Hey everybody! Rob Greenfield here
and today I am going to teach you how to
forage in your own backyard.
Or if you don't have a backyard, your
neighbour's backyard. If they don't
have a backyard, somebody's backyard.
I'm going to introduce you to plants that
are growing freely and abundantly all
around us. A lot of us think that our
food has to come from the grocery store
and that we have to buy it.
But the truth is, there are thousands of
species of foods that are both nutritious
and delicious and medicinal and free!
Growing right in our yards, often that we
think of as weeds.
I'm going to start first with the
dandelion, one of my favourites.
Right over here. And a lot of
people are probably familiar with this
plant. This is the dandelion. This is
the flower, right here. And then these
are the leaves, right here.
And the flower turns into a seed head
afterwards and these are the seed heads
that have already gone but right here
are the seeds, still. (Blows the seeds.)
And it's a beautiful thing just to blow
those off. So, dandelion is a very bitter
(munches on the plant)
plant. It's very nutritious and it's a
medicinal one. I want to say that this
yard that I am in is basically a random yard.
I'm in southern France, I've never
foraged in France before, up until a few
weeks ago. And this is just a yard of
the host family that I am staying with.
So I don't know all the plants here.
This is new foraging to me, but I'm going
to introduce you to about 10 plants that
there is a good chance you will be able to
find in your yards as well.
So that's dandelions. Now I don't have to
go very far and what I have, right here,
coming up, this looks like sorrel to me.
Plants around the world can come in many
different shapes and sizes and colours.
For example, this looks like sorrel but
check this out, right here. This plant
also looks like sorrel to me. Oh wow,
check that out, there's this yellow
spider. That probably came off the
dandelion flower because it's camouflaged
right in with that colour.
Back to the plants. This is sorrel and
sorrel has a nice sour flavour and there
is another type of sorrel that I'm going
to show you in a bit. Let's walk a little
bit more and see what we come across.
Okay. This is...right here, one of my
absolute favourite plants.
It's very small right now.
In a month or 2 this
plant could be, possibly, 4 feet tall.
But right now it's a small plant and
this is called lamb's quarter.
Lamb's quarter is a relative to quinoa
and the leaves of lamb's quarter are
often described to have sort of a
nutty flavour. (Takes a bite)
I don't know if it's nutty
but it's got a different flavour and I like it.
Amazing thing is, you would look at
all of these green plants and you would
think they all taste the same but they definitely don't.
Lamb's quarter is a relative of quinoa
and you can also eat the seeds, as well,
as a nice grain. This is one of my
absolute favourites and it grows into big
shrubby-like greens that produce
incredible amounts of food.
You'll see where I am, I'm right next to
this family's garden. And what you'll see
is there's almost nothing growing in this
garden right now. But there is food
growing all over in the yard.
Tons of people have gardens and they're
pulling up the weeds, thinking that
they're a problem, but it turns out that
a lot of these weeds are more nutritious
than what they're trying to grow in the
garden. This is a perfect example.
It's spring, it's early April, the garden
doesn't have food yet, but there's food
growing all over in the yard.
Let's walk down here a little bit.
(Sound of crunching leaves under foot)
Now, this is a beautiful plant right here.
Most everyone is probably familiar with mint.
There are different types of mints
and how you can identify something
that is in the mint family is it has a
square stem. I'm going to pick a
piece and when I spin it in my fingers
you'll see it's not rolling as a round
tube, it's actually a square stem.
So there are lots of different mints out there.
I don't know exactly what kind of
mint this is but when it smells really
nice and minty you've got yourself a good
mint for making tea, for putting in your
lemonade, for just munching for a
natural breath mint. And mint is very
easy to plant. You can take a piece of
the stem...a woody piece, poke it into the
ground and you can propagate mint and
spread it all over that way.
So this is a really nice mint that's growing.
I see more of it over here.
I'm not sure what this plant is.
