Sitting with lime in late summer

The practice:

  • the film lasts 5 minutes
  • for the best experience, listen with headphones
  • find a comfortable place to sit
  • make sure to watch in full screen
  • stop. breathe. relax
  • be aware
  • pay attention
  • listen and observe
  • start the film
  • when the film has finished, please leave a comment below

How to make a mineral-rich spring tonic using wild plants

Discover how to craft a revitalising spring detox tonic from wild plants, harnessing dandelion, cleavers, and stinging nettle‘s potent properties.

This short video guides you through the process, highlighting each plant’s benefits and precautions, creating a natural elixir for rejuvenation and balance during the season of renewal.

How To Use

I put 1-2 tablespoons into a regular sized glass of water and drink it, but I like sour drinks, some folks don’t.

You can always sweeten it with something evil like sugar (shriek). I love jaggery, if you have not tried it.

You can also put it in juice, or add it to salad dressings etc. Have a think about other ways you could use it. But for me, it’s in the glass and down the hatch. Simple.

How Long Do You Use It?

I drink it daily, usually in the morning when I wake up. I drink it until I run out or I just lose the desire. Drink until you feel you want to stop. Pay attention to your body’s signals. Your body is deeply wise. Listen to it.

More Info If You Missed My Email

As the gentle warmth of spring awakens the earth, a lush green tapestry adorns the landscape, offering a bounty of wild plants to invigorate and cleanse our bodies.

Among these, Taraxacum officinale (Dandelion), Galium aparine (Cleavers), and Urtica dioica (Stinging Nettle) stand out as powerful allies to create a nourishing spring detox tonic, brimming with potential benefits.

Dandelion, a humble yet mighty plant, has a rich history of usage as a diuretic in traditional folk medicine and modern phytotherapy across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

One study confirmed its efficacy, revealing a diuretic effect in human subjects over a day when using a high-quality fresh leaf hydroethanolic extract.

When using the whole plant from root to tip, this remarkable plant also boasts choleretic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and hepatoprotective properties.

Cleavers (Goosegrass), with its distinctive, clingy nature, is another essential component of our spring tonic.

Traditionally known for its diuretic properties, this versatile plant has been employed as a potent tonic to cleanse and revitalise the body.

Stinging Nettle, though feared for its sting, offers potent diuretic properties, making it a valuable addition to our spring cleanse.

These three plants create a synergistic elixir to rejuvenate and detoxify our systems.

While their potential benefits are enticing, they may also present side effects and interactions with medications, so seek the guidance of a medical herbalist or healthcare professional if any of the following apply to you.

Dandelion, for instance, may interact with diuretic medications and those broken down by the liver.

Stinging Nettle, too, may interact with blood thinners and medications for high blood pressure.

As such, seek the guidance of a medical herbalist or healthcare professional before embarking on this detox journey.

In the spirit of reconnecting with our ancestral roots and embracing nature’s wisdom, this spring tonic offers a chance to cleanse our bodies and refresh our souls.

As the plants reach for the sky, let us, too, go within ourselves to find renewal and balance, cherishing the intricate bond between humans and the natural world.

Juliette of the herbs: the life of herbalist Juliette de Baracli Levy

“Juliette of the Herbs” is a captivating and inspiring documentary film that explores the life and work of the late Juliette de Bairacli Levy, a British herbalist, author, and holistic veterinarian.

Directed by Tish Streeten and released in 1998, the film delves into the fascinating world of herbal medicine and its holistic benefits, taking viewers on a journey through the enchanting landscapes of England, France, Spain, and Greece.

The film opens by introducing Juliette de Bairacli Levy, born in 1912 to a wealthy British family, who was disenchanted with traditional Western medicine.

Juliette set out on a lifelong quest to learn and preserve the ancient wisdom of natural healing from various cultures around the world. She lived among the Gypsies, Romani people, and Bedouins, immersing herself in their customs, languages, and healing practices.

Throughout the documentary, viewers learn about Juliette’s unique perspective on life, which focused on the interconnectedness of all living things, and the importance of living in harmony with nature.

She believed that a healthy lifestyle involved maintaining a balance between the mind, body, and spirit, with an emphasis on proper nutrition, exercise, and the use of natural remedies.

Her deep reverence for the plant world and her passion for holistic healing shaped her influential approach to veterinary medicine, which she documented in her groundbreaking books, including “The Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable.”

“Juliette of the Herbs” showcases the protagonist’s invaluable contributions to the field of herbal medicine and natural healing, as well as her pioneering efforts in holistic animal care.

The film presents testimonials from those whose lives have been positively impacted by Juliette’s teachings, demonstrating her lasting influence on the world of alternative medicine.

The documentary weaves in beautiful cinematography of the natural landscapes that shaped Juliette’s journey, from the picturesque English countryside to the rugged, wild terrain of Greece.

The film effectively portrays the intrinsic relationship between humanity and nature, urging viewers to respect and cherish the earth’s healing power.

In addition to chronicling her life’s work, “Juliette of the Herbs” also delves into the personal aspects of Juliette’s life, including her deep spiritual connection to animals and her unwavering commitment to living in accordance with nature’s laws.

