1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,951
I've been exploring food for about a

2
00:00:02,951 --> 00:00:06,304
decade, since 2011, when I woke up to

3
00:00:06,304 --> 00:00:08,291
the globalized, industrialized food system

4
00:00:08,291 --> 00:00:10,083
and realized it was basically causing

5
00:00:10,083 --> 00:00:12,128
destruction to everything that I loved.

6
00:00:12,128 --> 00:00:14,016
To people, to the planet, to other

7
00:00:14,016 --> 00:00:18,483
species. The thing was I realized it was

8
00:00:18,483 --> 00:00:20,660
not just the globalized, industrialized

9
00:00:20,660 --> 00:00:22,829
food system, but I was a part of that.

10
00:00:22,829 --> 00:00:25,037
Everything that I was eating was being

11
00:00:25,037 --> 00:00:28,152
shipped long distances across the world.

12
00:00:28,152 --> 00:00:31,118
It was in packages, in plastic that was

13
00:00:31,118 --> 00:00:32,595
leaving trash behind for future

14
00:00:32,595 --> 00:00:34,488
generations. It was sprayed with

15
00:00:34,488 --> 00:00:36,742
pesticides. it was animals raised in

16
00:00:36,742 --> 00:00:38,258
horrible conditions. I realized I was a

17
00:00:38,258 --> 00:00:41,838
part of all of that. That was back in

18
00:00:41,838 --> 00:00:44,705
2011. I decided I was going to change

19
00:00:44,705 --> 00:00:47,104
my life to eat in a way that didn't

20
00:00:47,104 --> 00:00:49,779
consume the planet, but actually helped

21
00:00:49,779 --> 00:00:54,760
the planet. I had a big question from the

22
00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:56,222
from the very beginning, but it was a far

23
00:00:56,222 --> 00:01:00,299
off question. "Would it be possible to

24
00:01:00,299 --> 00:01:03,197
actually step away from this globalized,

25
00:01:03,197 --> 00:01:05,453
industrialized food system?" "Would it be

26
00:01:05,453 --> 00:01:08,562
possible to step away from big ag and

27
00:01:08,562 --> 00:01:11,390
actually produce all of my own food?"

28
00:01:11,390 --> 00:01:14,613
"Could I grow and forage one-hundred

29
00:01:14,613 --> 00:01:16,163
percent of my food?" That has been a

30
00:01:16,163 --> 00:01:19,440
question for about eight years now. About

31
00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:21,827
two years ago I decided I was actually

32
00:01:21,827 --> 00:01:23,930
going to find the answer to that question

33
00:01:23,930 --> 00:01:25,504
not just by looking at the internet,

34
00:01:25,504 --> 00:01:27,533
which I did and I could not find anyone

35
00:01:27,533 --> 00:01:29,369
doing it . I decided I was going to find

36
00:01:29,369 --> 00:01:31,572
the answer by doing it and seeing if it

37
00:01:31,572 --> 00:01:35,234
was possible. Could I grow and forage

38
00:01:35,234 --> 00:01:37,378
everything that I eat for an entire year?

39
00:01:37,378 --> 00:01:39,873
Nothing packaged or processed, nothing

40
00:01:39,873 --> 00:01:43,090
shipped long distances, no pesticides,

41
00:01:43,090 --> 00:01:44,870
literally knowing every ingredient that I

42
00:01:44,870 --> 00:01:47,386
put in my body, including the medicine as

43
00:01:47,386 --> 00:01:50,518
well (my food being my medicine).That is

44
00:01:50,518 --> 00:01:53,454
why I ended up in Orlando Florida.That is

45
00:01:53,454 --> 00:01:55,744
why I'm here today. I'm standing here

46
00:01:55,744 --> 00:01:58,340
because I finished the year two days ago.

47
00:01:58,340 --> 00:02:01,798
Today is the second day after growing and

48
00:02:01,798 --> 00:02:05,588
foraging one-hundred percent of my food.

49
00:02:05,588 --> 00:02:09,550
(crowd claps and cheers)

50
00:02:09,550 --> 00:02:12,096
Proof that it is indeed possible!

51
00:02:12,096 --> 00:02:15,008
I am the one standing here tonight, but I

52
00:02:15,008 --> 00:02:17,022
am only proof that the community can do

53
00:02:17,022 --> 00:02:18,688
this. There is no way that I could have

54
00:02:18,688 --> 00:02:20,390
done this without the people in this

55
00:02:20,390 --> 00:02:23,146
room. Orlando Permaculture being a big

56
00:02:23,146 --> 00:02:25,417
big part of it. Hundreds of people! It

57
00:02:25,417 --> 00:02:27,305
took hundreds of people to feed me, not

58
00:02:27,305 --> 00:02:30,336
by bringing my food to me, or farming it

59
00:02:30,336 --> 00:02:32,514
for me, but through the knowledge, the

60
00:02:32,514 --> 00:02:35,751
education, the spending time with people,

61
00:02:35,751 --> 00:02:38,177
getting plants from people. The only

62
00:02:38,177 --> 00:02:40,099
reason I was able to do this is because

63
00:02:40,099 --> 00:02:45,643
of the community. Why Orlando? Why did I

64
00:02:45,643 --> 00:02:48,629
choose to live in Orlando? I was passing

65
00:02:48,629 --> 00:02:52,291
through here for the first time in 2016.

66
00:02:52,291 --> 00:02:54,804
I was invited to speak connected with

67
00:02:54,804 --> 00:02:59,642
Orlando Permaculture and Fleet Farming.

68
00:02:59,642 --> 00:03:01,968
My partner at the time, Cheryl and I just

69
00:03:01,968 --> 00:03:05,246
felt welcomed here. We had been travelling

70
00:03:05,246 --> 00:03:08,151
all over. We had not felt more welcome

71
00:03:08,151 --> 00:03:10,997
than right here. We were telling people

72
00:03:10,997 --> 00:03:12,818
that we were looking for a spot to

73
00:03:12,818 --> 00:03:14,555
possibly settle down and I had this

74
00:03:14,555 --> 00:03:17,109
project in mind. People said "Yeah, come

75
00:03:17,109 --> 00:03:22,869
here!" We felt very welcomed, but also the

76
00:03:22,869 --> 00:03:24,470
thing that I liked about Orlando is there

77
00:03:24,470 --> 00:03:28,234
is a community, but there's a blossoming

78
00:03:28,234 --> 00:03:30,474
community. I wanted to be in a place where

79
00:03:30,474 --> 00:03:34,739
I could affect positive change. That did

80
00:03:34,739 --> 00:03:37,140
not mean, for me, being in Berkeley

81
00:03:37,140 --> 00:03:38,811
California where there's already a lot

82
00:03:38,811 --> 00:03:41,719
of change makers. I could make a

83
00:03:41,719 --> 00:03:43,523
difference, but there is already a lot

84
00:03:43,523 --> 00:03:46,668
going on, but not rural Alabama where

85
00:03:46,668 --> 00:03:48,588
people would not really listen to me.

86
00:03:48,588 --> 00:03:51,323
Central Florida and Orlando is this great

87
00:03:51,323 --> 00:03:54,027
great middle ground right now where there

88
00:03:54,027 --> 00:03:55,515
are a lot of people (as you can see in

89
00:03:55,515 --> 00:03:57,469
this room) that really care about this.

90
00:03:57,469 --> 00:04:00,070
We all know where we are. We are in

91
00:04:00,070 --> 00:04:03,701
Orlando, one extremely consumer-istic

92
00:04:03,701 --> 00:04:06,607
city. That was one of the reasons that I

93
00:04:06,607 --> 00:04:08,079
chose Orlando.I felt it was the right

94
00:04:08,079 --> 00:04:10,066
place to make a difference. The other

95
00:04:10,066 --> 00:04:12,694
part was the year-round growing season.

96
00:04:12,694 --> 00:04:14,577
I thought that if I have a chance to do

97
00:04:14,577 --> 00:04:16,814
this Orlando is a really good place to

98
00:04:16,814 --> 00:04:19,489
give it my first shot. The reason why I

99
00:04:19,489 --> 00:04:22,677
wanted to do it in one of the easier

100
00:04:22,677 --> 00:04:25,921
places is because going into this, I had

101
00:04:25,921 --> 00:04:29,902
next to no actual growing experience.

102
00:04:29,902 --> 00:04:33,513
When I moved to Orlando, before this I had

103
00:04:33,513 --> 00:04:35,609
only had a couple of small raised beds

104
00:04:35,609 --> 00:04:39,249
back in San Diego.I grew a little bit of

105
00:04:39,249 --> 00:04:43,216
greens, some herbs and some tomatoes. I

106
00:04:43,216 --> 00:04:45,075
looked back at that and all the mistakes

107
00:04:45,075 --> 00:04:47,395
I was making were just crazy. There was

108
00:04:47,395 --> 00:04:48,879
a tomato hornworm and I thought that it

109
00:04:48,879 --> 00:04:51,500
that it was so cute. I loved it. I let it

110
00:04:51,500 --> 00:04:55,599
eat my tomatoes, my tomato plant. Tonight

111
00:04:55,599 --> 00:04:58,306
I was going through my old photos to find

112
00:04:58,306 --> 00:05:03,000
photos to show you.This is the small,

113
00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:05,022
little greenhouse that I made when I first

114
00:05:05,022 --> 00:05:07,614
got here. I look back and I know how

115
00:05:07,614 --> 00:05:10,924
little I knew then, because there's no

116
00:05:10,924 --> 00:05:14,362
sunlight hitting this greenhouse. This is

117
00:05:14,362 --> 00:05:17,495
is under a balcony. There's no way those

118
00:05:17,495 --> 00:05:20,548
plants would grow. When I moved here I

119
00:05:20,548 --> 00:05:23,417
did not know how much water to put on

120
00:05:23,417 --> 00:05:27,853
seeds, I did not know how much sunlight a

121
00:05:27,853 --> 00:05:30,285
garden needed. I was just figuring out all

122
00:05:30,285 --> 00:05:33,283
of the most basic things. I was trying to

123
00:05:33,283 --> 00:05:39,174
do it quickly.My plan was to have six

124
00:05:39,174 --> 00:05:41,990
months of getting here before I started

125
00:05:41,990 --> 00:05:44,468
my year of growing and foraging all of my

126
00:05:44,468 --> 00:05:46,763
of my food. I had another big problem,

127
00:05:46,763 --> 00:05:48,760
and that was that I did not own any land.

128
00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:51,894
I arrived here not only not knowing how

129
00:05:51,894 --> 00:05:55,663
to grow food, but also not owning any

130
00:05:55,663 --> 00:05:58,433
land, and also not having a lot of

131
00:05:58,433 --> 00:06:01,076
experience in the state of Florida. I had

132
00:06:01,076 --> 00:06:03,397
I had been coming here since I was

133
00:06:03,397 --> 00:06:05,774
sixteen, fishing and things like that,

134
00:06:05,774 --> 00:06:07,403
but never had paid attention to the

135
00:06:07,403 --> 00:06:09,534
plants. I certainly had never grown any

136
00:06:09,534 --> 00:06:11,829
any food here. I was new to growing, I

137
00:06:11,829 --> 00:06:14,778
was especially new to Florida and I

138
00:06:14,778 --> 00:06:16,845
I arrived here with just backpack.

139
00:06:16,845 --> 00:06:19,555
Everything I owned fit into a backpack

140
00:06:19,555 --> 00:06:21,924
and I had a few connections. I met Sarah

141
00:06:21,924 --> 00:06:23,932
right here at this church at a Fleet

142
00:06:23,932 --> 00:06:27,014
Farming dinner when I passed through.

143
00:06:27,014 --> 00:06:29,501
When I got here she was one of the first

144
00:06:29,501 --> 00:06:30,692
people that I talked to. I said "Hey

145
00:06:30,692 --> 00:06:33,040
Sarah, what do you think about me staying

146
00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:34,546
in your guest bedroom and turning your

147
00:06:34,546 --> 00:06:37,172
your yard into a garden in exchange?"

148
00:06:37,172 --> 00:06:39,757
That is what I did, This is Sarah's front

149
00:06:39,757 --> 00:06:43,371
yard two years ago. As you can see,

150
00:06:43,371 --> 00:06:45,207
Sarah's yard was grass but she had a

151
00:06:45,207 --> 00:06:47,424
dream. That dream was to turn it into an

152
00:06:47,424 --> 00:06:49,755
abundant garden.This picture was taken

153
00:06:49,755 --> 00:06:53,067
about a month ago.Today I actually had a

154
00:06:53,067 --> 00:06:56,119
really beautiful experience, I was

155
00:06:56,119 --> 00:06:59,090
standing right about where you see me

156
00:06:59,090 --> 00:07:03,179
now. I realized I was way higher up than

157
00:07:03,179 --> 00:07:06,118
the land around me. You can see where I

158
00:07:06,118 --> 00:07:07,716
am, and you can see the sidewalk. You can

159
00:07:07,716 --> 00:07:09,558
see there's quite a bit of height there.

160
00:07:09,558 --> 00:07:15,881
I dug down to see what was below me.

161
00:07:15,881 --> 00:07:19,782
What it started with was sand. Most of

162
00:07:19,782 --> 00:07:22,319
you live around here.You know that we are

163
00:07:22,319 --> 00:07:26,043
basically a former beach, a former ocean

164
00:07:26,043 --> 00:07:29,942
under the water.Starting with sand I had

165
00:07:29,942 --> 00:07:32,824
to turn that into a garden. Two years

166
00:07:32,824 --> 00:07:35,435
later, I started to dig down, today. It

167
00:07:35,435 --> 00:07:39,187
was nothing but black loamy soil for

168
00:07:39,187 --> 00:07:41,541
about six to eight inches. The reason I

169
00:07:41,541 --> 00:07:43,346
was standing that high is because that is

170
00:07:43,346 --> 00:07:45,771
all fertility that was created over the

171
00:07:45,771 --> 00:07:49,953
last two years. I'm going to show you how

172
00:07:49,953 --> 00:07:52,246
I managed to turn front yards into

173
00:07:52,246 --> 00:07:54,988
gardens as one of the things today. As

174
00:07:54,988 --> 00:07:58,303
far as preparation, the idea was that I

175
00:07:58,303 --> 00:08:00,521
was going to give myself six months to

176
00:08:00,521 --> 00:08:04,108
prepare before I was going to launch into

177
00:08:04,108 --> 00:08:07,089
into growing and foraging all of my food.

178
00:08:07,089 --> 00:08:09,246
The reason I was so quick about it was

179
00:08:09,246 --> 00:08:11,439
because I've been a travelling person for

180
00:08:11,439 --> 00:08:15,476
really the last, kind of forever. At

181
00:08:15,476 --> 00:08:19,742
least since 2011, I have never stayed in

182
00:08:19,742 --> 00:08:22,998
one place where I could really grow food.

183
00:08:22,998 --> 00:08:24,636
That was one of the reasons I didn't

184
00:08:24,636 --> 00:08:26,248
know the answer to that question: "Could

185
00:08:26,248 --> 00:08:28,397
I grow and forage all my food?" When I

186
00:08:28,397 --> 00:08:29,990
lived in San Diego I traveled six months

187
00:08:29,990 --> 00:08:32,152
months of the year. Before that I was

188
00:08:32,152 --> 00:08:35,676
consistently traveling. I did not think I

189
00:08:35,676 --> 00:08:37,761
I would want to stay here for too long.

190
00:08:37,761 --> 00:08:40,089
That is why I gave myself six months to

191
00:08:40,089 --> 00:08:42,953
prepare, then a year living here. That

192
00:08:42,953 --> 00:08:44,475
would be eighteen months staying put,

193
00:08:44,475 --> 00:08:45,648
which would be the longest that I had

194
00:08:45,648 --> 00:08:48,777
stayed put since I became unable to stay

195
00:08:48,777 --> 00:08:52,140
put, I suppose. I gave myself six months.

196
00:08:52,140 --> 00:08:55,598
I started trying to figure things out.

197
00:08:55,598 --> 00:08:57,653
I connected with local resources. One of

198
00:08:57,653 --> 00:08:59,703
the first places I came was here to

199
00:08:59,703 --> 00:09:02,215
Orlando Permaculture. I started to buy

200
00:09:02,215 --> 00:09:04,034
local seeds. I searched out local seed

201
00:09:04,034 --> 00:09:06,711
companies. I search out local nurseries.

202
00:09:06,711 --> 00:09:08,527
I went to classes like "Foraging with

203
00:09:08,527 --> 00:09:11,514
Green Dean" and Andy Firk. I went to the

204
00:09:11,514 --> 00:09:15,176
local earth skills gathering and any

205
00:09:15,176 --> 00:09:17,662
opportunity I had. I found local books.

206
00:09:17,662 --> 00:09:20,695
I found websites like Eat the Weeds and

207
00:09:20,695 --> 00:09:24,523
Survival Gardener. I tried to soak in as

208
00:09:24,523 --> 00:09:26,069
much knowledge as I could. It was

209
00:09:26,069 --> 00:09:28,196
basically my full-time job to try to

210
00:09:28,196 --> 00:09:30,504
figure out how to grow and forage all of

211
00:09:30,504 --> 00:09:33,072
my food. These are some of the beginning

212
00:09:33,072 --> 00:09:35,984
plants, getting some trays and starting

213
00:09:35,984 --> 00:09:38,468
to plant seeds. I accumulated everything

214
00:09:38,468 --> 00:09:40,484
one little bit at a time. Some of the

215
00:09:40,484 --> 00:09:42,897
seeds were brought from companies in

216
00:09:42,897 --> 00:09:44,754
other in other parts of the United States

217
00:09:44,754 --> 00:09:46,872
like Baker's Creek Seed Company, for

218
00:09:46,872 --> 00:09:48,769
for example. Most of it was local. Some

219
00:09:48,769 --> 00:09:52,390
of it was Palmer's dumpster, for example,

220
00:09:52,390 --> 00:09:54,195
down the street from here. That is where

221
00:09:54,195 --> 00:09:55,771
I got my sweet potato slips to start of

222
00:09:55,771 --> 00:10:00,018
with The six months turned into a little

223
00:10:00,018 --> 00:10:02,606
bit longer. It ended up ten months before

224
00:10:02,606 --> 00:10:05,204
I actually decided to get started. "Grow

225
00:10:05,204 --> 00:10:10,865
Food Not Lawns," that's probably a saying

226
00:10:10,865 --> 00:10:13,416
that all of you have heard before, but

227
00:10:13,416 --> 00:10:16,934
that was really my core to being able to

228
00:10:16,934 --> 00:10:19,425
do this here. Being in the city of

229
00:10:19,425 --> 00:10:23,124
Orlando poses challenges compared to

230
00:10:23,124 --> 00:10:26,122
being on say, a farm, having that small

231
00:10:26,122 --> 00:10:28,693
space. What I did was I met people in the

232
00:10:28,693 --> 00:10:31,120
community and just like I did with Sarah,

233
00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:37,124
I put six plots through out this

234
00:10:37,124 --> 00:10:38,771
neighborhood, the Audubon Park

235
00:10:38,771 --> 00:10:41,393
neighborhood where I grew my food. I had

236
00:10:41,393 --> 00:10:45,199
that spread out in different areas. This

237
00:10:45,199 --> 00:10:48,351
was the first garden.This is probably a

238
00:10:48,351 --> 00:10:51,101
month into the project. I can see I was a

239
00:10:51,101 --> 00:10:53,666
a little fatter before this year started.

240
00:10:53,666 --> 00:10:58,150
I lost a little bit of weight. The idea of

241
00:10:58,150 --> 00:11:00,721
"growing food not lawns," I like to keep

242
00:11:00,721 --> 00:11:03,312
things pretty simple. I am going share a

243
00:11:03,312 --> 00:11:05,663
little bit about how to turn your yard

244
00:11:05,663 --> 00:11:09,247
into a garden. For that there are six

245
00:11:09,247 --> 00:11:15,192
basic ingredients: cardboard, mulch, soil

246
00:11:15,192 --> 00:11:21,437
or compost, water, sun, and plants, the

247
00:11:21,437 --> 00:11:24,388
basics to turning a yard into a garden.

248
00:11:24,388 --> 00:11:27,286
First, you lay down cardboard. You can

249
00:11:27,286 --> 00:11:29,940
get cardboard for free from dumpsters,

250
00:11:29,940 --> 00:11:32,540
grocery stores, restaurants, and liquor

251
00:11:32,540 --> 00:11:34,854
stores If you go to appliance shops that

252
00:11:34,854 --> 00:11:36,292
sell things like refrigerators your job

253
00:11:36,292 --> 00:11:37,958
Twill be a lot easier because they have

254
00:11:37,958 --> 00:11:40,577
huge pieces of cardboard. Take all the

255
00:11:40,577 --> 00:11:43,076
tape off. Take the staples off and lay

256
00:11:43,076 --> 00:11:45,763
that down. The idea of that is to kill

257
00:11:45,763 --> 00:11:48,008
the grass. Every plant needs to

258
00:11:48,008 --> 00:11:50,436
photosynthesize and if it has no sun, it

259
00:11:50,436 --> 00:11:52,543
it can't create energy and it will die

260
00:11:52,543 --> 00:11:55,238
over time. That cardboard would not stay

261
00:11:55,238 --> 00:11:57,221
not stay put on its own. It is just the

262
00:11:57,221 --> 00:11:58,732
first ingredient. Over that you lay

263
00:11:58,732 --> 00:12:02,864
mulch. You lay about one foot of mulch.

264
00:12:02,864 --> 00:12:06,249
You can see the mulch here. One of the

265
00:12:06,249 --> 00:12:08,578
big focuses of this is "How can we

266
00:12:08,578 --> 00:12:11,208
utilize resources that would otherwise

267
00:12:11,208 --> 00:12:13,124
be completely wasted and do things in a

268
00:12:13,124 --> 00:12:17,522
very inexpensive way?". Mulch is actually

269
00:12:17,522 --> 00:12:19,354
the waste product of tree trimming and

270
00:12:19,354 --> 00:12:23,277
tree cutting down companies. A lot of the

271
00:12:23,277 --> 00:12:24,453
of the time, they actually take that to

272
00:12:24,453 --> 00:12:25,659
the landfill. It is something they have

273
00:12:25,659 --> 00:12:28,260
to deal with. Instead, you can get them

274
00:12:28,260 --> 00:12:31,038
to dump it into your yard. You can do

275
00:12:31,038 --> 00:12:34,335
that through websites like getchipdrop.com.

