How to Forage in Your Own Backyard – Wild Edible Plants

Hey everybody! Rob Greenfield here

and today I am going to teach you how to

forage in your own backyard.

Or if you don't have a backyard, your

neighbour's backyard. If they don't

have a backyard, somebody's backyard.

I'm going to introduce you to plants that

are growing freely and abundantly all

around us. A lot of us think that our

food has to come from the grocery store

and that we have to buy it.

But the truth is, there are thousands of

species of foods that are both nutritious

and delicious and medicinal and free!

Growing right in our yards, often that we

think of as weeds.

I'm going to start first with the

dandelion, one of my favourites.

Right over here. And a lot of

people are probably familiar with this

plant. This is the dandelion. This is

the flower, right here. And then these

are the leaves, right here.

And the flower turns into a seed head

afterwards and these are the seed heads

that have already gone but right here

are the seeds, still. (Blows the seeds.)

And it's a beautiful thing just to blow

those off. So, dandelion is a very bitter

(munches on the plant)

plant. It's very nutritious and it's a

medicinal one. I want to say that this

yard that I am in is basically a random
yard.

I'm in southern France, I've never

foraged in France before, up until a few

weeks ago. And this is just a yard of

the host family that I am staying
with.

So I don't know all the plants here.

This is new foraging to me, but I'm going

to introduce you to about 10 plants that

there is a good chance you will be able to

find in your yards as well.

So that's dandelions. Now I don't have to

go very far and what I have, right here,

coming up, this looks like sorrel to me.

Plants around the world can come in many

different shapes and sizes and colours.

For example, this looks like sorrel but

check this out, right here. This plant

also looks like sorrel to me. Oh wow,

check that out, there's this yellow

spider. That probably came off the

dandelion flower because it's camouflaged

right in with that colour.

Back to the plants. This is sorrel and

sorrel has a nice sour flavour and there

is another type of sorrel that I'm going

to show you in a bit. Let's walk a little

bit more and see what we come across.

Okay. This is...right here, one of my

absolute favourite plants.

It's very small right now.

In a month or 2 this

plant could be, possibly, 4 feet tall.

But right now it's a small plant and

this is called lamb's quarter.

Lamb's quarter is a relative to quinoa

and the leaves of lamb's quarter are

often described to have sort of a

nutty flavour. (Takes a bite)

I don't know if it's nutty

but it's got a different flavour and
I like it.

Amazing thing is, you would look at

all of these green plants and you would

think they all taste the same but they
definitely don't.

Lamb's quarter is a relative of quinoa

and you can also eat the seeds, as well,

as a nice grain. This is one of my

absolute favourites and it grows into big

shrubby-like greens that produce

incredible amounts of food.

You'll see where I am, I'm right next to

this family's garden. And what you'll see

is there's almost nothing growing in this

garden right now. But there is food

growing all over in the yard.

Tons of people have gardens and they're

pulling up the weeds, thinking that

they're a problem, but it turns out that

a lot of these weeds are more nutritious

than what they're trying to grow in the

garden. This is a perfect example.

It's spring, it's early April, the garden

doesn't have food yet, but there's food

growing all over in the yard.

Let's walk down here a little bit.

(Sound of crunching leaves under foot)

Now, this is a beautiful plant right
here.

Most everyone is probably familiar
with mint.

There are different types of
mints

and how you can identify something

that is in the mint family is it has a

square stem. I'm going to pick a

piece and when I spin it in my fingers

you'll see it's not rolling as a round

tube, it's actually a square stem.

So there are lots of different mints out
there.

I don't know exactly what kind of

mint this is but when it smells really

nice and minty you've got yourself a good

mint for making tea, for putting in your

lemonade, for just munching for a

natural breath mint. And mint is very

easy to plant. You can take a piece of

the stem...a woody piece, poke it into the

ground and you can propagate mint and

spread it all over that way.

So this is a really nice mint that's
growing.

I see more of it over here.

I'm not sure what this plant is.

