2024-04-15
37 分钟It’s easy to forget that the packaged lettuce you bought from the store originally grew out of the ground – but it did! What if you could cut out your trips to the store – and get more food right from your own backyard? Foraging is a fantastic way to reconnect to your natural environment and Alexis Nikole Nelson is an outdoor educator, food writer, and expert forager. This week, she’ll help ignite your curiosity about the green spaces around you, even if you live in the concrete jungle. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts
TED audio collective, you're listening to how to be a better human.
I'm your host, Chris Duffy.
Growing up in a big city, I did not have much of a connection to the idea of cultivating or finding your own food.
Every once in a while, we would buy a potted basil plant from the supermarket, and then I would watch it slowly wither and die because it could not get enough sunlight on our windowsill.
And now, now I live in southern California, where there are just citrus trees growing on the sidewalk.
It is wild.
People are out here picking and eating lemons and oranges and pomegranates and all sorts of other fruit on their commute to work.
And while I love that, I have to admit it still feels a little unnatural to me.
I have only ever viewed city sidewalks as being fertile places for bacteria and disease to grow, not for fruit and food.
And yet, food growing outdoors free, that's actually the most natural thing that could exist.
It is literally nature.
So if you're like me and you feel pretty disconnected from the idea about where food comes from, today's guest is exactly the person to help open our eyes.
And if you are already into foraging and gardening and growing food, well get ready to nerd out with someone who shares your passions.
Alexis Nicole Nelson is a forager, a cook, and a passionate environmental scientist.
She has been thinking about food since she was very, very young.
Heres a clip from her TED talk.
At the age of five, upon realizing that the cows in the fields and the cows on my dads grill were the same cows, I asked my parents if I could go vegetarian, to which they said, sure, but lets wait until youre done growing first.
So sure that I would change my mind over the next five to nine years.
Well, shortly after my 12th birthday, I took the plunge and I gave up meat completely.
It took another twelve years for me to give up eggs and dairy.