276
00:12:34,335 --> 00:12:36,978
I will have all of the resources listed

277
00:12:36,978 --> 00:12:38,892
at the end. If you see one of those

278
00:12:38,892 --> 00:12:40,926
companies, you can just walk up to them

279
00:12:40,926 --> 00:12:42,147
in your neighborhood and say, "Hey, do

280
00:12:42,147 --> 00:12:45,090
you want to dump that right on my front

281
00:12:45,090 --> 00:12:47,983
yard?" Cardboard, mulch, the reason that

282
00:12:47,983 --> 00:12:50,857
you have mulch are many. One, it

283
00:12:50,857 --> 00:12:52,461
suppresses the grass to turn your yard

284
00:12:52,461 --> 00:12:55,393
into a garden. Mulch holds in moisture.

285
00:12:55,393 --> 00:12:59,406
Your lawn, if there is nothing there,

286
00:12:59,406 --> 00:13:01,990
when it rains most of it runs right off

287
00:13:01,990 --> 00:13:03,846
into the street. You loose that

288
00:13:03,846 --> 00:13:06,805
opportunity Mulch holds that in. The

289
00:13:06,805 --> 00:13:08,218
other thing mulch does is it breaks down

290
00:13:08,218 --> 00:13:12,266
over time into soil. It also creates an

291
00:13:12,266 --> 00:13:15,097
environment where microorganisms and

292
00:13:15,097 --> 00:13:17,689
fungi, which are very important to

293
00:13:17,689 --> 00:13:21,051
plants. It prevents erosion and holds in

294
00:13:21,051 --> 00:13:23,331
nutrients. It has many, many functions.

295
00:13:23,331 --> 00:13:27,922
The third ingredient is compost, or soil.

296
00:13:27,922 --> 00:13:29,046
If you are living in a place like

297
00:13:29,046 --> 00:13:31,325
Wisconsin, where I am from, there is a

298
00:13:31,325 --> 00:13:33,487
lot of very rich soil and that might not

299
00:13:33,487 --> 00:13:35,712
be needed. If you have a sandy yard, you

300
00:13:35,712 --> 00:13:39,441
need to bring in some nutrients. I got

301
00:13:39,441 --> 00:13:40,841
mushroom compost, which is a resource

302
00:13:40,841 --> 00:13:43,340
that we are blessed to have in Central

303
00:13:43,340 --> 00:13:45,539
Florida. It is a waste product of the

304
00:13:45,539 --> 00:13:48,639
mushrooms that many of us buy at the

305
00:13:48,639 --> 00:13:51,504
grocery stores. Mushroom compost was my

306
00:13:51,504 --> 00:13:55,209
growing medium. Then sun, that is freely

307
00:13:55,209 --> 00:13:56,937
available to us. There is not much we

308
00:13:56,937 --> 00:13:59,278
have to do there. Water. Also something

309
00:13:59,278 --> 00:14:01,073
that can be freely available to us from

310
00:14:01,073 --> 00:14:03,076
the sky. We live in a place where we get

311
00:14:03,076 --> 00:14:06,046
get a good amount of water year-round.

312
00:14:06,046 --> 00:14:07,901
Even our dry time of the year, we still

313
00:14:07,901 --> 00:14:09,804
get about three inches of rain per year.

314
00:14:09,804 --> 00:14:11,407
If you are doing rain water harvesting,

315
00:14:11,407 --> 00:14:14,043
you can capture a whole lot of that. The

316
00:14:14,043 --> 00:14:16,816
other ingredients would be plants. You

317
00:14:16,816 --> 00:14:20,961
can start from seeds, cuttings, and

318
00:14:20,961 --> 00:14:25,093
buying potted plants. There are probably

319
00:14:25,093 --> 00:14:26,436
some other ways to do it. I am still kind

320
00:14:26,436 --> 00:14:28,015
of a rookie. I should say that from the

321
00:14:28,015 --> 00:14:32,333
beginning. That is the basic ingredients

322
00:14:32,333 --> 00:14:33,491
and that is what I did to turn the front

323
00:14:33,491 --> 00:14:35,835
yards into gardens. What were the

324
00:14:35,835 --> 00:14:38,138
guidelines for this project of growing

325
00:14:38,138 --> 00:14:40,578
and foraging all of my food? What that

326
00:14:40,578 --> 00:14:43,418
meant is obviously, no grocery stores, no

327
00:14:43,418 --> 00:14:47,317
restaurants. That included my medicine,

328
00:14:47,317 --> 00:14:50,892
so, no pharmacy. I had to grow or forage

329
00:14:50,892 --> 00:14:53,365
my own medicines as well. A lot of people

330
00:14:53,365 --> 00:14:56,142
know me for having done a lot of dumpster

331
00:14:56,142 --> 00:14:57,792
diving to raise awareness about food

332
00:14:57,792 --> 00:14:59,452
waste. Some people call that urban

333
00:14:59,452 --> 00:15:01,625
foraging, but for this project that did

334
00:15:01,625 --> 00:15:06,224
not count as foraging. The idea was, I

335
00:15:06,224 --> 00:15:07,611
had already learned in the past that I

336
00:15:07,611 --> 00:15:10,061
could live solely off food from grocery

337
00:15:10,061 --> 00:15:12,848
store dumpsters. I wanted to step

338
00:15:12,848 --> 00:15:14,897
away from big ag and see if I could live

339
00:15:14,897 --> 00:15:16,630
independently of that, which would not

340
00:15:16,630 --> 00:15:19,486
mean eating those foods from dumpsters.

341
00:15:19,486 --> 00:15:22,240
No dumpster diving. No drinks at a bar.

342
00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:25,077
no eating food from a friend's pantry.

343
00:15:25,077 --> 00:15:27,615
No going to my friends' food forests,

344
00:15:27,615 --> 00:15:29,726
because let's face it, if I ate at the

345
00:15:29,726 --> 00:15:32,992
food forest life would have been too

346
00:15:32,992 --> 00:15:35,413
easy. I would not have learned nearly as

347
00:15:35,413 --> 00:15:37,053
much because this is Orlando Permaculture

348
00:15:37,053 --> 00:15:39,698
there is dozens of food forests that I

349
00:15:39,698 --> 00:15:42,958
could visit. No food forests. I literally

350
00:15:42,958 --> 00:15:45,232
had to grow or forage everything for the

351
00:15:45,232 --> 00:15:49,992
entire year. This picture is on day one.

352
00:15:49,992 --> 00:15:53,919
That was November 11, 2018. You would

353
00:15:53,919 --> 00:15:57,134
think when I finally began that I would

354
00:15:57,134 --> 00:16:00,143
have maybe, eaten quite a few meals that

355
00:16:00,143 --> 00:16:04,500
I had completely grow and foraged, but I

356
00:16:04,500 --> 00:16:06,717
had a lot going on. My first meal was the

357
00:16:06,717 --> 00:16:09,273
first meal that I had ever eating one-

358
00:16:09,273 --> 00:16:11,989
hundred percent grown or foraged. When I

359
00:16:11,989 --> 00:16:13,443
started on day one, I was definitely in

360
00:16:13,443 --> 00:16:16,127
on the deep end. Jumping into the deep

361
00:16:16,127 --> 00:16:19,289
end. Where did I live during this time?

362
00:16:19,289 --> 00:16:22,981
My goal was originally to live off-grid

363
00:16:22,981 --> 00:16:24,876
in the city and do all of this off the

364
00:16:24,876 --> 00:16:28,899
grid as well. Over time, I realized that

365
00:16:28,899 --> 00:16:30,194
off the grid would have been a whole

366
00:16:30,194 --> 00:16:32,428
other level of the challenge that I was

367
00:16:32,428 --> 00:16:34,569
not quite able to do. I was not off the

368
00:16:34,569 --> 00:16:36,696
grid, but what I did is I built a tiny

369
00:16:36,696 --> 00:16:38,920
house homestead. You can see it in the

370
00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:42,023
back yard here. This is the drone shot.

371
00:16:42,023 --> 00:16:44,769
Here is another picture of it from closer

372
00:16:44,769 --> 00:16:47,867
up. The idea was to try to live in a way

373
00:16:47,867 --> 00:16:49,795
where I was living as much as possible

374
00:16:49,795 --> 00:16:52,622
in harmony with the earth, here in the

375
00:16:52,622 --> 00:16:55,806
city and in a way that caused as little

376
00:16:55,806 --> 00:16:59,331
harm to the earth. It might not seem like

377
00:16:59,331 --> 00:17:01,593
it in the city of Orlando, but we are

378
00:17:01,593 --> 00:17:04,592
indeed in a natural environment, of

379
00:17:04,592 --> 00:17:05,975
sorts. Even though there is concrete

380
00:17:05,975 --> 00:17:08,822
around, everywhere is nature. We are

381
00:17:08,822 --> 00:17:11,820
nature. Even being in the city of Orlando

382
00:17:11,820 --> 00:17:13,868
my idea was to be as integrated as

383
00:17:13,868 --> 00:17:17,206
possible with the elements as I could,

384
00:17:17,206 --> 00:17:21,321
to actually use resources as effectively

385
00:17:21,321 --> 00:17:23,819
and as wisely as I could, and improve

386
00:17:23,819 --> 00:17:26,878
the quality of life around me. At this

387
00:17:26,878 --> 00:17:29,056
tiny house, a couple of the key things

388
00:17:29,056 --> 00:17:32,025
for sustainable living: there was a basic

389
00:17:32,025 --> 00:17:35,524
compost bin, which meant anything like

390
00:17:35,524 --> 00:17:39,461
food waste, yard waste, paper, cardboard,

391
00:17:39,461 --> 00:17:41,115
all of that stuff could go right into the

392
00:17:41,115 --> 00:17:43,625
compost to build fertility for my

393
00:17:43,625 --> 00:17:46,097
gardens. There was rainwater harvesting.

394
00:17:46,097 --> 00:17:48,221
My shower was a rainwater harvesting

395
00:17:48,221 --> 00:17:51,531
system. That water that I used to

396
00:17:51,531 --> 00:17:52,731
shower, after it came off the roof from

397
00:17:52,731 --> 00:17:56,966
rain, after it cleaned me, it went onto

398
00:17:56,966 --> 00:18:00,153
bananas and then could grow bananas. The

399
00:18:00,153 --> 00:18:02,568
water from my kitchen was also from

400
00:18:02,568 --> 00:18:04,748
rainwater harvesting. After I washed

401
00:18:04,748 --> 00:18:07,455
dishes and washed my hands, that went

402
00:18:07,455 --> 00:18:09,845
behind the sink. That is called gray

403
00:18:09,845 --> 00:18:12,050
water. Back there I planted taro and

404
00:18:12,050 --> 00:18:16,698
turmeric. All of that [water] was also

405
00:18:16,698 --> 00:18:21,286
used to grow food. The idea of this is to

406
00:18:21,286 --> 00:18:23,506
keep the water on the land. It is the

407
00:18:23,506 --> 00:18:26,001
opposite idea of a lot of today's

408
00:18:26,001 --> 00:18:29,759
society. [If] you look at how the gutters

409
00:18:29,759 --> 00:18:31,870
any the downspouts are set up, it is to

410
00:18:31,870 --> 00:18:34,958
send the water off of your property into

411
00:18:34,958 --> 00:18:37,436
the street and then into our storm water

412
00:18:37,436 --> 00:18:39,820
run-off system. My goal was to try to

413
00:18:39,820 --> 00:18:42,195
keep as much of that water as possible,

414
00:18:42,195 --> 00:18:45,423
but still let it flow off during

415
00:18:45,423 --> 00:18:46,551
hurricanes. I am not talking about

416
00:18:46,551 --> 00:18:50,476
holding every ounce. That was the idea

417
00:18:50,476 --> 00:18:52,619
there, as well as fertility. Keeping all

418
00:18:52,619 --> 00:18:54,548
of that fertility on the land. I also

419
00:18:54,548 --> 00:18:58,189
had compost toilet, so I could use that.

420
00:18:58,189 --> 00:19:03,806
Over this year I grew and foraged three-

421
00:19:03,806 --> 00:19:06,918
hundred different foods. I grew one-

422
00:19:06,918 --> 00:19:09,446
hundred different foods in my garden and

423
00:19:09,446 --> 00:19:12,709
two-hundred different foods that I

424
00:19:12,709 --> 00:19:15,109
foraged. There are three-hundred sixty-

425
00:19:15,109 --> 00:19:17,213
five days in a year. What that means is

426
00:19:17,213 --> 00:19:19,313
that I foraged a new food for almost

427
00:19:19,313 --> 00:19:22,543
every single day of the entire year. That

428
00:19:22,543 --> 00:19:26,034
is quite a bit of diversity. A lot of

429
00:19:26,034 --> 00:19:30,960
people imaging that I would be missing

430
00:19:30,960 --> 00:19:33,312
all of the different tastes and favors,

431
00:19:33,312 --> 00:19:35,131
but the reality was that between the

432
00:19:35,131 --> 00:19:37,114
three-hundred different foods that I

433
00:19:37,114 --> 00:19:40,270
foraged, there was quite the diversity.

434
00:19:40,270 --> 00:19:42,498
I am going to walk you through that.

435
00:19:42,498 --> 00:19:46,168
A large part of tonight's focus is how

436
00:19:46,168 --> 00:19:49,392
you can do this. Not necessarily one-

437
00:19:49,392 --> 00:19:51,987
hundred percent, that is obviously really

438
00:19:51,987 --> 00:19:54,368
extreme and very challenging. How you can

439
00:19:54,368 --> 00:19:57,306
grow and forage, or how you can produce

440
00:19:57,306 --> 00:19:59,946
as much of your food as you would like

441
00:19:59,946 --> 00:20:01,850
to. I am going to go into detail with a

442
00:20:01,850 --> 00:20:05,430
lot of the actual points. One of the

443
00:20:05,430 --> 00:20:08,146
really important ones: so many people

444
00:20:08,146 --> 00:20:11,444
dream of self-sufficiency. It is the

445
00:20:11,444 --> 00:20:14,853
dream of millions of people to grow one-

446
00:20:14,853 --> 00:20:16,639
hundred percent of their food, to live

447
00:20:16,639 --> 00:20:18,094
off the land, to never have to take a trip

448
00:20:18,094 --> 00:20:21,254
to the grocery store. For most of us,

449
00:20:21,254 --> 00:20:23,534
that is really just a dream because the

450
00:20:23,534 --> 00:20:27,039
globalized food system is far too easy,

451
00:20:27,039 --> 00:20:30,565
far too far-reaching, far too convenient

452
00:20:30,565 --> 00:20:33,225
and alluring. Even the people that are

453
00:20:33,225 --> 00:20:35,548
largely living off the land, one of the

454
00:20:35,548 --> 00:20:38,045
biggest challenges is calories, actually

455
00:20:38,045 --> 00:20:40,511
growing all of your calories. Here in

456
00:20:40,511 --> 00:20:44,538
Florida. we are not in a grain state.

457
00:20:44,538 --> 00:20:46,328
You do not see big fields of wheat and

458
00:20:46,328 --> 00:20:48,479
corn and things like that out here.

459
00:20:48,479 --> 00:20:51,120
Grains were not going to be the way that

460
00:20:51,120 --> 00:20:53,252
I was going feed myself, like billions

461
00:20:53,252 --> 00:20:56,377
of people around the world do. Tubers

462
00:20:56,377 --> 00:20:58,303
are actually what we have going for

463
00:20:58,303 --> 00:21:00,944
ourselves in Central Florida. My first

464
00:21:00,944 --> 00:21:03,045
calorie crop is sweet potato. That is

465
00:21:03,045 --> 00:21:05,640
what I am holding in my had there. Some

466
00:21:05,640 --> 00:21:07,393
of the sweet potatoes were like what you

467
00:21:07,393 --> 00:21:10,016
would see at the store, small ones, but

468
00:21:10,016 --> 00:21:11,633
the biggest sweet potato was over five

469
00:21:11,633 --> 00:21:14,159
pounds. Image if you but a five pound

470
00:21:14,159 --> 00:21:17,730
bag of potatoes, one sweet potato can be

471
00:21:17,730 --> 00:21:22,338
that big or even larger. In a small area,

472
00:21:22,338 --> 00:21:27,198
definitely smaller than this stage, I

473
00:21:27,198 --> 00:21:29,227
grew about five-hundred pounds of sweet

474
00:21:29,227 --> 00:21:31,944
potato. It is truly one of the most

475
00:21:31,944 --> 00:21:35,252
powerful crops we have here in Central

476
00:21:35,252 --> 00:21:38,646
Florida. Not only can you eat the tubers,

477
00:21:38,646 --> 00:21:40,471
the potatoes themselves, but the greens

478
00:21:40,471 --> 00:21:43,627
are also edible. What I was told is that

479
00:21:43,627 --> 00:21:48,687
sweet potatoes are the most useful, as

480
00:21:48,687 --> 00:21:50,475
far as any crop goes, you can get more

481
00:21:50,475 --> 00:21:53,652
out of that per acre that any other crop

482
00:21:53,652 --> 00:21:55,973
that is grown because of the calories

483
00:21:55,973 --> 00:21:57,667
from the potato and then the nutrients

484
00:21:57,667 --> 00:21:59,850
from the greens. It is really important

485
00:21:59,850 --> 00:22:01,732
to look at all of the elements in the

486
00:22:01,732 --> 00:22:04,160
plant because most people who bought

487
00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:05,869
sweet potatoes at the store have never

488
00:22:05,869 --> 00:22:08,339
eaten a sweet potato green, but it is a

489
00:22:08,339 --> 00:22:12,329
really, really useful resource. Sweet

490
00:22:12,329 --> 00:22:14,540
potatoes were one of my main crops. Then,

491
00:22:14,540 --> 00:22:16,922
yuca is another one, also called

492
00:22:16,922 --> 00:22:19,815
cassava. Now, what you will see tonight

493
00:22:19,815 --> 00:22:21,146
with a lot of the plants that I am going

494
00:22:21,146 --> 00:22:24,484
to show you is that these are plants that

495
00:22:24,484 --> 00:22:27,430
most people in Caribbean cuisines and a

496
00:22:27,430 --> 00:22:28,987
lot of Central and South American

497
00:22:28,987 --> 00:22:31,537
cuisines, these are staple crops to

498
00:22:31,537 --> 00:22:34,316
them. If you go away from the South into

499
00:22:34,316 --> 00:22:35,763
much of the United States, these are

500
00:22:35,763 --> 00:22:38,583
foods that most people have never heard

501
00:22:38,583 --> 00:22:41,828
of. Many of these you will see as

502
00:22:41,828 --> 00:22:45,363
staples in much of the Caribbean, Central

503
00:22:45,363 --> 00:22:47,410
and South America. Yuca being one of

504
00:22:47,410 --> 00:22:50,378
those, or cassava. I am just going to

505
00:22:50,378 --> 00:22:52,889
say, it is not 'YUCK-ah.' That is

506
00:22:52,889 --> 00:22:58,360
y-u-c-c-a. YO"-ka is y-u-c-a. Yucca is a

507
00:22:58,360 --> 00:23:00,910
desert plant that does not produce big

508
00:23:00,910 --> 00:23:05,400
tubers. Yuca is a plant grows in the semi-

509
00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:08,012
tropics and tropics that produces big

510
00:23:08,012 --> 00:23:12,254
tubers. The nice thing about yuca is you

511
00:23:12,254 --> 00:23:15,226
can plant it along your fence line. All

512
00:23:15,226 --> 00:23:17,441
you have to do for yuca is get a cutting,

513
00:23:17,441 --> 00:23:20,853
which is a stick like what I am holing

514
00:23:20,853 --> 00:23:22,090
in my hand there, just a part of the

515
00:23:22,090 --> 00:23:24,408
stick. All around there are just the

516
00:23:24,408 --> 00:23:26,365
parts that I broke off that grows above

517
00:23:26,365 --> 00:23:28,859
the ground. Any one of those sticks, you

518
00:23:28,859 --> 00:23:30,357
just take that stick and you put it in

519
00:23:30,357 --> 00:23:32,471
the ground. That is going to turn into

520
00:23:32,471 --> 00:23:34,750
five pounds of yuca, or sometimes even

521
00:23:34,750 --> 00:23:37,980
fifteen pounds of yuca. This is what is

522
00:23:37,980 --> 00:23:40,270
called a 'survival crop.' One billion

523
00:23:40,270 --> 00:23:42,998
people around the world depend on yuca.

524
00:23:42,998 --> 00:23:45,953
The reason they depend on it is because

525
00:23:45,953 --> 00:23:48,975
it grows ridiculously easily, takes very

526
00:23:48,975 --> 00:23:52,294
few nutrients, and does not need much

527
00:23:52,294 --> 00:23:55,231
water at all. That makes it very much a

528
00:23:55,231 --> 00:23:57,228
survival crop. The other great thing

529
00:23:57,228 --> 00:23:58,673
about it is that you can leave it as your

530
00:23:58,673 --> 00:24:01,941
basic calorie bank in the ground. It can

531
00:24:01,941 --> 00:24:04,810
sit there for years. At Peanut Butter

532
00:24:04,810 --> 00:24:06,924
Palace, there is one that was there long

533
00:24:06,924 --> 00:24:08,886
before I got there and it is still there

534
00:24:08,886 --> 00:24:11,045
today and they can go down and dig that

535
00:24:11,045 --> 00:24:14,104
food out. It's a survival crop. It is not

536
00:24:14,104 --> 00:24:16,228
the most nutritious. It does not have a

537
00:24:16,228 --> 00:24:18,344
lot of nutrients, but it has calories. It

538
00:24:18,344 --> 00:24:20,224
is twice as calorie dense as sweet

539
00:24:20,224 --> 00:24:23,629
potato. Very important crop. I got my

540
00:24:23,629 --> 00:24:26,602
nutrients elsewhere. We will go into

541
00:24:26,602 --> 00:24:28,938
that, but calories came from tubers.

542
00:24:28,938 --> 00:24:34,842
Another tuber is wild yam, or dioscorea

543
00:24:34,842 --> 00:24:36,774
alata. I am not sure if I pronounced that

544
00:24:36,774 --> 00:24:39,500
correctly, but it is an idea. I mostly

545
00:24:39,500 --> 00:24:41,909
use common names rather than the genus

546
00:24:41,909 --> 00:24:46,291
and species. Wild yam. Winged yam. This

547
00:24:46,291 --> 00:24:49,322
is actually formerly a domesticated yam

548
00:24:49,322 --> 00:24:51,782
that got into the wild. The largest one

549
00:24:51,782 --> 00:24:54,351
that I dug up this year was with James

550
00:24:54,351 --> 00:24:56,699
and it was one-hundred fifty-seven

551
00:24:56,699 --> 00:24:58,875
pounds. I weigh one-hundred fifty-three

552
00:24:58,875 --> 00:25:03,752
pounds. A yam as heavy as me, and that is

553
00:25:03,752 --> 00:25:05,434
just one yam. Imagine how much food you

554
00:25:05,434 --> 00:25:07,189
can get out of that. That is thirty

555
00:25:07,189 --> 00:25:10,405
five-pound bags of potatoes for one yam.

