Emile Hirsch and Robin Greenfield: “Into the Wild” Foraging Griffith Park

Christopher McCandless is a human being who I resonate greatly with and “Into the Wild” is one of the most inspirational movies in my life. Many of you have shared how you see the similarities between Christopher and me. Although Chris did die on his grand adventure to Alaska, he was a human with much knowledge and skill that anyone with a discerning mind would not shrug off. Many people mock and deride Christopher, just like they do me.

I took Emile Hirsch (who played Christopher) “Into the Wild” in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, where I introduced him to a handful of easy-to-identify, beginner plants to forage that grow here and across the country. As Emile is learning the plants, so, too, can you. As I’m immersed in my year of foraging 100 percent of my food and medicine (today is Day 223), I reflect that I am living the dream of Christopher.

The common narrative about Christopher is that he died because he misidentified the wild sweet pea for the wild potato. But according to Sam Thayer, one of the world’s foremost foraging experts, in the book “Nature’s Garden,” Chris actually starved to death.

Foraging is safe. Foraging can be done in harmony with Earth. The answer is to learn one plant at a time and to grow your skills and knowledge from there.

Follow Emile Hirsch on Instagram @emilehirsch
His new painting of the bus will be available as a print soon.

Transcript: The following is a transcription of Emile Hirsch and Robin Greenfield: “Into the Wild” Foraging Griffith Park.

Introduction

“Into the Wild” is one of the most inspirational movies of my life and Christopher McCandless is a human being who I resonate dearly with. In fact, many of you have shared how you see the similarities between me and Christopher. And although Christopher did die in Alaska on his grand adventure, he was a human being with great skills and knowledge and anybody who writes him off as a person just doesn’t understand the big picture. In fact, just like he received a lot of mockery, so too, do I.
Today, I am so happy to be taking Emile Hirsch into the wild of Griffith Park, where I will be introducing him to a handful of very easy-to-identify beginner plants to learn to forage, and as he is learning them, so will you.
Today is Day 223 of foraging 100 percent of my food and medicine, so I am, in many ways, living the dream of Christopher McCandless, and I’m so grateful to take you all along on this dream with us.
Originally, I was thinking like a really short social media thing, but then I thought it would be way more enjoyable just to walk around together.
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] So, basically, we’re hanging out, and I’m going to try to get you to eat something. [laughter]

PTSD and Safety of Foraging

[Emile:] This for me, this foraging, it’s not just foraging, this is like PTSD work on me, ‘cause it didn’t … I associate foraging with it going very badly because of “Into the Wild.” The potato seeds.
[Robin:] Really.
[Emile:] Yeah. It’s kind of funny how that actually, you know, it’s the character that I played, but it’s this experience that he went through where, you know, was, like, so intense. And it did kind of leave a bit of a mark on me.
[Robin:] Yeah.
[Emile:] So this is sort of like plant therapy.
[Robin:] Okay. I didn’t realize I was going to get to help Emile Hirsch to reconnect with the Earth. Good! Which is my whole objective. I mean really the more that I continue doing this stuff, I realize that’s all I want to do, is just help people to feel more at home here on this Earth, to be more comfortable. Starting with these easy plants that are not … there’s no chance these plants can kill you.
[Emile:] Alright. Yes. Score!
[Robin:] Let’s walk this way.
So you … like, you associate foraging with dying?
[Emile:] The plant paranoia was sort of reinforced because I’m not really into going to the nursery. A few years ago, with my son, and we got these, like … we got, like, carrots, right?
[Robin:] Yeah.
[Emile:] And we planted them in the thing. And then he went on a hike and didn’t tell me and he picked a bunch of what he thought were wild carrots.
[Robin:] Yeah.
[Emile:] And then he got the worst rash all over his body, like, worse than poison oak. He was freaking out. And I’m like, ohmigod, and I was, like, where was your hike? Where was your hike? And I go and I retrace the entire hike, literally taking pictures and sending them to him, trying to figure out. And then I figured out which plant it was and it was poison hemlock. Which looks remarkably like wild carrot.
[Robin:] Oh. Yeah. They look very similar.
[Emile:] Yeah. And I was, like, thank God he didn’t eat it. And that was only a few years ago. And then I was, like, when I first saw the rash and I didn’t know how bad it was, I was freaking out, because, I was like, ohmigosh, the plants have [unintelligible] me again, you know?