It provides a heartfelt and enlightening tribute to a truly remarkable woman whose life’s work transcended cultural and generational boundaries.

“Juliette of the Herbs” is a visually stunning and deeply inspiring film that invites viewers to reflect upon their own relationship with nature and the power of herbal medicine.

It offers a timely reminder of the importance of preserving and honouring the ancient wisdom that has been passed down through generations, and stands as a testament to the extraordinary life and legacy of Juliette de Bairacli Levy.

How to make plantain oil for stings and bites

Before watching, please pause, breathe and relax.

This is a short, quiet film where I show you how to make plantain oil. Which I find deeply soothing for insect bites and stings. It is also great for inflamed skin rashes.

Did this video work for you?

I have tried to create a calm, slow vibe with no commentary, so you can experience a little peace out of the usual hustle and bustle of daily life.

Please leave your comments (either positive or negative) in the form below. Thanks.

And kindly share it with your people if you think it is worth it. The share buttons are below.

Ingredients

  • 5 grams of dried plantain leaf (Ribwort or Greater)
  • 200 ml of extra virgin olive oil
  • glass bottle

Update After Reading The Comments

  • Always dry the leaves as fresh ones have too much water and can make the oil rancid and at worst infected with botulism. See my botulism alert on this page.
  • I air-dry the leaves using a herbal drying rack. You can also place the leaves on newspaper and let them dry that way.
  • The oil lasts for about a year. I always make very small batches.

Maundy thursday soup

Robin Harford takes you on a forage looking for nine wild greens to include in this Maundy Thursday soup. A contemporary take on a traditional Spring time soup.

This recipe does not have any seasoning other than the a bit of salt and the flavours that naturally occur in the wild herbs.

It tastes extraordinary so try and resist the temptation to add extra seasoning.

Ingredients

Instructions

Heat the oil add the onion and potato and saute for a couple of minutes. Add stock and simmer for 10 minutes, then add the chopped wild herbs and greens. A couple of handfuls of each plant should be enough for two people. Make sure to chop the herbs finely. Simmer for 20 minutes and ad salt to season.

The forager’s toolkit: essential equipment and tools you need for wildcrafting

Having the correct equipment and tools can be of great help when foraging or wildcrafting plants for food and medicine.

Note: Commissions may be earned from the links below.

Here is the list of the books:

Here is the list of tools and equipment:

Transcription of The Forager’s Toolkit

Today I’m going to take you through a beginner’s foraging toolkit, or a basic foraging toolkit. So gathering, what do we put our pickings into? I really like linen bags. They’re really easy. I fold them up. I can carry one with me all the time.

Linen, because I don’t particularly want my plants to sweat that much. Now, if I’m gathering medicines, then linen’s really important. I don’t want to be putting them into plastic bags. You can go foraging with a plastic bag, you know, a supermarket brand bag, if you really have to. However, plastic’s not very cool. This isn’t about Instagram showing off. This is about gathering our food. So linen first.

Berries – having just said that plastics a taboo – clip top buckets or tubs are really useful. Not essential. I’m trying to get away from plastic as much as possible.

Baskets – This is an old basket. This is enough for me to fill up and get a load of elderflowers, which I’ve been gathering this week. And I will show you at the end of the video, how I go about drying them. If you’re wanting to dry plants. If you are gathering something like elderflowers or flowers that have pollen on you’ll note, this has holes in, right?

So before you go gathering, you’ll need to line it with newspaper because you want that pollen. It also allows the plant and the flowers to breathe, which is important. Do not put them in plastic bags. Honestly, the quality will just deteriorate really quick. They’ll start sweating. The flowers will start sweating and you’ll end up with a less than perfect product

Secateurs – these are essential. You just gather and snip. These are Fiscars. I love these. I like tools. I used to be a cabinet maker. So tools and quality tools are important to me can get away with any old pair of old secateurs, but I like quality kit. Say you want to gather some Willow bark. Okay. You snip off the branches. These will slice through pretty thick branches.

Leaves – use your hands. If you have to use scissors, I haven’t got scissors cause I don’t use scissors. Even nettles. I don’t use scissors, either use a pair of gloves if I’m not feeling up to it or I use my hands.

I don’t really like wearing gloves because it removes me from the gathering process. It’s more a sensory thing. I want to be able to feel the plant in my hand. And one of the reasons I do that is that sometimes say with garlic mustard, you get the young stems coming through and they’re very flexible and you can only really feel which bit is flexible before it starts getting woody further down by bare hands. And I was sensory primal beings and gloves kind of remove us one stage from that. So only really, if you have to.

Roots – Bearing in mind, you need landowner’s permission to dig up roots in Britain.