556
00:25:10,405 --> 00:25:16,363
We found this wild yam in a reserve about

557
00:25:16,363 --> 00:25:19,009
ten miles west of here. Before I started,

558
00:25:19,009 --> 00:25:20,661
as I was preparing, I actually found a

559
00:25:20,661 --> 00:25:23,405
amount of it. There might be as much as

560
00:25:23,405 --> 00:25:25,595
one-thousand calories on the Cady Way

561
00:25:25,595 --> 00:25:28,337
Trail right over by the golf course,

562
00:25:28,337 --> 00:25:31,120
growing right along the golf course. That

563
00:25:31,120 --> 00:25:33,265
was actually on day one. I think one of

564
00:25:33,265 --> 00:25:35,679
my first meals was the wilds yams right

565
00:25:35,679 --> 00:25:38,239
there from the golf course. An amazing

566
00:25:38,239 --> 00:25:40,596
plant. You can also grow it. There are

567
00:25:40,596 --> 00:25:42,728
a lot of people who grow it in Central

568
00:25:42,728 --> 00:25:45,429
Florida. It is great for foraging for

569
00:25:45,429 --> 00:25:48,492
calories, or growing your own calories.

570
00:25:48,492 --> 00:25:51,585
Another really important crop for me this

571
00:25:51,585 --> 00:25:54,296
year has been papaya. It is absolutely,

572
00:25:54,296 --> 00:25:55,699
for Central Florida, one of the plants

573
00:25:55,699 --> 00:25:57,466
that I would recommend the most. You can

574
00:25:57,466 --> 00:25:59,604
eat papaya green. If you have ever had

575
00:25:59,604 --> 00:26:02,438
Thai papaya salad, for example, that is

576
00:26:02,438 --> 00:26:04,680
green papaya. There are so many ways you

577
00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:06,478
can prepare it. You can cut it up like

578
00:26:06,478 --> 00:26:09,000
potatoes and saute it. You can turn it

579
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:11,639
into papaya kraut. Ferment it, which I

580
00:26:11,639 --> 00:26:13,126
am going to talk a little bit about

581
00:26:13,126 --> 00:26:15,989
later. It is not as dense in calories as

582
00:26:15,989 --> 00:26:18,796
the tubers, but still has quite a few

583
00:26:18,796 --> 00:26:20,275
calories. As you can see from this one

584
00:26:20,275 --> 00:26:25,695
tree, I had probably five papaya trees

585
00:26:25,695 --> 00:26:27,900
and i never ate five percent of the

586
00:26:27,900 --> 00:26:31,116
papayas that it put out. Papaya trees are

587
00:26:31,116 --> 00:26:33,681
a really, really worthwhile thing to

588
00:26:33,681 --> 00:26:36,669
grow. Another thing is Seminole pumpkin.

589
00:26:36,669 --> 00:26:38,576
All of those pumpkins that you see right

590
00:26:38,576 --> 00:26:41,644
there came from the seeds of two

591
00:26:41,644 --> 00:26:44,299
pumpkins that I had for dinner. Before

592
00:26:44,299 --> 00:26:45,486
this project started, I was down at

593
00:26:45,486 --> 00:26:48,655
Sustainable Kashi in Sebastian. We had

594
00:26:48,655 --> 00:26:51,884
Seminole pumpkin and I said "Can I take

595
00:26:51,884 --> 00:26:54,447
these seeds home?". I was just as excited

596
00:26:54,447 --> 00:26:57,161
as could be. I had planted very few

597
00:26:57,161 --> 00:26:59,331
things in my life at that time. That was

598
00:26:59,331 --> 00:27:01,355
before I got started. I took these seeds

599
00:27:02,075 --> 00:27:05,146
home and was just so excited to plant

600
00:27:05,146 --> 00:27:10,283
them. Those seeds, from two pumpkins,

601
00:27:10,283 --> 00:27:12,004
turned into one-hundred sixty-nine

602
00:27:12,004 --> 00:27:14,831
pumpkins that I grew in two of the front

603
00:27:14,831 --> 00:27:18,014
yards. A beautiful thing about Seminole

604
00:27:18,014 --> 00:27:21,690
pumpkins is they also store. I lived

605
00:27:21,690 --> 00:27:24,688
basically outside. No air conditioning in

606
00:27:24,688 --> 00:27:26,876
my tiny house. If it was ninety degrees

607
00:27:26,876 --> 00:27:29,127
outside, it was ninety degrees inside.

608
00:27:29,127 --> 00:27:31,208
They lasted through an entire summer on

609
00:27:31,208 --> 00:27:33,808
my shelves. They are a truly amazing

610
00:27:33,808 --> 00:27:35,673
crop. Most of you do not have to worry

611
00:27:35,673 --> 00:27:37,112
about that because you have air

612
00:27:37,112 --> 00:27:38,279
conditioning. I have heard of them

613
00:27:38,279 --> 00:27:40,311
lasting even two years inside. Another

614
00:27:40,311 --> 00:27:43,785
amazing crop. Similar to butternut squash

615
00:27:43,785 --> 00:27:44,854
in a way. It is bright, fleshy, bright

616
00:27:44,854 --> 00:27:49,050
orange on the inside. That, for me, was a

617
00:27:49,050 --> 00:27:50,844
big lesson in the power of the seed.

618
00:27:50,844 --> 00:27:56,110
Just think about it. If there are one-

619
00:27:56,110 --> 00:27:58,381
hundred fifty people in this room; there

620
00:27:58,381 --> 00:28:00,492
are about one-hundred fifty seeds in a

621
00:28:00,492 --> 00:28:02,449
pumpkin. If we just had two pumpkins

622
00:28:02,449 --> 00:28:04,302
between [the people in] this room, each

623
00:28:04,302 --> 00:28:07,146
one of us could take home one seed, turn

624
00:28:07,146 --> 00:28:09,295
that into say, ten pumpkins and that

625
00:28:09,295 --> 00:28:12,179
would already be in the tens of thousands

626
00:28:12,179 --> 00:28:14,849
of seeds. you could create food

627
00:28:14,849 --> 00:28:19,349
sovereignty so quickly just with growing

628
00:28:19,349 --> 00:28:22,087
our own seeds. It is truly amazing. If

629
00:28:22,087 --> 00:28:25,533
you order a one-pound bag of kale seeds,

630
00:28:25,533 --> 00:28:27,806
I looked at how many seeds are in there.

631
00:28:27,806 --> 00:28:30,544
It is about one-point-five million. One

632
00:28:30,544 --> 00:28:34,644
bag of kale seeds has enough seeds in it

633
00:28:34,644 --> 00:28:38,068
for the entire metro Orlando area to have

634
00:28:38,068 --> 00:28:40,583
their own kale. The seed is an extremely,

635
00:28:40,583 --> 00:28:43,711
extremely powerful thing! Ron Finley, he

636
00:28:43,711 --> 00:28:47,927
calls himself a gangster gardener out in

637
00:28:47,927 --> 00:28:49,584
L.A. He is a friend of mine. One of the

638
00:28:49,584 --> 00:28:51,738
things that he has said the most that I

639
00:28:51,738 --> 00:28:53,881
absolutely love is "Growing your own food

640
00:28:53,881 --> 00:28:57,732
is like printing your own money." It

641
00:28:57,732 --> 00:29:00,268
truly is. You can literally create

642
00:29:00,268 --> 00:29:02,422
abundance out of almost nothing. It is

643
00:29:02,422 --> 00:29:05,364
truly special. Another really important

644
00:29:05,364 --> 00:29:08,194
crop for this area is bananas. When I

645
00:29:08,194 --> 00:29:10,178
first got here, for some reason I did not

646
00:29:10,178 --> 00:29:12,525
believe that bananas would really produce.

647
00:29:12,525 --> 00:29:14,216
I looked around at all of my friends'

648
00:29:14,216 --> 00:29:17,056
banana plants and I never saw bananas.

649
00:29:17,056 --> 00:29:20,225
I thought, I see these people growing

650
00:29:20,225 --> 00:29:22,010
banana plants, but I never actually see

651
00:29:22,010 --> 00:29:25,635
any bananas. Now, sure enough the banana

652
00:29:25,635 --> 00:29:27,855
stand over at Sarah's has three racks on

653
00:29:27,855 --> 00:29:30,706
it. I just harvested one of the racks. It

654
00:29:30,706 --> 00:29:33,177
already has two others, and we already

655
00:29:33,177 --> 00:29:34,868
harvested one, and I am eating fresh

656
00:29:34,868 --> 00:29:36,380
bananas from over at Lisa's house and

657
00:29:36,380 --> 00:29:39,610
fresh bananas from Jen's house. Bananas

658
00:29:39,610 --> 00:29:42,588
really do grow extremely well here. You

659
00:29:42,588 --> 00:29:46,962
can also forage them. Dickson Azalea Park

660
00:29:46,962 --> 00:29:49,312
has been one of my sources for wild

661
00:29:49,312 --> 00:29:51,058
foraged bananas. I have harvested bananas

662
00:29:51,058 --> 00:29:53,206
there multiple times. Apparently, nobody

663
00:29:53,206 --> 00:29:54,775
knows the stand is there, because when I

664
00:29:54,775 --> 00:29:58,391
went aware for the summer there were five

665
00:29:58,391 --> 00:30:00,661
racks of bananas and I thought, "Surely

666
00:30:00,661 --> 00:30:02,303
someone is going to harvest these while

667
00:30:02,303 --> 00:30:04,843
I am gone." I came back. All five of them

668
00:30:04,843 --> 00:30:06,596
I could tell had rotted and not been

669
00:30:06,596 --> 00:30:08,870
harvested. If you want wild bananas,

670
00:30:08,870 --> 00:30:11,884
Dickson Azalea Park is a great place to

671
00:30:11,884 --> 00:30:13,112
search it out. I am not going to tell you

672
00:30:13,112 --> 00:30:14,370
exactly where it is. You will just have

673
00:30:14,370 --> 00:30:16,641
to scout it out. I found wild bananas

674
00:30:16,641 --> 00:30:18,499
growing within five miles of here in at

675
00:30:18,499 --> 00:30:20,834
least three difference locations, public

676
00:30:20,834 --> 00:30:24,812
parks that you can go seek out. Bananas

677
00:30:24,812 --> 00:30:26,990
are a great crop for growing and foraging.

678
00:30:26,990 --> 00:30:29,839
You can wait until they are yellow and eat

679
00:30:29,839 --> 00:30:33,024
them as a delicious fruit. When they are

680
00:30:33,024 --> 00:30:35,015
green you can fry them and have fried

681
00:30:35,015 --> 00:30:38,496
green bananas. You can dry and blend the

682
00:30:38,496 --> 00:30:42,966
entire thing: the peel and the banana

683
00:30:42,966 --> 00:30:47,675
inside to make green banana flour. It is

684
00:30:47,675 --> 00:30:51,323
a really great crop for here. Coconuts

685
00:30:51,323 --> 00:30:53,707
were one of the most important foods for

686
00:30:53,707 --> 00:30:56,253
this year. I shared some of my main ways

687
00:30:56,253 --> 00:31:01,174
of getting calories, which are the energy

688
00:31:01,174 --> 00:31:03,015
of life. Without having enough calories

689
00:31:03,015 --> 00:31:05,835
we slowly would dwindle away. It is one

690
00:31:05,835 --> 00:31:08,268
of the most important foundations. We can

691
00:31:08,268 --> 00:31:10,929
be nutrient deficient for quite a while,

692
00:31:10,929 --> 00:31:12,928
but if we do not have enough calories

693
00:31:12,928 --> 00:31:15,228
then we are in more trouble. Calories

694
00:31:15,228 --> 00:31:17,686
were my big focus because I knew I could

695
00:31:17,686 --> 00:31:20,992
make it through the year not getting

696
00:31:20,992 --> 00:31:22,641
enough nutrients, but if I did not have

697
00:31:22,641 --> 00:31:24,613
enough calories I knew I would not be

698
00:31:24,613 --> 00:31:25,997
able to make it. That is why I started

699
00:31:25,997 --> 00:31:30,908
with calories. Coconuts are an interesting

700
00:31:30,908 --> 00:31:33,871
crop because they are very high in

701
00:31:33,871 --> 00:31:36,266
calories. They are also high in fat and

702
00:31:36,266 --> 00:31:40,340
they also have protein. The water inside

703
00:31:40,340 --> 00:31:42,992
of it is high in electrolytes. It is often

704
00:31:42,992 --> 00:31:45,142
called "Nature's Gatorade." The meat

705
00:31:45,142 --> 00:31:48,160
itself is high in oil and fat. You can

706
00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:51,967
either dry it and shred it and use it as

707
00:31:51,967 --> 00:31:53,838
coconut shreds. You can dry it and just

708
00:31:53,838 --> 00:31:56,255
make chunks and have that as a snack. You

709
00:31:56,255 --> 00:31:57,976
can dry it and blend it and make your own

710
00:31:57,976 --> 00:32:01,288
coconut butter, or you can dry it and

711
00:32:01,288 --> 00:32:04,376
press it and make your own coconut oil.

712
00:32:04,376 --> 00:32:05,816
You can also make your own coconut milk

713
00:32:05,816 --> 00:32:08,850
just by blending it up straining it. Then

714
00:32:08,850 --> 00:32:11,245
you have delicious high-fat coconut milk.

715
00:32:11,245 --> 00:32:13,748
I have probably eaten two-hundred coconuts

716
00:32:13,748 --> 00:32:15,065
over the last year. If I did not have the

717
00:32:15,065 --> 00:32:16,957
coconuts, I do not know if I would have

718
00:32:16,957 --> 00:32:18,974
made it through this year. You cannot

719
00:32:18,974 --> 00:32:22,137
grow coconuts in Orlando, They are more

720
00:32:22,137 --> 00:32:24,987
tropical. You can forage coconuts all

721
00:32:24,987 --> 00:32:27,227
over South Florida. All of these coconuts

722
00:32:27,227 --> 00:32:29,448
that are brown are mostly from picking

723
00:32:29,448 --> 00:32:32,251
up on the ground around coconut trees.

724
00:32:32,251 --> 00:32:33,690
They were growing in public parks. They

725
00:32:33,690 --> 00:32:35,875
are also growing in places like

726
00:32:35,875 --> 00:32:38,529
nurseries, people's backyards, all over

727
00:32:38,529 --> 00:32:40,303
the place. Coconuts were one of my

728
00:32:40,303 --> 00:32:42,346
absolute most important crops of the

729
00:32:42,346 --> 00:32:47,329
year. For protein, that was one of the

730
00:32:47,329 --> 00:32:50,384
biggest challenges of the project. Where

731
00:32:50,384 --> 00:32:51,835
would I get my protein? Probably one of

732
00:32:51,835 --> 00:32:54,422
the most commonly asked questions online.

733
00:32:54,422 --> 00:32:58,174
I grew some of my own protein. These I am

734
00:32:58,174 --> 00:33:00,388
standing with are called pigeon peas or

735
00:33:00,388 --> 00:33:04,305
gandules. They were one of the most

736
00:33:04,305 --> 00:33:06,437
important crops of this year. Also very

737
00:33:06,437 --> 00:33:08,474
much a survival crop. It needs minimal

738
00:33:08,474 --> 00:33:11,921
nutrients, minimal water and it is a very

739
00:33:11,921 --> 00:33:14,751
nutrient dense, calorie dense, protein

740
00:33:14,751 --> 00:33:18,153
dense plant. Behind me is the pigeon pea

741
00:33:18,153 --> 00:33:20,360
tree. You can the flowers there and then

742
00:33:20,360 --> 00:33:23,615
those are dried pigeon peas that you

743
00:33:23,615 --> 00:33:25,410
would use just like you would use

744
00:33:25,410 --> 00:33:27,182
lentils, or black-eyed peas, or any dried

745
00:33:27,182 --> 00:33:31,719
bean. I grew some of my own protein, I

746
00:33:31,719 --> 00:33:35,477
tried growing sunflower seeds for protein

747
00:33:35,477 --> 00:33:37,276
and did not have much success with that

748
00:33:37,276 --> 00:33:38,636
because of the squirrels. I grew some

749
00:33:38,636 --> 00:33:42,379
peanuts, but also did not have a lot of

750
00:33:42,379 --> 00:33:44,626
success with that. The other crop that I

751
00:33:44,626 --> 00:33:47,654
grew was southern peas. That was another

752
00:33:47,654 --> 00:33:50,417
crop. It is a ground cover that is really

753
00:33:50,417 --> 00:33:52,368
helpful in the garden and also a nitrogen

754
00:33:52,368 --> 00:33:56,379
fixer and an important protein source.

755
00:33:56,379 --> 00:33:58,733
Other protein sources: fish was always my

756
00:33:58,733 --> 00:34:02,282
main plan. If there was one thing I was

757
00:34:02,282 --> 00:34:04,553
experienced in before this project, it

758
00:34:04,553 --> 00:34:07,545
was fishing. I started fishing when I was

759
00:34:07,545 --> 00:34:09,753
about eight and it has actually been one

760
00:34:09,753 --> 00:34:11,947
of my biggest passions of my life. It is

761
00:34:11,947 --> 00:34:16,051
one of my most important ways of

762
00:34:16,051 --> 00:34:18,197
connecting with the land. I got away from

763
00:34:18,197 --> 00:34:20,394
it for a while because I was vegan for a

764
00:34:20,394 --> 00:34:23,189
while and it just did not sit right with

765
00:34:23,189 --> 00:34:25,707
me for a period of time. For most of my

766
00:34:25,707 --> 00:34:27,670
life, I have been fishing. I started

767
00:34:27,670 --> 00:34:30,139
fishing again about three or four years

768
00:34:30,139 --> 00:34:37,135
ago. My main plan for fish was mullet.

769
00:34:37,135 --> 00:34:39,224
Probably most of the people in this room

770
00:34:39,224 --> 00:34:40,945
have not eaten mullet. It is not

771
00:34:40,945 --> 00:34:43,935
generally a really highly regarded fish.

772
00:34:43,935 --> 00:34:46,877
I would say one of the most important

773
00:34:46,877 --> 00:34:48,693
lessons as far as a food lesson that you

774
00:34:48,693 --> 00:34:50,299
could walk away with is that most

775
00:34:50,299 --> 00:34:52,672
everything that is not highly regarded by

776
00:34:52,672 --> 00:34:56,007
American culture is an amazing food.

777
00:34:56,007 --> 00:35:01,103
For other cultures it is the food of life

778
00:35:01,103 --> 00:35:04,321
if Americans don't like it, generally.

779
00:35:04,321 --> 00:35:08,599
Mullet is an amazing fish. It is very

780
00:35:08,599 --> 00:35:11,281
high in fat, the beneficial fats. It is

781
00:35:11,281 --> 00:35:13,728
very abundant, still in Florida. The

782
00:35:13,728 --> 00:35:16,469
reason I wanted to focus on mullet is

783
00:35:16,469 --> 00:35:19,020
because it is very low on the food chain.

784
00:35:19,020 --> 00:35:21,059
It only eats plants, so it does not

785
00:35:21,059 --> 00:35:26,583
bioaccumulate. Bioaccumulation - you have

786
00:35:26,583 --> 00:35:28,336
probably all heard about how eagles were

787
00:35:28,336 --> 00:35:30,591
affected by DDT in the past and then

788
00:35:30,591 --> 00:35:32,473
their egg shells crumbled and that made

789
00:35:32,473 --> 00:35:35,287
eagles almost extinct in the United

790
00:35:35,287 --> 00:35:39,589
States. That was because there was DDT

791
00:35:39,589 --> 00:35:43,447
that built up in the fish and the eagles

792
00:35:43,447 --> 00:35:45,557
eat so many fish that it builds up in the

793
00:35:45,557 --> 00:35:49,966
cycle. Once it gets up to the predator so

794
00:35:49,966 --> 00:35:52,582
much of it is in them that it can affect

795
00:35:52,582 --> 00:35:54,579
them greatly. Now, there are a lot of

796
00:35:54,579 --> 00:35:57,975
bioaccumulants. If you are eating game

797
00:35:57,975 --> 00:36:01,479
fish like tuna, for example there is a

798
00:36:01,479 --> 00:36:04,616
lot of accumulation of mercury in that.

799
00:36:04,616 --> 00:36:07,619
The reason I wanted to mostly eat mullet

800
00:36:07,619 --> 00:36:09,365
is because it only eats plants, so it

801
00:36:09,365 --> 00:36:12,188
does not accumulate by eating fish that

802
00:36:12,188 --> 00:36:14,820
eat bigger fish, and bigger fish, and

803
00:36:14,820 --> 00:36:17,809
bigger fish and so on. Mullet was one of

804
00:36:17,809 --> 00:36:20,308
my plans. This is a red fish here. I did

805
00:36:20,308 --> 00:36:23,142
not actually catch enough mullet to have

806
00:36:23,142 --> 00:36:25,869
a really good picture, or never got

807
00:36:25,869 --> 00:36:27,719
around to taking a good one. Mullet were

808
00:36:27,719 --> 00:36:30,237
harder [to catch] than I expected.

809
00:36:30,237 --> 00:36:32,561
interestingly enough, fishing was weirdly

810
00:36:32,561 --> 00:36:35,348
the most challenging thing. I could just

811
00:36:35,348 --> 00:36:40,592
never catch enough fish. I ate squirrel,

812
00:36:40,592 --> 00:36:42,041
but not because I could not have enough

813
00:36:42,041 --> 00:36:43,849
fish, but because squirrels were eating

814
00:36:43,849 --> 00:36:47,801
my sunflowers. A lot of you are new to

815
00:36:47,801 --> 00:36:50,163
permaculture in this room tonight, but

816
00:36:50,163 --> 00:36:52,645
there is one common saying in permaculture

817
00:36:52,645 --> 00:36:55,823
and that is "the problem is the solution."

818
00:36:55,823 --> 00:36:57,586
How can you turn the problem into the

819
00:36:57,586 --> 00:36:59,694
solution? Well, here I was trying to grow

820
00:36:59,694 --> 00:37:02,284
a plant-based protein. They were eating

821
00:37:02,284 --> 00:37:04,720
my plant-based protein, so I ate them

822
00:37:04,720 --> 00:37:08,023
instead. It definitely caused a little

823
00:37:08,023 --> 00:37:10,330
controversy. Some people like it, I guess.

