 Hey everyone, my name is Rob Greenfield and you may know me for one of my recent adventures of growing and foraging 100% of my food for a year. So that means an entire year without grocery stores or restaurants, not even a drink at a bar or even gifts of food from friends. I literally had to either grow in my garden or forage from nature, everything that I ate down to the salt, the oil, the protein, the fat, the calories, you name it. And today I'm going to share 12 lessons that I learned from a year of growing and foraging all my food. Now that might sound intimidating to some of you, but the really good news is that in many ways I am still a beginner at heart. When I started this, I was very minimally experienced and so I have this experience, but at the same time remember what it's like to be very much at the beginning. So I'm excited to share this with you and help you to, if you've never grown food before, begin your journey, inspire you. And if you've already been growing some food, inspire you and help you to grow a lot more food. Lesson number one is to seek out and utilize local resources. When I first began my journey, what I did is I went to a web browser, Google being one of the most common ones. And I just started to search everything that I needed to know. I was searching how much water do you put on a carrot seed, how much sunlight does kale need, how far apart do I plant seeds? I was just Googling every single little item. A little while I started to realize the key is seeking out local resources. One of the big breakthroughs for me was finding a local planting calendar that told me all of this information. And so some of my top recommendations would be finding local books. You can check the local library to see what you might find for that. You can also still use the Internet with things like YouTube channels and websites and social media pages, but try to find people that are in your area for that. The community garden is a great resource just to show up at the community garden and start to talk to other gardeners. The reality is that gardeners enjoy other gardeners and they often really enjoy sharing their knowledge. So there are so many resources locally, definitely seeking out local meetup classes, volunteer opportunities, nurseries and seed companies. Every way that you can plug into the local community is a great way to get started and be really focused on your climate and what works well in your area. Lesson number two is to seek out local plants. A lot of people that I meet when they're starting to garden, they go to Home Depot and loosed by their fruit trees and their plants. And one of my top recommendations is really seeking out local plants. And there's a lot of reasons why. But one of the really big reasons is that what is a local plant, what is adapted to your region is more likely to do well. It's used to the pests or the insects. It knows the weather, the extreme heat or the extreme cold. Maybe it's been through those. It knows the weather, the rain patterns. So plants have this information in them. And the more that you can seek out local plants, the more likely your plants are to be able to succeed. So the way you do this, there's local nurseries. Again, not the big box nurseries that could be getting those plants from all over the country. But finding local nurseries that really work in plants that are of your region. And then local seed companies. Now, a lot of damage has been done to our seeds over the last decades and 100 plus years. And a lot of people think there's not local seed companies out there. But the truth is Monsanto and these other GMO corporations have far from taken over all of the local seed companies. There are a lot of them out there. In fact, when I was in Florida beginning this year, I talked to a lot of local permacultists and they said, oh, there's no local seed companies around here. I found three within a couple of hundred miles. And all of them were really excited to be able to provide seeds. And then the other thing is just connecting with other people. Seeds don't have to be monetized at all. Seeds are one of our greatest forms of freedom, as well as cuttings of plants. So when you're going to other community gardens or you're stopping in people's front yards that are growing food and you're talking to them, you can either trade or purchase four plants that are growing in that area. And that's one of the best ways to seek out the plants that do really well and will help you to grow more abundantly and easily. Lesson three is don't get your advice of what you're going to grow in the garden from your supermarket aisles. Find out what grows really well in your area. And again, this ties back into local information. So ask people that have been growing food in your area for a long time. What grows so well that you end up with too much of it? What grows so well that it becomes a weed that you have to deal with? Like mint, for example. Ask people, you know, what are the foods like zucchini that at the end of the season, there's more than anyone can handle and that they have to try to pawn it off or leave it on people's doorsteps? So find out what has the fewest pests. What can handle the lack of rain or the abundance of rain in your area? What can handle the extreme heat? For example, when I was in Florida, big tomatoes