I'm very curious about it. Something
that I'd like to learn. Actually, this
plant right here...I was in the
Netherlands about 3 weeks ago and
someone told me that this plant is
called cleavers and they told me that
before it gets to the point of being ...
it sticks to you...they said before it
gets to that point it is edible.
And I don't know how to use it but,
again, I'm in a yard that I have never
foraged before arriving here 2 weeks ago.
I'm in a climate...in a region...I'm in
south France, I've never foraged here.
So, I've done a lot of foraging. I foraged
over 200 species of plants in my year of
growing and foraging all of my food, but
right now, this yard and this environment
that I am showing you, this is new to me.
This plant, right here, looks a lot like
a plant that I forage when I am in
Florida. And that would be...oh, now I am
blanking on the name, but I don't think
it's it. It's just something that looks
a lot like it and (pause) I want to say
bacopa but I'm not sure so we'll pass on that.
Okay, let's see. (Rustling sounds)
Okay! Here we have
a little more mint. Beautiful mint.
Right next to it we have yarrow.
Now yarrow is not so much of an edible.
It's a medicinal.
Yarrow has been used as
a styptic to stop bleeding.
So if people got a big cut
you could actually pack the
wound with this stuff and I've also heard
of it being used for horses as well in the field.
So this is a really wonderful
plant to know and I see it around the world.
So that's called yarrow.
(Rustling sounds)
Let's see. Right here we have...oh,
more of the cleaver...
So this is the leaves of
the raspberry bush. (Rustling sounds)
And it is thorny. It is sticking to me.
And raspberries are great.
Blackberries are great. Most
people know about those but a lot of
people don't know that the leaves are
really good to make a tea out of. So you
can make tea out of raspberry leaves.
And this woods line is covered in actual
raspberry bushes. So this is just a
little bit of the new growth from the spring.
So raspberry leaves.
Another dandelion head and...
(Blows the seeds)
you can also just have fun with the plants, too.
Nature provides not just food,
not just medicine, but also
entertainment, enjoyment and love.
Okay I want to show you one of my
absolute favourites and that is right here.
(Rustling sounds)
This is stinging nettle and the
easiest way to identify stinging nettle
is it stings. I am going to put my arm in
here. Oh ya, that is stinging me good!
There are these tiny little fibrous hairs
on here and they break off and it stings you.
So there are plants that kind of look
like this but if it stings you,
it's stinging nettle or wood nettle.
You can wear gloves or the sting actually
is beneficial for you because it's used to
help with diabetes to circulate blood
flow so I like to rub it on me.
Now you wouldn't eat this raw because
you can imagine the stings in the mouth
could be very painful, but you can make
nettle tea and you can also just boil
the greens and then eat the greens.
And, ya, I'm really feeling that.
So, this is a beautiful plant to use and,
again, a lot of people would cut this down
to get it out of their yards because they
think it's a problem but it's actually
super nutritious.
I'm going to walk over here where there
are some onions that I am going to show you.
(Rustling sound of leaves under foot)
So all along this there is food growing all over.
Okay here is another one.
I see a caterpillar right here. Whoops,
it fell off. Okay, so as I said, I'm
foraging in a new place and I don't
know the plants here. I don't have a
guide book. There's a lot of plants that
grow throughout the world. Now one of
my favourite plants, that I forage in
the United States, is broadleaf plantain.
Also called plantago and I haven't seen
it in this yard but just this morning
I looked at this plant here and I think
this is, indeed, a plantago. But I think
what this is is a narrowleaf. And the
reason why is because if you break this...
(rustling sounds)
when you break this...
oh, it's not doing it (laughs) I'm going
to find...okay, when I break this you can
see the veins actually separating there.
And that's, I think, a pretty telltale sign.
If this was broadleaf plantain I'd
know for sure. But this tells me that
this is probably a narrowleaf plantain
and this is a great medicinal and great
edible as well. I am seeing this all over here now.
Right next to this, all over the
ground, you can see these little caps.
