The Wildbiome Project

Understanding the health & well-being impact of foraging and wild food

University of Bradford (UK) and the University of Rzeszów (Poland)
PI: Monica Wilde

For 2024-2025, I am practitioner-researcher on this international project. As practitioner, I will be eating only wild foraged food for the month of May 2025, in order to contribute to data on the impact of wild food on gut microbiome diversity and a range of health markers detailed below. My research will examine the impact of foraging on emotional well-being, for a series of public and academic articles, talks, and interviews.

Any support in the form of sharing this project with interested friends and colleagues, contributions to the project fundraiser…or invitations to harvest your dandelions…is very greatly appreciated! 🌿

Project Overview

In 2020, ethnobotanists and foragers Monica Wilde and Matt Rooney went one year eating only the wild food available in Central Scotland. They had a series of gut tests conducted and the results were astounding: including the reversal of Matt’s Type 2 diabetes. The Wildbiome Project was born.

Now, as a participant in the Project’s international study, I have committed to eating only wild food for the month of May 2025! No chocolate, no CHEESE...just the wild plants, fungi, and protein I can forage, fish, and ferment around my home in the Garden of England, Kent. I'm asking for your help to fund gut health research, and to support the charitable work of my local community food garden, The Windmill, in its mission to improve nature access and education: increasingly recognised as vital for both individual and community health and well-being!

This citizen science project has two aims:

1. To contribute to research on how wild food impacts human health

  • Before, during, and after the wild month of May I will be monitored through a battery of tests conducted by the research team at the University of Bradford (UK) and the University of Rzeszów (Poland) to assess my microbiome health and diversity, body composition, blood pressure, blood sugar, thyroid, hormone profile, diabetes risk, inflammatory markers, cholesterol, and vitamin and mineral levels. My results will be included alongside the 120 other Wildbiome participants, and a control group, to determine how eating wild food impacts health across these factors.

  • Understanding how the gut microbiome responds to diverse food sources can indicate hitherto-unexplored, evidence-based directions for tackling widespread health concerns: from neurodegenerative diseases, to cancers, to everyday mental health.

  • I am particularly interested to have these tests conducted as they include the gut cilia thought to be at the core of my current gluten-intolerance. My study will be the first internationally to examine how wild food impacts the microbiome of a gluten-intolerant gut!

2. To raise awareness of the nature access gap in the UK

  • Of course eating a fully foraged diet is not feasible or accessible to most of us for various reasons, the most striking one being limited access to greenspace to forage in. The reality is dire:

  • More than 12% of people in England don't have access to a public greenspace within 15 minutes of where they live

  • Half of England is owned by less than 1% of the population—much of the land is not accessible to forage in, with only 8% of the land being free to roam!

  • Black & brown people are twice as likely to live in nature-deprived communities

  • 1 in 5 physically disabled people face an accessibility problem all the time when visiting any greenspace

With your help, the outcomes of this study can contribute to improving access to nature, and to education around picking and eating ‘wild’ foods, as well as contribute medical data for original research into the importance of diverse food for gut health and overall well-being!

My first target is £800: this will fund the £680 needed to carry out my portion of the tests conducted by the University of Bradford (UK) and the University of Rzeszów (Poland). A further £120 will contribute to costs associated with the project: bulk storage vessels to keep my finds secure, and travel to the coast for foraging sea vegetables—a key source of protein and fiber in May!

My second target is £680 to balance research with practice: to contribute to the outstanding charitable work of The Windmill Community Gardens Margate. The Windmill supports the local community in growing and supplying fresh, seasonal, chemical-free produce for veg bags and food banks in an area of Kent with no fresh produce available to buy anywhere within 15 minutes. The Windmill also puts on a range of educational sessions for the community on healthy food preparation, well-being, and growing vegetables on a budget, with the aim of helping people feel good about themselves and their environment.

Wild food is not just a yuppie or chef's fad. For some people trapped in war zones, or stranded after earthquakes and other emergency situations, wild food is what keeps them alive. Yet we know little about what happens to the body on a diet of wild food. Now we have the opportunity to find out. So please donate what you can today: for the price of a coffee I'll be replacing with foraged, dehydrated, and roasted Linden tree seed pods, or a Friday night take-out I'll be replacing with...well, you'll have to wait and see!

Output

The findings of the project will be featured by Dan Saladino in BBC Radio 4’s The Food Program later in 2025 as well as in a documentary film. My work on the project also includes publishing an academic article on the impact of foraging and wild food on well-being, and a book chapter on emotions at this intersection of "the home and the wild". You can follow my progress, recipes, and foraging finds on my Instagram @laurensgardennotebook . Along with the other project participants, we'll be using the hashtags #wildbiome and #thewildbiomeproject. If you'd like to read more about a year living exclusively on wild food, Project Director Monica Wilde's book The Wilderness Cure is a TREAT to read, and available in bookshops. All of her time on this project has been given freely.

Find Out More

...About Foraging

...About the Wildbiome Project and its origins

...About Access to Greenspaces

Thank you so much for your support!