don't grow well there. But the Everglades tomato, a very small, delicious tomato grows wonderfully and self-seeds and comes back year after year. So one way that I did this is I went to the community gardens and I just checked to see what was thriving and I would go to all of my friends' gardens and local farms and I would see what was thriving. I would make these patterns myself and talk to other people. So absolutely do not walk down the grocery store aisles and say, I like strawberries in December when you can't do that once you start really growing your own food. Or I like, I don't know, blueberries. And then you find out that blueberries require generally more acidic soil and you don't have acidic soil. So instead, find out what grows out really well in your area and start with that. Lesson four is to volunteer with local gardeners and farmers. When I started this project of trying to grow all of my food, I was the only one that was, you know, doing just that. But I was far from the only one that was, you know, growing an abundance of food. So my key was to give my time and energy to other people who have that information and make an exchange. So volunteering at local farms is a great way to start. You can find farms through the website WOOF, which stands for Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms. And then volunteering at community gardens, talking to people in the community, just anybody who's got an at-home garden, most gardeners need help with weeding and sort of the grunt work of gardening. And if you're willing to help out with those sorts of things, you can very quickly become a best friend of a gardener or farmer. Put your time, put your energy and put your resources into this. And as you become friends and, you know, you build up this trust and this camaraderie with other gardeners and farmers, they're going to share knowledge, they're going to share insight, they're going to share plants and seeds with you. So definitely plug in and you don't have to do it alone. Now, gardening can be a really nice thing to do alone, but a lot of people really like to garden with community. So do it. There are so many gardeners out there. Get involved, volunteer and be in the garden and make it make it a satisfying, you know, soul quenching experience with other people as well, if that's what you desire. Lesson five is to start small and grow from there. Now, for my year, I actually planted gardens in six different spots throughout the neighborhood right at the beginning because I didn't have land of my own. I was actually gardening in other people's front yards and doing a little bit of an exchange and this was overwhelming. I also started with trying to grow a little bit of everything, also very overwhelming. And I've seen this as something that people do because gardening is really exciting. Growing food is really exciting, but it's very easy to feel like you want to do it all right at the start. And the problem is, is if you don't have the time and the energy for all of it, it can actually really set you backwards because it can become so overwhelming that you lose it all. So my recommendation is really to start small. Your first year, it could be five to 10 different foods, you know, for example, tomatoes and basil and mint and peppers and, you know, five to 10 different plants and then each season or each year adding on another five or 10. And if you just do that for five years, then we're talking about growing 25 to 50 different species and that's some real abundance. So definitely start small, you know, really sit down with yourself and ask yourself how much time and energy you have. Be realistic with yourself, start there and then add on each year, whether it's number of plants or the size of your garden. Start where you can be realistic with yourself and then grow year after year after year until you get to the point of having that absolute garden of your dreams. But I'll be straightforward with you. Probably you're not going to get your garden of your dreams overnight or in the first year, that's something that's going to take time, dedication and sticking to it. Lesson six is to make convenient systems. The reality is that most of the people that are, you know, getting started with gardening, they today in the 21st century, most of us have sort of a limitation of time and energy with all the things that are going on. So it's really important to make systems that are convenient enough that are going to actually keep you gardening rather than turn it into a chore. An easy example of this is if you put your garden, you know, on the far side of your property, where it's kind of out of sight, out of mind, it's it's going to be much easier to neglect. Whereas if you put it right outside your back door near your patio or even out your front door next to your front sidewalk, where you're going to see it every day, as you walk past it, you're going to see, Oh, I need to remove some some insects from this plant or Oh, the plants need to be watered. So putting it in an area that's convenient, the same with watering. If you have to walk two minutes to go get water to put on your garden, that's going to make it much less likely that you're going to water. But even even if it's just a 20 second walk to get water, so making your systems like water, a convenient, easy