Foraging 100% of My Food for a Year
Upcoming Foraging Walks and Talks
Bring Me to Your Community and Spread the Word!
Would you like me to give a talk or lead a plant walk in your community? Or would you like to know if I come to your region?
If so, we welcome you to fill out this form and learn more about hosting an event here.
Would you like to spread the word about the event in your community? If so, we’ve shared how you can help here.
About My Year of Foraging
Seven years ago I embarked on one of the deepest explorations of my life, to grow and forage 100% of my food for a year. In Orlando, Florida, I transformed front yards into gardens where I grew a wide diversity of foods and medicines. I also learned to forage many of the gifts that Earth freely and abundantly provides. I completed the year in exceptional health and high spirits, with the deep experiential knowing that Earth can provide me with all of my needs. It took real work, but I saw that I could break free from the global, industrial food system that is destroying the world I so deeply love.
It’s now time to embark on a new exploration to continue deepening my relationship to the land and the plants and animals we share this home with. To fall more deeply in love with Earth and show this love through every handful I harvest and every bite I take. To play my role as a teacher on this path for others, showing another way is possible from the status quo. To do it all as a peaceful act of resistance to systems of destruction. As Alice Waters said of my recent endeavor, “It is a provocative public experiment that reveals what is possible if we reimagine our relationship with food.”
This time I will have no garden. Nature will be my garden. For one year, I will harvest and eat solely the food and medicine growing freely and abundantly all around us.
My diet will consist of foods you’ve never heard of — wapato, lotus nuts and nannyberries; foods we’ve stepped on and over without knowing they were food — acorns, black walnuts and many mushrooms; foods that we’ve been taught were poisonous or a nuisance and have learned to hate like burdock, stinging nettle, thistles and “weeds” growing in the lawn; and, of course, many of the wild foods that are beloved by millions like apples, berries, wild onions, fish, venison and wild rice (the REAL wild rice).
Not only will nature provide me with every calorie, every gram of fat and protein, every grain of salt, every drop of oil and every sweet morsel, but nature will also provide me with all the herbs and spices. Can I make a truly tasty meal — make that 365 breakfasts, lunches and dinners — without a domesticated ingredient? It certainly won’t kill me to give it a try.
No medicine will come from the store, farm or garden either. I will harvest dozens of wild plants for medicinal herbal teas from elderberry syrup to medicinal mushroom teas to sweet fern, goldenrod and echinacea. This will be the ultimate test of the philosophy, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
Throughout, I will be leading classes, hosting Foraging Schools, educating via writing and videos and sharing the message through the media.
Some would ask, “How is this relevant to our current political crises and the times that we live in?” To this I’ll gently respond that the fact the relevance is not seen in itself demonstrates that the dominator society has already had their way with our minds. Mega-corporations, corrupted political systems and co-opted societal structures have worked since long before we were born to fragment us from the source of life. We have been taught to be consumers, dependent upon their systems of exploitation, oppression and destruction. We have been taught that we are separate from this Earth and that its destruction and demise is acceptable and normal. They have packaged it all as “progress.” The truth is that the way we are living today is destroying the only home we have and injustice and inequity is built into our entire food system and most of our daily actions.
The last thing an oligarchy or an authoritarian government wants is people and communities who can take care of themselves. Who have deep relationships with the plants and animals. Who look out their window and love what they see, rather than fear or despise it. Who see the Earth as a living being that they are part of. Who think critically about their actions and how they impact everything around them. Who are willing to do what it takes to be the change they wish to see in the world.
We need massive systems change, and my belief is that we’ll only get that when we change the systems within our minds, our bodies, our relationships and our communities. We will continue to destroy Earth as long as we focus solely on the vote and the protest. Harmony and peace must start within, through our daily actions and our relationships. When we realize that the Earth is our home, not our enemy, and that we don’t need to fear our many relatives, that’s true power!
I want to live in harmony with Earth, and this year-long immersion is part of my continued exploration of this possibility in the challenging and complex times we live in. I want to dissolve the illusion of separateness and feel truly at home on Earth and with the plants and animals we share this home with. I want to be a part of the community of humanity and play a role in helping others find a true home here too.
When and Where
To start this endeavor, I settled into my homeland of Northern Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Superior. I gave myself three months of preparation time. I started from scratch on July 1st and the year officially began on October 9th, 2025. I was based in my homeland during the preparation period and will be for much of the year.
In the fall, I embarked on a month-long East Coast foraging and speaking tour. In the winter, I’ll be on a tour through Florida and some of the Southern states. In May-June 2026 I will make a trip to the West coast. In Summer/Fall of 2026, I’ll do another tour through the Midwest and Northeast. Everywhere I go, I’ll be foraging and teaching.