I'm very curious about it. Something

that I'd like to learn. Actually, this

plant right here...I was in the

Netherlands about 3 weeks ago and

someone told me that this plant is

called cleavers and they told me that

before it gets to the point of being ...

it sticks to you...they said before it

gets to that point it is edible.

And I don't know how to use it but,

again, I'm in a yard that I have never

foraged before arriving here 2 weeks ago.

I'm in a climate...in a region...I'm in

south France, I've never foraged here.

So, I've done a lot of foraging. I foraged

over 200 species of plants in my year of

growing and foraging all of my food, but

right now, this yard and this environment

that I am showing you, this is new to me.

This plant, right here, looks a lot like

a plant that I forage when I am in

Florida. And that would be...oh, now I am

blanking on the name, but I don't think

it's it. It's just something that looks

a lot like it and (pause) I want to say

bacopa but I'm not sure so we'll pass on
that.

Okay, let's see. (Rustling sounds)

Okay! Here we have

a little more mint. Beautiful mint.

Right next to it we have yarrow.

Now yarrow is not so much of an edible.

It's a medicinal.

Yarrow has been used as

a styptic to stop bleeding.

So if people got a big cut

you could actually pack the

wound with this stuff and I've also heard

of it being used for horses as well in the
field.

So this is a really wonderful

plant to know and I see it around the
world.

So that's called yarrow.

(Rustling sounds)

Let's see. Right here we have...oh,

more of the cleaver...

So this is the leaves of

the raspberry bush. (Rustling sounds)

And it is thorny. It is sticking to me.

And raspberries are great.

Blackberries are great. Most

people know about those but a lot of

people don't know that the leaves are

really good to make a tea out of. So you

can make tea out of raspberry leaves.

And this woods line is covered in actual

raspberry bushes. So this is just a

little bit of the new growth from the
spring.

So raspberry leaves.

Another dandelion head and...

(Blows the seeds)

you can also just have fun with
the plants, too.

Nature provides not just food,

not just medicine, but also

entertainment, enjoyment and love.

Okay I want to show you one of my

absolute favourites and that is right
here.

(Rustling sounds)

This is stinging nettle and the

easiest way to identify stinging nettle

is it stings. I am going to put my arm in

here. Oh ya, that is stinging me good!

There are these tiny little fibrous hairs

on here and they break off and it stings
you.

So there are plants that kind of look

like this but if it stings you,

it's stinging nettle or wood nettle.

You can wear gloves or the sting actually

is beneficial for you because it's used to

help with diabetes to circulate blood

flow so I like to rub it on me.

Now you wouldn't eat this raw because

you can imagine the stings in the mouth

could be very painful, but you can make

nettle tea and you can also just boil

the greens and then eat the greens.

And, ya, I'm really feeling that.

So, this is a beautiful plant to use and,

again, a lot of people would cut this down

to get it out of their yards because they

think it's a problem but it's actually

super nutritious.

I'm going to walk over here where there

are some onions that I am going to show
you.

(Rustling sound of leaves under foot)

So all along this there is food growing
all over.

Okay here is another one.

I see a caterpillar right here. Whoops,

it fell off. Okay, so as I said, I'm

foraging in a new place and I don't

know the plants here. I don't have a

guide book. There's a lot of plants that

grow throughout the world. Now one of

my favourite plants, that I forage in

the United States, is broadleaf plantain.

Also called plantago and I haven't seen

it in this yard but just this morning

I looked at this plant here and I think

this is, indeed, a plantago. But I think

what this is is a narrowleaf. And the

reason why is because if you break this...

(rustling sounds)

when you break this...

oh, it's not doing it (laughs) I'm going

to find...okay, when I break this you can

see the veins actually separating there.

And that's, I think, a pretty telltale
sign.

If this was broadleaf plantain I'd

know for sure. But this tells me that

this is probably a narrowleaf plantain

and this is a great medicinal and great

edible as well. I am seeing this all over
here now.

Right next to this, all over the

ground, you can see these little caps.