to do thing. My big lesson was I spread my gardens out in six different yards throughout the neighborhood, and most people aren't going to do that. That's, you know, sort of an extreme example. But boy, was that tiring having to bring my tools to all these different spots and to have to go from place to place. And really, it's hard to keep on top of, you know, starting with one area of your property and and getting adjusted to that and getting that down before adding on to another area. Now, of course, if you're starting a fruit tree that's easy to maintain a fruit tree orchard and then you have your annual garden in two different places, that's easier. But if you're putting annuals in multiple places of your property, that's going to be pretty inconvenient and is sort of this could be setting yourself up at the beginning for some struggles. So making convenient systems, thinking about your systems as you're designing them and and really thinking about your own energy, your own time and whether you're going to be able to manage them. Lesson seven is one that I'm very excited about, and that is eat the weeds. I can't tell you how many gardeners that I meet that are just pulling out every weed that they find in their garden. And they're many, many times they're actually cursing them and putting all this negative energy into them. And I come along and I tell them that's that's edible. That's lamb's quarter, purslane or dandelion or pokeweed. There are so many plants that we are pulling out and destroying that not only turn out that they're edible and nutritious, but a lot of them are more nutritious than the very plants that we're growing and they grow really well. I mean, that's what weeds do. They're prolific and they produce. So eating the weeds and combining foraging with gardening is one of the most convenient things we can do and one of the ways we can really utilize that land, because again, these things are growing whether we want them to or not compared to a lot of the plants we're growing that we're struggling to grow. And here we could be eating these weeds. So learn the weeds of your area. Realize that weeds are just a human made concept. There is no such thing as a weed. That's just us deciding one thing is inferior or undesirable. But every plant is a beneficial plant to humanity. Every plant can be worked with as an ally and every plant has its place. So eat the weeds. Lesson eight, this was a really beautiful lesson that I learned and that is you don't need to fall for the chemical mindset. I made it through my entire year, growing a hundred different species of food in my garden, and I didn't use a single pesticide, not even an organic one like BT, for example, or Neem. Now, there are there are some really good natural pesticides out there that work, but I made it through my entire year without using a single one of them. So don't fall for this idea that you need chemicals in order to grow food. Humanity has grown food long before chemicals ever existed. And in so many ways, the chemicals they they're sold as our friends, but they are very much our foe, both for the overall environment, for other species and for ourselves. A couple of key things with that. Number one, biodiversity. If you're growing just a few crops and you're growing large rows of the same crop, that is going to be a more challenging situation. But if you have a garden with 50 different species growing in it, most of these insects, they eat particular plants. So if you have one particular insect that comes in and you have only a few of that plant and they're spread out in different spots and they're actually a little bit harder to find or get to or crawl to, you're going to have that pest not become a big problem. So biodiversity is key. That's the opposite of a monocrop. Another really big one is to grow in abundance of plants. Honestly, if you have just a few plants on your balcony, you know, if you have a couple of pests, it's going to be a lot harder to to not focus on those pests and to to feel that. But if you have a garden with many more plants and abundance, you're going to have a much more much easier time accepting it. And I'll give you one example. One of the gardens that I had, the person who owned that land that I was gardening on, she would come out and her focus was always on, oh, the kale has aphids or the cucumbers have caterpillars on them. She would always be focusing on that one or two pests. And my response was, yeah, but we've got 50 different species. And the other 48 have no problem whatsoever right now. So because I was growing in abundance of plants and again, diversity, I didn't have to worry about it. The tomatoes didn't work this time. No big deal. There's other foods that are growing. So it's this chemical mindset that can really take over where you think the solution is a chemical that I can use. But really what you want to look at is also, why is this a problem in the first place? You can look at plants having an immune system just like we do, although they don't have an immune system. But if you think about it, if you let yourself get weak, other bacteria or viruses are more likely to be able to come in and penetrate our systems and make us unhealthy. And if our plants are weak because they're not getting enough nutrients, the soil is poor, they're not getting