It’s really important. You commit a criminal offence, otherwise. It looks like a knife. It’s not a knife, it’s a Japanese digging tool and it has measurements on here as well. So I use it a lot. It’s really, really stable. I can chop a root. It’s called a Japanese hor hori. I call it a Japanese digging tool. Japanese tools, Japanese saws, Japanese chisels are world-class quality,

Eyeglass – what a lot of people call an eyeglass, a jewellers glass. It’s actually called a Loupe. I use 10 X magnification. Okay. And the way that you work with the loop, often people will be looking at a loop like this. Thinking it’s a magnifying glass and it’s not a magnifying glass. Okay. Obviously it is a magnifying glass, but not in that traditional Sherlock Holmes, magnifying glass. And so you bring the eyeglass, your eye and you bring the plant towards you. Okay. Until you can see all the really fine detail, they’re really important. If you’re going to ID fans. So, how do you do that?

You get a copy of Francis Rosie’s wildflower key. It will rot your brain initially until your brain clicks and you get what’s going on. It’s very self-explanatory. Take your time. It’s really important to stop. Just trying to ID with photographs.

The problem with photographs is they don’t take you into the really fine detail. That’s important often to discern one species from another species, but I get photographs. I produce photo a photo guide, but it’s one book in your reference library to understand plants. And it’s about slowing down. It’s about taking one plan and getting to know it really well.

So, this is good to having your carrier bag in your backpack. This is a kind of hybrid. This is a mini key without really being a property. That’s a wildflower key. That’s what we call we key out plans. So this is a kind of one that I often recommend to beginners because it does have pictures in it. Yeah, it’s, it’s wild flower key, and it’s pretty good.

It’s pretty good. But you need a whole selection of books. And then Stacy, who’s got the big wild flag. It’s like a break there’s 5,000 species listed. So, you know, how do you narrow down? You find a plant it’s in flower and you want to know what it is? Well, Botany in a day and essential, absolute essential book.

Frank Cook, my plant mentor brought this book to Britain. It’s why people in Britain know about it, even if they don’t know Frank cookies and it’s not a wildflower key, it basically is the pattern method of plant identification. A herbal field guide to plant families of North America. It says, but it’s also for Northern Europe and very relevant for Britain.

So don’t let that put you off and essential book. You find a flower, you’ve got all these species of plants, best ways to know what family it’s in. Once you know what family it’s in. You can go just to the section in the books on that family and start trying to identify it. Must must, must get it for a little book on plant families, which is just absolutely delightful and not many people know about this.

It’s by faith Anstey and she’s the last up in Scotland. I think she does really beautiful books on encouraging you in a non botanical kind of. Academia kind of level, but basic, you know, plant people who are passionate and want to go a bit deeper. This is a beautiful little, um, you’ll find it somewhere online.

If you go to eight weeks.co.uk forward slash toolkit, I will, um, have listed where you can get it. Brilliant little book. Next, you go through this or you go through this and you are going to have to learn a vocabulary. So. I am hypervisual right. So if someone describes something pretty much, um, in a non visual way, which so much of botany Hays, I don’t get it.

I really don’t get it. I was crap at school and teachers used to throw me out because I just asked questions why all the time, um, which didn’t really help. So I’ve had to self-learn auto didactic. So when it comes to botanical vocabulary, I have hunted high and low for a book. That speaks to my cognitive way of learning because we all learn differently.

Some people are hyper visual. Some people can go through a wildflower Cade, and they’ll just get it. The rest of us have to look up what the words say in the book. Look them up in this. This is my go to vocabulary. Forget all the others. If you are a visual learner, Look at that everything is laid out. They describe it to you really well, not in this convoluted language, but they also have blooming drawings that show you what bit you’re meant to be looking at.

This is a godsend. Get it, if you just want a little guy to, well, what’s the food or the medicine once you’ve identified the plastic food or the medicine of that particular plant historically, then this person, Oh, that’s me. I’ve written this book, edible and medicinal wild plants of Britain and Ireland.

And. It’s a quick overview of 48 plants around Britain. He’s just starting out. Trust me 48. That’s way more than you eat. Normally, most people when they farmed plants, they between 20 to 30 species of plants. A knife. We need knives, cutting a STEM, a stoke, cutting a leaf off. We need a knife, but there are legal considerations.

When we carry these little beauties around with us. When I was a kid, you carry a pocket knife around, not a problem. Nowadays, everyone thinks you’re about to murder people. Um, so what’s the legal status. It has to be folding and it can’t have a lock. So those lovely open drives, they have a lock on them.

That’s illegal. All right. The other thing is, is the length of the blade. The length of the blade cannot be more than three inches. All right. That is a three inch blade. Perfectly legal providing it’s folding. And this is a rock solid pen knife. I used to love pen knives as a kid. Um, I don’t like those Swiss army knives.

This has got a lovely feel to it. And, um, I can’t remember who, who made it about the link will be eight weeks.co.uk forward slash toolkit. Right? Get yourself a knife, a tool. Again, these are tools. They’re not weapons. All right. They are tools. And they is an essential bit of the forages toolkit. If you need to peel bark, need to pillar and skins while you’re out foraging, just in case you want to kind of munch on something that is completely not for miss land.

What else? I show you a reader. When you look in one of these books or you look in one of these books, it’s going to tell you to measure bits of the plant. So these are essential. These are really cool. They’re metal. They go down micro, micro millimeters. So you can get really precise, even have a conversion chart on it.

