bay. So, my encouragement with any of these wild foods is go into them with an open mind of what is this going to be like, rather than trying to make it be like something that you want it to be. And, instead, think, “Wow, what an interesting experience the bay of California bay laurel is.” This is a very, very strong plant. You can use these bay leaves fresh, or you can dehydrate them. So, you can harvest some of these leaves, dry them, put them into a jar and be able to cook with them all throughout the year. And, my favorite way or working with these is to put one or two into my mouth — and this is my first time doing this since I was here a year ago — chew them up, and the flavor generally becomes so over empowering that it is very hard to hold on to. Then I swish it around for a minute if I can. Even better yet, add a little water, because that seems to activate it to make it a little stronger, gargle and spit it out. And it’s a wonderful mouthwash. And your mouth! It’s like you just took Listerine or a mouthwash. It is so potent. It is so strong. So, to me, it’s probably … I would imagine it has antibacterial qualities. Any time there’s, you know, strength … that kind of strength, there’s generally antibacterial, antiviral qualities. And this here is my mouthwash. So, I am now a year and a few months into the experiment of using no toothbrush, no toothpaste or dental floss. Just using resources like this. Obviously, human beings lived long before those, but I know very few human beings who are doing that today. So, it is an experiment to see how it goes. But, what I do is, I take a portion of this branch. So, if anyone would pass me the pruners …. Is it? It’s not minty. It is very California bay ‘laurelly’ is how I would describe it. One note. Okay. So, then what you do is, you can take a twig like this, and this makes a wonderful toothbrush. So, you can use this as a toothbrush. And what you can do is, you can take a pencil sharpener or a knife and sharpen that and then it actually works as a really wonderful toothpick as well. If you chew it a little bit around the edges, the edges will splay out and it turns into a really nice brush. So, this both is a toothbrush tree and a mouthwash in one. Really wonderful resource in that regard. Before everybody starts trying it, I want to give a little word of caution. It can give really strong headaches. In fact, there’s kind of a cruel trick you can play on people. You can tell them to crush up a few of these leaves and take a really deep inhalation. Someone did that to me. That was my introduction to this plant. And I had a headache for 20, 30 minutes. I actually have a headache right now. I wasn’t getting that headache last year when I was in the park and I was using it consistently. But I have a headache. It can really get you in the head. It’s short lived, but, you know, you’re warned in that regard. And, then the other thing about California bay that I would say I’m equally excited about is it produces the nuts. It is not nut season, which I feel a little bit sad about right now because these are incredible. That’s going to be fall. Most nuts and seeds are in the fall. So, these are immature at this point. But, once these are mature in the fall, you can either pick them up from the ground or, when they’re mature, you can harvest them from the tree. And then you roast those nuts. And they are an … they are absolutely delicious. Christopher. What would you say about the California bay nuts?
[Christopher:] Native people along the coast used to roast them to the point where they were almost burning them. And it’s the closest thing you’re going to get to chocolate flavor in the wild. Yeah.
[Robin:] I want that so much right now. [laughter]
[Christopher:] [unintelligible] But a chocolate flavor.
[Robin:] Chocolate flavor.
[Christopher:] And you couldn’t do that here. But see how that sycamore is straight? That would make a nice archery bow.The California bay wood is one of the best archery woods. It’s legal to cut it or if it’s in your yard, because it’s really easy to grow. It’s because of the oil. You know, that pungency you’re getting? That means it’s infused with oil. That gives it a good, springy wood when you make a bow. You haven’t been out hunting birds or gophers or anything yet, have you?
[Robin:] No.
[Christopher:] Yeah. Just checking.
[Robin:] Well, gratitude to the California bay. I will say that my life has been thoroughly enriched in the last couple minutes standing here next to this tree. My breath has not been so fresh in the year since I left Griffith Park. This is ‘the’ dental hygiene tree of Turtle Island … of the United States. I have found no better and I have worked with many trees for dental hygiene. So, let’s take a moment to get to know the tree. If you want to harvest some of these and take them home, I welcome you to and simply do it with love and care for the California bay. [chatter] Someone even took the … the things out. Oh, you did? Okay, sure. Thank you. Yeah. I appreciate that. I would actually really like to make an actual meal of these tomorrow.
