"I'm a forager - I eat roadkill and think we should treat plants like people"
- 8 months ago
A forager spends just £40-a-week on shop-bought food by eating ROADKILL and wild plants - and insists we should treat “plants like people”.
Eric Joseph Lewis, 41, discovered foraging when his late uncle, Tom Lewis, 64, took him on a plant walk as a child and pointed out edible herbs and plants.
Now, he eats wild food on a daily basis with his girlfriend, Jess Russell, 26 - who studies breath work - and they cook up meals such as wild berry smoothies and nettle pesto.
Eric will also eat roadkill - such as deer - and says a carcass can provide up to 100lbs of meat.
He also finds and eats opossum, groundhog, squirrel, and occasionally wild turkey or ducks - as well as using roadkill fox for fur.
He will use every part of the dead deer - including for meat, bone broth, bones for his dog, Leela, and to make leather.
The plant educator still relies on supermarkets for luxuries such as kombucha and coconut yoghurt – but spends just £40 ($50) a week on supplies.
Eric, from Knoxville, Maryland, US, said: “I eat wild food on a daily basis and grow a good amount.
“We should treat plants like people.
“We eat roadkill.
“If you can get over the fear and discomfort of this being a dead animal, you can recognise it was a life lived in freedom and respect it.”
Eric began getting into yoga and mediating in his late 20s and spent time living in a tent in the woods – working just one day a week as a painter to fund his food shop.
When a friend pointed out he was living on top of a blueberry patch in Spring 2010, it reignited his desire to learn about the plants humans can eat.
Now he lives in at a nursery, which grows fruit and nut trees as well as edible plants.
Eric said: “I eat nettles, sochan - which is the same family as a black-eyed Susan - and sunflowers.
“Now the berries are coming in – we have it in smoothies for half the year.
“We pick goumi berries and blackberries.”
Eric spends half the year in Florida - foraging mushrooms, and setting traps for animals such as wild hogs and iguanas.
He will also fish for invasive fish to eat – such as catfish.
He said: “We gather coconuts, avocados and different mushrooms.
“I’m teaching Leela - a mix between a blue heeler and beagle - to forage for mushrooms too.”
Eric is a “huge mushroom enthusiast” and picks out fungi such as morel mushrooms, and hen of the woods.
Eric and Jess often have a meal consisting of home-grown onion, sweet potato, chayote topped with a wild mushroom they have foraged and garnished with stinging nettles.
To make sure they get enough protein, the couple will use eggs from friends with chickens, as well as eating roadkill.
Eric said he saves dead deer that would have otherwise “rot” or be “incinerated”.
He said: “We turn it into leather. Use the bones for bone broth and for Leela.
“One deer could be 60 to 100lbs of meat – about 60,000 calories.
“Nothing had to die for it.”
Although he tries to eat as much wild food as he can, Eric still gets staples such as lenti
Eric Joseph Lewis, 41, discovered foraging when his late uncle, Tom Lewis, 64, took him on a plant walk as a child and pointed out edible herbs and plants.
Now, he eats wild food on a daily basis with his girlfriend, Jess Russell, 26 - who studies breath work - and they cook up meals such as wild berry smoothies and nettle pesto.
Eric will also eat roadkill - such as deer - and says a carcass can provide up to 100lbs of meat.
He also finds and eats opossum, groundhog, squirrel, and occasionally wild turkey or ducks - as well as using roadkill fox for fur.
He will use every part of the dead deer - including for meat, bone broth, bones for his dog, Leela, and to make leather.
The plant educator still relies on supermarkets for luxuries such as kombucha and coconut yoghurt – but spends just £40 ($50) a week on supplies.
Eric, from Knoxville, Maryland, US, said: “I eat wild food on a daily basis and grow a good amount.
“We should treat plants like people.
“We eat roadkill.
“If you can get over the fear and discomfort of this being a dead animal, you can recognise it was a life lived in freedom and respect it.”
Eric began getting into yoga and mediating in his late 20s and spent time living in a tent in the woods – working just one day a week as a painter to fund his food shop.
When a friend pointed out he was living on top of a blueberry patch in Spring 2010, it reignited his desire to learn about the plants humans can eat.
Now he lives in at a nursery, which grows fruit and nut trees as well as edible plants.
Eric said: “I eat nettles, sochan - which is the same family as a black-eyed Susan - and sunflowers.
“Now the berries are coming in – we have it in smoothies for half the year.
“We pick goumi berries and blackberries.”
Eric spends half the year in Florida - foraging mushrooms, and setting traps for animals such as wild hogs and iguanas.
He will also fish for invasive fish to eat – such as catfish.
He said: “We gather coconuts, avocados and different mushrooms.
“I’m teaching Leela - a mix between a blue heeler and beagle - to forage for mushrooms too.”
Eric is a “huge mushroom enthusiast” and picks out fungi such as morel mushrooms, and hen of the woods.
Eric and Jess often have a meal consisting of home-grown onion, sweet potato, chayote topped with a wild mushroom they have foraged and garnished with stinging nettles.
To make sure they get enough protein, the couple will use eggs from friends with chickens, as well as eating roadkill.
Eric said he saves dead deer that would have otherwise “rot” or be “incinerated”.
He said: “We turn it into leather. Use the bones for bone broth and for Leela.
“One deer could be 60 to 100lbs of meat – about 60,000 calories.
“Nothing had to die for it.”
Although he tries to eat as much wild food as he can, Eric still gets staples such as lenti