If you’re old school and doing deal in inches, when I’ve gathered Herb’s I need to dry them. So you can put them on newspaper or muslin, but this is a drying rack. And when I’ve got them, I will lay them out. You know, decent, not all bunched up. And this is the quality that comes out in a normally when people dry all the flour, what happens is it goes really Brown and horrible.

This has retained its golden yellow color. This is multi-tiered. So that’s quite hard. And how long that is? That’s most, yeah, that’s six inches high. So we’re not bunching them up. We’re just laying. One lab. Okay. One layer, one layer, one that leaves blossoms, blooms, flowers, um, dry, anything in this and I’ll have it in a garage.

I don’t have a car, so there’s no horrible smells. And it’s called it’s very hot and or warm. So it’s a great drawing. This, these are the flowers dry within two days. Just thought I’d show you that you don’t need it. It’s just piece of kit that I have. That’s it. Thank you for listening.

How to prepare edible alexanders flower stems

A short video explaining how to use the flower stems as food. Few people use the flower stems, but it is most probably the tastiest and mildest part to eat.

Further Reading

  • Alexanders – A Foraging Guide to Its Food, Medicine and Other Uses

Acorns in an era of climate change

In this video, Marcie Mayer takes your around her oak farm in Greece and shows you behind-the-scenes how acorns are being used as food.

Acorns are a gluten-free, high nutrient food source we need to pay attention to, especially in an era of climate change.

As food security becomes more and more fragile, they could be part of the solution to feeding the country.

If stored correctly (which Marcie talks about in the video), they can be preserved for decades.

As she says: “That food security doesn’t exist in any other material”. Other nuts simply go rancid.


Recently I interviewed Marcie for my podcast. She reveals all about how to gather, store, process and use acorns in your home. Click here.


Oak – Its Food, Medicine and Other Uses

You’ll learn the parts used as food and medicine, recipes, harvest time, nutrition and other ways humans use this amazing plantclick here to find out more.

Acorns: a forgotten superfood

The use of acorns go back into the mists of time.

An ancient food that unfortunately these days is sorely neglected.

Marcie Mayer is an extraordinary acorn pioneer and has devoted her life to harvesting, processing and researching acorns.

As a superfood, acorns meet many of our food challenges in the 21st century. However, even though oak trees are abundant in so many countries, acorns have been forgotten and have even been mislabelled toxic.

In this talk, Marcie demystifies the role of acorns by highlighting their nutritional, dietary and health value in our lives.

She believes that harvesting acorns benefit our environment, our economy and our health.


Recently I interviewed Marcie for my podcast. She reveals all about how to gather, store, process and use acorns in your home. Click here.


Oak – Its Food, Medicine and Other Uses

You’ll learn the parts used as food and medicine, recipes, harvest time, nutrition and other ways humans use this amazing plantclick here to find out more.

Dulse seaweed as food and medicine

  • In the past Dulse (Palmaria palmata) was rolled and dried pulse was chewed like tobacco.
  • Traditionally dulse was harvested after it had been washed three times in the May floods.
  • In folk medicine, dulse was used to treat parasitical infections, relieve constipation and treat scurvy.
  • In the 12th century, dulse was eaten by monks and by Vikings. Icelandic Sagas tell us that dulse, or sol, has been eaten by humans since 961 AD.
  • Nutritionally, dulse is packed with more protein than chicken or almonds, and a small amount of dulse can provide more than 100% of the daily allowance of vitamin B6.
  • In modern herbals, dulse is indicated for skin problems, headaches and sore throats.

Traditional use of hottentot fig

  • Carpobrotus edulis has a good, balanced nutritional profile.
  • The succulent leaves are a strong antioxidant.
  • They can be pickled but can be astringent if harvested incorrectly.
  • The juice is antiseptic.
  • Hottentot fig has been shown to have anti-neuronflammatory properties, and may add to the improvement of cognitive functions.
  • The fruit has a sourish taste.
  • Eaten raw, preserved, dried and as a jam.
  • It also makes an extraordinary syrup.
  • In South Africa, where it is native, the dried fruits are sold in markets as food.
  • Fruits are best when they feel like they are going over.

Yarrow as a traditional herbal remedy

  • Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) grows everywhere, in the grass, in meadows, pastures, and by the roadside.
  • The whole plant, stems, leaves and flowers, collected in the wild state, in August, when in flower.
  • It is diaphoretic, astringent, tonic, stimulant and a mild aromatic.
  • Yarrow tea is a good remedy for severe colds, useful at the beginning of fevers.
  • Linnaeus recommended the bruised herb, fresh, as an excellent vulnerary and styptic.
  • It is also used as a cure of rheumatism, and the fresh leaves chewed are said to cure a toothache.

From drug addiction to wild wellbeing

How I got into plants, or how I came back to plants, really, was that I had a digital publishing company up until 2004. I was working seven days a week, 15-hour days.

I didn’t see my daughter grow up. I didn’t see the seasons. And I basically broke down It was hardcore.

It was kickboxing every single day in those early years of the internet. I realised that I had just spent the previous five years in a screen. Basically in a box.

So I had enough money in the bank to leave all that behind. Because it was not good for me.