[Attendee:] I have a headache all day. I have a migraine. So, I feel like it’s not my time. [unintelligible]
[Robin:] Do it. Yeah. I don’t know. It could go either way. Maybe it would get rid of it. [unintelligible] I don’t know. Couple headaches. Willow. Definitely willow. I wouldn’t be too surprised if there’s a willow around here somewhere. There’s definitely plants that help [unintelligible], like, wild lettuce, I believe is helpful with that.
Alright. Let me see if we can maybe meet one more plant. [chatter]
[Attendee:] Can you use the [unintelligible]
[Robin:] For toothbrushing and stuff? It’s not as nearly as potent, but you definitely can use it. Yeah.[unintelligible] Oh, nice. Yeah, this one’s the best of the best.
Well, we didn’t meet all the plants that I was hoping to meet, but we met some interesting California plants. And, what time is it? Alright.

Closing notes and Upcoming Events

Okay, Friends. Let’s gather up in a circle here. It’s 7:57. There is so much more that I would love to share with all of you. This time went kind of on the fast side for me. There were more plants that I wanted to introduce you to that are growing right here in this park. Plantago or plantain. Black walnut is growing abundantly here. Then the thistles, miner’s lettuce, chickweed. Those are some of the other ones that are growing right now that I wanted to introduce you to. But there are a couple dozen foods and medicines that are growing abundantly throughout Griffith Park. And throughout the Los Angeles area, there are, I would say, there’s, you know, four dozen or so easy to identify, pretty beginner plants for you to get to know. Over the next couple weeks as I’m in the area, I’m going to be producing a beginner’s guide to foraging in Los Angeles and San Diego, which will introduce you to about 24 different plants like today in a little bit of a more condensed form. So, keep a watch for that if you want to continue getting to know more of these plants. That’ll be coming soon.
[Attendee:] [unintelligible]
[Robin:] Yep. Yes. So, I want to share, for those of you who enjoyed today and are wanting to learn more, my upcoming events. So, Friday night I am speaking in Ojai at Sane Living from 6-9, and I’ll be sharing a pretty deep dive into my year of foraging all of my food and medicine and leave a good portion of time open for Q&A. So, you’ll get quite a different experience if you come to that … of, you know, immersing in this … this relationship with the Earth. So that’s at Sane Living Center. And then on Saturday, I am hosting a weekend-long foraging … er, a day-long foraging school. So, if you learned a lot today and you got a lot out of today, and you’re thinking, “I want more of this,” Saturday from 10 o’clock to 6 p.m. at Eden Forest Collective up in Fillmore, which is less than an hour from here, you could come and have a week … a day-long immersion, learning more plants and learning many of the details. And so, if you want to carpool, you could carpool up together. Is anybody going to the foraging school? Got a couple. Man, I don’t know how you could possibly miss this opportunity. Foraging school is not coming back for probably another couple years. But maybe you’re interested. Talk to friends. Come up and carpool. And then on Sunday, I’m doing a talk at Lulu Restaurant at the Hammermill Museum over in Westwood from 3:30-6. That’s the restaurant Alice Waters started. Then after that, I’ve got Ventura on the 30th, Santa Barbara on the 1st, San Louis Obispo on the 2nd, Santa Cruz on the 3rd, the Bay area the 5th through 7th, and then Sebastopol, Sacramento, Davis, Grass Valley, Mount Shasta; Ashland, Eugene, and Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Whidbey Island and Port Townsend, Washington. So, if you have friends in any of these communities, feel free to let them know so that they can come out if they’re interested. That’s all at robingreenfield.org/schedule. And then, my beginner guide to foraging is at robingreenfield.org/foraging. So, if you’re wanting to continue your foraging journey, that’s a … you can go there and it has access to so many resources. On there, you’ll find the database Find A Forager that I created which has over 500 foragers who teach. You’ll find Christopher’s website on there along with Pascal. [to Christopher] How do you pronounce Pascal’s last name?