Black Walnut

Juglans nigra

[Robin:] [laughs] Well, what would you guess this is? Any idea? It’s got this green ball with these long compound leaves.
[Emile:] I don’t know. It’s a very beautiful plant though.
[Robin:] Give that a smell if you’d like.
[Emile:] Is it … oh man, this is like an idiot test. Is this, like, a date?
[Robin:] I wish it was a date.
[Laughter]
[Emile:] I have no idea what this is.
[Robin:] This is actually black walnut.
[Emile] Ohmigod!
[Robin:] Yep. So you can, of course, buy walnuts at the store, but we literally have walnut trees growing in Griffith Park and throughout California. You can make nocino. Have you ever had nocino? It’s like an Italian liquor.
[Emile:} No, I don’t think so.
[Robin:] I would have thought you’d have had all the different liquors before.
[Emile:] Italian liquor, I don’t know.
[Robin:] And, so you can make that. You can also pickle these. Oh, the other thing is, you can dye with these. So these shorts are dyed with black walnut.
[Emile:] A different kind of dye.
[Robin:] No. This is …
[Emile:] No, a different kind of dye, like, not mortal die.
[Robin:] Well, yes. Okay.
[Emile:] We’re back on that.
[Robin:] I gotta watch what I say …. [laughter] You can naturally dye ….
[Emile:] You live, and dye ….
[Robin:] There’s no way to say this. You can change the color of your clothes to brown.
[Emile:] Okay, cool.
[Robin:] With black walnut.
[Emile:] Do you have to shave it or something?
[Robin:] Okay. So, black walnuts here. So these are … okay, at this point, they’re unripe.
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] So you gotta wait until fall.
[Emile:] Okay.
[Robin:] To actually be able to eat them. Once these are ripe, they’ll actually start falling from the tree and the husk will start to turn brown.
[Emile:] That hole is perfect for that. [laughter]
[Robin:] It’s never coming out. [laughter]
[Emile:] Amazing.
[Robin:] And then these are what the nuts are like inside.
[Emile:] Oh, wow.
[Robin:] And then you can take a hammer and kind of gently crack them, because otherwise you’ll smash them to smithereens.
[Emile:] Oh, that’s so cool.
[Robin:] And then those are the walnuts inside. So, do you trust me to try a black walnut?
[Emile:] Yeah, of course. So, I actually … wow. I bought peaches from Ralph’s and I went home, got the pit and I did the same thing with a hammer, trying to crack open the pit and then I … it took me like five tries of exploding the pit because it’s a really sensitive pit.
[Robin:] And then?
[Emile:] I finally got the seeds and it’s been four years and the peach trees are actually like, …
[Robin:] You grew peach trees?
[Emile:] They’re in the backyard and they’re, like, pretty big. They’re actually in pots, so they haven’t gone, like, fully crazy yet.
[Robin:] Wow!
[Emile:] Yeah. So it’s crazy. I have, like, three big peach trees that I grew from peaches at the house.
[Robin:] Okay. And hopefully they’ll be producing some ….
[Emile:] Well, apparently peaches are a little different where you sort of never know what you’re gonna get. It’s one of those ….
[Robin:] With stone fruit like peaches, if you plant from seed, you don’t get … you really actually want to graft them. I’m enjoying eating these black walnuts.
[Emile:] Yeah, they’re good.
[Robin:] So, a couple other notes on the black walnut. If you find a tree that looks like this and produces the green nuts like this, you’ve got black walnuts. It’s a very easy one to identify.
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] There are other things with green balls on them though.
[Emile:] Like Martians? [laughter]
[Robin:] But if you ever have parasites, these green husks are actually used as an anti-parasitic. People make tinctures from these.
[Emile:] Oh, that’s so cool.
[Robin:] So, lots comes from this: natural dye, tincture, nocino alcohol, and, of course, the wonderful nuts.
[Emile:] Wow. And I notice this more and more in the last couple years, when I started painting. Now I’ll go out and I’ll just be seeing … every time I go out, I see new things in a different way because I’m visually, like, thinking about colors and things. And now, seeing this, it’s, like, once you see something and you have it identified, you see it everywhere.
[Robin:] Yep. Yeah, definitely. Once you get to know the plants and you learn more of the plants, the world is never the same. Because you start to see, wow, food and medicine is growing all around us.
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] Want to walk this way?
[Emile:] Yeah. It was actually … you know, it’s kind of crazy, a lot of the … there’s a lot of tobacco in the … in the canyon.
[Robin:] Oh, those big leaves that are, like, light green?
[Emile:] Yeah, like wild tobacco plants. But I wasn’t sure if you could actually, like, chew that, or bunch it up, I don’t know.
[Robin:] Don’t you have to know what you’re doing or how you’re doing it?
[Emile:] Yeah, there’s probably a lot of nicotine in that.
[Robin:] I think they’re fairly toxic.
[Emile:] Yeah, that’s what I heard.

Pineapple Weed

Matricaria discoidea

[Robin:] Oh, here’s one. This is an interesting one. This is called pineapple weed. And it’s also called wild chamomile. It’s a relaxing herb, so you can make … you can make a nighttime chamomile herb tea with it. When it’s springtime and they’re nice and tender.
[Emile:] So it’s chamomile.
[Robin:] It’s called wild chamomile, but they’re ….
[Emile:] It’s not chamomile.
[Robin:] It’s not chamomile. They’re relatively related.
Next plant. Hmm. Do you know this one here?

Mustard

numerous genus

[Emile:] Is this … which one? Where are you pointing? Is this mustard?
[Robin:] Yep.
[Emile:] This is where mustard comes from.
[Robin:] So, there’s … yes, there’s numerous different species of mustard. Black mustard is the one that’s worked with the most as far as making the mustard. And, the way that you see mustards is the … the flower buds basically look like little broccolis. They’ve got that greenness to them. Mustard is one of the most commonly foraged foods all across the world actually. There’s many species of edible mustards. And in the mustard family, which is the same family as kale, broccoli, all of the Brassicaceas, there are some mildly toxic plants, but none that can kill you. So, it’s a very easy beginner plant to work with.
[Emile:] Whew!
[Robin:] Yeah. Whereas, the legume family, where the pea comes from, that is what they say Christopher died from ….
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] That’s the family that’s got the most toxic plants.
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] Or one of the most toxic plants. So, this is a very beginner group to work with.
[Emile:] You eat the flower?
[Robin:] Yep.
[Emile:] Cheers.
[Robin:] Cheers.
[Emile:] Yeah, it tastes like a … like a … like a mix of, like, a pea and a broccoli. It’s not bad.
[Robin:] Nice. So, you can eat it raw like this, but the real ideal way to eat it is to cook it in olive oil.
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] And saute it.
[Emile:] It’s actually pretty … like, for just taking something and chewing on it, it’s pretty solid.
I think that’s the tobacco plant. [pointing]
[Robin:] Yep. That is tobacco over there. Yep. Let’s walk over there in a minute. So, let’s see. What other things to know about this? This is what you’re looking for here. See how this is bendy?
[Emile:] Umm hmm.
[Robin:] When you’re eating things outside like this, what you’re really looking for is bendy. Because bendy means it’s younger and more tender, just like if you’re eating food from the garden, you’re not looking for stuff that’s really tough. Yeah, I just run my finger along it and wherever it easily snaps off, that’s what I eat, and then the hard part I leave behind. There’s a lot of other things to say about mustard, but that’s the majority of it. Well, I guess one other thing I’ll say is that sometimes I eat a pound of this per day.
[Emile:] Whoa.
[Robin:] So when it’s got the nice stems, you can really … you can really eat a lot of mustard.
[Emile:] It’s really tasty.
[Robin:] Yeah.
[Emile:] It’s almost better than broccoli.
[Robin:] Better than broccoli. Try it out, friends. Emile said so.
[Emile:] Yeah. It’s good.
[Robin:] This is a small stalk.
[Emile:] Of broc … of mustard?
[Robin:] Yep. Yeah. And so, these stalks could be much bigger, but that’s when it’s more … it’s also less spicy when it’s in this younger stage as well. So. Yeah. And you can eat all these leaves here, too.
[Emile:] Now, will animals eat these? Like, if you bring a dog out here, will it eat that? Like how dogs sometimes eat grass?
[Robin:] I’m sure it would eat a little bit. So, this is a plant that’s considered invasive. There’s so much of it and it’s actually ….
[Emile:] Yeah. I feel like every hike we go on it’s just … the hills are covered in it.
[Robin:] Yes. So, some people are afraid to forage because they think they’d be doing harm. Like here in Griffith Park there’s millions of Los Angelenos, and what if everybody started to forage? The reality is that if everybody in Los Angeles started to forage this, it would be beneficial, because we already spend millions of dollars spraying to kill this stuff. Not right here.
[laughter] I think. And literally, Los Angelenos could come out and just eat it instead of spending all those taxpayer dollars to try to destroy it. So, this is a really good plant for people who are concerned about doing harm to the ecosystem and can actually do an ecosystem service by harvesting it.
Alright. So. Oh. Here’s a beautiful black walnut. Here. Loaded black walnut tree.
[Emile:] Yeah.

