The 2025 Eat Something Wild Everyday Challenge
On New Year’s Day, I dreamed about how our greatest, most valuable currencies are sun, earth, water, air and soil. It was a peaceful, comforting kind of dream, and I awoke to a question posed to me from some portal in between the dreaming and waking state which was: “What does this world need of you right now, Mary Morgaine?”
It’s not a question that I haven’t already asked myself a 1,000 times, but this had a different energy about it and propelled me right into a clear answer: “To invite people to a 2025 challenge of eating something wild everyday!”
The words vocation and advocacy come from the same root meaning- a calling or a summons for our lives. My vocation for the past thirty years has largely been to advocate for earth connection, and it has taken on all kinds of forms: writer, plantwalker, ceremonialist, protester, counselor, earth steward, documentarian, camp leader, journalist, artist, workshop facilitator and more. As I turn the page into yet another calendar year, an unprecedented urgency is fueling my fire. I am summoned to speak up and out more loudly even though honestly I’d prefer to just hide behind a rock. Instead, I devotedly remain consistent to calling us back to our common ground. Both literally and figuratively.
If you’ve followed my work over the years, you may remember back in 2021 when I shared 52 weeks of Fresh Herbal Teas on Instagram. Each week, I poured us all a cup of tea from a different plant growing on the land where I live, and shared about its nutritional and medicinal values. I still receive feedback from folks about how that practice helped them cultivate a regular, healing relationship with our plant allies, themselves and the earth.
So for 2025, I am offering an “Eat Something Wild Everyday” Challenge with the intention of getting folks back online with their real self- their flesh and blood unvirtual self that is directly descended from and dependent upon the elements of earth, water, fire and air, our greatest currencies. It’s a very simple act. And we know deep down it is the simple things that will save us, that make us whole and happy. The simple things that are actually not that simple— try to make or live without water and air and soil and light and see how far you get;-)
Many people in our world are feeling so very disconnected, including myself at times. I noticed I had been drifting from my regular interactions with my plant friends, due to a number of things, so this challenge is definitely for me too, calling me back to center and to the life I love. I think about the first questions indigenous teachers have asked when we become depressed, dispirited or disconnected:
“When did you stop singing?
When did you stop dancing?
When did you stop sharing stories?
When did you stop creating space for silence?”
And I would add to that, “When did you stop eating wild foods?” For we are what we eat. I am saying this as one who was an anorexic at one time and addicted to eating pretty much only candy corn. That is another story for another time, but it was when I began to eat whole foods that my body and psyche came out of depression and disconnection. And when I began to nibble on wild plants, I found the key to my green heart. For when we take the time to eat, chew, nibble or taste things that the elements are voluntarily offering up, communication occurs within our DNA that helps us remember who we truly are and how interconnected everything is.
We also become more familiar with the time/season and place where we are positioned on the planet. Appreciation, connection and wonder of the natural world is cultivated and it leads us to protect our environment while demanding less from it. Consume less. Eating wild, even if just a nibble, has a powerful domino effect in a positive direction!
So without further ado, Here it is:
The “Eat Something Wild Everyday” Challenge:
- Wherever you live or are visiting, step outside and find something you can either eat or nibble. Something that is voluntarily growing is what I call wild:-) It is most likely what we would call a weed, but there are many other options too. You can get into mushrooms, insects etc… but my focus will be mostly about the green gifts.
- Pay attention to location. Make sure that your wild green friend isn’t too close to a busy road or in a sprayed area or where pets take a leak.
- Take the sacred pause and give the plant your gratitude and gift of presence.
- If you have (can make) time, lie on the earth too.
- Notice how it feels in your body, and any thoughts, sensations or feelings that arise.
- This doesn’t have to be every single day, that is not the point. The point is to make it a habit, where you are eating something wild more days than not!
My late partner Frank Cook is the one who introduced this Eat Something Wild Everyday concept to me and to Frank’s spirit, I say thank you.
In next’s week’s post, I will be sharing some examples of what to eat or nibble on in the Northern Hemisphere in the winter. If you are not that plant ID savvy, just eat the same thing daily over and over until you get more confident in your skills. Please do be safe and don’t eat anything that you are not 100% sure of its identification. For every one of my regular Substack posts in 2025, I will also be mentioning a story or tip about this challenge to keep us inspired!
Ready to take this wild challenge with me?