[Christopher:] Badar.
[Robin:] Badar. Pascal Badar is a … is a wonderful forager here in southern California. He teaches wild fermentation and wildcrafted vinegars. If you’re looking to make really tasty foods from the wild food that you harvest, then he’s a wonderful teacher to learn from.
And then, also … what I’m … what we’ll do now is walk down to that table where we started. I have my books there. I have “Food Freedom,” which is the story of my year of growing and foraging all my food as well as a critique of the global industrial food system and an empowerment manual for foraging, growing food and community. And that’s there for you all to enjoy. It’s available as an experiment in the gift economy. So, no donation is required to receive the book. We accept donations from zero to a million dollars, and you can make a donation either via the cash jars, which we literally left those cash jars down there, assuming they’ll still be there when we get back. [laughter] And, or you can use the QR codes in the book … the book as well to make donations. We encourage you to take books to put into public libraries, school libraries, university libraries and share them with friends as well. So, please do enjoy them. And, if you’re able to make a donation, 100 percent of our profits go to Black and Indigenous-led food sovereignty initiatives. And the reason why is we believe that’s the most powerful way to heal the Earth, heal humanity, and heal our relationship with one another and with the Earth. So, any donations that you can make are being put to very good usages in that regard.

Q&A

So, before closing, is there a couple of questions? I’ll take, like, two questions about anything to do with foraging or anything in the universe whatsoever.
[Attendee:] In regard to, like, drying and preserving it, is the general rule that you want to dry it out of the sun always?
[Robin:] Okay. The question was about preservation. It’s nice to know about preservation because when you find a bounty of food and you want to be able to know how you can store that bounty of food. A lot of people imagine me out on my hands and knees, you know, grazing like a goat and that’s how I eat. But no. Foragers harvest the abundance and they store that abundance to have access to it. And, the main ways of doing that are through dehydration, canning, freezing, and then you also have refrigeration, wild fermentation, and a couple other little, you know, ways of doing it. But those are the main ways.
As far as dehydrating your greens and your herbs, you always dehydrate out of the sun because if you dehydrate those in the sun, it destroys nutrients. And then, fruits and barks and hardier … and mushrooms, those can be dehydrated in the sun, is the general rule of thumb. If it’s really high in water, you need the aid of the sun. So, that’s where fruits are in need of the sun generally and you can’t do them in the shade. Yes?
[Attendee:] Do you eat three meals a day, or do you kind of eat throughout the day as you forage, and also what will you eat today?
[Robin:] So, do I eat three meals a day? Generally, yes. So, as I’m on the road, I carry an Instant Pot with me and that way, as I’m traveling, like I was today from San Diego, I … what I’ll do is I’ll make a morning pot and then I’ll have that for breakfast, lunch and dinner. That same meal. And then I’ll add to it my fermented greens or, you know, different herbs and spices sometimes. And so, generally, I do have about three meals a day. And then I snack on fruits, nuts, seeds, greens. I graze on flowers and greens often as I’m out and about. And, I do, on my website, list every single meal and every single snack that I have eaten for the last 222 days. It takes a lot of time, but I think it’s one of my ways. I mean, there’s no way … there’s no way for me to prove that I’m foraging 100 percent of my food and medicine. The only way to do that would be to film myself 24/7 through the entire year, which I’m not interested in doing. But, for me to document that is one way for people to see, like, okay, look, he’s really doing this. So, it helps to add that. And also, just for people who are thoroughly interested in what I’m eating, it’s … it’s right there. Alright. Yeah?
[Attendee:] [unintelligible]
[Robin:] Yep.
[Attendee:] From Day Zero to today, how has your health changed? Physical, physiological …. I mean, I know that that’s to me feels [unintelligible].