Black Nightshade

Solanum nigrum

[Robin:] So, over here …. Now this is a plant that a lot of people will think that you’ll die if you eat it. Any … have you ever seen this plant around before?
[Emile:] Oh, gosh. No. What is it?
[Robin:] So, some people think this is deadly nightshade. But this is American nightshade, or black nightshade, so it’s in the nightshade family, like tomatoes. And, there’s all this conversation around this being toxic, but, literally one billion people around the world eat this. I’ve eaten this for multiple years. The deadly nightshade is very different looking. The flowers are the easiest way to tell this apart. These have these little white flowers, and the deadly nightshade has big purple flowers. So, when it’s in the flower stage, in the fruit stage, it’s very easy to tell. And what people … what you can eat on these is the berries, but you eat them once they are dark purple.
[Emile:] Wow.
[Robin:] And this one is actually … no, not ripe enough. And this one looks like a shriveled old dead one.
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] We’re not in the … we’re not in the season.
[Emile:] Nightshade.
[Robin:] Yes. It basically tastes like kind of a sweet tomato. Or … have you ever had golden berries or ground cherries?
[Emile:] I think?
[Robin:] They’re kind of like a tomato, but fruitier? That’s what this tastes like. And then you can also eat the leaves when it’s springtime. Or early on. Before they’ve gone to flower.
Alright. Should we walk a little more?
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] How are the mosquitoes doing for you?
[Emile:] I think you’re probably in more dire straits than me.
[Robin:] Yeah, you’ve …
[Emile:] Look at this tobacco growing … this is the … this is the Rated R part of this video.
[Robin:] Did you learn something about this?
[Emile:] All I know is that it’s a wild tobacco plant.
[Robin:] The number one rule of foraging is only eat a plant if you’re 100 percent sure of proper identification and how to eat it. Yes. That’s the main reason that people actually get injured with foraging. I mean, almost always it’s just people who are not identifying, not doing their diligence.
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] So that’s an example of that.
So, since “Into the Wild,” have you just walked on the streets of LA or in the park and just eaten something off of a random … or not random, but off of a tree or a bush or the ground?
[Emile:] I don’t know. Maybe not.
[Robin:] Maybe not? So today may be your first time just going outside, in “the wild,” and just pickin’ a … pickin’ a plant. And eating it.
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] Alright. How’s that feeling so far?
[Emile:] It’s cool.
[Robin:] Yeah?
[Emile:] I mean it’s … it’s … it’s good knowing, like, it’s good that we know what we’re doing, you know, so that kind of alleviates the uncertainty people have about the unknown types of foods, you know?
[Robin:] Yeah. Because when you … when I … when I messaged you and you said, “I’m not so sure about eating something,” I was, like, oh, you seemed concerned.
[Emile:] Yeah, no, it’s … you know.
[Robin:] Nice. Well, I’m happy to help break down those old ingrained ways of thinking.
[Emile:] Yeah. And I think, too, that that is the key, because as soon as you’re able to sort of analyze your own thinking, it’s so much easier to change it to what you would rather be like. There’s, like, this idea of, like, we’re stuck in our ways – or that we have to be the people that we are because there’s no changing it. But the truth is that if you want, you can, like, radically make yourself the person that you would much rather be. You know?
[Robin:] Yeah.
[Emile:] And, like, in a real way, in a genuine way.
[Robin:] Yeah.
[Emile:] You know? In a way where you’re, like, embracing your curiosity and wonder to the world as opposed to, you know, not.
[Robin:] Free the mind.
Like, for a beginner forager, you don’t know if this is edible, so you don’t put it in your mouth. Doesn’t that actually look to you kind of devious?
[Emile:] Yeah, it does. It looks kind of like some kind of twisted lollipop of some sort.
[Robin:] Yeah.
[Emile:] Like, I don’t know. Oh, wow. Look at that. Yeah, it’s a fig.
[Robin:] So, I have looked this up before.
[Emile:] Coyote.
[Robin:] Oooh. Hello, coyote.
[Emile:] Do you ever forage those?
[Robin:] Never have.