824
00:37:10,330 --> 00:37:12,949
I may as well answer the question "How

825
00:37:12,949 --> 00:37:16,592
does it taste?". It just tastes like meat.

826
00:37:16,592 --> 00:37:18,665
It tastes similar to chicken, not too

827
00:37:18,665 --> 00:37:22,675
different. I only ate about nine

828
00:37:22,675 --> 00:37:31,389
squirrels, so it was by no means a main

829
00:37:31,389 --> 00:37:36,987
source of food. The other thing I thought

830
00:37:36,987 --> 00:37:39,459
about hunting was wild boar. They are

831
00:37:39,459 --> 00:37:40,886
invasive. this is not something that I

832
00:37:40,886 --> 00:37:42,744
did, so I cannot speak from experience,

833
00:37:42,744 --> 00:37:44,963
there are, I think, a couple of million

834
00:37:44,963 --> 00:37:46,914
wild boar in Florida. It is one of the

835
00:37:46,914 --> 00:37:49,615
most sustainable ways to get protein, to

836
00:37:49,615 --> 00:37:52,218
get meat in Florida and other parts of

837
00:37:52,218 --> 00:37:54,162
the Southern United States. They are

838
00:37:54,162 --> 00:37:56,116
highly invasive and they destroy a lot of

839
00:37:56,116 --> 00:37:58,958
the land. They are an amazing resource

840
00:37:58,958 --> 00:38:01,071
that we can utilize. I did not end up

841
00:38:01,071 --> 00:38:03,128
doing that. The reason I did not is

842
00:38:03,128 --> 00:38:04,637
because most people who hunt it, who

843
00:38:04,637 --> 00:38:07,420
offered to take me out they bait it. My

844
00:38:07,420 --> 00:38:10,829
rule was I could only use food that I

845
00:38:10,829 --> 00:38:14,654
grew to catch other food. I did not have

846
00:38:14,654 --> 00:38:16,023
bait for the pigs and that is why I never

847
00:38:16,023 --> 00:38:20,082
got around to actually doing that. The

848
00:38:20,082 --> 00:38:21,137
reason I did not raise animals - I'm not

849
00:38:21,137 --> 00:38:24,589
going to get into raising animals today

850
00:38:24,589 --> 00:38:26,573
because I did not do that, but chickens,

851
00:38:26,573 --> 00:38:30,283
quails, rabbits - you can also do

852
00:38:30,283 --> 00:38:32,543
aquaponics for fish, tilapia is a common

853
00:38:32,543 --> 00:38:34,710
one. There are a lot of ways to raise

854
00:38:34,710 --> 00:38:38,027
animals. The reason I did not do that is

855
00:38:38,027 --> 00:38:40,148
because, again, I would have to raise all

856
00:38:40,148 --> 00:38:43,952
of the food for them. On a small plot, I

857
00:38:43,952 --> 00:38:48,088
did not have the ability to grow all of

858
00:38:48,088 --> 00:38:50,905
the food for the chickens, or to have any

859
00:38:50,905 --> 00:38:53,729
grass-fed animals or anything like that.

860
00:38:53,729 --> 00:38:56,418
That is why raising animals was out.

861
00:38:56,418 --> 00:38:59,832
The other solution is number three, and

862
00:38:59,832 --> 00:39:02,542
that is car-killed animals. I have not

863
00:39:02,542 --> 00:39:06,077
really hunted much, so my solution was to

864
00:39:06,077 --> 00:39:09,822
find animals that had already died. David

865
00:39:09,822 --> 00:39:14,351
and I, David Warfel - there he is - he

866
00:39:14,351 --> 00:39:16,034
and I went up to Gainesville around New

867
00:39:16,034 --> 00:39:20,816
Year's searching for dome deer. Joe

868
00:39:20,816 --> 00:39:23,404
Pierce was going to help us out. We went

869
00:39:23,404 --> 00:39:27,450
up to his place near Gainesville. We found

870
00:39:27,450 --> 00:39:33,656
two [deer], but they were too old. We

871
00:39:33,656 --> 00:39:35,769
were not able to harvest those. Then, it

872
00:39:35,769 --> 00:39:37,686
got a little hot. As you can imagine,

873
00:39:37,686 --> 00:39:40,468
when it is ninety degrees by nine in the

874
00:39:40,468 --> 00:39:42,226
morning in Florida, that is not the best

875
00:39:42,226 --> 00:39:46,229
time to try to harvest deer. I did not

876
00:39:46,229 --> 00:39:48,864
actually harvest and deer in Florida, but

877
00:39:48,864 --> 00:39:51,184
this summer I took a trip to Wisconsin.

878
00:39:51,184 --> 00:39:54,940
I wanted to connect with my homeland.

879
00:39:54,940 --> 00:39:57,787
I felt a strong desire to learn the

880
00:39:57,787 --> 00:40:00,535
plants where I was from. I decided to

881
00:40:00,535 --> 00:40:04,695
take a trip up there. I will talk a

882
00:40:04,695 --> 00:40:07,046
little bit more about that at the end.

883
00:40:07,046 --> 00:40:08,711
One of my goals while I was there was to

884
00:40:08,711 --> 00:40:13,217
get a deer. When I got to Wisconsin, I

885
00:40:13,217 --> 00:40:16,816
was really deficient in fat and protein.

886
00:40:16,816 --> 00:40:20,187
This was something I was really trying

887
00:40:20,187 --> 00:40:23,439
for and it took me a whole month before I

888
00:40:23,439 --> 00:40:27,459
was able to get one. Towards the end I

889
00:40:27,459 --> 00:40:30,822
harvested five deer in Wisconsin. That

890
00:40:30,822 --> 00:40:32,319
ended up being one of my main sources of

891
00:40:32,319 --> 00:40:35,492
food the entire year. It probably made up

892
00:40:35,492 --> 00:40:38,431
ten percent plus of my food for the

893
00:40:38,431 --> 00:40:42,779
entire year. One of my other main sources

894
00:40:42,779 --> 00:40:47,047
of food was honey. Sugar is really

895
00:40:47,047 --> 00:40:51,690
important. One of the big challenges this

896
00:40:51,690 --> 00:40:53,250
year, I thought was going to be

897
00:40:53,250 --> 00:40:54,625
chocolate. That is actually one of my

898
00:40:54,625 --> 00:40:57,683
favorite foods in the whole world, dark

899
00:40:57,683 --> 00:41:00,087
chocolate. My former partner Cheryl used

900
00:41:00,087 --> 00:41:01,917
to call me a chocolate vampire because if

901
00:41:01,917 --> 00:41:05,195
it was around me I did bad things. I

902
00:41:05,195 --> 00:41:07,349
would just eat everyone's share of

903
00:41:07,349 --> 00:41:09,538
chocolate and not be able to resist. I

904
00:41:09,538 --> 00:41:10,806
loved it! So, that was one of the big

905
00:41:10,806 --> 00:41:12,798
things. Could I get by without chocolate?

906
00:41:12,798 --> 00:41:17,880
The solution was honey. This year I think

907
00:41:17,880 --> 00:41:21,246
I harvested five gallons of honey from my

908
00:41:21,246 --> 00:41:25,836
bees. That is a lot of honey. That is

909
00:41:25,836 --> 00:41:34,720
about, let's see... Anyway, five gallons!

910
00:41:34,720 --> 00:41:35,866
It is a huge amount of honey. It is one

911
00:41:35,866 --> 00:41:38,423
of those big blue jugs. Honey was a

912
00:41:38,423 --> 00:41:41,971
really important source of calories, of

913
00:41:41,971 --> 00:41:44,459
enjoyment. It added a lot of value to

914
00:41:44,459 --> 00:41:46,341
different meals. I fermented with it.

915
00:41:46,341 --> 00:41:51,116
Sugar cane is another source of sugar

916
00:41:51,116 --> 00:41:53,217
that you can do here. That is something

917
00:41:53,217 --> 00:41:56,030
that is actually pretty easy, but it

918
00:41:56,030 --> 00:41:57,900
takes time. It is just not one of the

919
00:41:57,900 --> 00:42:00,630
things that I ever did. I actually got

920
00:42:00,630 --> 00:42:03,290
a whole bunch of sugarcane cuttings, but

921
00:42:03,290 --> 00:42:04,958
they all rotted and I never got around to

922
00:42:04,958 --> 00:42:06,873
it. It is an important lesson when you

923
00:42:06,873 --> 00:42:08,664
are trying to grow and forage one-hundred

924
00:42:08,664 --> 00:42:10,994
percent of your food. It is not that

925
00:42:10,994 --> 00:42:13,272
necessarily any one thing is challenging,

926
00:42:13,272 --> 00:42:15,539
it is that trying to do everything is

927
00:42:15,539 --> 00:42:18,328
challenging. People would often say

928
00:42:18,328 --> 00:42:19,811
"Well, why don't you just do that!?".

929
00:42:19,811 --> 00:42:20,965
Well, because I am already working

930
00:42:20,965 --> 00:42:22,997
seventy hours a week on my food, so I

931
00:42:22,997 --> 00:42:25,579
just did not have time to do that. That

932
00:42:25,579 --> 00:42:26,999
is one of the big differences between

933
00:42:26,999 --> 00:42:28,967
shooting for one-hundred percent and say,

934
00:42:28,967 --> 00:42:30,912
eighty percent. It is actually that last

935
00:42:30,912 --> 00:42:33,151
ten to twenty percent, making your own

936
00:42:33,151 --> 00:42:35,997
oils and the calories and all of that

937
00:42:35,997 --> 00:42:38,270
that is one of the most difficult parts.

938
00:42:38,270 --> 00:42:44,106
Salt. Before I started this project I was

939
00:42:44,106 --> 00:42:46,719
actually on a train in Germany and I was

940
00:42:46,719 --> 00:42:48,512
just thinking "How the heck am I going to

941
00:42:48,512 --> 00:42:50,291
get salt?". I never had seen anyone

942
00:42:50,291 --> 00:42:55,620
eating salt that they harvested. I had

943
00:42:55,620 --> 00:42:56,937
very little experience with it

944
00:42:56,937 --> 00:42:59,657
whatsoever. There were a couple of

945
00:42:59,657 --> 00:43:01,895
stories I had in mind, one was Gandhi's

946
00:43:01,895 --> 00:43:04,190
salt match where he walked to the ocean.

947
00:43:04,190 --> 00:43:06,293
He picked up salt from the ocean and that

948
00:43:06,293 --> 00:43:08,675
was his protest against the British.

949
00:43:08,675 --> 00:43:10,410
I knew that they literally just picked up

950
00:43:10,410 --> 00:43:12,846
salt. I thought, "Okay, I know it can be

951
00:43:12,846 --> 00:43:15,187
done". I knew there were the salt flats

952
00:43:15,187 --> 00:43:19,337
in Bolivia, the salt flats of Uyuni.

953
00:43:19,337 --> 00:43:23,337
I knew there were places, but I did not

954
00:43:23,337 --> 00:43:25,296
think that was in Florida. I was pretty

955
00:43:25,296 --> 00:43:26,761
sure of that. I did not know how the heck

956
00:43:26,761 --> 00:43:30,724
I was going to do salt. I was very lost.

957
00:43:30,724 --> 00:43:35,378
I did the research and basically, all you

958
00:43:35,378 --> 00:43:37,795
have to do it go to the ocean, scoop up

959
00:43:37,795 --> 00:43:41,529
some salt water, put it in a pot, turn on

960
00:43:41,529 --> 00:43:44,390
your stove. All the water will boil off

961
00:43:44,390 --> 00:43:45,559
and then you are left with salt. It is

962
00:43:45,559 --> 00:43:48,736
just as simple as that. Salt water is

963
00:43:48,736 --> 00:43:51,318
about three and a half percent salt by

964
00:43:51,318 --> 00:43:54,191
volume. A gallon of salt water gives you

965
00:43:54,191 --> 00:43:58,036
about a half-cup of salt. That is a fair

966
00:43:58,036 --> 00:44:00,598
bit of salt. If you go and get five

967
00:44:00,598 --> 00:44:02,112
gallons [of sea water], that could be all

968
00:44:02,112 --> 00:44:04,095
of the salt you need for an entire year.

969
00:44:04,095 --> 00:44:05,724
We can be producing all of our own salt

970
00:44:05,724 --> 00:44:09,588
really quite easily. The most sustainable

971
00:44:09,588 --> 00:44:11,196
way to do it is not to put it on your

972
00:44:11,196 --> 00:44:12,679
stove. You can just let that water

973
00:44:12,679 --> 00:44:15,748
evaporate. Use the sun. Let it evaporate

974
00:44:15,748 --> 00:44:19,708
over time. I would prefer to do that, but

975
00:44:19,708 --> 00:44:21,785
I always just boiled it. Usually I boiled

976
00:44:21,785 --> 00:44:25,917
it on wood, waste wood from the

977
00:44:25,917 --> 00:44:27,909
neighborhood, like heat-treated pallets

978
00:44:27,909 --> 00:44:29,522
that did not have chemicals in them, or

979
00:44:29,522 --> 00:44:32,067
wood from the trees in my neighborhood.

980
00:44:32,067 --> 00:44:35,080
Mushrooms were another really important

981
00:44:35,080 --> 00:44:37,535
source of food for me. This is Pete

982
00:44:37,535 --> 00:44:40,046
Kanaris and I. This is two different

983
00:44:40,046 --> 00:44:42,282
species, or three different species of

984
00:44:42,282 --> 00:44:44,398
chanterelle mushrooms. When I started

985
00:44:44,398 --> 00:44:49,613
this, I had maybe foraged mushrooms one

986
00:44:49,613 --> 00:44:51,867
or two times. I would say probably, when

987
00:44:51,867 --> 00:44:53,736
people think about foraging that is one

988
00:44:53,736 --> 00:44:56,901
of the things that scares them the most

989
00:44:56,901 --> 00:44:59,937
is mushrooms. There is one way to never

990
00:44:59,937 --> 00:45:04,051
die or never get sick foraging and that

991
00:45:04,051 --> 00:45:06,088
is, only eat something of you are one-

992
00:45:06,088 --> 00:45:09,104
hundred percent sure what it is. You will

993
00:45:09,104 --> 00:45:12,241
never have problems foraging if you only

994
00:45:12,241 --> 00:45:13,518
eat things that you are one-hundred

995
00:45:13,518 --> 00:45:15,711
percent sure what they are. That is the

996
00:45:15,711 --> 00:45:18,597
number one rule of foraging. One way to

997
00:45:18,597 --> 00:45:21,543
do that is triple confirmation. You don't

998
00:45:21,543 --> 00:45:23,849
take one person's word. You don't take

999
00:45:23,849 --> 00:45:26,015
from me tonight that chanterelles are

1000
00:45:26,015 --> 00:45:28,753
edible. You first have three different,

1001
00:45:28,753 --> 00:45:31,740
good sources. you can decide whether I am

1002
00:45:31,740 --> 00:45:33,100
a good source or not and decide whether

1003
00:45:33,100 --> 00:45:36,085
that is your first source. Three

1004
00:45:36,085 --> 00:45:39,323
different, good resources before you eat

1005
00:45:39,323 --> 00:45:41,419
something from the wild. Triple

1006
00:45:41,419 --> 00:45:44,540
confirmation. I probably foraged about

1007
00:45:44,540 --> 00:45:48,042
twenty species of mushrooms between here

1008
00:45:48,042 --> 00:45:51,917
and my trip to Wisconsin. In Florida,

1009
00:45:51,917 --> 00:45:54,625
chanterelles are probably one of the more

1010
00:45:54,625 --> 00:45:57,264
abundant and easier. It is one of the

1011
00:45:57,264 --> 00:45:59,631
most beginner, easy mushrooms to start

1012
00:45:59,631 --> 00:46:04,533
with. I said I was growing and foraging

1013
00:46:04,533 --> 00:46:06,160
one-hundred percent of my own food and

1014
00:46:06,160 --> 00:46:08,329
that included my own medicine. For the

1015
00:46:08,329 --> 00:46:11,075
last year nature was my garden; it was

1016
00:46:11,075 --> 00:46:14,546
my pantry, and it was my pharmacy. If I

1017
00:46:14,546 --> 00:46:18,623
got sick this year, I could not take any

1018
00:46:18,623 --> 00:46:22,560
medicine to get better. that meant first

1019
00:46:22,560 --> 00:46:24,060
and foremost, I had to take care of my

1020
00:46:24,060 --> 00:46:27,448
health, preventative health care. Today,

1021
00:46:27,448 --> 00:46:29,980
with our modern health insurance it is

1022
00:46:29,980 --> 00:46:31,736
something like seventy-five percent of

1023
00:46:31,736 --> 00:46:34,367
all of our doctors' visits come down to

1024
00:46:34,367 --> 00:46:37,726
what we eat, exercise, basic movement,

1025
00:46:37,726 --> 00:46:41,450
and our level of stress and anxiety.

1026
00:46:41,450 --> 00:46:43,437
Seventy-five percent of our doctors'

1027
00:46:43,437 --> 00:46:45,538
visits can be taken care of through

1028
00:46:45,538 --> 00:46:49,180
preventative health care. Just basic eating

1029
00:46:49,180 --> 00:46:54,068
healthy, moving and living a life that is

1030
00:46:54,068 --> 00:46:57,443
not so stressful and anxious. For me,

1031
00:46:57,443 --> 00:46:59,742
food was my medicine and medicine was my

1032
00:46:59,742 --> 00:47:01,619
food. There is really is no clear

1033
00:47:01,619 --> 00:47:05,971
difference between the two. They are all

1034
00:47:05,971 --> 00:47:07,868
working together. Every green that I

1035
00:47:07,868 --> 00:47:12,113
ate, every vegetable, every fruit, the

1036
00:47:12,113 --> 00:47:14,702
meat that I ate, the fish, it all was my

1037
00:47:14,702 --> 00:47:16,719
medicine. It is just like we need to take

1038
00:47:16,719 --> 00:47:18,474
care of our plants to have healthy

1039
00:47:18,474 --> 00:47:20,688
plants. It is the exact same with us. If

1040
00:47:20,688 --> 00:47:22,296
we are healthy, we are less likely to get

1041
00:47:22,296 --> 00:47:25,091
sick. A couple of my most important

1042
00:47:25,091 --> 00:47:27,214
medicines were elderberry syrup. That

1043
00:47:27,214 --> 00:47:29,736
came from foraging elderberries, which

1044
00:47:29,736 --> 00:47:31,743
are an amazingly abundant resource in

1045
00:47:31,743 --> 00:47:34,452
Central Florida, combining that with

1046
00:47:34,452 --> 00:47:37,396
honey from my bees to make elderberry

1047
00:47:37,396 --> 00:47:39,262
syrup. I would often put turmeric and

1048
00:47:39,262 --> 00:47:41,528
ginger and sometimes fermented garlic in

1049
00:47:41,528 --> 00:47:45,247
there. I took a tablespoon of elderberry

1050
00:47:45,247 --> 00:47:47,772
syrup most every day of this entire year.

1051
00:47:47,772 --> 00:47:50,403
I prevents cold and flu, or if you get

1052
00:47:50,403 --> 00:47:53,042
cold or flu you can use it to reduce it

1053
00:47:53,042 --> 00:47:55,967
or take care of it. Fire cider was

1054
00:47:55,967 --> 00:47:57,496
another one of my important medicines.

1055
00:47:57,496 --> 00:48:01,601
I made vinegar from fruit, apple cider

1056
00:48:01,601 --> 00:48:02,989
vinegar but you can make it from almost

1057
00:48:02,989 --> 00:48:09,952
any fruit. Then onion, garlic horseradish

1058
00:48:09,952 --> 00:48:14,122
and red peppers, serrano peppers and

1059
00:48:14,122 --> 00:48:18,457
maybe another ingredient or two. Ferment

1060
00:48:18,457 --> 00:48:21,463
it over a period of a couple of months,

1061
00:48:21,463 --> 00:48:22,771
probably. That was something that I took

1062
00:48:22,771 --> 00:48:25,815
most days as well. Fire cider, turmeric.

1063
00:48:25,815 --> 00:48:27,306
I grew my own turmeric. That is one of

1064
00:48:27,306 --> 00:48:29,142
the easiest crops that you can grow in

1065
00:48:29,142 --> 00:48:32,503
central Florida. It is like ten to twenty-

1066
00:48:32,503 --> 00:48:34,755
five dollars a pound for organic stuff at

1067
00:48:34,755 --> 00:48:36,915
the grocery store. It grows amazingly

1068
00:48:36,915 --> 00:48:38,849
easily as well. Just go to the grocery

1069
00:48:38,849 --> 00:48:41,480
store, buy some organic turmeric, put it

1070
00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:42,993
in the ground and then you never have to

1071
00:48:42,993 --> 00:48:45,557
buy it again. Simple as that. Ideally

1072
00:48:45,557 --> 00:48:47,982
you can source it locally, but if not

1073
00:48:47,982 --> 00:48:49,191
you can literally just get organic stuff

1074
00:48:49,191 --> 00:48:50,989
from the grocery store and start growing

1075
00:48:50,989 --> 00:48:53,914
your own. Garlic, I consider that a

1076
00:48:53,914 --> 00:48:56,128
medicine as well. Reishi mushrooms are

1077
00:48:56,128 --> 00:48:58,374
something that I foraged, another

1078
00:48:58,374 --> 00:49:01,067
medicine. Herbal teas, plantago, or

1079
00:49:01,067 --> 00:49:03,935
broadleaf plantain, that to me is a

1080
00:49:03,935 --> 00:49:06,198
medicine that very much calls to me. If I

1081
00:49:06,198 --> 00:49:08,896
get stung by my bees, not my bees, I do

1082
00:49:08,896 --> 00:49:10,141
not own them, but the bees that I

1083
00:49:10,141 --> 00:49:14,038
steward. If they sting me and I do not

1084
00:49:14,038 --> 00:49:15,979
do anything, I swell up big. I should

1085
00:49:15,979 --> 00:49:17,079
have put a picture on there, but a lot of

1086
00:49:17,079 --> 00:49:18,884
you have probably seen my face after

1087
00:49:18,884 --> 00:49:22,328
getting stung. I swell up, but if I take

1088
00:49:22,328 --> 00:49:25,041
some honey and dome dried plantago and

1089
00:49:25,041 --> 00:49:26,384
I put it on there within about two

1090
00:49:26,384 --> 00:49:29,944
minutes, I generally don't swell at all.