[Robin:] Yes! How has my health changed? Well, the most important ingredient for me to optimal health is sleep. And I am often behind on sleep. And when I’m not getting enough sleep, my digestion is not as good. Your body doesn’t assimilate the nutrients as good. And so, I am working pretty hard at what I’m doing. There’s, of course, the foraging and the preservation, but being on tour and speaking and leading the plant walks and running a nonprofit and all of it is a lot. So, I am often tired. But, I will say, I am actually a little amazed that, given that I’m foraging 100 percent of my food and medicine and doing all of that, that I basically feel excellent. So, I … my body really feels solid, like I’m getting everything that I need. I don’t feel like I’m lacking. I genuinely sense that the Earth is providing me with everything that I need right now. And that I could continue this for the long term. The area that … I actually did do my bloodwork, and I have developed a higher mercury level, which is not too much of a surprise considering the amount of fish that I eat. And, because of that, it seems to be connected, I have developed a little bit of an anemia. I have low hematocrit and hemoglobin in my blood results, as well as low B1, thiamine. And it seems that’s all connected. It’s actually because of the mercury. But it’s all minor. It’s just outside of the [normal] range. And, you know, most people, if they do bloodwork, there’s going to be something that’s outside of the [normal] range, I think. So, I’m not concerned. And my body feels … my body feels really good. And, as far as the mind goes, one of the interesting things that’s happened is I see more of the world now than I did 222 days ago. And what I partly mean by that is that, literally, like 10 to 20 percent … my peripheral vision has increased by, like, 10 to 20 percent. I see more of the world when I look out my eyes. And, if I think about it, it’s, like, yeah, you would kind of expect that because the way that we live as humanity today is that we have closed our sense doors, our, you know, our eyes, our ears, our nose, our mouth, our touch. We have become so separate from the world that we have literally lost our common senses to a very large degree. And most of us probably can’t even really relate to that because we’ve only experienced what we’ve experienced, including myself. But, I’ve noticed that I just see more of everything on most days. And that has been a nice, you know, wholistic experience that I’ve had. I will say, I do eat a little bit of psilocybin mushrooms from time to time. Particularly micro dosing, not large doses. I’ve only worked with micro dosing. And that does work as well on, you know, your neurotransmitters reprogramming the brain. And, I foraged those in … in a public park in Atlanta, Georgia.
[Attendee:] [unintelligible] You actually found them?
[Robin:] I didn’t find them. Someone brought me to them. Yep. Which is the case with a lot of my foods. Other foragers bring me to them and help me to find them. And so, that goes hand in hand. The psilocybin mushroom has been a great ally in that regard. So Alright, one last question.
[Christopher:] How much weight did you lose in the last 220 days?
[Robin:] How much weight did I lose? I … I … I lost a … about five pounds at a max at the beginning. I started the first two days with a 48-hour fast. So, of course, you’re gonna lose a little weight from a 48-hour fast in the first place. And, I lost maybe five pounds in the first … in the first month or so. And then, since then, it’s completely leveled off and I’ve gained a couple of those pounds back. So, I’m maybe three pounds lighter than when I started, which is pretty much what you’d expect from giving up the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and all of that. Like, how could you not lose a few pounds? I … I would say I’m kind of at this level where I don’t really want to lose any weight from where I’m at. I’m at a good baseline, but I do not have much … I don’t have much fat. My body fat percentage was 8.7 percent and I don’t have much to lose. So, I’m in a solid place, but, I guess you could say, I’m in a little bit of a precarious place in this year of foraging. And, on the note of precarious, I do … I am forecasted to run out of calories. My wild rice and my acorns are forecasted to run out while I’m on this tour. But, I thought of an excellent solution, which is right here in Griffith Park. And, it’s these very birds that are making that noise right now. Who knows who they are? The woodpeckers. These woodpeckers hide acorns. And I know where they’ve hidden a lot of them. In the poles, right down on Vermont. They stick them in those little holes. So some of those poles are filled with acorns from top to bottom and I gotta figure out how to pull one of those up and empty those, because each of those is full of, like, probably, literally a two-week supply of acorns. [laughter] So, unfortunately, I looked at one in San Diego, and it doesn’t look like they’re easy to pull up. So, I might need some help figuring that one out. Alright. Last question, and I want this one to be one I’ve never heard before. Okay, I’m feeling like I know how weird you are. You might have it.