Stinging Nettle

Urtica dioica

Here. Let’s see if you have any guesses as to what this might be.
[Emile:] Mint?
[Robin:] Nope.
[Emile:] Can I touch it?
[Robin:] Yeah, you can touch it.
[Emile:] Oww! [laughter] What the hell was that? [laughter] What the ….
[Robin:] That’s a stinging nettle.
[Emile:] Ohmigod. Straight up prank.
[Robin:] I wasn’t … [laughter] I was going to tell you, but you started going for it, so I was like ….
[Emile:] Ohmigod. That’s so funny. That’s the forager’s practical joke plant.
[Robin:] Yeah. So, it’s indeed the stinging nettle. But the good news is that the sting of stinging nettle is actually medicine.
[Emile:] Oh, wow.
[Robin:] So, most people are kind of afraid of being stung by stinging nettle, but …
[Emile:] How does it sting you?
[Robin:] Little tiny what are kind of the equivalent of hypodermic needles.
[Emile:] Yeah. It feels like they’re still in.
[Robin:] Yeah, there’s nothing that can be removed, they’re literally so tiny.
[Emile:] Uh oh.
[Robin:] They don’t …. All they do is give you a short-term sting. But, when we’re stung by stinging nettle, numerous different endorphins are released and it actually helps with depression. It’s actually a little bit of a happiness medicine to get stung by stinging nettle. So, I intentionally sting myself with stinging nettle. [slaps arm repeatedly]
[Emile:] What?
[Robin:] Yeah. This is a practice called urdication. Urdica is the genus. And they’ve been doing that for hundreds of years. It helps to stimulate blood flow for people with diabetes.
[Emile:] Damn. You’re just puncturing your skin with those microneedles.
[Robin:] Yeah. You know, I don’t think of it as a puncture.
[Emile:] It reminds me of those, like, Catholic monks. Like the one in “The DaVinci Code,” who takes the, like, frickin’, like, tassels to his back. Like, whachee!
[Robin:] Okay.
[Emile:] Self-flagellation.
[Robin:] Slightly less painful.
[Emile:] It’s a much more chill version of that.
[Robin:] Yes. Yeah, no. It’s a wonderful practice. And once … once you know that it’s good for you, it changes your mind around it, you know? So, the key with this is, if you do sting yourself with it is to start with just a little bit. And do it on the rougher parts, not the … like here is kind of ….
[Emile:] You get a rash maybe.
[Robin:] It’s … you do sometimes get some hives, depending on the person.
[Emile:] Hmm.
[Robin:] But then, as far as how to eat this, if you cook it, it destroys the stingers. So you can boil this and make tea.
[Emile:] Where the hell are the stingers? Are they on the stalk? Or are they ….
[Robin:] The bottom of the leaves and stalks. And, oh yeah, here you go. See the tiny little hairs?
[Emile:] Ahh!
[Robin:] Did you see the tiny little hairs?
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] Those are the stingers. They’re tiny.
[Emile:] Ohmigod.
[Robin:] Yeah, you might get a tiny little welt. I’ve got a nice little buzz going. It’s a totally free, natural buzz. Now, very few people do this, but what you can also do if you want to eat it raw, roll it up into a ball like that. That basically ….
[Emile:] No stinging going on?
[Robin:] Nope. Just do that.
[Emile:] Really?
[Robin:] Yeah, that destroys the stingers.
[Emile:] Really? Wow!
[Robin:] So, it’s a pretty easy beginner plant to get to know. And I eat … this is [one of] my top ten wild edible plants.
[Emile:] Oh, wow! Really?
[Robin:] Yeah. I probably eat about 10 to 20 pounds of stinging nettle per year.
[Emile:] Wow.
[Robin:] This is a plant where if someone is looking to break free from the grocery store and become a wild human being, this is it. I bet you Christopher ate quite a bit of stinging nettle in his two years of … of roaming the … the West.
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] What do you think Christopher would think about this foraging walk?
[Emile:] He’d probably massively think it’s cool.
[Robin:] Do you think he ever came to Griffith Park?
[Emile:] I don’t … I wouldn’t be surprised if he did. Because, I mean, he spent time in Los Angeles.
[Robin:] Yeah. Yeah.
[Emile:] So, I don’t know. I feel like he probably would have been around.
[Robin:] Yeah.
[Emile:] He moved around a lot.
[Robin:] The scene … is there a scene of him down in, like, the LA river?
[Emile:] Downtown LA. Yeah, we actually shot at, like, the homeless shelter.
[Robin:] Okay. So, that’s just a couple miles from here.
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] So, it’s quite possible he was here.
[Emile:] Yeah. Maybe.
[Robin:] That’s cool to think about. I bet you he roamed the … the … the river a little bit. There’s some good foraging down there.
[Emile:] Umm.
[Robin:] Should we see about another plant or two?
[Emile:] Yeah, let’s do it.
[Robin:] Let’s see. Oh, I got the one I’m excited about.
[Emile:] Oh yeah?