1091
00:49:29,944 --> 00:49:32,479
It is a pretty amazing medicine. It grows

1092
00:49:32,479 --> 00:49:34,535
probably in most states of the United

1093
00:49:34,535 --> 00:49:38,235
States. You can forage it or you can grow

1094
00:49:38,235 --> 00:49:41,679
it in the garden here in Florida. Food

1095
00:49:41,679 --> 00:49:45,568
was my medicine and medicine was my food.

1096
00:49:45,568 --> 00:49:48,430
Here I am with Jeff. That was early on

1097
00:49:48,430 --> 00:49:49,919
collecting elderberries. This is out by

1098
00:49:49,919 --> 00:49:51,899
Blanchard Park over towards Peanut Butter

1099
00:49:51,899 --> 00:49:55,664
Palace. Again, just an amazing resource.

1100
00:49:55,664 --> 00:49:57,471
It grows all over and you can grow it in

1101
00:49:57,471 --> 00:50:00,227
your garden. Another one of those kind of

1102
00:50:00,227 --> 00:50:02,622
borderline foods or medicine is

1103
00:50:02,622 --> 00:50:04,843
fermentation. [It was] one of the most

1104
00:50:04,843 --> 00:50:07,817
important ways for me to stay healthy, to

1105
00:50:07,817 --> 00:50:11,304
increase the nutrients in my diet, and to

1106
00:50:11,304 --> 00:50:15,258
have a well-functioning digestive system.

1107
00:50:15,258 --> 00:50:18,898
I did a lot of wild fermentation. What is

1108
00:50:18,898 --> 00:50:21,214
wild fermentation? That is taking the

1109
00:50:21,214 --> 00:50:24,481
yeast and the bacteria from the air and

1110
00:50:24,481 --> 00:50:26,676
using that for fermentation. What would

1111
00:50:26,676 --> 00:50:29,497
not be wild fermentation would be a

1112
00:50:29,497 --> 00:50:31,762
controlled, sterile environment where you

1113
00:50:31,762 --> 00:50:34,728
buy a specific yeast, like baker's yeast,

1114
00:50:34,728 --> 00:50:37,580
and you use that to make things bubble or

1115
00:50:37,580 --> 00:50:42,047
rise. It that even fermentation? Is that

1116
00:50:42,047 --> 00:50:44,466
fermentation? Yeah? So that's

1117
00:50:44,466 --> 00:50:46,534
fermentation, but not wild fermentation.

1118
00:50:46,534 --> 00:50:47,976
That is the way that most of the beers

1119
00:50:47,976 --> 00:50:50,658
that you buy, for example, are done. Wild

1120
00:50:50,658 --> 00:50:52,798
fermentation is literally just the yeast

1121
00:50:52,798 --> 00:50:55,281
and the bacteria that are in every breath

1122
00:50:55,281 --> 00:50:57,924
we take, using that to ferment your food.

1123
00:50:57,924 --> 00:51:01,070
All you have to do to attract them is put

1124
00:51:01,070 --> 00:51:03,867
food that they want there that they will

1125
00:51:03,867 --> 00:51:07,230
eat. Bacteria and yeast love sugar. It is

1126
00:51:07,230 --> 00:51:12,547
on every tiny part of our skin. It is in

1127
00:51:12,547 --> 00:51:13,897
every breath we take. Every breath we

1128
00:51:13,897 --> 00:51:17,459
take, we consume yeast and bacteria. Wild

1129
00:51:17,459 --> 00:51:19,298
fermentation. Some of the things that I

1130
00:51:19,298 --> 00:51:23,467
have here, for example, this is papaya

1131
00:51:23,467 --> 00:51:25,318
kraut. You know sauerkraut, but you can

1132
00:51:25,318 --> 00:51:27,545
use the green papaya to make a delicious

1133
00:51:27,545 --> 00:51:31,566
ferment. This is jun. Jun is not gin. It

1134
00:51:31,566 --> 00:51:34,381
is like kombucha, except it uses honey

1135
00:51:34,381 --> 00:51:37,251
and green tea. You can grow green tea

1136
00:51:37,251 --> 00:51:40,279
here as well, or yaupon holly. I will

1137
00:51:40,279 --> 00:51:43,421
tell you about that in a bit. Fruit scrap

1138
00:51:43,421 --> 00:51:45,842
vinegar. Most fruits, especially fruits

1139
00:51:45,842 --> 00:51:47,406
that are high in sugar, you can make

1140
00:51:47,406 --> 00:51:50,344
vinegar from. The rinds of pineapples

1141
00:51:50,344 --> 00:51:52,638
have enough juices left on them still

1142
00:51:52,638 --> 00:51:54,154
that you can make vinegar just from the

1143
00:51:54,154 --> 00:51:57,587
left-over pineapple scraps. Honey wine

1144
00:51:57,587 --> 00:52:00,929
and another one is ginger beer or

1145
00:52:00,929 --> 00:52:03,311
turmeric beer. That is not alcohol, even

1146
00:52:03,311 --> 00:52:04,951
though it is called beer, but it is

1147
00:52:04,951 --> 00:52:08,883
another one that I made. These are some

1148
00:52:08,883 --> 00:52:16,204
of my sauerkrauts, here. I did not have a

1149
00:52:16,204 --> 00:52:17,611
fridge and I did not have air

1150
00:52:17,611 --> 00:52:20,000
conditioning, so I needed to keep them

1151
00:52:20,000 --> 00:52:22,614
cold. What I did was build this little

1152
00:52:22,614 --> 00:52:24,784
underground storage. It was an

1153
00:52:24,784 --> 00:52:26,847
experiment. I did not know if it would

1154
00:52:26,847 --> 00:52:28,164
work. I knew it would at least be a

1155
00:52:28,164 --> 00:52:31,032
little bit better, probably. The idea was

1156
00:52:31,032 --> 00:52:33,553
to keep the things cooler because

1157
00:52:33,553 --> 00:52:35,556
fermenting is done best in somewhere like

1158
00:52:35,556 --> 00:52:38,510
the mid-seventies, not ninety degrees.

1159
00:52:38,510 --> 00:52:40,233
There is some fermenting that can be done

1160
00:52:40,233 --> 00:52:41,825
at that [temperature], but sauerkraut and

1161
00:52:41,825 --> 00:52:43,555
thing like that are around seventy

1162
00:52:43,555 --> 00:52:46,027
degrees. Hard to do it the summer, unless

1163
00:52:46,027 --> 00:52:47,143
you are in air conditioning. Then it

1164
00:52:47,143 --> 00:52:49,218
does not matter. I had to figure out a

1165
00:52:49,218 --> 00:52:50,877
way to keep things a little bit cooler.

1166
00:52:50,877 --> 00:52:53,515
My friend Harley built this little

1167
00:52:53,515 --> 00:52:58,423
underground storage container. The idea

1168
00:52:58,423 --> 00:52:59,940
was at least maybe I would get an extra

1169
00:52:59,940 --> 00:53:04,047
month of life out of the sauerkraut. It

1170
00:53:04,047 --> 00:53:05,427
not like I could go to the store and buy

1171
00:53:05,427 --> 00:53:07,152
cabbage and I could not grow cabbage in

1172
00:53:07,152 --> 00:53:09,083
the summer. I had to figure out a way to

1173
00:53:09,083 --> 00:53:10,835
make it last. That is how you make it

1174
00:53:10,835 --> 00:53:14,682
last, through sauerkraut. I went away,

1175
00:53:14,682 --> 00:53:15,905
like I said, to Wisconsin for three

1176
00:53:15,905 --> 00:53:18,972
months. When I came back, I opened that

1177
00:53:18,972 --> 00:53:20,524
thing up and I still had about three or

1178
00:53:20,524 --> 00:53:22,975
four jars of sauerkraut in there. I made

1179
00:53:22,975 --> 00:53:25,258
them three months before I left. This was

1180
00:53:25,258 --> 00:53:27,511
six month old sauerkraut, sitting in the

1181
00:53:27,511 --> 00:53:30,326
ground in Florida, about ninety degrees

1182
00:53:30,326 --> 00:53:32,911
every day for those six months. When I

1183
00:53:32,911 --> 00:53:35,237
opened that thing I did not know "is this

1184
00:53:35,237 --> 00:53:37,133
stuff still going to be good?". I opened

1185
00:53:37,133 --> 00:53:40,064
it up. It looked good. I took the cap

1186
00:53:40,064 --> 00:53:42,006
off. It smelled good. I just pulled the

1187
00:53:42,006 --> 00:53:44,261
little top layer off. That is called the

1188
00:53:44,261 --> 00:53:47,352
sacrificial leaf that you put on top.

1189
00:53:47,352 --> 00:53:48,382
I bit it and it was some of the most

1190
00:53:48,382 --> 00:53:50,021
delicious sauerkraut that I have ever

1191
00:53:50,021 --> 00:53:52,805
made. I was a really awesome little

1192
00:53:52,805 --> 00:53:54,996
experience, a little experiment to see

1193
00:53:54,996 --> 00:53:57,158
that you can do that here even in the

1194
00:53:57,158 --> 00:53:59,615
heat of Florida. If you want to get into

1195
00:53:59,615 --> 00:54:03,361
wild fermentation, my favorite is "Wild

1196
00:54:03,361 --> 00:54:06,002
Fermentation" Sandor Katz, also called

1197
00:54:06,002 --> 00:54:09,066
Sandor Kraut. He is also named the Johnny

1198
00:54:09,066 --> 00:54:11,357
Appleseed of fermentation by Michael

1199
00:54:11,357 --> 00:54:14,152
Pollan. Amazing book. Highly recommend

1200
00:54:14,152 --> 00:54:16,677
it. You will learn what you need to know

1201
00:54:16,677 --> 00:54:19,109
about wild fermentation. A little bit

1202
00:54:19,109 --> 00:54:22,620
about fruit foraging - I did not have the

1203
00:54:22,620 --> 00:54:26,949
time to establish fruit trees, Most fruit

1204
00:54:26,949 --> 00:54:30,439
trees take a bit of time to produce, a

1205
00:54:30,439 --> 00:54:32,255
couple of years. Avocados, for example,

1206
00:54:32,255 --> 00:54:35,392
can take five-plus years. I was not able

1207
00:54:35,392 --> 00:54:38,090
to grow most of my fruit. Foraging was my

1208
00:54:38,090 --> 00:54:41,332
key for most of my fruit. I mentioned

1209
00:54:41,332 --> 00:54:43,133
that I grew papayas and bananas, but

1210
00:54:43,133 --> 00:54:44,781
for the most part my fruit came from

1211
00:54:44,781 --> 00:54:49,197
foraging. Some of the easiest to forage

1212
00:54:49,197 --> 00:54:53,187
and easiest to grow fruits are loquat,

1213
00:54:53,187 --> 00:54:56,622
mulberry, Suriname cherry, banana,

1214
00:54:56,622 --> 00:54:57,991
avocado, citrus, which would be

1215
00:54:57,991 --> 00:55:01,929
grapefruit, lemon, oranges, passion

1216
00:55:01,929 --> 00:55:03,726
fruit, which is not a tree. It is a vine.

1217
00:55:03,726 --> 00:55:06,278
I think I missed starfruit. The ones that

1218
00:55:06,278 --> 00:55:12,111
I foraged a lot are loquat, mulberry,

1219
00:55:12,111 --> 00:55:14,384
starfruit, Suriname cherry, banana, some

1220
00:55:14,384 --> 00:55:17,028
avocado, citrus, banana, not passion

1221
00:55:17,028 --> 00:55:19,940
fruit. I grew that. Those are all also

1222
00:55:19,940 --> 00:55:23,313
fairly easy to grow. Except citrus

1223
00:55:23,313 --> 00:55:24,640
because of citrus greening, but there is

1224
00:55:24,640 --> 00:55:27,199
still a ton of citrus in existence. There

1225
00:55:27,199 --> 00:55:28,351
is a lot of it out there, even with that

1226
00:55:28,351 --> 00:55:31,488
disease. Some more abundant foraging that

1227
00:55:31,488 --> 00:55:34,179
I experienced were mango, prickly pear

1228
00:55:34,179 --> 00:55:37,345
cactus and white sapote were other great

1229
00:55:37,345 --> 00:55:40,897
foraging that I had. A few mentions, as

1230
00:55:40,897 --> 00:55:43,688
far as fruit trees: persimmon, cocoa

1231
00:55:43,688 --> 00:55:46,125
plum, Java plum, pond apple, sea grapes

1232
00:55:46,125 --> 00:55:49,203
are all fruits that I had pretty good

1233
00:55:49,203 --> 00:55:52,221
success with. There are hundreds of

1234
00:55:52,221 --> 00:55:56,318
fruits that grow in Florida. There are

1235
00:55:56,318 --> 00:55:57,572
different fruits that grow in Northern

1236
00:55:57,572 --> 00:55:59,430
Florida, Central Florida and South

1237
00:55:59,430 --> 00:56:00,926
Florida. We actually have a pretty

1238
00:56:00,926 --> 00:56:04,076
diverse state. Those are just some of the

1239
00:56:04,076 --> 00:56:06,561
fruits that I experienced. I went to

1240
00:56:06,561 --> 00:56:09,514
South Florida for my mangoes. This is

1241
00:56:09,514 --> 00:56:12,487
about a day of foraging down there for

1242
00:56:12,487 --> 00:56:13,694
mangoes. There are so many mangoes that

1243
00:56:13,694 --> 00:56:16,939
it is a problem. What I would do for

1244
00:56:16,939 --> 00:56:20,059
foraging for fruit is just ride my bike

1245
00:56:20,059 --> 00:56:21,838
around, or be in car depending on the

1246
00:56:21,838 --> 00:56:25,487
situation. If I saw a huge mango tree and

1247
00:56:25,487 --> 00:56:28,465
there was fruit falling to the ground and

1248
00:56:28,465 --> 00:56:30,931
the road, I would just knock on the door

1249
00:56:30,931 --> 00:56:32,680
and ask if I could harvest that fruit.

1250
00:56:32,680 --> 00:56:35,403
Generally, the answer was yes. Sometimes

1251
00:56:35,403 --> 00:56:37,720
it was "Absolutely! Please!" This stuff is

1252
00:56:37,720 --> 00:56:39,684
rotting on the ground and causing me

1253
00:56:39,684 --> 00:56:42,261
trouble, or falling on my car. A lot of

1254
00:56:42,261 --> 00:56:44,116
the time, people wanted it to be taken.

1255
00:56:44,116 --> 00:56:48,620
Generally, that was the response. That

1256
00:56:48,620 --> 00:56:50,953
was a form of urban foraging. That was

1257
00:56:50,953 --> 00:56:53,819
one of the gray areas. A lot of it was

1258
00:56:53,819 --> 00:56:56,771
abandoned lots. There are fruit trees

1259
00:56:56,771 --> 00:56:58,931
growing in abandoned lots, in the

1260
00:56:58,931 --> 00:57:01,807
forests, in public parks, which is all

1261
00:57:01,807 --> 00:57:03,651
clear foraging. The stuff that was

1262
00:57:03,651 --> 00:57:07,420
growing over the street, on someone's

1263
00:57:07,420 --> 00:57:11,526
lawn, that was one of my gray areas as to

1264
00:57:11,526 --> 00:57:13,093
whether I completely considered that

1265
00:57:13,093 --> 00:57:18,523
foraging. Basically, it is what I

1266
00:57:18,523 --> 00:57:20,743
considered foraging. I tried to stick to

1267
00:57:20,743 --> 00:57:24,147
all fruit trees that had pretty much

1268
00:57:24,147 --> 00:57:25,806
naturalized, where nobody was taking care

1269
00:57:25,806 --> 00:57:27,755
of them. They were just largely in

1270
00:57:27,755 --> 00:57:30,433
existence, that kind of gray area of

1271
00:57:30,433 --> 00:57:32,943
humanity. Ultimately, that was one of the

1272
00:57:32,943 --> 00:57:38,497
big things for me. This project was about

1273
00:57:38,497 --> 00:57:41,969
stepping away from big ag, but it was not

1274
00:57:41,969 --> 00:57:44,607
about stepping away from humanity. It was

1275
00:57:44,607 --> 00:57:46,080
not about stepping away from other

1276
00:57:46,080 --> 00:57:49,002
people. I realized that almost everything

1277
00:57:49,002 --> 00:57:52,410
that I ate was affected by humans in one

1278
00:57:52,410 --> 00:57:54,613
way or another. Most of the weeds that I

1279
00:57:54,613 --> 00:57:55,825
was eating, a lot of them came from

1280
00:57:55,825 --> 00:57:57,476
Europe four-hundred years ago from

1281
00:57:57,476 --> 00:57:59,338
humans. That was one of the interesting

1282
00:57:59,338 --> 00:58:03,474
lessons. "Wild" and "domesticated," is a

1283
00:58:03,474 --> 00:58:08,183
gray area. An important tool for fruit

1284
00:58:08,183 --> 00:58:10,494
foraging is a fruit picker. I bought this

1285
00:58:10,494 --> 00:58:13,362
for forty dollars at a hardware store.

1286
00:58:13,362 --> 00:58:16,028
That allows you to reach way more fruit,

1287
00:58:16,028 --> 00:58:17,791
fruit that often would go to waste

1288
00:58:17,791 --> 00:58:19,342
because most people do not have a fruit

1289
00:58:19,342 --> 00:58:21,160
picker. They just pick the lower stuff.

1290
00:58:21,160 --> 00:58:25,462
I would often pick the higher up stuff

1291
00:58:25,462 --> 00:58:27,908
that other people definitely would not

1292
00:58:27,908 --> 00:58:33,436
have gotten. My meals were definitely not

1293
00:58:33,436 --> 00:58:35,526
bland, occasionally bland, but for the

1294
00:58:35,526 --> 00:58:37,577
most part not bland. I grew lots of herbs

1295
00:58:37,577 --> 00:58:39,985
and spices. The ones that I am going to

1296
00:58:39,985 --> 00:58:42,522
list here are the ones that I recommend

1297
00:58:42,522 --> 00:58:44,910
for Central Florida that do grow well:

1298
00:58:44,910 --> 00:58:48,239
African blue basil, Cuban oregano, holy

1299
00:58:48,239 --> 00:58:52,010
basil, garlic chives, green onion, mint,

1300
00:58:52,010 --> 00:58:55,449
rosemary, lemon grass, Italian basil,

1301
00:58:55,449 --> 00:58:58,953
Thai basil, papalo, which popped up in my

1302
00:58:58,953 --> 00:59:01,320
garden. I had no clue what it was. It was

1303
00:59:01,320 --> 00:59:04,207
this mystery, but it was a great herb.

1304
00:59:04,207 --> 00:59:05,689
Some people consider it close to

1305
00:59:05,689 --> 00:59:10,227
cilantro. Cilantro, dill, fennel, thyme,

1306
00:59:10,227 --> 00:59:13,794
oregano, curry leaf tree, garlic, sage,

1307
00:59:13,794 --> 00:59:16,624
dill seeds, coriander. the dill seeds are

1308
00:59:16,624 --> 00:59:19,386
you let dill go to seed and you get dill

1309
00:59:19,386 --> 00:59:21,991
seeds. Coriander is cilantro that goes to

1310
00:59:21,991 --> 00:59:26,733
seed. Those are just some of the herbs

1311
00:59:26,733 --> 00:59:29,998
and spices that I grew this year. I am

1312
00:59:29,998 --> 00:59:32,841
just featuring those as the highlights.

1313
00:59:32,841 --> 00:59:36,502
I grew a lot of annual greens. Collards

1314
00:59:36,502 --> 00:59:38,952
are my top recommendation as far as

1315
00:59:38,952 --> 00:59:41,324
annual greens. Some of the ones I grew:

1316
00:59:41,324 --> 00:59:43,603
collards, kale arugula, swiss chard,

1317
00:59:43,603 --> 00:59:45,226
mustard greens, chicory, lettuce,

1318
00:59:45,226 --> 00:59:47,706
cabbage, brassicas (That's the whole

1319
00:59:47,706 --> 00:59:51,793
family of broccoli and kale and collards

1320
00:59:51,793 --> 00:59:54,387
and such.), Asian greens bok choy and

1321
00:59:54,387 --> 00:59:57,174
tatsoi do really well in this area,

1322
00:59:57,174 --> 01:00:00,280
nasturtium and amaranth would be a

1323
01:00:00,280 --> 01:00:02,544
bunch of the annual greens that I grew.

1324
01:00:02,544 --> 01:00:04,725
I really prefer perennial greens though.

1325
01:00:04,725 --> 01:00:07,708
For those of you who do not know what

1326
01:00:07,708 --> 01:00:09,983
an annual is, that is a plant that

1327
01:00:09,983 --> 01:00:12,374
generally produces about once and then

1328
01:00:12,374 --> 01:00:15,273
dies. A good example of that is a carrot.

1329
01:00:15,273 --> 01:00:16,867
you cannot leave a carrot in the ground

1330
01:00:16,867 --> 01:00:19,740
for more carrots to come. You have to

1331
01:00:19,740 --> 01:00:21,487
pull that carrot up after about ninety

1332
01:00:21,487 --> 01:00:23,085
days and eat that carrot. Otherwise, you

1333
01:00:23,085 --> 01:00:27,306
get no food. Perennials, some of them

1334
01:00:27,306 --> 01:00:29,688
can be [producing for] three, four, five

1335
01:00:29,688 --> 01:00:32,115
years. Rhubarb, in the North generally

1336
01:00:32,115 --> 01:00:35,316
lasts for twenty-five years. Oak trees

1337
01:00:35,316 --> 01:00:38,040
can be hundreds of years old. Those put

1338
01:00:38,040 --> 01:00:43,095
out acorns, which are edible. Perennials

1339
01:00:43,095 --> 01:00:45,622
can produce for years, decades, or even

1340
01:00:45,622 --> 01:00:48,604
over one century. They are much more

1341
01:00:48,604 --> 01:00:51,360
resource efficient. They are more time

1342
01:00:51,360 --> 01:00:55,076
efficient. They consume far fewer

1343
01:00:55,076 --> 01:00:57,533
resources. Generally, they add nutrition

1344
01:00:57,533 --> 01:00:59,945
back to the soil. When you take out a

1345
01:00:59,945 --> 01:01:02,826
plant from the soil, you are taking out

1346
01:01:02,826 --> 01:01:06,789
nutrients. Perennials, by staying there's

1347
01:01:06,789 --> 01:01:10,204
less disruption of the soil. That would

1348
01:01:10,204 --> 01:01:11,246
be something that goes hand in hand with

1349
01:01:11,246 --> 01:01:14,472
no-till gardening, for example. The

1350
01:01:14,472 --> 01:01:16,234
number one plant that I recommend in

1351
01:01:16,234 --> 01:01:17,738
Central Florida, if everybody in this

1352
01:01:17,738 --> 01:01:20,039
room just had one plant, it would be

1353
01:01:20,039 --> 01:01:22,552
moringa. It is also called the vitamin

1354
01:01:22,552 --> 01:01:25,146
tree, or the tree of life. It is one of

1355
01:01:25,146 --> 01:01:27,115
the most nutrient-dense plants on earth.