I had become a drunk and a drug addict. So I had to sort myself out.

I would take the dog down the hedge. I lived in the countryside then. I live in Exeter now. And I just started seeing this green wall and finding these plants.

I pulled them out and then I’d get all these books out of the library and I’d start identifying them. I’d start researching them and looking into their history.

Eighty percent of the plants I was identifying were or had been used as medicinal plants.

I’d always been interested in holistic health as we used to call it back then. And for me food was always kind of the focus. I love my food. I love travelling. I love experiencing cultures through their food systems.

So I started focusing on what was actually edible in the hedgerow and discovered a whole world I didn’t realise I already new. Because I grew up in the countryside, I went to school in the countryside. My great aunts would take me on to Dartmoor in the summer and we’d go foraging. But we didn’t use that word.

Foraging is a word that we use to describe ancient cultures, but it’s a currently modern word. We say “I’m going foraging today”.

We were just country folk, country kids doing country ways.

We’d go out and get sweet chestnuts. We’d have a crafty cigarette at school and cover the stink of tobacco on our breath with wild garlic.

We’d just eat stuff that we knew. But it wasn’t anything special. There was no big deal about it. There was nothing buzzy about it.

When I came back to plants in 2004, all these memories started coming back in quite extreme ways. I remember when I was a boy at 12 years old I had a book.

That book had taught me how to see if there was a badger set still live or how to creep up on deer (not to kill them), but to just observe them. Wind direction etc.

And I remember this line drawing came to mind. It was really, really vivid. It kind of haunted me for about two weeks.

So one day I was walking down in Sidmouth, Devon (where I lived). And I passed a charity shop that I had never been into.

I stopped and walked in and my brain, my rational brain was thinking clothes, but I ended up in front of the bookshelf.

I reached out and I pulled out the first book. I opened that book, and I kid you not. It was exactly the same book, a different edition and it opened on exactly the same page of stalking deer to observe them. The same image that had been haunting my mind for two weeks prior to that.

So spooky stuff like that was starting to happen as my path to well being progressed. And it progressed in alignment with the deeper I was meeting plants.

Initially I was meeting plants from a very rational perspective. I was a rational atheist at that time. And then slowly, things started happening. I started having sensory experiences with plants.

My happiness and my well being went up. My depression would go down and I felt very, very contented.

It got to a point where I just wanted to be absorbed by the earth, by plants. That sounds really hippie, but it was just there.

I was in absolute ecstasy and awe that something as simple as walking down a country lane. Picking and crushing and smelling a plant could have such a profound effect on my well being and happiness.

I never ever intended to be a teacher of plants. I still don’t regard myself as a teacher. I’m just a guide. I know a little bit about plants.

In fact the more I know, the less I know. And one day I met a guy named Frank Cook who many people in the plant communities in America and now over here have heard of.

I filmed him for three hours and at the end he just said, “You need to be teaching plants.”

I went, “No Frank, that’s not the game plan. Robin’s game plan is… I’m doing this as a total break from work that had burned me out, and nearly killed me.”

He said, “No, I think you need to be teaching plants. Just start small. It doesn’t have to be big. Just start teaching people locally.”

So I did and the response was great. People seem to love the way that I tell the stories of plants. Which predominantly comes from my own experience, my own relationship with the individual plants, and also from my research.

As an ethnobotanical researcher I study people, plants and human culture. Plants as food, plants as medicine and plants as utilitarian uses.

Plants are the foundation of human existence. That is why we are here. We could not be here without plants.

Then slowly over time what happened was that even though when I came back to plants I was a rational atheist. Prior to that I’d actually been very interested in spiritual practises.

Particularly contemplative practises. To the point that in my mid-twenties I’d started training to be a priest in a very contemplative tradition.

We studied all the old middle age mystics. The Rhineland mystics, people like Meister Eckhart and Hildegard of Bingen. All these kinds of people always had a place in my heart.

I’m not a Christian and I’m not a pagan. I don’t do shamanism or magic. It’s not my world.

There’s a wheel with many spokes on it. My spoke is the contemplative tradition. Which is an emptying out.

It’s an emptying out and waiting to see what one is filled with.

When I go to meet a plant, even one that I don’t know its name, which is actually even better. Because then it’s a bit more zen mind, beginner’s mind. There’s no preconceptions, there’s no projections going on.

I will sit and I will do some practises and just empty myself out and see what comes to mind.

I’m very interested in plant/human relationships and how the messages, the information, the knowing arises within us.

Frank would always talk about these “other ways of knowing about the world”.

To me the natural world talks to us through our imagination.

Look at the Velcro. Mr. Velcro got inspired by Burdock. It’s these simple ways. That if we get out of our own way as humans, and allow the greater and non-human world to fill us, that solutions to the problems of the world come forth.

In the same way the ancient Taoists before Confucius would sit, would contemplate. They would do certain practises to get themselves into a centred, still and empty place.

Then through observation. Awareness practises. They would observe patterns and forms within the natural world that they could then incorporate back into the human world. They created a civilisation as a result that eclipsed anything the people of these Isles were doing.