California Bay

Umbellularia californica

[Robin:] Yeah. Have you ever seen these little nuts before?
[Emile:] Is this a … I’m trying to guess. Is this a … macadamia nut?
[Robin:] No, it’s not. It would be nice if it was. But this is the California bay laurel. So, it looks like an avocado. I think it looks a little like an avocado. They’re related. They’re in the same group. But the California bay laurel is the … you can actually eat these nuts in the fall time. They’re not ripe yet. But if you do break this open, you can see the nut inside.
[Emile:] Ohmigod. It just [unintelligible].
[Robin:] Did you? They’re pretty strong. And in the fall …
[Emile:] It’s so wet! It’s crazy.
[Robin:] Yeah, juicy.
[Emile:] Holy crap. I thought it was going to be totally dry.
[Robin:] Yeah. They would be dry in the fall.
[Emile:] Damn.
[Robin:] So, you can break these open in September, October and then you can roast these. And this is the closest thing you’ll taste to a wild chocolate.
[Emile:] Really.
[Robin:] They’re actually incredibly delicious. It’s one of the tastiest foods that I’ve eaten in California.
[Emile:] Wow.
[Robin:] And they’re ….
[Emile:] What do you call it again?
[Robin:] California bay laurel, or just bay laurel, as well. Yeah. It’s a really wonderful one. Very important food to Indigenous people. You can see all the nuts up there. I mean it’s just absolutely loaded with nuts.
[Emile:] There’s like some weird stick hanging from the branch there.
[Robin:] Oh yeah. Some sort of numchuks.
[Emile:] Some errant numchuks.
[Robin:] But, how I work with this plant the most is, this is actually the toothbrush plant. So, what I do is, I chew this edge a little bit. Okay, that’s a little better.
[Emile:] I got my toothbrush. Hmmph.
[Robin:] Yeah, pruners is definitely the general better way of doing this. Yes. So, what I do now is I chew that a little bit to splay this out, turn it into a little bit of a brush, which is not working as well as usual. And then it’s just like this. Then I just work down.
[Emile:] I don’t know. [unintelligible]
[Robin:] Yes. It’s a brush and it’s actually a, like, not a toothpaste, but it’s antimicrobial, so it actually does what people are seeking from that, which is washing the mouth.
[Emile:] What about the leaves here?
[Robin:] Okay. If you want to try something. This is intense. But this is the Listerine leaf.
[Emile:] Oh shit.
[Robin:] You chew this up, swish it around. It’s so strong, you won’t be able to hold onto it for too long. Try to get some moisture in there and swish it a little bit. If you can give it, like, ten or fifteen seconds.
[Emile:] Can you swallow it?
[Robin:] You can spit it out or swallow it. And now breathe out. And breathe in. Are you getting that?
[Emile:] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[Robin:] It’s powerful. So I am … when we saw each other a year ago, just before that, I had gotten rid of my toothbrush. And I haven’t used a toothbrush, toothpaste or dental floss since then. I’m like 15 months in.
[Emile:] You get it from this?
[Robin:] This when I’m in California, and then other plants.
[Emile:] Wow.
[Robin:] How’s it look like it’s going?
[Emile:] I think you’re good.
[Robin:] A little stained.
[Emile:] A tiny bit.
[Robin:] Yeah. The stain. But beside the stain ….
[Emile:] Nice teeth.
[Robin:] It’s going well. But just a note. This is a native plant. So, you want to be gentle with it. There’s a lot of California bay laurel. So, people can come here and you can harvest some leaves. No question about that. But, you want to be gentle, not hacking back big branches or anything like that and being respectful and loving the plant. Alright. So, let’s see. It’s been … it’s been 15 months since I’ve used a toothbrush, toothpaste or dental floss. I’ve just done a mouth rinse. Want to smell my breath and see how it is?
[Emile:] Alright. Let’s see. It’s good.
[Robin:] Yeah?
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] Any foulness?
[Emile:] No.

Top Plants During the Year of Foraging

[Robin:] There’s about 400 plants – different plants that I have harvested as food or medicine. And during this year of foraging all my food and medicine, there’s about … probably about 180 now that I have worked with. Some of them, it’s just like, I’ve harvested once or twice with someone who knew the plant and introduced me to it, but at least 100 of them are staple plants that I would say I have a significant relationship with.
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] As in my life is … my life is actually different because they are in my life. And they’ve actually enriched my life.
[Emile:] Wow. What … what would be some of those top plants, do you think?
[Robin:] Black walnut and wild nuts: acorns ….
[Emile:] Umm, yeah.
[Robin:] Black walnuts, hazelnuts, chestnuts, hickory nuts. I’m probably going to eat, I don’t know.
[Emile:] Are peanuts common?
[Robin:] Not in the wild.
[Emile:] No?
[Robin:] They’re only a domesticated plant.
[Emile:] Wow. That’s not a ….
[Robin:] I might as well teach you this one as well. Have you ever seen this around?

Plantago

Plantago major

[Emile:] What is that?
[Robin:] This is called plantago, or plantain. And it’s one of the most common weeds that grows in yards and gardens all over the United States. It’s probably present in … you know, do you have a yard?
[Emile:] Yeah, a little one.
[Robin:] You probably have this in your yard. You could take a look. And this is worked with in numerous ways. What a lot of people do is, they take the leaf, they chew it up, and if you’ve got a bee sting, you take that chewed up leaf. See how it’s got this green liquid coming out?
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] You stick that on there and it helps to prevent it from swelling.
[Emile:] Wow.
[Robin:] So, it’s used for bee stings as well as other, you know, other stings and rashes. And it’s a … it’s a very common medicine. And then, the seed heads are actually very high in fiber. This is called psyllium husks, which is what’s present in Metamucil.
[Emile:] Yeah. That’s what that’s from?
[Robin:] It’s from a close relative of this. So, basically the same plant. And you can use this plant the exact same way. So, literally, people are going to the store and buying this stuff and it’s growing in their yard.
[Emile:] That is so crazy.
[Robin:] You can eat these seed heads. You can just chew them just like that, or strip off the seeds and I think they have a mild and pleasant flavor.
[Emile:] Yeah. It’s umm … almost like … I want to say baby corn because it looks a little bit like baby corn, but I don’t actually know if it tastes like baby corn.
[Robin:] I would like it if it was baby corn.
[Emile:] Baby corn. Yeah.
[Robin:] So. And then. Oh. The way that you can really identify this plant, besides the fact if you see a leaf growing like this that looks like this, what you want to do is you can pick it, and what’s really unique about this is that the veins will pull out. Oh, there you go. It’s perfect. If you want to get a closeup of this over here. That they pull out like that.
[Emile:] It’s interesting because you don’t normally see leaves with veins this thick.
[Robin:] Yeah.
[Emile:] Like, compared to the rest of the leaf, it’s much … you can … you can feel the 3Dness of it.
[Robin:] Yep. It’s got those deeply indented veins. Yep. So that’s plantago or plantain. It’s a really good one to know. You can add it to your soups.
[Emile:] Cool.
[Robin:] You can juice it. You can juice it, add it to your … add it to your salads, smoothies, anything. It’s very …. In fact, I’ve seen websites that have listed this in the top ten most medicinal plants on Earth.
[Emile:] Wow.
[Robin:] And I agree, along with 10,000 other plants.
[Emile:] Yeah. [laughter]
[Robin:] So, from this distance, what do you think that is right there?
[Emile:] This one?
[Robin:] Yep.
[Emile:] The big, the bushy one?
[Robin:] Yep.
[Emile:] Oh, man. I feel like I … I have no idea. Uhh.
[Robin:] Let’s see once you get closer.
[Emile:] Oh, man. Avocado? No.
[Robin:] So give it a smell.
[Emile:] Oh. This is what we had before.
[Robin:] Yep.
[Emile:] The California bay laurel.
[Robin:] Yep.
[Emile:] Wow. It’s like a trick question.
[Robin:] So, if you look at this tree and you’re not sure, you can just smell it.
[Emile:] Damn, dude. That smell’s [unintelligible] Yeah.
[Robin:] This is a good one to get to know. To get to know the land.
Okay, I see the pantry’s still there. Nobody has stolen it. Los Angeles has been good to me so far. Do you want to check out the pantry?
[Emile:] Yeah. Let’s check it out.