1356
01:01:27,115 --> 01:01:29,702
Another survival plant, it needs almost

1357
01:01:29,702 --> 01:01:31,456
no water or irrigation. It needs almost

1358
01:01:31,456 --> 01:01:33,738
no nutrients. It is native to India, from

1359
01:01:33,738 --> 01:01:37,278
dry part of India. It is one of the most

1360
01:01:37,278 --> 01:01:39,593
nutrient-dense plants on Earth. It is

1361
01:01:39,593 --> 01:01:42,660
truly a miracle food. If everyone had one

1362
01:01:42,660 --> 01:01:43,823
of those plants, it could change the

1363
01:01:43,823 --> 01:01:47,239
entire state of Florida. Very easy to

1364
01:01:47,239 --> 01:01:48,625
grow, you can get it from a cutting,

1365
01:01:48,625 --> 01:01:50,359
stick that cutting in the ground or from

1366
01:01:50,359 --> 01:01:54,051
seeds. Moringa is my number one

1367
01:01:54,051 --> 01:01:56,360
recommendation. Other ones are katook.

1368
01:01:56,360 --> 01:01:58,269
That is what you see right here, that I

1369
01:01:58,269 --> 01:02:01,490
am cutting. Chia, that is also considered

1370
01:02:01,490 --> 01:02:03,198
a superfood. I has been grown for

1371
01:02:03,198 --> 01:02:05,215
thousands of years. It dates back to, I

1372
01:02:05,215 --> 01:02:08,609
think, the Aztecs, the Mayans, in Central

1373
01:02:08,609 --> 01:02:11,480
and South America. Sweet potato greens,

1374
01:02:11,480 --> 01:02:14,324
as I mentioned before, yuca greens or

1375
01:02:14,324 --> 01:02:16,256
cassava, not only does it create a tuber,

1376
01:02:16,256 --> 01:02:18,769
but you can also eat the greens. Just

1377
01:02:18,769 --> 01:02:21,050
like chia, they are high in cyanide so

1378
01:02:21,050 --> 01:02:24,040
they have to be cooked. Do not be scared

1379
01:02:24,040 --> 01:02:25,841
by the fact that they have a poison in

1380
01:02:25,841 --> 01:02:28,125
them. A lot of our foods are poisonous

1381
01:02:28,125 --> 01:02:30,786
if not prepared correctly, or toxic might

1382
01:02:30,786 --> 01:02:32,866
be a better word. They just have to be

1383
01:02:32,866 --> 01:02:35,376
boiled for, depending on who you talk to,

1384
01:02:35,376 --> 01:02:37,835
three to twenty minutes. You can go

1385
01:02:37,835 --> 01:02:41,149
twenty minutes, whatever you want. Yuca

1386
01:02:41,149 --> 01:02:43,207
greens. Other ones, cranberry hibiscus,

1387
01:02:43,207 --> 01:02:47,094
purslane is one of my favorite foods on

1388
01:02:47,094 --> 01:02:51,041
Earth. It is very nutrient-dense. It is

1389
01:02:51,041 --> 01:02:52,069
actually one of the few plants that are

1390
01:02:52,069 --> 01:02:55,308
high in omegas. Garden sorrel, again

1391
01:02:55,308 --> 01:03:00,053
plantago, and perennial spinaches. We can

1392
01:03:00,053 --> 01:03:01,208
grow a lot of different perennial

1393
01:03:01,208 --> 01:03:03,073
spinaches here. To name a few of them:

1394
01:03:03,073 --> 01:03:06,068
Okinawa, longevity, Suriname, Malabar,

1395
01:03:06,068 --> 01:03:09,076
Brazilian. Those are just five of the

1396
01:03:09,076 --> 01:03:10,805
perennial spinaches that we can grow

1397
01:03:10,805 --> 01:03:14,202
here. Foraging greens, this is right here

1398
01:03:14,202 --> 01:03:16,464
on Bumby. This is a plant that most

1399
01:03:16,464 --> 01:03:19,870
people know, Bidens alba, or Spanish

1400
01:03:19,870 --> 01:03:22,397
needle. It is despised by many front lawn

1401
01:03:22,397 --> 01:03:25,889
growers and gardeners as a weed, but it

1402
01:03:25,889 --> 01:03:28,377
is actually nutritious and medicinal. It

1403
01:03:28,377 --> 01:03:30,160
is one of the most highly regarded

1404
01:03:30,160 --> 01:03:33,029
medicinal plants by a lot of the local

1405
01:03:33,029 --> 01:03:37,230
holistic health practitioners. If you go

1406
01:03:37,230 --> 01:03:38,814
to the Florida School of Holistic Living,

1407
01:03:38,814 --> 01:03:41,500
they are always talking about Bidens

1408
01:03:41,500 --> 01:03:44,433
alba. It is an important medicinal, but

1409
01:03:44,433 --> 01:03:46,723
it is also just a great edible and very

1410
01:03:46,723 --> 01:03:50,189
nutritious. This is it right here. It has

1411
01:03:50,189 --> 01:03:53,067
these flowers with the yellow in the

1412
01:03:53,067 --> 01:03:55,449
center and the white around it. You can

1413
01:03:55,449 --> 01:03:56,928
eat the flowers. They make a nice salad

1414
01:03:56,928 --> 01:03:59,747
garnish, or you can eat the greens. It is

1415
01:03:59,747 --> 01:04:02,215
beautiful food and everywhere you go in

1416
01:04:02,215 --> 01:04:06,082
the United States, most every you go in

1417
01:04:06,082 --> 01:04:07,997
the United States, there are going to be

1418
01:04:07,997 --> 01:04:11,822
"weeds" that are edible, nutritious, and

1419
01:04:11,822 --> 01:04:14,259
often medicinal greens. To name some

1420
01:04:14,259 --> 01:04:16,378
other great ones in the area: dollar

1421
01:04:16,378 --> 01:04:19,563
weed is in most of your yards, probably,

1422
01:04:19,563 --> 01:04:22,747
gotu kola, it is considered a brain food,

1423
01:04:22,747 --> 01:04:26,900
a very important one, bacopa, oxalis,

1424
01:04:26,900 --> 01:04:29,818
purslane. Then there are sea greens like

1425
01:04:29,818 --> 01:04:32,602
sea purslane and sea blight. Then

1426
01:04:32,602 --> 01:04:34,793
plantago, which might be the third time I

1427
01:04:34,793 --> 01:04:36,622
have brought that plant up. I obviously

1428
01:04:36,622 --> 01:04:39,585
like it quite a bit. One of the foods

1429
01:04:39,585 --> 01:04:42,582
that I made was green juice. That was a

1430
01:04:42,582 --> 01:04:45,740
good staple this year. As far as water,

1431
01:04:45,740 --> 01:04:48,238
when I went into this year my hope was to

1432
01:04:48,238 --> 01:04:51,959
actually get all of my water foraged as

1433
01:04:51,959 --> 01:04:53,551
well, which meant harvesting rain water.

1434
01:04:53,551 --> 01:04:56,412
That was something I quickly realized I

1435
01:04:56,412 --> 01:04:57,585
was not going to do because I did not

1436
01:04:57,585 --> 01:04:59,892
want to have to carry around gallons of

1437
01:04:59,892 --> 01:05:02,716
water everywhere I went. At my tiny house

1438
01:05:02,716 --> 01:05:04,717
I harvested rain water, [and] put it through a

1439
01:05:04,717 --> 01:05:07,556
filter. This is called a Berkey filter,

1440
01:05:07,556 --> 01:05:09,959
That purified it and that was my

1441
01:05:09,959 --> 01:05:12,377
drinking water. A majority of my water

1442
01:05:12,377 --> 01:05:15,556
this year was foraged water. It was

1443
01:05:15,556 --> 01:05:17,400
drinking water. Wherever I went, if I had

1444
01:05:17,400 --> 01:05:20,177
to I drank tap water as well. Some

1445
01:05:20,177 --> 01:05:22,239
mentions of other plants, and this is

1446
01:05:22,239 --> 01:05:23,675
getting close to the end of the plant

1447
01:05:23,675 --> 01:05:26,541
section. Other things: carrots, I grew

1448
01:05:26,541 --> 01:05:28,205
over sixty pounds of carrots this year.

1449
01:05:28,205 --> 01:05:30,310
That was an important food source. Beets,

1450
01:05:30,310 --> 01:05:33,431
tindora cucumber, which is perennial

1451
01:05:33,431 --> 01:05:35,420
cucumber that can grow year-round.

1452
01:05:35,420 --> 01:05:38,405
Peppers grow really well in Central

1453
01:05:38,405 --> 01:05:39,592
Florida. That is probably one of the

1454
01:05:39,592 --> 01:05:41,443
easiest foods to start with. I grew

1455
01:05:41,443 --> 01:05:43,203
serrano peppers and ghost peppers.

1456
01:05:43,203 --> 01:05:46,328
Everglades tomatoes, it is hard to grow

1457
01:05:46,328 --> 01:05:48,697
big tomatoes in Central Florida, but

1458
01:05:48,697 --> 01:05:50,545
Everglades tomatoes grow really well.

1459
01:05:50,545 --> 01:05:53,668
Daikon radish is an amazing one. You can

1460
01:05:53,668 --> 01:05:57,974
make ferments from that. Green tea is a

1461
01:05:57,974 --> 01:05:59,617
really great one that you can grow here,

1462
01:05:59,617 --> 01:06:01,977
but there is something that I prefer that

1463
01:06:01,977 --> 01:06:05,035
I will get to in a minute. Roselle, or

1464
01:06:05,035 --> 01:06:08,438
Jamaican sorrel, amaranth grains as far

1465
01:06:08,438 --> 01:06:09,878
as grains, that was the one that I

1466
01:06:09,878 --> 01:06:12,065
experimented with. I did get two pounds

1467
01:06:12,065 --> 01:06:14,731
of grains, full of rocks, so it never was

1468
01:06:14,731 --> 01:06:18,750
tasty. It was probably worse eating it

1469
01:06:18,750 --> 01:06:22,498
than not eating it. Amaranth grains is a

1470
01:06:22,498 --> 01:06:26,673
good potential [crop]. Green beans, yard-

1471
01:06:26,673 --> 01:06:31,482
long beans are a really great food to

1472
01:06:31,482 --> 01:06:33,992
grow here. Cucumbers, I did well with

1473
01:06:33,992 --> 01:06:35,675
annual cucumbers, but that one is not

1474
01:06:35,675 --> 01:06:39,463
always easy. Kohlrabi, celery, eggplant

1475
01:06:39,463 --> 01:06:42,980
and also just standard, small potatoes

1476
01:06:42,980 --> 01:06:45,986
can do well as well. Some other important

1477
01:06:45,986 --> 01:06:48,415
mentions for foraging, there are acorns.

1478
01:06:48,415 --> 01:06:53,386
For much of humanity many people that

1479
01:06:53,386 --> 01:06:55,676
existed, fifty percent of their calories

1480
01:06:55,676 --> 01:06:58,712
came from acorns. We only exist today as

1481
01:06:58,712 --> 01:07:02,004
humanity, possibly because of the acorn.

1482
01:07:02,004 --> 01:07:04,304
We might not exist without the acorn. It

1483
01:07:04,304 --> 01:07:05,856
is one of the most important food sources

1484
01:07:05,856 --> 01:07:09,273
on Earth. Oak is present, I thing, on

1485
01:07:09,273 --> 01:07:12,519
every continent except Antarctica. An

1486
01:07:12,519 --> 01:07:14,924
extremely important food source and can

1487
01:07:14,924 --> 01:07:17,506
still be used today. Here in Central

1488
01:07:17,506 --> 01:07:19,747
Florida, you could get most of your

1489
01:07:19,747 --> 01:07:21,664
calories from acorns if you wanted to

1490
01:07:21,664 --> 01:07:23,890
take the time and energy to do that.

1491
01:07:23,890 --> 01:07:27,642
Hickory nuts are a great nut. You can

1492
01:07:27,642 --> 01:07:30,855
make nut milk. Sam Thayer is one of the

1493
01:07:30,855 --> 01:07:36,036
great foragers. He has got three books

1494
01:07:36,036 --> 01:07:37,947
that I recommend: "Nature's Garden" is

1495
01:07:37,947 --> 01:07:39,669
one of them, I cannot think of the name

1496
01:07:39,669 --> 01:07:40,911
of the other one that I read at the

1497
01:07:40,911 --> 01:07:44,799
moment. What he taught me to do is to

1498
01:07:44,799 --> 01:07:47,304
smash the hickory nuts in the shell

1499
01:07:47,304 --> 01:07:49,417
because they are like walnuts, but there

1500
01:07:49,417 --> 01:07:51,951
is way more shell and not a lot of nut so

1501
01:07:51,951 --> 01:07:54,257
it is very tedious to pull out. If you

1502
01:07:54,257 --> 01:07:55,648
are trying to grow and forage one-hundred

1503
01:07:55,648 --> 01:07:56,992
percent of your food, you have to learn

1504
01:07:56,992 --> 01:07:59,676
to use your time effectively. How you use

1505
01:07:59,676 --> 01:08:01,241
your time effectively with hickory nuts

1506
01:08:01,241 --> 01:08:03,935
is you smash them up, you throw them in a

1507
01:08:03,935 --> 01:08:06,736
pot, you boil them and that makes hickory

1508
01:08:06,736 --> 01:08:09,737
nut milk. Then you just strain it out. It

1509
01:08:09,737 --> 01:08:12,004
takes just minutes to make you own nut

1510
01:08:12,004 --> 01:08:16,015
milk that is great, high in fats and

1511
01:08:16,015 --> 01:08:18,711
delicious. I put honey in it to make it a

1512
01:08:18,711 --> 01:08:22,916
really nice drink. Beauty berry is a

1513
01:08:22,916 --> 01:08:25,794
native plant to Florida that grows all

1514
01:08:25,794 --> 01:08:29,355
over, great little snack. Smilax, also

1515
01:08:29,355 --> 01:08:32,723
called Nature's asparagus or wild

1516
01:08:32,723 --> 01:08:35,291
asparagus, I think. It is delicious. It

1517
01:08:35,291 --> 01:08:38,000
just grows all over the place. Cattail,

1518
01:08:38,000 --> 01:08:40,824
we could talk about cattail for hours.

1519
01:08:40,824 --> 01:08:43,101
You can do cattail pollen. You can the

1520
01:08:43,101 --> 01:08:46,595
roots, the rhizomes, the shoots. When

1521
01:08:46,595 --> 01:08:48,591
the tops are young, you can eat that like

1522
01:08:48,591 --> 01:08:50,706
corn on the cob. You can eat most parts

1523
01:08:50,706 --> 01:08:51,945
of that plant at different times of the

1524
01:08:51,945 --> 01:08:55,936
year. Amazing plant. Bitter melon, those

1525
01:08:55,936 --> 01:08:58,267
are those weeds you see, those little

1526
01:08:58,267 --> 01:09:00,332
orange melons that grow as weeds in the

1527
01:09:00,332 --> 01:09:03,412
area. According to Green Dean, four of

1528
01:09:03,412 --> 01:09:05,716
those little melons a day will give you

1529
01:09:05,716 --> 01:09:07,850
all of the lycopene you need. I do not

1530
01:09:07,850 --> 01:09:09,417
know everything about lycopene, but

1531
01:09:09,417 --> 01:09:11,499
apparently it is an important thing. You

1532
01:09:11,499 --> 01:09:12,876
do not eat the seed. You just suck the

1533
01:09:12,876 --> 01:09:14,192
fruit off of it because the seed is

1534
01:09:14,192 --> 01:09:17,854
toxic. You just suck the fruit right off

1535
01:09:17,854 --> 01:09:20,485
of it. That is an amazing "weed" that is

1536
01:09:20,485 --> 01:09:22,637
great. [It] grows right around us.

1537
01:09:22,637 --> 01:09:25,673
Brazilian pepper is an invasive, but it

1538
01:09:25,673 --> 01:09:28,279
makes a red pepper corn that you can use

1539
01:09:28,279 --> 01:09:30,458
as a pepper substitute. I do not like it.

1540
01:09:30,458 --> 01:09:33,319
I used it occasionally, but a lot of

1541
01:09:33,319 --> 01:09:36,083
people like it. American nightshade is a

1542
01:09:36,083 --> 01:09:40,327
really great forageable. One of the big

1543
01:09:40,327 --> 01:09:42,064
foraging ones for me this year that

1544
01:09:42,064 --> 01:09:43,846
really deserves a whole section, but I

1545
01:09:43,846 --> 01:09:45,546
put it in the honorable mentions - that

1546
01:09:45,546 --> 01:09:47,532
is yaupon holly. It is North America's

1547
01:09:47,532 --> 01:09:51,753
only native caffeinated plant. It is a

1548
01:09:51,753 --> 01:09:54,531
plant with amazing potential. It has the

1549
01:09:54,531 --> 01:09:56,434
same abilities basically, as green tea

1550
01:09:56,434 --> 01:09:59,656
(the antioxidants in it). It grows

1551
01:09:59,656 --> 01:10:01,928
natively to Florida. It needs no water

1552
01:10:01,928 --> 01:10:04,868
and can be harvested wild or grown on

1553
01:10:04,868 --> 01:10:07,728
your property. It is often used as a nice

1554
01:10:07,728 --> 01:10:09,761
landscaping plant. You can forage it all

1555
01:10:09,761 --> 01:10:13,210
over the city. It has the same amount of

1556
01:10:13,210 --> 01:10:15,133
caffeine as coffee, and it is related to

1557
01:10:15,133 --> 01:10:17,247
yerba matte. It is basically the yerba

1558
01:10:17,247 --> 01:10:21,043
matte of North America. Then, a couple of

1559
01:10:21,043 --> 01:10:23,458
failures that I tried: I mentioned

1560
01:10:23,458 --> 01:10:26,042
sunflowers, which turned into squirrels

1561
01:10:26,042 --> 01:10:31,026
magically. Peanuts, and my big goal was

1562
01:10:31,026 --> 01:10:33,839
to grow my own peanut butter, make my own

1563
01:10:33,839 --> 01:10:38,206
coconut oil and my honey and spread that

1564
01:10:38,206 --> 01:10:42,366
all over a banana. That was my dream of

1565
01:10:42,366 --> 01:10:46,728
this year that never came true. I did

1566
01:10:46,728 --> 01:10:49,648
grow enough peanuts, but I harvested them

1567
01:10:49,648 --> 01:10:51,252
within the last couple of weeks. I was

1568
01:10:51,252 --> 01:10:55,081
just too busy coasting into the finish

1569
01:10:55,081 --> 01:10:58,172
line to try to make the peanut butter. I

1570
01:10:58,172 --> 01:11:00,574
did not get around to it. Peanuts were a

1571
01:11:00,574 --> 01:11:04,761
minor failure. Sugar cane for sugar is a

1572
01:11:04,761 --> 01:11:07,396
great resource that I have not succeeded

1573
01:11:07,396 --> 01:11:10,881
at. One of my big failures of the year

1574
01:11:10,881 --> 01:11:15,520
was coconut oil. I thought that about six

1575
01:11:15,520 --> 01:11:17,676
coconuts made a pint of coconut oil. I

1576
01:11:17,676 --> 01:11:18,859
thought at the beginning that I was going

1577
01:11:18,859 --> 01:11:20,791
to make a gallon of coconut oil and just

1578
01:11:20,791 --> 01:11:22,297
be coasting through the year with coconut

1579
01:11:22,297 --> 01:11:27,055
oil, all I wanted. I got four ounces of

1580
01:11:27,055 --> 01:11:29,296
coconut oil. I did not have oil this

1581
01:11:29,296 --> 01:11:31,398
whole year, which is definitely one of

1582
01:11:31,398 --> 01:11:35,683
the big challenges. You do not realize

1583
01:11:35,683 --> 01:11:37,518
until you are trying to grow and forage

1584
01:11:37,518 --> 01:11:40,189
everything all the things that you eat

1585
01:11:40,189 --> 01:11:41,573
that you do not realize how many

1586
01:11:41,573 --> 01:11:44,756
resources it takes and such. Coconut oil

1587
01:11:44,756 --> 01:11:47,465
was my holy grail that I ultimately

1588
01:11:47,465 --> 01:11:49,283
failed at. What I learned is that it is

1589
01:11:49,283 --> 01:11:52,249
more like fifteen coconuts to a pint [of

1590
01:11:52,249 --> 01:11:54,064
oil], is what I am told. Instead, I just

1591
01:11:54,064 --> 01:11:56,243
made my coconut milk, my coconut butter,

1592
01:11:56,243 --> 01:11:58,852
my coconut curries. I used a lot of

1593
01:11:58,852 --> 01:12:00,446
coconuts just did not succeed with the

1594
01:12:00,446 --> 01:12:03,605
coconut oil. [I will] show you some of my

1595
01:12:03,605 --> 01:12:05,481
meals. This is my little outdoor kitchen

1596
01:12:05,481 --> 01:12:08,547
where I cooked. These are a few meals

1597
01:12:08,547 --> 01:12:12,307
here. I did eat very well, very delicious

1598
01:12:12,307 --> 01:12:15,847
foods. Up hear is Seminole pumpkin soup

1599
01:12:15,847 --> 01:12:21,048
with a beet and cabbage sauerkraut as a

1600
01:12:21,048 --> 01:12:23,938
garnish. This is pigeon peas with

1601
01:12:23,938 --> 01:12:26,483
nasturtium leaves as a garnish and

1602
01:12:26,483 --> 01:12:29,527
greens. This is Seminole pumpkin roasted

1603
01:12:29,527 --> 01:12:33,681
inside of a collard wrap. Those were some

1604
01:12:33,681 --> 01:12:35,838
of my really nice meals. The little bit

1605
01:12:35,838 --> 01:12:38,200
of coconut oil I did have went on to

1606
01:12:38,200 --> 01:12:39,460
these collard wraps with the Seminole

1607
01:12:39,460 --> 01:12:40,960
pumpkin and that was like, one of the

1608
01:12:40,960 --> 01:12:45,175
best foods of the whole year. So good!