We were running around in bearskins when the Chinese had a culture that was extraordinary.

The simple act of meeting plant in an empty sense. Of emptying myself out, means I’m filled. Deeply filled and deeply nourished.

Food goes well beyond just putting it in your mouth.

How to safely eat sea arrowgrass

What we are looking at here is a plant called Sea Arrowgrass (Triglochin maritima).

It’s common names are coriander grass or wild coriander, because it actually tastes just like coriander.

The bits that we are looking for are the very young flower shoots coming through with the flower buds.

The bits that we are looking for are the very young flower shoots coming through with the flower buds.

Then as we go to the base what we have are the very long leaves. But the bits we need to be eating are the pale bits down at the base of the plant.

As soon as we start moving up the plant into the dark green parts of the leaves the plant starts developing hydrocyanic acid which basically means its cyanide which interferes with the oxygen uptake in your body.

So when someone has cyanide poisoning you need to keep them hyperventilated and on oxygen. That’s how you counteract the cyanide poisoning.

Don’t let that scare you off!

It’s the pale white/green ends of the Sea Arrowgrass leaves that we find at the base going into the earth that are edible. About 2 inches in length.

When you crush those base tips, they smell distinctly of coriander. Once the leaves become dark green, that’s where the hydrocyanic acid starts developing.

You can also eat the seeds of Sea Arrowgrass. Traditionally the Native Americans would either dry or roast them, then grind them into a flour.

The whole seeds are delicious and taste like coriander pops bursting in your mouth.

Sea Arrowgrass is an absolutely extraordinary plant!

How to make a delicious pine oil

Important Update

Some folk are little concerned about possibly getting food poisoning from this recipe. The advice is to keep plants in oil no longer than three weeks and in the refrigerator. This is somewhat open to debate, and there have only been 33 recorded cases of food-borne botulism in England and Wales since 1989. Read Clostridium botulinum & Vegetables in Oil.

Down here in Devon this weekend, the weather was sunny and balmy.

So I took the opportunity to get out and about to shoot a short video for you.

Now, just a few points first, because I also need your help.

This video is only 2 minutes, 30(ish) seconds long.

It’s about Pine.

I’m not “front of camera”, meaning you don’t get to look at me. I made the decision a long time ago, to always make the plants the focus, and myself secondary. OK sometimes my ego gets the better of me and my face does occasionally slip into the videos I make.

You do, however, get to see my hands. Gasp!

This is an “action” video.

Not as in a Hollywood blockbuster sense, but that the information in the video means you can do what I suggest this week! You see, I love technology as much as I love nature. But there’s a big downside to it.

Often folk just watch other people doing things, and think by some weird osmosis that they have actually done it themselves.

I don’t want my videos to turn into “plant porn” or “food porn”…

I want them to inspire you to get outside and start physically engaging with Plants.

That’s the fine line between teaching via technology, and teaching live, in-person.

So that all being said, would you mind taking 2.5 minutes out of your life to watch the Pine video above?

And then (and this bit is REALLY important)…

… leave your thoughts about the video in the comments section at the bottom this page.

I want you to be brutally honest. Tell me what you like, and what’s missing. What else would you have liked me to cover?

If it’s good, say so.

If it’s crap, I want to know.

It will really help me, fine-tune any future videos I create for you… Thanks in advance.

Is It hemlock or cow parsley

Hemlock or Cow Parsley? Think you know? Watch this video and take some time to see if you can tell the difference. In this video I reveal the answer, along with numerous photos to illustrate the plants.

But first I want to make a few things very clear to you, and also about my own way of teaching the edible weeds that surround us…

Firstly, for me foraging is not about being afraid of the nature or the plant kingdom but it is about being respectful. That being said the old forager adage of “When In Doubt, Leave It Out” is not just some pretty statement… it is a fundamental rule, and will save you from coming to harm, and maybe even death!

Many people fear the wild, yet it is not the wild that is at fault, but ourselves!

Plant identification using the internet or books, can be a very rocky path. We live in an information culture, and as a result, and because we all have egos often information is spread around that is incorrect.

Unfortunately sometimes people just want to prove how clever they are, and in their rush to “be right”, often can trip up and take you down the rabbit whole of false information.

Using the internet for plant identification is only JUST THE START of the journey. When you think you have identified a plant yourself or someone has identified one for you in some online group or forum. Do not take it at first hand! Go and get a wild flower identification book, and head on out into nature, and go find the plant.

Botany can only take us so far. For pattern identification (which is your first port of call) and is what wild flower ID books are, it is invaluable, but then other identification factors come into play that are as equally important and quite simply cannot be learnt from books or the internet.

Because we have been foragers for tens of thousands of years, way before Linneaus came up with his classification system or botany or science or even foraging as a word was invented, we had other ways of knowing the world. Those ways are how indigenous cultures got to know plants.

But one of the key ways these cultures learnt plants was orally from the older members of the ‘band’ or ‘tribe’. In our culture that would have been by being an apprentice to someone who knew their subject deeply, and could guide the newcomer.

The ancient romans and greeks said there are three ways to learn a subject. The first way is by personal experience; but it is the most dangerous way, especially when learning plants!