enough water, that's what opens them up more likely to insects or what we call pests that are going to be problems. So thinking holistically about taking care of the plants first and foremost is another really important one to avoid the chemical mindset. Instead, be in the mindset of working with the plants, asking them what they need and giving them what they need in order to thrive. Lesson nine is to transition into perennials. Now, a lot of permacultures out there are pretty much anti-annuals. But one thing you'll see at Wild Abundance is they do a mixture of perennials and annuals. And I think that is a really good way to do it. For me, when I was just getting started and I was trying to go from growing literally 0% of my food to growing 100% of my food, I found that the best thing to do was to do a mixture of annuals and perennials because annuals are going to give you quick production and they're going to, you know, within a couple of months, within a few months of starting your garden, you can be eating a lot of food with annuals. Perennials, on the other hand, are going to take more time to really start producing. So if you don't know the difference between an annual and a perennial, an annual is something that basically produces once and then it's done. You know, generally things like arugula or kale or broccoli, these are annuals. Although you can have annuals that last a long time and you keep cutting and getting more. But the idea is the plant goes through one cycle and it dies. Whereas perennials, you plant them and the idea is they'll live for years, decades, potentially even centuries. The oak is an amazing example of a perennial. There's oak trees out there that have been producing acorns for hundreds of years. Fruit trees like apple trees, pears, plums, if you're in the South, mangoes, for example. These are all perennials. And there's a lot of perennial greens that keep coming back year after year. Rhubarb is a great perennial. You plant rhubarb in for 25 years, you can be getting rhubarb. Versus lettuce, you're replanting that over and over. So my suggestion is to start with a mixture of annuals and perennials. But in time, phase the annuals out to more and more perennials. And the reason why is that perennials generally are more able to work with the environment as far as being able to handle drought. They don't have as many pests. They don't need to be cared for as much. They don't have to be planted each year. And so, for one, they take a lot less time and energy and they just keep on producing. And secondly, they're a lot more resilient to weather, to insects, to, you know, the general struggles of gardening. So start with annuals and perennials. Continue with annuals and perennials, but move more and more into perennials over time. Lesson 10 is let thy food be thy medicine. So during my entire year of growing and foraging all my food, I never got sick once. And one of the rules was no pills, no pharmaceuticals. My food was my medicine. I had to grow all of my own medicine or forage my own medicine as well. And so there's a lot of obvious foods that are medicine. You have things like ginger or turmeric or garlic or elderberries, these really medicinal foods. But the reality is that every single thing that we eat is either our medicine or our internal destroyers. Every food that we put into our body that is healthy, that is providing us with nourishment, whether it be vegetables, fruit, meat, oils and fats, you know, calories and grains, all of these are our medicine because they are preventative medicine. They are providing us with what we need in order to be healthy whole humans. And then you have your really super medicinal foods that you can grow and that you can forge as well. So let thy food be thy medicine. That was one of the most beautiful examples for me from my year. One of the most beautiful lessons was really seeing that that is possible and stepping away from this big pharmaceutical industry. The mainstream industries would like us to believe that food can't provide us with what we need and that we need these pills and all these supplements that come from them, that they make massive amounts of money, billions of dollars on. But the pharmaceutical industries, big pharma, this is some of the most corrupt industries on our earth. And to be able to produce our own medicine is one of the most empowering things that we can do as humans, along with growing our own food. And these two things, totally inseparable. It's a really holistic approach, the idea of let thy food be thy medicine. Maybe sounds cliche. It sounds like something that was said by Hippocrates, I believe, hundreds of years ago, but it could not be more true with everything that we eat. Lesson 11, most things in themselves aren't necessarily that hard, but doing it all is. When you start to look at gardening and simple living, sustainable living, regenerative living, you start to see that most individual things really aren't that complicated. They really aren't that hard, but trying to do it all with our busy lives. Many of us with jobs and children and maybe parents to take care of, you know, so many responsibilities and things going on, bringing it all together is what can be the most difficult. And so a lot of people through my year, they would comment on social media and they would