Ep. 83: Eat Weeds - Wild Plant Contemplations, Healing with Foraging & Perspectives in Ethnobotany (feat. Robin Harford)

 Today on Mushroom Hour we are graced by the presence of wild food expert and author Robin Harford. Robin is a plant-based forager, ethnobotanical researcher and wild food educator. He has published numerous foraging guidebooks and established his own wild food foraging school in 2008. His foraging courses were recently voted #1 in the UK by BBC Countryfile. Robin is the creator of Eatweeds which is listed in The Times Top 50 websites for food and drink. He has travelled extensively documenting and recording the traditional and local uses of wild food plants in indigenous cultures. His work has taken him to Africa, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and the USA. Robin regularly appears on radio and occasionally on television. His work has been recommended in BBC Good Food magazine, Sainsbury’s magazine as well as in The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph among others.     TOPICS COVERED:   Childhood in the Wilds of the Devon Countryside   Finding Freedom, Questioning Big Brother   Reconnecting with Nature as Somatic Healing   Sensory Method of Plant Identification    Power of Contemplative Practice & Bio-Individualism   Developing Relationship with Wild Plants as a Form of Activism   Finding Perspectives on Anger and Love   Foraging as an Act of Reverence   Processing Trauma & Addiction Through Somatic Experience with Plants   Living Wild Food Tradition of the Roamer Communities in England   In Search of Nomadic Hunter Gatherer Communities   The Oceanic Moken People & Anthropological Diversity   Getting Started Foraging & Preparing Wild Plants   Joining the Eatweeds Community   EPISODE RESOURCES:   Eatweeds Website:  https://www.eatweeds.co.uk/   Eatweeds Facebook Community:  https://www.facebook.com/foragingcourses   Frank Cook (Inspiration):  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_C._Cook_IV   Hildegard of Bingen (Inspiration):  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen    Laurel Luddite Paper:  https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/laurel-luddite-this-is-anarcha-herbalism-thoughts-on-health-and-healing-for-the-revolution    Latcho Drom (Film):  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latcho_Drom    Moken Culture:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moken    Against the Grain (Book):  https://www.amazon.com/Against-Grain-History-Earliest-States/dp/0300182910    Botanyeveryday:  http://www.botanyeveryday.com/