The second way; and the best way, the middle way, was to have a guide or mentor to teach you. And the third way; and the poorest way, was via books and information…

Our modern culture gives high praise to the information way, and as is pretty self evident, we moved from an industrial culture, to an information culture only very recently.

So when it comes to learning plants, there is no better way than to learn directly from someone else.

Learning plants via books and the internet can only take you so far, then you have to get off your screens, and step out into the natural world… it’s not as scary as you think.

Because the video above covers hemlock and cow parsley both members of the Apeacea family formerly know as the Umbelliferae family or the Carrot/Celery family… I want to make something VERY clear…

…This is NOT a plant family for beginners, and it is best left alone until you have gained more experience. But that will come with time as you slowly progress along your own plant journey.

Also plants vary in how they appear not only in the different locations around the country, but also in the illustrated and photo wild flower books… this is why getting your head around a proper Wild Flower Key, rather than photo or illustration books is the better way. One flower key that is highly recommended is by Francis Rose, simply called The Wild Flower Key.

The problem with botanical ID is that it gives us only a piece of the puzzle when learning a plant. One of the quickest and most effective ways to differentiate between hemlock and cow parsley is by smell.

Smell is vital, and I personally believe that every single plant has a unique smell. This belief does not come from some hippy-trippy woowoo understanding of the world, but from my experience travelling overseas and meeting indigenous plantwalkers.

In our modern, techno-civilisation we often exist in our heads, cutting ourselves off from our senses. And as I say on all my foraging courses, in order to be an effective forager or plantwalker you need to “Get Out of Your Head & Come To Your Senses”.

The easiest way to do this is to Pick, Crush & Sniff a plant every day. Doing so wakes up our senses, and is known as Organoleptic Learning… using all our senses, not just our eyes. It is a very powerful way to learn plants.

But Organoleptic Learning or as I call it Sensory Attention has other far deeper outcomes, something I won’t go into in this video, there’s just not enough time.

The purpose of doing this video was to show people just how easy it is to NOT know a plant, simply by using the eyes, and that to fully meet a plant, we must spend time with that plant in its habitat and in context as to where it grows and the relationship that it has with the rest of creation.

I hope you start moving away from gaining plant knowledge via your head, and start spending more and more time outside meeting plants, sitting with plants, and observing them through their growth cycle and the various seasons.

It’s an empowering and enlivening journey walking the Green Path, as my beloved plant mentor Frank Cook called it… but you have to do it. You have to get off the touchline of life, get off your screens and out of the computer and enter the wild… I hope you enjoy the video.

On sea kale root

A short video of Robin Harford on the delights & virtues of sea kale (Crambe maritimaroot.

Wild food foraging & the idler lifestyle

Tom Hodgkinson is editor of The Idler and best selling author of How to Be Idle & How to Be Free. Last weekend I managed to grab him for a quick interview to talk about the idler lifestyle and the benefits of wild food foraging. Watch the video or if you like to read, then you’ll find the transcript below…

Tom: Before I met you Robin, I had only really foraged for elderflowers, blackberries and elderberries, and the odd mushroom. Most of which we got from the woefully incomplete Hugh Fernley Whittingstall’s River Cottage Cookbook. Which is good to sort of get you going, but is lacking in some accuracy and detail.

But even in my foraging early years, which was the day before yesterday, it is pretty obvious that Nature is doing a lot of the work for you. Oh and something else we have around here is whortleberries which are like a little bilberry, and they grow on the windy coast of Exmoor near where we live.

It’s just a question of making a countryside walk into something productive, and using what Nature has already done for you.

I know as a now hard working vegetable gardener actually what a lot work it is to grow the vegetables that you want, at the time that you want and in the place that you want. And the results are fantastic, but clearly from a strictly Idler point of view, the much more sensible thing would be to go foraging for what is already there under your nose. And it is quite amazing to me that the elderflowers and the blackberries are completely free and the process of harvesting them is so healing and enjoyable in itself.

Robin: As a novice forager how confident do you feel to actually engage the countryside from a foraging perspective? Do you feel safe doing that? Do you feel that it’s just one of those things that’s too complicated to ever get your head around, or do you think it’s something that could really be incorporated into your lifestyle?

Tom: Yes it can definitely be incorporated into my lifestyle without any doubt.

Clearly like any other area ‘husbandry’ (I suppose) you could study the subject for years and years. But we’ve already made a start. I mean I didn’t realise that we had chickweed and fat hen growing here. I’d heard them mentioned in other books but I had never bothered to try and identify them. And I’d actually be quite nervous to identify them just from the book. I wouldn’t be quite certain if it was the right thing. It’s not always easy to tell from a book. Perhaps you need to check three books to be completely sure.

But obviously the best way of learning something is by your own direct experience and someone teaching you and showing you. So I’m just thinking about how to remember in future, because if you don’t do something quite regularly then you tend to start to forget it.