just say, well, why aren't you doing this? Like, why don't you have avocados? And it's like, well, avocados take seven years or more to be really producing. So looking at holistically, this idea of sustenance, gardening and really producing a lot of our own food individually, growing garlic isn't really generally very hard, but growing 100 different things and then having the time to plant garlic at the right time that year or, you know, your peanuts, they get dug up by squirrels and you just don't have the energy there, the time to plant the peanuts again. Peanuts aren't that hard to grow, but one year they might not work out because there's so many other things that are going on when you're trying to pull it all together. So with that being the case, one thing for me that is a big reminder is that it goes back to the same thing with starting small with gardening. And it's the same with when you're trying to put it all together is adding in one thing at a time or a few things at a time and sort of getting competent at that, mastering that and then adding in one more thing. And as you're building these systems that work and you're building these resilient systems, then you'll be able to really sustainably. And I mean, your time, your energy sustainably be able to bring all the pieces of the puzzle together because the reality of our lives is when we're talking about growing and foraging all of our food, you can't separate that from everything else. Your electricity, your source of water, your familial relationships, your relationships with your neighbors, your friends, all of these things are completely connected. Our desire for love, for for intimacy, our desire for feeling a strong sense of purpose in the world. These all are part of gardening because nothing in our life is separate. So just realizing that that everything is connected and that, again, things are going to take time and just building up each little thing one at a time to put together that whole grand picture that is your dream. Lesson 12 is to practice an abundance mindset rather than a scarcity mindset. Now, a really big part of this is that what I've seen over and over with, especially with new gardeners, really, they have this fear of killing anything. You know, even to the point where they don't want to harvest their food because it looks nice in the garden, they don't want to kill it. Or they a thing that I commonly see is people say, oh, my lettuce bolted and I did something wrong. Well, no, actually, lettuce has a lifespan. It lives that lifespan and it's going to seed and it's going to die. So one of the big things with this abundance mindset rather than the scarcity mindset is to realize that to be a good gardener, which is to grow food, which is to be a creator of life, you also have to be a good killer in order to create food, to grow food. You actually have to be good at killing things as well. And when you really look at it, you realize that killing is not this finite thing. Death is life and life is death. This is a cycle of life that you'll really start to tune into in your garden. And that's one element of the abundance mindset. If you're thinking abundantly, you're OK with death and you're not just OK with it, you're happy with that. It's part of it. And so start to try to look at things from a place of abundance rather than from a mindset of scarcity. And that can really, really flip your entire experience and relationship with your garden. I really hope that you've gained some very valuable experience and knowledge through the lessons that I learned from my year of growing and foraging all my food. And remember that you are you. You can only be you and you can only be in the time and the place that you are currently in. And so you have to work there. You have to start where you are. You have to work with the setting that you're in and grow from there. So some of the things that I've said, maybe not applicable to you, but some of them are. So choose the the lessons that are most valuable to you and select those and start working with them. And this year that I did was in Florida. But I have to say that the greatest abundance that I've ever experienced has been in these colder climates, like Northern Wisconsin where I'm originally from. I have seen abundance there, like I've never experienced in these warmer climates like Florida. So wherever you are, be excited because the earth is an abundant place and we can live in abundance. And I'm actually planning on another year of growing and foraging all of my food. And this time it will be in a much colder climate. And I'm excited to share that with you all. Very excited to be a part of the Wild Abundance Online Gardening School. I think this is an amazing resource that you should definitely tell all of your friends about. I think it's one of the greatest resources out there to really empower us to break free from the corporate food mindset and really start to live with our communities and live with ourselves as individuals together to be able to be independent of these broken systems and instead create regenerative systems that are just, that are equitable and that are serving all of humanity and the other species that we share the earth with. So really wonderful to spend this time with you and I'll see you all again soon, hopefully in the garden.