And let's see if there...okay here is one

with the...this is acorn. And acorn is a

majorly overlooked food!

In fact, humanity may not exist without
the acorn.

Many cultures, 50% of their

calories in food came from acorns.

There is a process in order to be able to

eat them but this is an overlooked food

and it's growing all over here.

(Rustling sounds) Let's see...

I mentioned this plant before that I said

looked like a plant in Florida and

I remembered it (laughs) and now I forgot

it again...gotu kola!

So, I don't think this is gotu kola

but this is a plant that

I foraged in Florida and it's one of the

most bitter plants that there are but it's
brain food.

Another one is dollar weed

which looks similar to this but just

round and these grow in moister

environments which, interestingly, you can

see down here they're growing down here

where water would flow rather than up

there in the driest part, so they could be

related but, not sure.

Again, this video is not an

identification. The idea of this

is just to spark your brain. I mean, just

in the last 10 minutes how many different

plants have I found that are edible and

medicinal just walking around this yard

that I am unfamiliar with? This is really

just about sparking your mind and

realizing that your yard could be a great

source of nutrition and medicine.

There are a couple more plants I want to

show you, then we are just about done.

(Rustling sounds)

This is a beautiful plant. I think maybe

they would call this buttercup.

Mmmm...smells wonderful.

You don't have to pick all the

plants, either, to get a wonderful

benefit from them. You can just smell

them, too. So many beautiful flowers.

(Rustling sounds)

Okay here is something that I know is a

mint because of the square stem.

I'm going to smell it. Not a minty smell.

I'm not sure what that is but this is

worth looking into. And you can see a

lot more dandelion here. Dandelion is

one of my top recommendations.

(Rustling sounds)

Right over here I found a different
plant.

I mentioned sorrel before,

well this is called wood sorrel and this

has got a really nice tangy, lemony
flavor.

Looks like clover. A lot of

people think it is clover but it's not.

It grows...you know, this is one piece
right here.

So this is wood sorrel.

There's some dog hair on it. Perfect

place to eat food that might have been

peed on by dogs, so just avoid that

if you don't want that. Simple as that.

Use common sense. You got to start
thinking.

I am going to be putting out

more foraging videos that will go into

those sort's of things and help you with
that.

Okay, one last plant and we are

actually going to step outside the yard
for this one,

into the little field next door.

(Rustling grass under foot)

And this is wild onions or leeks or
garlic.

They are all in the allium family

and I found them to be

abundant in a lot of places.

I just found these the other day.

I was actually out here to take a pee and

I looked down and I was peeing on some
onions.

Oh! I want to mention this plant
right here.

In the mint family, I believe.

Not sure what it is, but it is an

interesting one that I want to learn.

And I want to show you some more

onions over here.

(Rustling sounds)

So... here! (Rustling sounds)

More onion right here and here and here.

So I think if you've ever mowed

your lawn and all of a sudden

you smell onions it's because you are

mowing onions. Same for mint.

Sometimes you might mow your lawn and

you smell mint it's because you are mowing
mint.

Now, I think this might be leeks.

There are leeks and there are ramps and

there are wild onion, there's wild garlic

and there's a whole lot of different
varieties

and I don't know them all.

(Crunches on the plant) But they all

work great as onions.

Hmm, what's this right here?

Okay so this would be

clover I believe. And clover is edible

and this grows all over the place. You can

eat the flower and the leaves.

So, that's just a little introduction to

foods that can be growing freely and

abundantly right in your back yard.

If you have a back yard learn the foods

that are in it. If you don't have a back

yard talk to your friends and share

learning with your friends and when

you do this you will find that food is

growing freely and abundantly all

around you. I'll have a lot more videos

coming on foraging to teach you some of

the more basics of how to forage.

So if you got a lot out of this video

please share it.

Please like it and if you have questions

post them in the comments and if you

haven't, make sure you subscribe as well.

I love you all very much and I'll see you

again real soon.

Happy foraging.