What’s in the Vehicle?

[Robin:] I’m somewhat self-conscious about seeing all the “stuff” that I have.
[Emile:] Oh.
[Robin:] But, to forage all of my food and be on the road requires a fair bit of “stuff.” And this is it. So, like, I’ve got all these jars.
[Emile:] Ohmigosh.
[Robin:] Jars full of food.
[Emile:] Umm.
[Robin:] Maple syrup. Try some of that. Plum sauce. Service … er, elderberries. Fermented wild ramps. Pear sauce. And then. Here, hold that for a second. This is a car killed turkey.
[Emile:] Ooh. Wow.
[Robin:] That’s what I ate for lunch today. And then, lots of jars of fish.
[Emile:] Ohmigosh.
[Robin:] These are called smelt. And they’re a little bait fish that you go catch with nets.
[Emile:] Oh yeah. Yeah.
[Robin:] I caught 100 pounds of them and I canned them for the road. So this is like … I eat one jar of this every single day basically.
[Emile:] Wow.
[Robin:] Yeah. It’s one of my staple foods. And then ….
[Emile:] That is a heavy ….
[Robin:] Yeah. Canned foods are heavy. And then, this bag … this bag here – this is all sorts of stuff: acorn flour ….
[Emile:] Umm.
[Robin:] For eating. This is ….
[Emile:] So this is all stuff you foraged?
[Robin:] Yeah.
[Emile:] Wow. Man, you’ve been ….
[Robin:] Dehydrated mushrooms, wild yam flour from Florida.
[Emile:] How do you make the flour? You just grind it, grind it up, or?
[Robin:] Dehydrate it and then put it into my Vitamix blender, which I also, actually I’m traveling with. And this has got really high power. You probably use it, you’ve used one of these before?
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] So, you just stick the dehydrated chunks in there and it blends up. Elm samaras. They’re a very unique food. These are harvested on the side of a bike path and there may have been dog poop.
[Emile:] Oh God.
[Robin:] So, I don’t share those. Chanterelle mushrooms. So yes. This car is quite loaded with food. Boletes. Different bolete mushrooms. So, let’s umm. I’ll show you some of the foods in the pantry and actually you can try it.
[Emile:] Okay.

