Plants saved a life. This teaching practice grew from that transformation.

Here's how it started.

After years running a digital marketing training company which he founded in 1999, fifteen-hour days, seven days a week, Robin Harford broke. Became a drug addict. Lost everything: house, marriage, even his daughter did not want to see him. Ended up homeless for over a year, wandering Britain teaching plants in exchange for a bed and a meal.

Not a rough sleeper, but homeless nonetheless. Teaching foraging to survive.

In all that insanity, one thing remained grounded: paying attention to plants. Sitting with them when completely broken. Allowing them to be balm to a shattered soul. In 2013, recovery came in a Buddhist community in Thailand.

Back in Britain, the teaching continued. In 2008, an ethnobotanist, herbalist and forager named Frank Cook had said, "You need to be teaching plants."

Eatweeds was born from that conversation, a teaching practice dedicated to one mission: guiding people back to first-hand living through plant skills.

The early courses were small, groups of three or four walking slowly, learning to identify plants with confidence and clarity.

No mysticism. No vague folklore. Just practical knowledge: which plants you can eat, how to prepare them safely, and the honest limits of what we actually know.

The approach was grounded in reality, not romanticism.

By 2015, the work had expanded beyond foraging for food. Students wanted to understand how these plants could support health and healing.

The wild medicine courses emerged, teaching people to make their own remedies, to reclaim agency over basic self-care.

Later came The Herb Hour recordings, collaborations with master herbalist Simon Mills, sharing deeper plant knowledge through online courses.

Around this time, something else became clear. The real gift wasn't just learning plant names or medicine-making techniques. It was the sensory attention that was required. Deepening realtionship. Kinship.

The shift from living second-hand to first-hand, from the touchline of life to full immersion. This led to Domei, a contemplative practice exploring our relationship with the non-human world.

Not nature connection as escape, but as honest engagement with what is. Get out of your head, come to your senses.

Our mission: Teaching practical plant knowledge grounded in sensory experience, has never changed. These teachings span wild food foraging, herbal medicine for self-care and wellbeing, and contemplative practices in nature.

Each course focuses on what you can verify yourself through sight, touch, sound, smell, and taste.

On waking up rather than seeking enlightenment. On nourishment that goes way beyond simply putting food in your mouth.

You can now find Eatweeds courses online, field guides in print, and a growing community learning these traditional skills across Britain and beyond.

The work continues: new courses, clearer teaching, deeper understanding of how plants and people can support each other in practical, measurable ways.

You can explore the courses, books and events at shop.eatweeds.co.uk.