And let's see if there...okay here is one
with the...this is acorn. And acorn is a
majorly overlooked food!
In fact, humanity may not exist without the acorn.
Many cultures, 50% of their
calories in food came from acorns.
There is a process in order to be able to
eat them but this is an overlooked food
and it's growing all over here.
(Rustling sounds) Let's see...
I mentioned this plant before that I said
looked like a plant in Florida and
I remembered it (laughs) and now I forgot
it again...gotu kola!
So, I don't think this is gotu kola
but this is a plant that
I foraged in Florida and it's one of the
most bitter plants that there are but it's brain food.
Another one is dollar weed
which looks similar to this but just
round and these grow in moister
environments which, interestingly, you can
see down here they're growing down here
where water would flow rather than up
there in the driest part, so they could be
related but, not sure.
Again, this video is not an
identification. The idea of this
is just to spark your brain. I mean, just
in the last 10 minutes how many different
plants have I found that are edible and
medicinal just walking around this yard
that I am unfamiliar with? This is really
just about sparking your mind and
realizing that your yard could be a great
source of nutrition and medicine.
There are a couple more plants I want to
show you, then we are just about done.
(Rustling sounds)
This is a beautiful plant. I think maybe
they would call this buttercup.
Mmmm...smells wonderful.
You don't have to pick all the
plants, either, to get a wonderful
benefit from them. You can just smell
them, too. So many beautiful flowers.
(Rustling sounds)
Okay here is something that I know is a
mint because of the square stem.
I'm going to smell it. Not a minty smell.
I'm not sure what that is but this is
worth looking into. And you can see a
lot more dandelion here. Dandelion is
one of my top recommendations.
(Rustling sounds)
Right over here I found a different plant.
I mentioned sorrel before,
well this is called wood sorrel and this
has got a really nice tangy, lemony flavor.
Looks like clover. A lot of
people think it is clover but it's not.
It grows...you know, this is one piece right here.
So this is wood sorrel.
There's some dog hair on it. Perfect
place to eat food that might have been
peed on by dogs, so just avoid that
if you don't want that. Simple as that.
Use common sense. You got to start thinking.
I am going to be putting out
more foraging videos that will go into
those sort's of things and help you with that.
Okay, one last plant and we are
actually going to step outside the yard for this one,
into the little field next door.
(Rustling grass under foot)
And this is wild onions or leeks or garlic.
They are all in the allium family
and I found them to be
abundant in a lot of places.
I just found these the other day.
I was actually out here to take a pee and
I looked down and I was peeing on some onions.
Oh! I want to mention this plant right here.
In the mint family, I believe.
Not sure what it is, but it is an
interesting one that I want to learn.
And I want to show you some more
onions over here.
(Rustling sounds)
So... here! (Rustling sounds)
More onion right here and here and here.
So I think if you've ever mowed
your lawn and all of a sudden
you smell onions it's because you are
mowing onions. Same for mint.
Sometimes you might mow your lawn and
you smell mint it's because you are mowing mint.
Now, I think this might be leeks.
There are leeks and there are ramps and
there are wild onion, there's wild garlic
and there's a whole lot of different varieties
and I don't know them all.
(Crunches on the plant) But they all
work great as onions.
Hmm, what's this right here?
Okay so this would be
clover I believe. And clover is edible
and this grows all over the place. You can
eat the flower and the leaves.
So, that's just a little introduction to
foods that can be growing freely and
abundantly right in your back yard.
If you have a back yard learn the foods
that are in it. If you don't have a back
yard talk to your friends and share
learning with your friends and when
you do this you will find that food is
growing freely and abundantly all
around you. I'll have a lot more videos
coming on foraging to teach you some of
the more basics of how to forage.
So if you got a lot out of this video
please share it.
Please like it and if you have questions
post them in the comments and if you
haven't, make sure you subscribe as well.
I love you all very much and I'll see you
again real soon.
Happy foraging.
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