One Million Community Fruit Tree Initiative
Over the next ten years, I will be planting one million fruit and nut trees through a grassroots collaborative effort of thousands of friends and colleagues across the nation. We have planted 2,000 Community Fruit Trees since 2018 and our limiting factor has been the cost of purchasing trees. We will now be growing our own trees through starting 100 local micro-nurseries that can each produce about 1,000 trees per year.
Interested in getting involved? Learn more here.
What is My Call to Action?
Get to know your neighbors — all of them — the plants and animals, too.
Overcome hatred with love. We love what we know. We hate what we don’t understand.
Form a relationship with Mother Earth, who we depend upon for everything we need.
Let the destructive corporations know you don’t need them by actually not needing them anymore. Build the skills to topple the oligarchy and the increasingly authoritarian government. Stand up from a place of power. Learn to live in reciprocity.
Relationships with the plants change us. Millions have learned this through Braiding Sweetgrass and the wisdom of Robin Wall Kimmerer. Now it’s time for me to put down the books and get out foraging. Will you join me?
Ready to Start Foraging?
Visit our Foraging Guide for Beginners, an extensive resource to help you start foraging or to take your foraging to the next level.
Read: Food Freedom: A Year of Growing and Foraging 100% of My Food. This book is accessible to all, available in paperback or as an eBook, on a donation basis (no donation required). Food Freedom is an empowerment manual for liberation through food.
Find a Forager near you through our online database of over 500 foragers. Taking a class with an experienced forager is one of the most effective ways to learn the foods and medicines that are growing all around you and to build your community.
Foraging Schools and Foraging Walks
Join us at Foraging School!
Foraging Schools are weekend-long or day-long immersions where we’ll learn foraging, enjoy foraged foods and connect to Earth and community. Foraging School is accessible to people with all levels of experience, even those who’ve never foraged a single bite of food. If you are looking for an entry into foraging or to deepen your practice, this is an ideal opportunity among new friends.
Learn more about Foraging School and register or sign up for our notification list here.
Upcoming Schools:
San Diego, California area – May 17th, 2026 – Details and Registration
Los Angeles, California area – May 23rd 2026 – Details and Registration
San Francisco, California area – June 7th, 2026 – Details and Registration
Portland, Oregon area – June 21st, 2026 – Details and Registration
Port Townsend, Washington – June 28th, 2026 – Details and Registration
Ashland, Wisconsin – July 10th-12th, 2026 – Details and Registration
Rhinebeck, New York at Omega Institute – July 24th-26th, 2026 – Details and Registration
Faribault, Minnesota at Organic Compound – August 14th-16th, 2026 – Details and Registration
Wild Bay Foraging Club in Ashland, Wisconsin
I’m hosting Foraging Walks as part of the Wild Bay Foraging Club in my hometown.
Learn More About the Foraging Club Here.
Apprentice/Volunteers
I am seeking an apprentice and volunteers to join me in foraging. Volunteers will deepen their foraging knowledge and skills as they help me on this mission. For those interested, learn more here.
In-Depth Resources and Information
Why I am Foraging 100% of My Food and Medicine for a Year – An in-depth exploration fo why I have embarked on this endeavor.
Foraging 100% of My Food and Medicine for a Year — The Guidelines – An in-depth exploration of what exactly I mean when I say that I am foraging 100% of my food and medicine for a year.
Plant List – In this document I list the common name and Latin name of every plant and mushroom that I have foraged during this year. This also includes my Plant Lists from past immersions, Plant Walks and Foraging Schools.
Daily Food Log – This is a log of what I have eaten each day including my meals, snacks and herbal teas. This is updated weekly.
Food Inventory 10/5/2025 – This is an inventory of what food I had stored after 3 months of preparation on 10/5/2025, just before the year of foraging began.
Food inventory 1/3/2026 – This is an inventory of what food I had stored on 1/3/2026 (Day 86) just before departing for Florida.
Food Inventory Brought to Florida 1/3/2026 – This is an inventory of what food I brought with me to Florida on 1/3/2026 (Day 86).
My Health Information – I am documenting a few aspects of my health including my weight, gut microbiome and bloodwork, which is published here.
The Foraging Book!
I am writing a book on this year-long foraging endeavor, expected to release in 2027. If you’d like to receive an occasional email with updates on the book or just notification when it is ready to order, fill out this form and sign up for my newsletter.
Ready to get reading now? If so, read: Food Freedom: A Year of Growing and Foraging 100% of My Food