1609
01:12:45,175 --> 01:12:47,609
This was a very common meal. I probably

1610
01:12:47,609 --> 01:12:50,688
ate six, seven-hundred pounds of sweet

1611
01:12:50,688 --> 01:12:52,697
potatoes this year, quite a bit of sweet

1612
01:12:52,697 --> 01:12:56,707
potato. I did different things with them,

1613
01:12:56,707 --> 01:12:57,997
but the most common thing was just to

1614
01:12:57,997 --> 01:12:59,172
mash them up and make mashed sweet

1615
01:12:59,172 --> 01:13:00,703
potatoes. This is a bowl of mashed sweet

1616
01:13:00,703 --> 01:13:02,974
potatoes with greens and pigeon peas.

1617
01:13:02,974 --> 01:13:08,171
You can see behind me Seminole pumpkins

1618
01:13:08,171 --> 01:13:10,324
on the shelf. That is how I stored them,

1619
01:13:10,324 --> 01:13:12,425
just sitting there right on that shelf.

1620
01:13:12,425 --> 01:13:16,456
This is another common meal, yuca. I just

1621
01:13:16,456 --> 01:13:18,734
boiled the yuca. That was basically how I

1622
01:13:18,734 --> 01:13:20,240
did it. I did not actually have an oven

1623
01:13:20,240 --> 01:13:23,732
to bake. That limited me. When I went

1624
01:13:23,732 --> 01:13:25,130
over to friends' houses I would often use

1625
01:13:25,130 --> 01:13:28,251
their oven. It was really nice. This is

1626
01:13:28,251 --> 01:13:31,457
yuca with fish on there. That is mullet,

1627
01:13:31,457 --> 01:13:33,513
the white on top. Those are the little

1628
01:13:33,513 --> 01:13:36,597
Everglades tomatoes. Then that is a

1629
01:13:36,597 --> 01:13:40,118
sauerkraut garnish on top. That is just

1630
01:13:40,118 --> 01:13:43,063
an example of a few meals. I probably

1631
01:13:43,063 --> 01:13:46,296
really subsisted on a couple of dozen

1632
01:13:46,296 --> 01:13:50,134
different meals, but my food did vary

1633
01:13:50,134 --> 01:13:52,938
drastically throughout the year. As I

1634
01:13:52,938 --> 01:13:54,211
mentioned, I did take a trip to

1635
01:13:54,211 --> 01:13:56,884
Wisconsin. I did not make any videos

1636
01:13:56,884 --> 01:13:58,880
while I was gone and people commented on

1637
01:13:58,880 --> 01:14:01,126
YouTube like, "Oh, he went to Wisconsin

1638
01:14:01,126 --> 01:14:04,258
and ate pizza for the summer!". It was

1639
01:14:04,258 --> 01:14:06,690
harder to be travelling. Imagine, I had

1640
01:14:06,690 --> 01:14:09,242
no garden. I went away for eighty-two

1641
01:14:09,242 --> 01:14:11,558
days, is what it ended up being. I had no

1642
01:14:11,558 --> 01:14:13,944
garden up there. This was a whole new

1643
01:14:13,944 --> 01:14:18,089
challenge, taking it to the road. Before

1644
01:14:18,089 --> 01:14:20,137
I left I worked long hours, often until

1645
01:14:20,137 --> 01:14:23,917
two in the morning preparing foods. I

1646
01:14:23,917 --> 01:14:28,236
was making flours from yuca and yam that

1647
01:14:28,236 --> 01:14:30,474
Marabou Thomas taught me to make. I was

1648
01:14:30,474 --> 01:14:32,004
drying coconuts and making coconut

1649
01:14:32,004 --> 01:14:35,151
shreds. I was making tons of moringa

1650
01:14:35,151 --> 01:14:38,354
powder. I was dehydrating herbs. I was

1651
01:14:38,354 --> 01:14:40,117
foraging. I dehydrated bananas and

1652
01:14:40,117 --> 01:14:43,199
mangoes. I left with one-hundred thousand

1653
01:14:43,199 --> 01:14:46,408
calories, at least. At two-thousand

1654
01:14:46,408 --> 01:14:48,474
calories a day, that is fifty days. I was

1655
01:14:48,474 --> 01:14:50,655
carrying a lot of food. I was carrying a

1656
01:14:50,655 --> 01:14:54,880
couple hundred pounds of food with me.

1657
01:14:54,880 --> 01:14:57,546
I had a lot of food, but I really was

1658
01:14:57,546 --> 01:14:59,400
dependent on foraging. I did a lot of

1659
01:14:59,400 --> 01:15:00,916
fishing while I was up there. I mentioned

1660
01:15:00,916 --> 01:15:03,088
the deer. While I was in Wisconsin I

1661
01:15:03,088 --> 01:15:08,142
learned and foraged new plants. A lot of

1662
01:15:08,142 --> 01:15:10,252
people up North say "You can only do this

1663
01:15:10,252 --> 01:15:12,376
because you are in Central Florida." You

1664
01:15:12,376 --> 01:15:14,316
are the beneficiaries of that comment. We

1665
01:15:14,316 --> 01:15:16,105
are in a great place. Central Florida is

1666
01:15:16,105 --> 01:15:18,486
one of the best growing climates in the

1667
01:15:18,486 --> 01:15:21,703
United States, I would say. We have this

1668
01:15:21,703 --> 01:15:23,081
beautiful thing where we can grow many

1669
01:15:23,081 --> 01:15:25,269
plants of the North, but we can [also]

1670
01:15:25,269 --> 01:15:27,019
grow many plants of the tropics. We are

1671
01:15:27,019 --> 01:15:29,228
in a sub-tropical area. We are on this

1672
01:15:29,228 --> 01:15:32,346
border. We are in zone what, ten-A?

1673
01:15:32,346 --> 01:15:35,589
Nine-B? Nine? See, I am still kind of a

1674
01:15:35,589 --> 01:15:41,427
rooky. So it is nine? Nine-B. Nine-B is

1675
01:15:41,427 --> 01:15:43,646
basically on this edge where we can many

1676
01:15:43,646 --> 01:15:45,080
things of the North and we can grow many

1677
01:15:45,080 --> 01:15:47,270
things of the South. It is this beautiful

1678
01:15:47,270 --> 01:15:49,115
area where there is an incredible amount

1679
01:15:49,115 --> 01:15:51,263
of diversity and abundance. With that

1680
01:15:51,263 --> 01:15:54,039
being said, I never felt abundance like I

1681
01:15:54,039 --> 01:15:57,373
felt it up in Wisconsin. It was the most

1682
01:15:57,373 --> 01:16:00,300
abundant place I have ever been on Earth.

1683
01:16:00,300 --> 01:16:01,662
I almost did not come back. Actually, a

1684
01:16:01,662 --> 01:16:02,844
lot of people thought I was never coming

1685
01:16:02,844 --> 01:16:04,912
back, but I had things to take care of.

1686
01:16:04,912 --> 01:16:08,533
My trip to Wisconsin was great. I foraged

1687
01:16:08,533 --> 01:16:09,933
one-hundred different foods while I was

1688
01:16:09,933 --> 01:16:11,821
up there. Apples were one of the most

1689
01:16:11,821 --> 01:16:15,403
important. I made applesauce. I made so

1690
01:16:15,403 --> 01:16:17,986
much applesauce. In my hometown, off the

1691
01:16:17,986 --> 01:16:19,396
top of my head might now I could name

1692
01:16:19,396 --> 01:16:23,640
fifty public apple trees just in that

1693
01:16:23,640 --> 01:16:25,497
area. If you are ever go to Ashland,

1694
01:16:25,497 --> 01:16:27,400
Wisconsin (That is my hometown.), go and

1695
01:16:27,400 --> 01:16:31,145
gorge on apples. I have got to mention

1696
01:16:31,145 --> 01:16:32,752
the toilet paper. I grew my own toilet

1697
01:16:32,752 --> 01:16:34,401
paper. I have not bought toilet paper for

1698
01:16:34,401 --> 01:16:40,554
over five years. This plant is call

1699
01:16:40,554 --> 01:16:43,906
Plectranthus barbatus. That is the genus

1700
01:16:43,906 --> 01:16:45,090
and species, also called blue spur

1701
01:16:45,090 --> 01:16:47,609
flower. It grows in zones eight to ten,

1702
01:16:47,609 --> 01:16:50,624
so right where we are. This will not grow

1703
01:16:50,624 --> 01:16:52,400
in the colder climates. Maybe it will as

1704
01:16:52,400 --> 01:16:54,902
as annual. This will grow year-round. I

1705
01:16:54,902 --> 01:16:57,486
put two sticks in the ground and I have

1706
01:16:57,486 --> 01:16:59,212
never used more than one percent of my

1707
01:16:59,212 --> 01:17:02,190
toilet paper stock. Just two little

1708
01:17:02,190 --> 01:17:06,151
sticks turned into infinite toilet paper

1709
01:17:06,151 --> 01:17:08,526
for life. It is the perennial toilet

1710
01:17:08,526 --> 01:17:11,783
paper plant. I am rubbing it on my face

1711
01:17:11,783 --> 01:17:13,757
because it is actually softer than

1712
01:17:13,757 --> 01:17:15,626
anything you would buy at the store. It

1713
01:17:15,626 --> 01:17:17,420
is in the mint family, so some people

1714
01:17:17,420 --> 01:17:19,585
call me Captain Mint Bottom on YouTube

1715
01:17:19,585 --> 01:17:22,272
now because of that. [Audience laughs]

1716
01:17:22,272 --> 01:17:24,188
It does not leave a minty smell. Well,

1717
01:17:24,188 --> 01:17:25,960
I would not know, I guess. [Audience

1718
01:17:25,960 --> 01:17:27,516
laughs] I cannot speak to that, but I do

1719
01:17:27,516 --> 01:17:29,086
not think it does. It produces beautiful

1720
01:17:29,086 --> 01:17:31,214
flowers. Sometimes hummingbirds were

1721
01:17:31,214 --> 01:17:32,777
hanging out with my toilet paper, and

1722
01:17:32,777 --> 01:17:36,273
bees. It actually makes a tea! You can

1723
01:17:36,273 --> 01:17:38,730
eat this toilet paper as well. In Brazil,

1724
01:17:38,730 --> 01:17:41,637
I know that it is used for upset stomach

1725
01:17:41,637 --> 01:17:43,503
and maybe some other things. I have made

1726
01:17:43,503 --> 01:17:45,955
tea with it, very bitter. Bitter is

1727
01:17:45,955 --> 01:17:49,229
medicine. We have, in this society, bred

1728
01:17:49,229 --> 01:17:52,264
bitterness out of the plants. What we do

1729
01:17:52,264 --> 01:17:54,974
when we breed bitterness out, we breed

1730
01:17:54,974 --> 01:17:57,134
the nutrients out. Lettuce is one of the

1731
01:17:57,134 --> 01:17:59,005
least nutrient-rich plants that you can

1732
01:17:59,005 --> 01:18:01,192
possibly eat because it has almost no

1733
01:18:01,192 --> 01:18:03,917
flavor. No flavor means very few

1734
01:18:03,917 --> 01:18:06,678
nutrients. Keep that in mind. Highly

1735
01:18:06,678 --> 01:18:11,311
bitter means generally medicinal. Here is

1736
01:18:11,311 --> 01:18:12,637
the toilet paper next to the compost

1737
01:18:12,637 --> 01:18:15,521
toilet. This plant is truly miraculous.

1738
01:18:15,521 --> 01:18:18,044
This toilet paper you can actually

1739
01:18:18,044 --> 01:18:20,319
harvest from the plant and it stays soft

1740
01:18:20,319 --> 01:18:22,702
for up to a week. Sitting next to the

1741
01:18:22,702 --> 01:18:26,696
toilet for a week, it is still soft. It

1742
01:18:26,696 --> 01:18:29,718
is very strong, does not break. On a dewy

1743
01:18:29,718 --> 01:18:31,968
morning, it actually holds the moisture

1744
01:18:31,968 --> 01:18:35,243
and turns into a wet wipe. [Audience

1745
01:18:35,243 --> 01:18:38,235
laughs] It is truly a miraculous plant.

1746
01:18:38,235 --> 01:18:41,803
For people that live up North, the good

1747
01:18:41,803 --> 01:18:43,489
news is toilet paper grows everywhere.

1748
01:18:43,489 --> 01:18:45,551
There is lamb's ear up there. Imagine

1749
01:18:45,551 --> 01:18:47,349
wiping your butt with a lamb's ear. I

1750
01:18:47,349 --> 01:18:48,313
do not know if any of you guys have done

1751
01:18:48,313 --> 01:18:49,851
that, but it probably would feel good.

1752
01:18:49,851 --> 01:18:52,619
They are nice and soft. [Audience laughs]

1753
01:18:52,619 --> 01:18:53,647
They make wool, which could be

1754
01:18:53,647 --> 01:18:56,175
scratchier. Anyway... Everywhere you go,

1755
01:18:56,175 --> 01:18:58,396
there is a perennial toilet paper

1756
01:18:58,396 --> 01:19:00,400
growing, but this is the best that I have

1757
01:19:00,400 --> 01:19:03,631
seen on Earth. One of the most common

1758
01:19:03,631 --> 01:19:06,524
question is [about] pests. What about

1759
01:19:06,524 --> 01:19:11,165
pests? I am very, very proud to say that

1760
01:19:11,165 --> 01:19:13,822
in the two years here I never applied a

1761
01:19:13,822 --> 01:19:16,051
single pesticide, not even an organic one

1762
01:19:16,051 --> 01:19:22,423
like BT or neem. How did I deal with

1763
01:19:22,423 --> 01:19:25,860
pests? It is not that I never had pests.

1764
01:19:25,860 --> 01:19:28,152
This is my Seminole pumpkin. I know

1765
01:19:28,152 --> 01:19:29,227
there are probably some beginner

1766
01:19:29,227 --> 01:19:30,185
gardeners in the room, but you all

1767
01:19:30,185 --> 01:19:32,454
probably know that is not what plants

1768
01:19:32,454 --> 01:19:34,679
are supposed to look like. Towards the

1769
01:19:34,679 --> 01:19:36,746
back you can see leaves. All of this was

1770
01:19:36,746 --> 01:19:40,342
leaves, but all of that was eaten by

1771
01:19:40,342 --> 01:19:43,366
cucumber worms. There are different names

1772
01:19:43,366 --> 01:19:46,782
for them, but they eat squashed,

1773
01:19:46,782 --> 01:19:51,103
cucumbers and plants like that. They came

1774
01:19:51,103 --> 01:19:54,144
in and just decimated this. I was not

1775
01:19:54,144 --> 01:19:55,657
paying attention and they got so bad that

1776
01:19:55,657 --> 01:19:57,691
they actually started to eat many of my

1777
01:19:57,691 --> 01:19:59,349
pumpkins, to actually infest the

1778
01:19:59,349 --> 01:20:02,271
pumpkins. I definitely dealt with pests

1779
01:20:02,271 --> 01:20:05,083
this year. A lot of people say "You can

1780
01:20:05,083 --> 01:20:09,055
not grow food in Central Florida.". There

1781
01:20:09,055 --> 01:20:10,721
is this idea that a lot of people have

1782
01:20:10,721 --> 01:20:12,978
that this is a horrible, horrible place

1783
01:20:12,978 --> 01:20:15,600
to grow food. That is just not remotely

1784
01:20:15,600 --> 01:20:17,769
the truth at all. What they are doing is

1785
01:20:17,769 --> 01:20:19,916
they are trying to grow the wrong food in

1786
01:20:19,916 --> 01:20:24,642
the wrong way. When I got here, what I

1787
01:20:24,642 --> 01:20:27,088
did not do was go to the grocery store

1788
01:20:27,088 --> 01:20:28,746
and walk down the aisles and say "What do

1789
01:20:28,746 --> 01:20:30,724
I want to eat?". I did not say "I like

1790
01:20:30,724 --> 01:20:31,958
strawberries. I am going to grow

1791
01:20:31,958 --> 01:20:34,452
strawberries.". Instead, I talked to all

1792
01:20:34,452 --> 01:20:36,294
of the locals. I said "What grows so

1793
01:20:36,294 --> 01:20:40,338
ridiculously well and has so few pests

1794
01:20:40,338 --> 01:20:43,981
that a fool could not possibly kill it?".

1795
01:20:43,981 --> 01:20:46,707
I said, I am going to grow what grows the

1796
01:20:46,707 --> 01:20:50,007
easiest, has the fewest pests and is also

1797
01:20:50,007 --> 01:20:53,337
very nutrient-dense, or has a lot of

1798
01:20:53,337 --> 01:20:56,567
calories. That is what is was about. What

1799
01:20:56,567 --> 01:20:59,573
has been proven time and time again by

1800
01:20:59,573 --> 01:21:01,504
the locals? I did not come here and

1801
01:21:01,504 --> 01:21:03,756
reinvent anything. The only reason that I

1802
01:21:03,756 --> 01:21:04,904
am standing here today, after having

1803
01:21:04,904 --> 01:21:06,559
grown and foraged one-hundred percent

1804
01:21:06,559 --> 01:21:08,473
of my food, is because this is all of the

1805
01:21:08,473 --> 01:21:10,942
knowledge that is in this room already,

1806
01:21:10,942 --> 01:21:12,806
and in other people in this community.

1807
01:21:12,806 --> 01:21:14,351
All I did was take all that knowledge,

1808
01:21:14,351 --> 01:21:16,694
put it all together into one little

1809
01:21:16,694 --> 01:21:18,543
package to have me standing here at the

1810
01:21:18,543 --> 01:21:21,269
end of this year. As far as pests go, a

1811
01:21:21,269 --> 01:21:23,614
few things, there was one garden that I

1812
01:21:23,614 --> 01:21:27,384
worked with and there was the person in

1813
01:21:27,384 --> 01:21:30,367
the garden. I have fifty, sixty, seventy

1814
01:21:30,367 --> 01:21:32,374
different species growing in this garden.

1815
01:21:32,374 --> 01:21:36,529
She would always tell me about the one or

1816
01:21:36,529 --> 01:21:39,014
two plants that had pests on them. It

1817
01:21:39,014 --> 01:21:41,052
was a constant, "The pests are getting

1818
01:21:41,052 --> 01:21:43,947
these plants!". What I said was "Oh, we

1819
01:21:43,947 --> 01:21:46,528
have sixty-eight other plants that do not

1820
01:21:46,528 --> 01:21:48,764
have pests. Let's eat just eat those."

1821
01:21:48,764 --> 01:21:50,384
That is one of the most important

1822
01:21:50,384 --> 01:21:51,855
elements of [dealing with] pests,

1823
01:21:51,855 --> 01:21:54,155
diversity. If you have one-hundred

1824
01:21:54,155 --> 01:21:56,130
species and the pests are getting ten,

1825
01:21:56,130 --> 01:21:58,287
you still have ninety species to eat.

1826
01:21:58,287 --> 01:22:01,917
Diversity is key. Monoculture is going to

1827
01:22:01,917 --> 01:22:04,808
bring in pests. Polycultures are going to

1828
01:22:04,808 --> 01:22:07,486
reduce pests. Imagine if you have a line

1829
01:22:07,486 --> 01:22:10,277
of tomatoes. If you get worms here, they

1830
01:22:10,277 --> 01:22:11,992
just walk from tomato plant to tomato

1831
01:22:11,992 --> 01:22:13,703
plant to tomato plant. They just eat

1832
01:22:13,703 --> 01:22:15,566
themselves away. If you have a tomato

1833
01:22:15,566 --> 01:22:17,441
plant here and on the other side of the

1834
01:22:17,441 --> 01:22:19,392
garden and in between that you have got

1835
01:22:19,392 --> 01:22:21,517
basil and onions and such the pests,

1836
01:22:21,517 --> 01:22:24,432
amazingly, do not get to all of them.

1837
01:22:24,432 --> 01:22:27,704
Diversity. Spreading things out.

1838
01:22:27,704 --> 01:22:30,929
Intercropping, or polyculture. One

1839
01:22:30,929 --> 01:22:32,821
really important thing is that plants

1840
01:22:32,821 --> 01:22:34,999
basically have immune systems. Healthy

1841
01:22:34,999 --> 01:22:38,182
plants can defend themselves from pests.

1842
01:22:38,182 --> 01:22:40,462
You need healthy soil. You need the right

1843
01:22:40,462 --> 01:22:42,703
amount of sun. If a plant does not have

1844
01:22:42,703 --> 01:22:44,722
enough sun, if it is in too much shade,

1845
01:22:44,722 --> 01:22:46,997
that often is what will bring in the

1846
01:22:46,997 --> 01:22:49,565
pests. Aphids, for example, if you see

1847
01:22:49,565 --> 01:22:51,765
aphids it is not "How do I get rid of

1848
01:22:51,765 --> 01:22:53,426
these aphids?". It is "What do I have to

1849
01:22:53,426 --> 01:22:56,240
change foundationally to make healthy

1850
01:22:56,240 --> 01:22:58,432
plants so that the aphids are not there.

