E33 Diego Bonetto foraging maestro and plant consciousness

Diego Bonetto, aka. The Weedy One, grew up on a dairy farm in northern Italy where it was still common practice to collect the wild bounty of the land. 

After moving to Australia in the 90s, Diego found that his practical foraging knowledge and weedy know-how was actually pretty rare. He lamented our modern approach to "weeds" --  a battle waged with poisons rather than a loving relationship that respects the valuable, nutrition and wisdom of the plants all around us.

So he became a weed advocate and educator, harking back to the dandelions, nettles, mulberries and edible mushrooms of his childhood and sharing their stories with those longing to return to their roots.

Diego's enthusiasm will inspire and move you, as it has done for the thousands of people who have attended his public and private workshops, events and weed walks. This conversation about belonging, sustainability, agency and food is just a glimpse of Diego's immense knowledge, and we encourage you to connect with him online or better still, in person!

SHOW NOTES

• Collecting wild plants, fungi, grains and berries as a child to supply seasonal produce to his family larder.
• Empowering people to recall childhood memories ; mulberries as lipstick, daisy chains to overcome fear and find confidence.
• Foraging does more than just give us free food; it’s our chance to experience gratitude, connect to ecology, anchor us all to the now. It cuts away our entitlement to resources and encourages us to engage in the gifts of the natural world.
• How to create steps to build foraging confidence, even in urban spaces.
• Basic rules of foraging.
• Foraging is not survival, it's establishing relationships of care-taking.
• Ocean foraging.
• The vast majority of foraging is handfuls for tasting rather than buckets of food.
• Are plants a living, conscious, feeling things? 
• Why we should be up in arms about factory farming which is enslavement into a system of yield rather than being a wild species which fetches its own minerals and grows of its own accord.
• We are part of a system where we eat and can be eaten.
• Foraging foundation of being still, staying put and becoming part of a specific cycle so you can build knowledge.
• Stepping from observer to stakeholder to caretaker.
• Why “weeds” is an arbitrary term.
• The importance of acknowledging the services that plants play.
• Backyard medicine is the result of coevolution.
• Calling on the knowledge of our wisdom holders to maintain self care.
• Why mulberries and blackberries are wonderful foraging teacher species and part of our ecological symbiotic contract to eat the species.
• Putting humans back in the cycle of life.

LINKS YOU'LL LOVE

• Diego Bonetto on Instagram @theweedyone
• Diego Bonetto online

Photo credit -- Aimee Crouch

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