We knew that we had the camomile thing, the pineapple mayweed outside, but I didn’t really know that you could eat it and put it into salads. We didn’t know, as I said, that we have this huge amount of chickweed and fat hen growing everywhere. We knew that dandelion leaves could be used in salads a bit, but I have always found them a bit bitter. There’s actually much more delicious stuff out there. And we’re surrounded by food. So it’s really exciting for that reason, for the useful reason that it’s free food.

It’s rather like when we first went to catch rabbits with our ferrets, and sent them down the rabbit holes. I was actually engaging with the landscape in a way that I hadn’t done before, when we just walked through it and over it. And you’re sort of separated from it because you look at it as a photograph ie. a view, ie. you’re looking at something that’s out there, rather than being in it.

And so when we went out with the ferrets I suddenly felt much more deeply connected to the landscape in a way that’s quite hard to describe. And that was the experience of going out today with you Robin, you suddenly feel connected to it. You actually sort of feel your eyes are open and you’re looking at it for the first time, actually seeing what’s there, seeing what’s actually under your nose. Which is actually an extremely difficult thing to do because you’re not generally encouraged to do that.

Robin: The kind of common perception of a lot of wild foods is that they’re just survival food, they’re kind of last resort. From the flavours that you’ve tasted over the last two days, would you say that’s true, that it’s just ‘grunt food’?

Tom: I remember I was coming down on the train back home from London one day, and I was reading Richard Mabey’s Food For Free. And I bumped into a friend on the train who also lives down here, and he looked through it and said ‘that it was a pretty meagre meal’. I mean it’s not going to be your entire meal is it? You’re going to have it in risotto, and it’s going be a salad. I haven’t seen big thick, juicy things out there, really. So it’s an addition, but the point is I think, is it feels like a medicine more than the food that you can get in the shops, and probably more than the food that I’m cultivating as well. Because it’s really sort of meant to be where it is it’s grown up naturally, so it’s in exactly the right place at the right time. I can see that the range of flavours is massive. The chickweed and fat hen were much tastier than I thought, and so was the pineapple thing.

Robin: And what about the estuary greens that I brought up?

Tom: They were absolutely fantastic! I mean really, really good. Rather like when we made our own jam from the sloes and blackberries in the hedgerow and the hips and the haws. Just one taste of it and you can feel the energy sort of filling you. So just like the cultivated plant, those things have been sitting there soaking up the sun, and the rain all year round, and that energy is now being given to you in the form of a plant. Yeah, it was delicious guys.

 

Frank Cook on nettle

Frank Cook (internationally renowned edible wild plant expert) discusses the importance of Nettle (Urtica dioica) as food and medicine.

frank-cook-nettle
Photo credit: Sassafras Krause

Frank gives us a fascinating insight into the many uses of Nettles, and the why it needs to become the national food of England.

The nutritional profile of this fantastic plant is impressive…

Further reading: Traditional and Modern Use of Stinging Nettle

Nettle Nutritional Profile
(calculated on a zero moisture basis per 100gm)

Aluminium: 13.8 mg
Ash (total): 8.4%
Calcium: 2900 mg
Calories: 0.60 /gm
Chromium: 0.39 mg
Cobalt: 1.32 mg
Crude Fibre: 11.0%
Dietary Fibre: 43.0%
Fat: 2.3%
Iron: 4.2 mg
Magnesium: 860 mg
Manganese: 0.78 mg
Niacin: 5.20 mg
Phosphorous: 447 mg
Potassium: 1750 mg
Protein: 25.2%
Riboflavin: 0.43 mg
Selenium: 0.22 mg
Silicon: 1.03 mg
Sodium: 4.90 mg
Thiamine: 0.54 mg
Tin: 2.7 mg
Vitamin A: 15,700 IU
Vitamin C: 83.0 mg
Zinc: 0.47 mg

Source: Nutritional Herbology: Mark Pedersen

Frank Cook on dock

Home > Plants > Dock


In the UK the two common species that you are likely to have come across are, Broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius), and Curled dock (Rumex crispus), which in the US is called Yellow dock.

According to Frank Cook it’s famous for its ascorbic acid content and was used in the past to treat scurvy. Useful also combined as a herbal tea mix.

Dock is edible all year round. However as Frank points out, we are all individuals (bio-individuality) and as a result what is flavoursome to one person may not be to another. It all depends on how much you have integrated wild foods into your own diet.

Personally I have found that my sense of smell and taste have radically changed since I started consuming wild foods. So remember to take it nice and slow, and play with the abundance of wild foods that you find locally.


In this 2 part video series Frank Cook discusses the many uses of edible docks as wild food and herbal medicine.


Video No. 1


Video No. 2

Frank Cook on the pine family

In this short video Frank Cook (global wild food expert) discusses the many uses of the Pine Family both as a wild food, and medicinally.

Did you know that worldwide there are more than 200 species of the Pine Family, and many of them have edible pine needles, and nuts (seeds).

Frank reveals that Pine needles are a rich source of Vitamin C., and explains why it is unnecessary to buy Vitamin C. supplements.

He goes on to show you why Pine is such an incredible source of food. For instance did you know that Pine pollen is extremely high in protein? Did you know that Pine helps build and maintain testosterone in the body?

Watch and learn from this master of the plant world.