1851
01:22:58,432 --> 01:23:00,978
That means planting the right things,

1852
01:23:00,978 --> 01:23:04,380
planting at the right time of year,

1853
01:23:04,380 --> 01:23:08,220
planting in the right places, using local

1854
01:23:08,220 --> 01:23:09,941
knowledge, doing what has been done for

1855
01:23:09,941 --> 01:23:13,466
decades. There are many ways to get

1856
01:23:13,466 --> 01:23:14,919
local knowledge, which is something I am

1857
01:23:14,919 --> 01:23:18,263
going to get into. A little bit about my

1858
01:23:18,263 --> 01:23:22,754
health, this is me about eight month in

1859
01:23:22,754 --> 01:23:26,334
[to the project]. At that point I was not

1860
01:23:26,334 --> 01:23:28,357
catching enough fish. I was feeling

1861
01:23:28,357 --> 01:23:29,968
deficient [in nutrients]. I did not have

1862
01:23:29,968 --> 01:23:31,050
enough fat and I did not have enough

1863
01:23:31,050 --> 01:23:33,134
protein [in my diet]. I am pulling my

1864
01:23:33,134 --> 01:23:35,703
cheeks there because I started to feel my

1865
01:23:35,703 --> 01:23:38,361
body and I was like, "Man! I feel like my

1866
01:23:38,361 --> 01:23:41,310
skin is really loose!". I feel like my f

1867
01:23:41,310 --> 01:23:44,103
fat is gone. My brain was not functioning

1868
01:23:44,103 --> 01:23:46,757
as well. I was worried that I was not

1869
01:23:46,757 --> 01:23:50,274
getting enough fats. There was a rough

1870
01:23:50,274 --> 01:23:52,902
patch this summer. There were a good

1871
01:23:52,902 --> 01:23:54,344
number of times when I definitely thought

1872
01:23:54,344 --> 01:23:57,050
about giving up. I definitely want to

1873
01:23:57,050 --> 01:23:59,279
say, this was extremely difficult. It is

1874
01:23:59,279 --> 01:24:01,446
a dream because it is very, very

1875
01:24:01,446 --> 01:24:03,182
difficult, not something that is easy to

1876
01:24:03,182 --> 01:24:04,765
attain.. There were definitely many times

1877
01:24:04,765 --> 01:24:06,774
when I wanted to give up. This was one of

1878
01:24:06,774 --> 01:24:09,604
those times. I was feeling very gaunt and

1879
01:24:09,604 --> 01:24:12,642
like I was not getting what I needed. I

1880
01:24:12,642 --> 01:24:14,535
was pretty confident that it was fat and

1881
01:24:14,535 --> 01:24:17,379
it was protein. How I got to Wisconsin,

1882
01:24:17,379 --> 01:24:20,120
was I caught a ride with Jenn, one of the

1883
01:24:20,120 --> 01:24:23,278
Gardens for Single Moms recipients. She

1884
01:24:23,278 --> 01:24:25,168
happened to be going to Chicago two days

1885
01:24:25,168 --> 01:24:27,271
before I was trying to go to Chicago, so

1886
01:24:27,271 --> 01:24:29,704
I drove up there with her. I stayed at my

1887
01:24:29,704 --> 01:24:32,820
aunt's twenty-third story apartment in

1888
01:24:32,820 --> 01:24:36,931
Chicago. Then it only got worse because I

1889
01:24:36,931 --> 01:24:38,605
was sitting in a car, sitting in an

1890
01:24:38,605 --> 01:24:41,273
apartment and mostly eating carbs and did

1891
01:24:41,273 --> 01:24:45,107
not have the fat. That was a really hard

1892
01:24:45,107 --> 01:24:47,729
time I had my ups and downs, but that is

1893
01:24:47,729 --> 01:24:49,509
when I caught fish. I had one of my

1894
01:24:49,509 --> 01:24:51,734
lowest days, I caught a twenty-pound lake

1895
01:24:51,734 --> 01:24:55,139
trout. That would have fed me for three

1896
01:24:55,139 --> 01:24:59,068
weeks, at a pound per day. It is one of

1897
01:24:59,068 --> 01:25:00,944
the fattiest fish there is. Basically, it

1898
01:25:00,944 --> 01:25:03,912
was exactly what I needed and I put it

1899
01:25:03,912 --> 01:25:05,530
back in the water because it was too

1900
01:25:05,530 --> 01:25:08,882
big. At that point, lake trout are all

1901
01:25:08,882 --> 01:25:14,814
female. They are the producers for that

1902
01:25:14,814 --> 01:25:17,771
population. They produce so much. Here I

1903
01:25:17,771 --> 01:25:20,126
had exactly what I needed, what I was

1904
01:25:20,126 --> 01:25:22,390
craving, but I could not eat it. I put it

1905
01:25:22,390 --> 01:25:27,140
back in the water. That hurt me for days!

1906
01:25:27,140 --> 01:25:29,333
I did rebound. I caught enough fish. I

1907
01:25:29,333 --> 01:25:33,176
got the venison. At the end of my time in

1908
01:25:33,176 --> 01:25:35,593
Wisconsin, I actually spoke at UW

1909
01:25:35,593 --> 01:25:37,677
Lacrosse where I went to college. They

1910
01:25:37,677 --> 01:25:40,371
happened to have a dunk tank where I

1911
01:25:40,371 --> 01:25:41,852
could get my body fat composition

1912
01:25:41,852 --> 01:25:43,853
[measured]. I got it and it was fifteen

1913
01:25:43,853 --> 01:25:47,073
percent. I had built my fat back up and

1914
01:25:47,073 --> 01:25:50,373
I gained it back. Fifteen percent is

1915
01:25:50,373 --> 01:25:53,398
healthy fat, more than I would expect on

1916
01:25:53,398 --> 01:25:56,928
myself and I maintained my weight. I

1917
01:25:56,928 --> 01:25:59,155
started at one-hundred-fifty-three-point

1918
01:25:59,155 --> 01:26:03,942
four pounds and the night before I

1919
01:26:03,942 --> 01:26:06,224
finished, on day one-hundred-sixty-five I

1920
01:26:06,224 --> 01:26:07,815
weighed one-hundred-fifty-five pounds. On

1921
01:26:07,815 --> 01:26:10,734
the morning of my first day finishing I

1922
01:26:10,734 --> 01:26:12,034
weighed one-hundred-fifty-two-point-

1923
01:26:12,034 --> 01:26:15,070
eight, so point-eight pounds less. It is

1924
01:26:15,070 --> 01:26:16,881
amazing, I have weighed myself a lot.

1925
01:26:16,881 --> 01:26:18,379
You start to realize how much your weight

1926
01:26:18,379 --> 01:26:20,002
can fluctuate. It fluctuates by about

1927
01:26:20,002 --> 01:26:23,312
seven pounds a day. You can pee out a

1928
01:26:23,312 --> 01:26:25,592
gallon of water per day and that this

1929
01:26:25,592 --> 01:26:26,856
eight-point-eight pounds, so you are

1930
01:26:26,856 --> 01:26:29,020
shedding a lot of weight in one day just

1931
01:26:29,020 --> 01:26:33,387
through fluids and food. Basically, my

1932
01:26:33,387 --> 01:26:37,134
weight stayed about as steady as I could

1933
01:26:37,134 --> 01:26:39,754
possibly imagine and I did not get sick

1934
01:26:39,754 --> 01:26:43,711
once. I think it is safe to say that I

1935
01:26:43,711 --> 01:26:50,726
did it! [Audience laughs and cheers,

1936
01:26:50,726 --> 01:27:02,985
applauds] I have been doing it for a

1937
01:27:02,985 --> 01:27:05,821
while now. so I am a little nonchalant

1938
01:27:05,821 --> 01:27:07,644
about it because it kind of just feels

1939
01:27:07,644 --> 01:27:09,499
like, "Yeah, I did it." but it was

1940
01:27:09,499 --> 01:27:14,486
something that I had set out to do

1941
01:27:14,486 --> 01:27:19,409
forever. I want to end by sharing a whole

1942
01:27:19,409 --> 01:27:21,728
bunch of resources and then we will have

1943
01:27:21,728 --> 01:27:24,594
time for questions. I am going to go

1944
01:27:24,594 --> 01:27:26,554
through a bunch of resources. Now, I have

1945
01:27:26,554 --> 01:27:29,557
all of this information online at

1946
01:27:29,557 --> 01:27:34,180
robgreenfield.tv/grow. Many of the things

1947
01:27:34,180 --> 01:27:36,294
that I talked about tonight, but

1948
01:27:36,294 --> 01:27:38,450
certainly all of these resources are

1949
01:27:38,450 --> 99:59:59,999
listed on that page. You do not have to

1950
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
cram it all down and this talk is being

1951
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
recorded. Have these cameras been going

1952
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
this whole time? Alright, so this talk is

1953
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
being recorded and will be on my YouTube

1954
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
channel, which is just

1955
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
youtube.com/robgreenfield. You can watch

1956
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
this and I will have all of the links in

1957
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the description there. I designed it so

1958
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that you don't have to suck all of this

1959
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in in one night. I am going to go through

1960
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
these resources. First, events, classes,

1961
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
groups. The most important thing is

1962
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
community. As I said, the only reason I

1963
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
am standing here today, period, is

1964
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
because of community. I could not have

1965
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
done this alone, not even remotely. It is

1966
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
all through community. The idea of this

1967
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is not that any of us have to grow and

1968
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
forage [one-hundred percent] of our own

1969
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
food. we have an amazing community right

1970
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
here where we can share. We can trade.

1971
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
We can ask each other what we need. That

1972
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
does not have to stop with just food. If

1973
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
you look at this room, we have doctors.

1974
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
We have lawyers. We have teachers. We

1975
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
have permaculturists and growers. We have

1976
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
most things in here and we can exchange

1977
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
those things and improve our communities

1978
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
without having to ship our money to these

1979
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
corporations in far-off places. Starting

1980
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
with community, that is where I am going

1981
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to start. Orlando Permaculture, where we

1982
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
are standing right now. Definitely my

1983
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
favorite community in Central Florida.

1984
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That is why I came to Orlando, because of

1985
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Orlando Permaculture. Foraging. Green

1986
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Dean, one of the greatest foragers in the

1987
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
United States. He has got the most-

1988
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
watched foraging YouTube channel. He

1989
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
does classes in Orlando at least once a

1990
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
month and all over the state of Florida.

1991
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
We have an amazing resource in Green

1992
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Dean. Andy Firk, another amazing forager.

1993
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Definitely, I have to say, my favorite

1994
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
human being that I have met in the state

1995
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of Florida. If you get a chance to hang

1996
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
out with Andy Firk and do one of his

1997
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
classes, it is social activism and plants

1998
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
all in one. It is amazing. John Martin is

1999
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
now an expert mushroom guy, "Fungi John".

2000
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Where is John? I know he is here. There

2001
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is John over there. [Faint applause]

2002
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Yeah, we will give him a round of

2003
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
applause! [Audience applauds] When I got

2004
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
here, John was not teaching classes yet.

2005
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This is something he started doing within

2006
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the last year. He is one of the mushroom

2007
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
experts of the area. He teaches classes.

2008
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Fungi John. UF IFA IFAs Extension, that

2009
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is an amazing resource. I got so much

2010
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
through them. They have a master

2011
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
gardening program, which is a great

2012
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
resource. Central Florida Fruit Society,

2013
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that is where I learned so much of what I

2014
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
needed to know about what fruit trees to

2015
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
plant for my community fruit trees

2016
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
program. They have monthly meet-ups. Some

2017
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
bigger events, there are the Permaculture

2018
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Convergences. There are local ones and

2019
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
then there are the state-wide ones. Those

2020
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
are an amazing place to meet local

2021
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
permaculturists. Earth skills gatherings

2022
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
are truly amazing. I went to that both

2023
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
years I was here, highly recommend it.

2024
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The Florida School of Holistic Living is

2025
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
all about holistic medicine and holistic

2026
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
health, highly recommend getting involved

2027
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
with that. They have the Florida Herbal

2028
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Conference once per year. Sustainable

2029
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Kashi is a place where I have done a lot

2030
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of my learning. They have free

2031
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
permaculture classes on Wednesdays. There

2032
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
are lots of events. John just hosted a

2033
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
mushroom foraging class there a couple

2034
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of weeks back, for example. Lots of

2035
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
opportunities there. I have not named all

2036
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of them, but those are some of the

2037
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
amazing resources we have locally. Some

2038
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
online resources, one of my favorites is

2039
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Pete Kanaris. I was lucky enough to get

2040
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to spend a lot of my time [with Pete]. He

2041
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is one of the reasons I am still standing.

2042
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
He took me out fishing. He is an amazing

2043
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
friend and an amazing resource. His

2044
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
YouTube channel is Green Dreams Florida.

2045
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So much knowledge on there. Again, UF

2046
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
IFIS Extension is a great resource. Green

2047
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Dean, eattheweeds.com, David The Good:

2048
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The Survival Gardener, so much education

2049
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
came from him. Andy Firk, I mentioned

2050
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
him. Again, my website is

2051
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
robgreenfield.tv/growflorida, or just

2052
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
/grow. That is just an accumulation of

2053
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
all of this put into one place for you.

2054
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Another one is Terry Meer. His [website]

2055
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is terrymeer.com/resources. That is a

2056
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
really great resource guide that puts

2057
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a lot of the events and the groups and

2058
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
such. Some nurseries, my favorite

2059
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
probably is HEART, Josh Jamison. He is

2060
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
one of the amazing, solid foundations of

2061
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
this community. Definitely go take a tour

2062
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
there. Their plants are some of the most

2063
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
affordable because their mission is not

2064
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to make money. Their mission is to spread

2065
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
plants and plant knowledge. HEART Village

2066
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Nursery. ECHO Global Farm, that is down

2067
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in South Florida. I actually never made

2068
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it there, but it is an amazing resource.

2069
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
A Natural Farm and Education Center, that

2070
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is an amazing resource for fruit trees.

2071
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That is where I got the majority of my

2072
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
fruit trees for this year. South Seminole

2073
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Farms and Nursery, Green's Nursery, Green

2074
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Dreams, Pete Kanaris also has a nursery

2075
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
over by Tampa. You do not have to buy

2076
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
plants. The amazing thing about plants is

2077
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that they reproduce on their own. Are

2078
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
there plants back there right now? Are

2079
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
those flowers? We do have a plant raffle

2080
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
tonight. Every month there is a plant

2081
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
raffle, right? Every month that you come

2082
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
here you can take plants with you. There

2083
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
are plant swaps. There are plant raffles.

2084
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It is about connecting. I have this. you

2085
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
have that. You do not have to buy plants.

2086
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I have enough yuca cuttings for everyone

2087
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in this room. Unfortunately, I do not

2088
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
have them with me, but that all came from

2089
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a few cuttings in the first place. Simple

2090
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Living Institute, they do plants. Orlando

2091
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Permaculture. Leu Gardens has a plant

2092
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
sale. Just meeting permaculturists, talk

2093
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to people. Ask if you can go over to

2094
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
their garden and share knowledge. They

2095
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
key to a permaculturist's heart is

2096
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
helping them. doing work. that is the key

2097
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to any gardener's heart, doing some work

2098
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and helping them. Whatever that is:

2099
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
weeding, shoveling, putting down compost.

2100
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It is usually the labor that is needed

2101
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
because gardening takes work. Earn some

2102
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
plants by putting in time at a garden, or

2103
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
at a permaculture food forest. Another

2104
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
nursery that I visited is Sow Exotic. That

2105
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
was a really great nursery about an hour

2106
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
south of here. Local seeds, when I got

2107
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
here I asked around, even Orlando

2108
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Permaculture. I said "Where can I get

2109
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
local seeds?" and they all said, "There

2110
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is no local seed company.". I said "No

2111
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
way! There has got to be a local seed

2112
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
company.". I search it out and I found

2113
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
three local seed companies. There is

2114
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Crispy Farms in Apopka. They only have

2115
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
about thirty varieties of seeds, but they

2116
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
are all great varieties that grow really

2117
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
well here. Crispy Farms is an incredible

2118
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
little place to get seeds. Whitwam

2119
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Organics is over in Tampa. Southern

2120
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Heritage Seed Collective, Melissa DeSa is

2121
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the seed genius of Central Florida, I

2122
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
would say. They are a non-profit. They

2123
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
are spreading seeds. They probably have

2124
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
fifty, one-hundred different varieties

2125
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and they grow all of them in Gainesville

2126
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
for the most part. Not local seeds:

2127
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Johnny's

2128
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Selected Seeds, Seeds Savers Exchange,

2129
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, High Mowing

2130
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Seeds and Seeds of Change are all some

2131
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
great places that you can buy online. A

2132
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
couple of local books, my favorites

2133
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
listed here, Robert Boden's "Florida

2134
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Fruit and Vegetable Gardening." That is

2135
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
more annual-based, but reading that

2136
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
really gives you the basic knowledge you

2137
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
need of understanding Central Florida.

2138
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That was my holy grail of a book starting

2139
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[out]. If it is not really perennials. It

2140
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is more annuals. Perennials, David The

2141
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Good is a great resource as were his

2142
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
books. [They are] very small books that

2143
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
have the information you need like,

2144
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"Create your own Florida Food Forest" and

2145
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"Totally Crazy Easy Florida Gardening"

2146
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the plants that grow ridiculously well

2147
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that you cannot kill. Peggy Lantz,

2148
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Florida's Edible Wild Plants" is a

2149
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
foraging book that I really recommend.

2150
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Marabou Thomas has a cookbook. A home

2151
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
garden cuisine toolkit for the sub-

2152
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
tropics. Really highly recommend that

2153
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
book. It is a beautiful one. James

2154
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Steven's "Vegetable Gardening in Florida."

2155
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This is Marabou right here! He is not

2156
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
here tonight because he is a genius who

2157
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is at home always toiling away. I was

2158
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
lucky to get to go over to his house a

2159
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
couple of times and he came over to

2160
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
mine. He taught me about yam flour and

2161
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
yuca flour. He is a genius. If you can

2162
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
tap into that knowledge, one way to do

2163
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that is through his book. This is him

2164
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
making tortillas without oil from flour

2165
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that we made from my garden. That is

2166
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
something that he has been perfecting.

2167
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I do not know a whole lot of people who

2168
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
do [that]. That is an amazing book. His

2169
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Instagram page is a really nice resource

2170
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
too. Some not local books, there are so

2171
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
many books, but I am just naming a few:

2172
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"Perennial Vegetables" and "Paradise Lot"

2173
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
by Eric Toensmeier, "Gaia's Garden: A

2174
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Guide to Home Scale Permaculture" are two

2175
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
great permaculture books, just to name a

2176
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
couple. I love Michael Pollan. His books

2177
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
are some of the foundations to me

2178
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
questioning the globalized food system.

2179
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
If you want to understand even big

2180
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
organic, Michael Pollan's books are

2181
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
fantastic. Sandor Katz, "Wild

2182
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Fermentation," that is not just a

2183
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
revolution of our food. It is really a

2184
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
revolution of our mind. He is an

2185
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
incredible author and person. Some garden

2186
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
resources: I mentioned mulch, you got your

2187
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
local tree companies, and then

2188
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
getchipdrop.com. This is where you get

2189
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the mulch. Compost, you get that from

2190
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Monterey Mushrooms, or you can get it

2191
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
from the city. Our yard waste gets turn

2192
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
into compost. Oh, and we got the new

2193
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
compost program started by Charlie! You

2194
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
can do that was well. Cardboard, again,

2195
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
grocery, liquor, appliance stores. If you

2196
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
want to do rainwater harvesting, just

2197
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
type "rainwater harvesting" into Craig's

2198
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
List and you will be able to find barrels

2199
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and totes and materials for that. Drip

2200
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
irrigation you can just get at hardware

2201
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
stores and online. Those are kind of my

2202
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
main ingredients besides the plants that

2203
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I mentioned. As far as this project,

2204
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
other resources: my YouTube channel is

2205
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
where I produced a lot of videos about

2206
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
this year. If you want to learn more, or

2207
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
you want to take tours of my gardens,

2208
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
spend time virtually in the garden with

2209
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
me, because you will not be able to in

2210
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
real life because I am leaving in a few

2211
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
days. YouTube.com/robgreenfield has these

2212
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
videos. I am putting out a video soon

2213
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that is "How to turn your lawn into a

2214
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
garden." A lot of the resources for this

2215
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
project, if you go to

2216
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
robgreenfield.tv/foodfreedomfoods, it

2217
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
lists the three-hundred foods that I

2218
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
foraged this year and grown with links to

2219
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a lot of them. Slash food freedom meals,

2220
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that lists every meal for the last three-

2221
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
hundred-sixty-five days and every snack.

2222
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Slash food freedom photos is photos of

2223
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
many of my meals and my foods where you

2224
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
can learn more. Slash food freedom rules

2225
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is all the guidelines behind this year.

2226
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Slash food freedom why is why I did this

2227
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and more about that. Lastly, the book!

2228
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I do have a book, not out yet. It will

2229
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
some out December of 2020 with New

2230
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Society Publishers. One-hundred percent

2231
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of the proceeds of that book [sales] are

2232
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
donated to non-profits that are working

2233
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
on the food solutions, working to create

2234
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a more sustainable and just food system.

2235
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I am not out to make money from food at

2236
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
all, really. I think food is a basic

2237
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
human right. I want to empower others to

2238
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
grow their own food. This book, I think

2239
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it will be maybe the most powerful thing

2240
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that I have ever put out. I highly

2241
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
recommend it. I will be on a book tour

2242
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
here when that book comes out, end of

2243
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
2020 / beginning of 2021. I will be doing

2244
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a talk with that book as well. As far as

2245
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the media behind this, I want to thank

2246
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Sierra Ford Photography. My friend Sierra

2247
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Ford, she took a lot of these photos as

2248
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
well as Danielle Werner at Live Wonderful

2249
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Photography. As far as my videos that you

2250
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
have seen over the year, John VonMutius

2251
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Brandon Carey and Paul O'Neill, so I want

2252
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to thank them for that. Most importantly,

2253
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I want to thank the Orlando Permaculture

2254
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
community. I have said it one-hundred

2255
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
times, but all of this is a matter of

2256
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
community. It has been incredible to be

2257
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
here for the last two years. You made

2258
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Orlando a more than tolerable place, a

2259
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
beautiful place to spend the last two

2260
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
years. I could not have done any of this

2261
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
without you, so thank you to Orlando

2262
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Permaculture. Thank you to Sarah Robinson

2263
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
for always hosting me in her house, in

2264
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
her church, wherever! I want to say thank

2265
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
you to Lisa Ray who hosted me in her

2266
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
backyard and all of the fun stuff we went

2267
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
through, especially the team at Orlando

2268
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Permaculture: Jeff and David and Kaitlin

2269
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and thank you all for that and the whole

2270
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Orlando Permaculture. To Daniel for all

2271
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of the good times we had together and for

2272
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the great kombucha. The list could

2273
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
absolutely go on. Thank you everyone so

2274
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
much for being a part of this journey.

2275
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[Audience applauds] So how long was that?

2276
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
How long was I talking? [Conversation off

2277
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
stage] Almost two hours! [Audience laughs]

2278
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Oh my gosh! There was a lot of information

2279
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to go through! What time is it?

2280
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[Conversation off stage] Nine o'clock?

2281
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That is the longest talk of all time at

2282
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Orlando Permaculture. I guess we do not

2283
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
really have time for questions then,

2284
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
right? Ok well, I will be around and

2285
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
hugs. I love hugs so come give me a hug.

2286
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I love you all very much. Next up, Jeff

2287
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Trepani! [Audience applauds] Two hours!

2288
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Jeff: I want to thank you so much. You

2289
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
have been such a great inspiration,

2290
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
motivation for us and helping us to get

2291
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
more publicity as well and get more people

2292
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
here learning about things. So, I want to

2293
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
thank you a lot. I am going to miss you,

2294
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
definitely. I am going to be thinking

2295
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
about you when I drive by the house and

2296
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the property and everything. It is a great

2297
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
thing having you here.