Robin Greenfield forages in Madison during yearlong food challenge | News - Dining and Cooking

MADISON, Wis. — Environmental activist Robin Greenfield is spending an entire year eating only what he can find growing wild.

More than 300 days into the project, Greenfield has avoided grocery stores and restaurants, foraging his food and medicine from parks, yards and wild spaces across the country.

Madison is one of his main stops. During his visit, Greenfield gathered wild garlic and onions, bee balm, apples and mushrooms.

Greenfield has led foraging walks in more than 50 cities. He said the biggest change comes in how participants view the land around them.

“It’s a deep sense of meaning and purpose and connection,” Greenfield said. “One of the greatest threats of our time is this illusion of separateness — that we’re separate from the Earth. Foraging helps us see that we’re truly part of this and that humans are part of nature. We are nature.”

Greenfield said the project’s larger goal is to help people recognize that local parks and other green spaces can serve as gardens filled with food and medicine.