Foraged Foods from the Pantry

[Robin:] This more or less represents my diet. So, we’ve got the wild rice here. Have you ever had wild rice?
[Emile:] Yeah. Can I just have a bite?
[Robin:] Yeah, sure. No harm in nibbling on a couple just to get to know ….
[Emile:] It’s pretty hard.
[Robin:] Yeah. You would normally cook it, but it’s a good way to get to know it – to nibble on a few.
[Emile:] My mom’s ex-boyfriend, growing up, who’s a Chinese herbalist …
[Robin:] Oh, yeah?
[Emile:] He wasn’t Chinese, but he was ….
[Robin:] Yeah.
[Emile:] He did Chinese herbology or whatever.
[Robin:] Yeah.
[Emile:] And he had like a chiro … like an acupuncture … but he had, like, a study and it was, like, filled with jars ….
[Robin:] Oh yeah?
[Emile:] This is like giving me flashbacks to Henry’s room.
[Robin:] Really?
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] There was probably lots of herbs?
[Emile:] Yeah. Tons of them. I don’t know. I don’t think he was, like, eating though. I think it was more medicinal.
[Robin:] Yeah. Medicinal.
So, this is the stinging nettle that we went to earlier. So, I dehydrate it and stuff it into a jar and this is when I make teas, or I just add this into my rice, my … my soups and such. It’s a … it’s a strong smell, huh? And then, this is actually … this is actually a car killed deer, or what people call roadkill.
[Emile:] Whoa!
[Robin:] Yep. This is my last jar.
[Emile:] And you just cook it and then put it in the jar.
[Robin:] You actually just pack the raw meat into the jar.
[Emile:] Oh.
[Robin:] Put that into a pressure canner. And the pressure canner superheats it, and then when you take it out, it’s vacuum sealed, and then this can store for years.
[Emile:] Wow. Cool.
[Robin:] Yep. So, car killed deer. Smelt. That’s the fish. This is plum sauce.
[Emile:] You ever have Umeboshi plums? Have you ever had those? They’re like pickled plums.
[Robin:] No. Oh really? Pickled?
[Emile:] Pickled, yeah.
[Robin:] Oh, I’d like to do that. So, this is maple syrup. That’s just all maple sugar around the edges.
[Emile:] Wow.
[Robin:] That’s from red maples from my hometown up in northern Wisconsin that I harvested in April. Give it a try if you’d like.
[Emile:] Get it out. That’s pretty good.
[Robin:] Yeah. Take a little more.
[Emile:] Yeah. After the uh … the bay laurel ….
[Robin:] Yeah. Oh yeah. That’s nice.
[Emile:] Very tasty.
[Robin:] Take a swig if you want. [laughter]
This is salt from the ocean. So, I harvest my own sea salt.
[Emile] Wow.
[Robin:] Yep. Give that a try.
[Emile:] It’s definitely salt.
[Robin:] Umhmm. Oh yeah.
[Emile:] How do you harvest the sea salt?
[Robin:] I just go to the ocean with a five-gallon bucket, fill it up, take it home, boil it and you’re left with salt. Without the water.
[Emile:] How much salt?
[Robin:] One five-gallon bucket gives you two jars like this.
[Emile:] Wow. There’s a lot of salt in salt water.
[Robin:] Three-and-a-half percent, about.
[Emile:] Wow.
[Robin:] And for that, I wouldn’t go to, like, the Los Angeles beach. I go to the cleanest beaches.
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] This is from Portland, Maine and from the Florida Everglades. And. But, if I was in California, I’d go up to, like, northern California.
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] Or, you know, Oregon or Washington.
This is called Brazilian pepper. And, if you want to give that a smell.
[Emile:] Whew!
[Robin:] Here in California you have the California pepper which has the pink peppercorns.
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] Have you ever noticed that around?
[Emile:] I’m not sure.
[Robin:] It’s pretty common. Keep a watch for this now, and if you want to give this a try. It’s generally used for meats. For putting on meats. And commonly used in Brazil.
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] It’s a unique one, right?
[Emile:] Unhuh.
[Robin:] I didn’t like it at first. It took me a while.
[Emile:] It’s almost like, uh, there’s a eucalyptus vibe or something. Or maybe that’s the bay laurel.
[Robin:] Sounds like you’ve got a lot of flavors in your mouth.
[Emile:] Yecch. Who am I?
[Robin:] This is a caffeinated plant that grows in North America that you can forage in the wild. It’s called yaupon holly and it’s a close relative of yerba mate, which grows in Argentina.
[Emile:] Whew!
[Robin:] Does it have a smell to it?
[Emile:] I mean, not a bad one. Coffee-esque? No.
[Robin:] It’s like … have you had yerba mate?
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] Where you drink it out of the bombilla, the gourd?
[Emile:] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[Robin:] It’s basically like that or green tea. Here, put that in your pocket and make that. That’s probably like three servings.
[Emile:] Okay.
[Robin:] And just, um, just boil some water and then steep it for like five minutes in there. The longer the more strong it will be. Let me know what you think.
[Emile:] The caffeination.
[Robin:] Yes. Yaupon holly. So you roast it first. You do this. If you don’t roast it, it can make you puke. But once you’ve roasted it, you’re good.
[Emile:] So the stuff in my pocket is nice and roasted?
[Robin:] Yeah. I roasted it already. And then. So, there’s two things to try here. This is a unique one. This is chokecherry leather. This is … so, this is fruit leather. Which, this has the cherry pit and the fruit in it.
[Emile:] So, it’s cherries.
[Robin:] Yes, but particularly ….
[Emile:] Mashed up cherries.
[Robin:] Yes, but particularly chokecherry, which is a unique cherry. And the seeds have cyanide in them, but … [laughter]
[Emile:] I’ve got my wall of death.
[Robin:] Oh, I’ve got my … I have the death beans. Dang! I left the death beans at home. The Lakota people were one of the main people and are one of the main people who do this and what happens is when you smash up the seed with the fruit, the cyanide off gases and then you can eat the whole thing.
[Emile:] Wow.
[Robin:] So, toxic to just eat the seed, but by smashing it up, and dehydrating it, all the cyanide is gone.
[Emile:] It’s good.
[Robin:] Yeah. How would you describe that?
[Emile:] Cherry-esque.
[Robin:] Cherry-esque?
[Emile:] Cherry-esque with, like, a little neutral, like, I don’t know. It’s interesting. It’s a very interesting consistency actually. It’s like between beef jerky and chocolate and fruit and ….
[Robin:] Oh, you’re naming all tasty things right now.
[Emile:] You’re like, f —, that sounds good. [laughter]
[Robin:] Alright. You want to try the finale food?
[Emile:] Oh, yeah. What is that?
[Robin:] So, this is fermented wild garlic.
[Emile:] Oh yeah?
[Robin:] A feral … actually I think this is Allium vineale, if I recall. And so, it’s kind of like a garlic. Kind of like an onion. A little bit between the two of them. They turn blue naturally. I don’t know why they turn blue. You want this one?
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] And these have been fermenting for about three months in a hot car.
[Emile:] Wow.
[Robin:] Cheers.
[Emile:] Cheers.
[Robin:] Strong smell? What do you think?
[Emile:] Yeah, pretty strong. Can you just eat it like that? It’s like eating raw garlic. Right?
[Robin:] Yeah. I’m glad to hear that.
[Emile:] It’s like eating raw garlic. Right?
[Robin:] Yeah, I mean, more or less.
[Emile:] What do you mean? It’s not garlic?
[Robin:] It’s kind of garlic, kind of onion. It’s … to me, it’s like a garlic and an onion.
[Emile:] It’s got, like, an alien kind of quality. It’s cool. It’s, like … it’s almost like borderline sour.
[Robin:] Yeah. So, this is wild fermentation.
[Emile:] It’s strong.
[Robin:] So, this has got billions of bacteria and yeast in there. And this is ….
[Emile:] And you just drink the juice, too.
[Robin:] I drink the juice as well. And I do add that to my soups to give it a little bit of flavor.
[Emile:] Wow. So, you have, like, no body fat, right?
[Robin:] I was 8.7 percent when I last got checked.
[Emile:] That’s surprising.
[Robin:] Yeah, you would think that’s higher?
[Emile:] Lower.
[Robin:] You would think lower? Yeah, I have ….
[Emile:] Eating all this stuff? I mean, it’s good, but I feel like I would lose so much weight foraging.
[Robin:] Yeah.
[Emile:] Because I’d be, like, I’m eating what I need to survive, not because it tastes amazing.
[Robin:] Well, that’s where the fish comes in.
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] And the venison comes in. There’s fat on the venison as well. Umm. And, you know, the maple syrup. The sugar.
[Emile:] Yeah. You cut the fish out and that roadkill deer out, you are … you’re going to be one skinny mofo.
[Robin:] It’s not just plants. A lot of people talk about, like, doing it with just plants.
[Emile:] You just use plants, man, and you’re gonna … you’re gonna get thin.
[Robin:] Yeah. I don’t see how it would be doable.
[Emile:] It would be really hard, yeah.

