If this is natural, it sure ain't normal.

The first 2 weeks of eating 100% wild, hand foraged food as part of the Wildbiome Project.

Picture this. We are preparing for a busy weekend of teaching, there are bags of kit everywhere and I’m ticking off the last few things. For me (Charlie) these are usually, “coffee, tea, chocolate” - the holy trinity, my edible talisman, without which I feel naked and afraid. They are my trusted power house that help me face the challenges of work; keep at bay tiredness; spark dynamism; unlock instant energy; and are my safety blanket for emotional knocks.

Daily life without them has been doable these last 2 weeks but I’ve struggled with energy. Will it be possible to teach 3 days in a row, lugging a 15kg pack up and down Devon’s coast and camping each night without these ‘crutches’?

To my utter surprise and delight I felt amazing. My body kept going, my mind stayed calm and focussed and I wasn’t overcome with lethargy and moodiness. Each morning I woke early and clear headed and each night I rested deeply.

I’m sure it had a lot to do with the wonderful folk who have joined us for this year’s Wild Practice, but the wild food we’re eating definitely has a part to play. I seem to have tapped into a deep reserve of soft, long lasting energy that has little to do with what I last consumed. Sure, I get hungry. But not the emotionally immature hunger where I feel my world is going to fall apart if I don’t eat something sweet or drink some caffeine.

My shackles of dependency on these psychoactive plants, with their dark history of slavery and colonisation, who powered the rapid rise of capitalism, are beginning to loosen.

I'm beginning to wonder, are the wild edibles outside our door quietly whispering a way to heal a fractured world?