[Attendee:] Maybe not as peculiar as expected, but is there something in Griffith Park, potentially even the bay leaves, that work as a treatment for mosquito bites, seeing as those friends are with them?
[Robin:] Is there something in Griffith Park that works to … as a treatment to mosquito bites? Yes. And it is inside every single one of us. It is our mind. [laughter] Our mind is the most important element to mosquito bites. Of course, I am often bit by 50 to 100 mosquitoes a day, and it’s okay. You know, I deal with it. And, some people can be bit by one mosquito in a day and it’s like the end of the world for them. So, the number one thing is developing a relationship and an understanding and saying, “I am a human body. I’m an animal body and it is natural and it is normal to be bit by mosquitoes.” The other, of course, thing that’s available here in Griffith Park is wearing clothes. That’s the number one mosquito, you know, the way to prevent mosquito bites — is just wearing clothes. And then, also, at this exact moment, you go inside your tent. Have something to cover yourself up during the mosquito time. Those are the most natural, simple ways to prevent the mosquitoes. I know you really wanted to ask your question, so I’ll do this last one.
Right here.
[Attendee:] So, my question was, when you say everything we forage we’re, you know, considerate of nature, we’re considerate of our surroundings, right? And, if you’re taking the woodpecker’s acorns, aren’t you in essence, stealing from them because they’re foraging that for themselves.
[Robin:] Okay. Well, a couple notes on that. So, am I not stealing from the woodpeckers? Actually, when the woodpeckers put them in there, they can’t get them out. So, I’m not stealing from the woodpeckers at all. [laughter] But, even if I was stealing from … “stealing,” … let’s take the black walnut, for example, with the squirrels. Their very job is to actually plant a bunch of those, or to spread a bunch of black walnuts and then never get back to them. That’s one of the big ideas of these caches is they’re actually … these trees will do large … produce, like, they do mass years where they dump large quantities. Then they get spread and some of those actually plant. So, the way that I look at it is that we have this belief as humans that we’re separate. That we have our space and the animals have their space. That belief that we’re separate is actually what’s destroying the Earth. And that’s actually what … our lack of relationship, which means our lack of actually interacting with and potentially at some time maybe being directly stealing from the woodpecker is actually the real problem. Because if I’m not taking potentially from the woodpecker, what am I actually doing? I’m usually outsourcing it through the global industrial food system. The stealing is happening. I’m just not seeing the stealing. So, if we’re going to say, “Are you not stealing from the acorn?” We have to ask that. “Are you not stealing from the woodpecker?” We have to not ask … we have to ask that exact same question about every grain that we’re buying at Trader Joe’s or Walmart or any of these grocery stores, because every one of those foods is generally robbing the Earth at the same time. So, that’s the idea of foraging is it requires real critical thinking. You have to look at it. There’s a lot of gray areas, and there are moments of pain, where you don’t know exactly what to do. But the really good news is they can’t get at those acorns, so it’s totally … it’s totally clean.
[Attendee:] You have to free them.
[Attendee:] You have to bring them and you leave it so that they could take a ….
[Robin:] Uh, no. They’re mine. They’re my acorns. Yeah. [laughter] If I get them … if I do the work, they’re mine. There’s enough acorns for them. [laughter]
So, on that note, I love you all very much. I’m very happy to be here together with you. And we’re going to walk down to the table and I’ll hang out for probably about another half hour. Sign books for anybody who would like a book signed, and also share hugs. And let’s wave goodbye to the people who are on the internet. We love you, Friends! Not live. No. Yeah. [laughter] Goodbye, Friends! We love you! That was nice.

Foraging Resources

Join the foraging revolution!
California Foraging Guide
My beginner’s guide to foraging
Find a forager to learn from in your region
Read my book, Food Freedom
The 1 Million Community Fruit Trees Initiative
The Year of Foraging