Closing Conversations

[Robin:] So, into the wild, Griffith Park. How are you feeling?
[Emile:] I feel great.
[Robin:] Yeah?
[Emile:] It’s a … I’m happy to have come and got to do this little video with you. I think it’s pretty cool. And, you know, obviously, a lot of what you do is very Christopher McCandless-esque to me.
[Robin:] Yeah?
[Emile:] You know, I think that’s really cool and I’m happy there are people like you doing what you’re doing.
[Robin:] Yeah. A lot of people over the years have brought up Christopher McCandless to me, so I just thought this would be really fun to get to hang out and, you know, have a little “Into the Wild” moment.
[Emile:] Yeah. We met through my sister, Jenny, you know, and I remember, she was like, I’ve been going and hanging … going to Griffith Park and seeing this guy, Robin. And I was, like, what do you mean going to the park and seeing a guy? Like, what are you talking about? And then we all went and got to hear you speak and talk about what you were doing and it was really cool.
[Robin:] Yep.
[Emile:] So it’s nice to come back … back to the park.
[Robin:] Yep. Feeling a little, like, walking away from here you’ll be able to have a little bit more of a connection to the plants around here?
[Emile:] Without a doubt. Yeah. Yeah.
[Robin:] And a little bit of the … a little bit of the release of tension of how … how things went for your character?
[Emile:] Yeah. Yeah. It … it’s funny, you know, like, a lot of the fears that we have, you know, it’s not that they’re unfounded, you just don’t want to let them own your space.
[Robin:] Yeah.
[Emile:] So, the little things you can do to, like, move toward getting over it, is good.
[Robin:] Yeah. You want to … I mean, most people who are watching this have seen you before but don’t know about your music or your art. You want to let people know about that a little bit?
[Emile:] Yep. Well, the music is something that I had made years ago. If anyone wants to hear it, it’s on Spotify or wherever you listen to music. It’s out there. We just … we made it ourselves, and just self-released it. And I’ve been doing paintings now for a couple of years. And, um, I made a film in the fall that I wrote the script for and that I acted in. And that’s a rock climber movie. And we shot it in Montana and Oregon. It’s like one of … it’s, like, the most outdoorsy movie, basically since “Into the Wild.”
[Robin:] Okay.
[Emile:] Where, it’s just all the great outdoors. Tonally, it’s a little different. It’s more like a … like a comedy, in a way. I wanted it to have a different vibe in nature. I was, like, okay, if I’m going to go back into nature and do this crazy rock climbing a thousand feet up, I’m, like, I’m going to do it a little differently. And that’s called “In Tandem.”
[Robin:] Okay.
[Emile:] So, I’m real excited about that. And there’s kind of fun … there’s fun echoes of “Into the Wild” in it, but it’s its own thing.
[Robin:] Nice.
[Emile:] Yeah, we got some pretty … I won’t say who, but we got some pretty rockin’ rock climbers to be in it.
[Robin:] Okay. When’s it come out?
[Emile:] Hopefully, the end of the year, I think.
[Robin:] Okay. Nice. “In Tandem.”
[Emile:] Yeah.
[Robin:] Alright.
[Emile:] That was … that was another thing, too. Like, overcoming the fear of heights.
[Robin:] Oh, yeah.
[Emile:] The goal in rock climbing and, you know, get to set and the set’s a cliff, you know. And you have to climb up and, you know, most of the time we’re up, you know, thirty or forty feet, so that they can get all the shots that they need. But forty feet up, you know, is very different than being in the indoor gym. When you’re in the gym, you’re, like, I’m not going to fall. Or the hold is gonna … but when you’re on a cliff, part of you always wonders if a rock’s gonna just explode.
[Robin:] Yeah.
[Emile:] Sometimes they do, you know?
[Robin:] Yep.
[Emile:] Where you have, like, a bolt and it just whoosh!
[Robin:] Yeah.
[Emile:] Anyways.
[Robin:] Nice. Well, thank you for sharing.
[Emile:] Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for the invite.
[Robin:] Good to be out here, my friend.
[Emile:] Thanks, Robin.
[Robin:] Until next time.
[Emile:] Yeah. Until next time. Bye, you guys.
[Robin:] See you, Friends.
The common narrative about Christopher McCandless is that he died by misidentifying the wild sweet pea for the wild potato. But according to Sam Thayer, one of the world’s most foremost foragers, in the book “Nature’s Garden,” he died, actually, because he starved to death. The great news for all of you is there’s no need to starve to death with foraging. Foraging is safe and you just need to start with one plant at a time if you’re looking to begin.
So. Don’t worry about learning all the toxic plants, my Friend. One plant at a time. Build the knowledge, build the skills to break free from the grocery store and reconnect with the Earth, Dear Friends.