Eatweeds Podcast: For People Who Love Plants

Robin Harford meets storyteller Clare Viner beneath a flowering hawthorn tree in Devon to explore the living tradition of oral storytelling.
Clare shares how stories belong to everyone - not fixed texts handed down by celibate monks, but breathing, evolving things shaped by the teller's felt sense and relationship with land.
They discuss how patriarchy silenced women's stories, how rivers and plants carry their own narratives, and why giving yourself permission to tell an imperfect story is a radical act.
The episode closes with Clare's spellbinding retelling of Merlin and the Lady Nimue - a love story rooted in hawthorn, heart medicine, and the dreaming earth.
About Clare Viner
Clare Viner has been a storyteller for 26 years.
Her roots are personal. As a child, her grandfather wove fairy tales for her. That inheritance stuck, and eventually became a vocation.
She has told to audiences of every age and disposition: toddlers, teenagers, the elderly, festival goers. Clare has performed in the children’s tent at WOMAD for the last 15 years. She works without books or props, and no two tellings of a story are ever the same.
Her book, The Emerald Dragon and Other Magical Tales of the Blackdown and Quantock Hills, reimagines the folklore of two beloved British landscapes from the perspective of someone who trusts and loves the earth. It was funded by a DEFRA grant.
She was writer in residence for Connecting the Culm, a river conservation project that culminated in a four-day River Story Pilgrimage, walking and camping along the water's edge.
She runs workshops exploring the folklore of British wild animals and trees, including Spirit of Hare, Spirit of Deer, and others. Having once been terrified herself, she takes particular pleasure in guiding the terrified through the process of finding their own storytelling voice.
She takes old stories and dreams them new, again and again.
This Episode Is Brought To You By

- Robin Harford
Transcript
This episode
Connect with Clare Viner, Storyteller
Website | Email | Facebook | Instagram
Things Mentioned On The Show
A Women's Book of Herbs by Elisabeth Brooke
Connecting The Culm
Stories of the Culm
Related Resources
Hawthorn T-Shirt

Show Notes: Understanding Domei

This episode explores Domei, a contemplative practice designed to bridge the gap between humans and the living world through sensory engagement and "deep listening."
Domei Resources
The official Domei website
30 Days of Domei: A Month of Botanical Attention
Key Takeaways
The Origin of Domei: A neologism blending the Gaelic roots Domhain (deep) and Éist (listen).
Beyond the Ears: Listening is defined as a whole-body experience—feeling into the environment rather than just hearing sound.
A Shift in Perspective: The practice moves the participant from seeing nature as "scenery" to recognizing plants as "neighbors" and fellow beings.
De-emphasizing Analysis: Domei encourages "wordless knowing," where the goal is to be with a plant without the need to identify, categorize, or extract information from it.
The Practice: How to Engage
The core of the practice is rooted in voluntary, unhurried attention.
Find a Plant: Locate a living thing, even just beyond your doorstep.
Quiet the Mind: Move away from analytical thinking and botanical classification.
Physical Awareness: Notice how the presence of the plant affects your own body—your breathing, your balance, and the weight of your feet on the ground.
Sit in Companionship: Spend as little as five minutes simply being present with the organism.
Philosophical Foundations

Domei draws from centuries of Western contemplative traditions. It suggests that humans possess an internal "sensory map" and guidance system that is revealed once they slow down enough to receive natural signals. Ultimately, it is a path toward realizing a lack of separation from the earth.
"Domei is not only a practice. It is a way of being."

In this new short-form episode, Robin Harford challenges our relationship with common sorrel (Rumex acetosa) – a plant we've dismissed for centuries simply because it grows freely everywhere.
This episode introduces a new podcast format: short observations (2-5 minutes) with a call to action. Robin doesn't want you to just listen, he wants you outside, engaging with plants where you are.
Safety note: If you suffer from kidney stones or sensitivity to oxalic acids, avoid sorrel due to its high oxalate content.

In this episode of the Eatweeds Podcast, Robin Harford is joined by Dr Sarah Edwards, ethnobotanist at the University of Oxford. 
Together they explore the 400-year history of Oxford Botanic Garden — Britain’s oldest physic garden — and why ethnobotany is vital for preserving both cultural knowledge and biodiversity.

Dr Edwards shares her remarkable journey from Kew Gardens to working alongside First Nations communities in Australia, documenting traditional plant use and wisdom.
She reflects on the threats facing global plant diversity, the role of botanic gardens in conservation, and why re-establishing kinship with plants is essential for our future.

About Dr Sarah Edwards
Dr Sarah Edwards is the author of The Ethnobotanical (link) and co-author of Phytopharmacy (link).
She teaches Ethnobiology and Biological Conservation at the University of Oxford and manages plant records at the Oxford Botanic Garden & Arboretum (link). 
Her work bridges science, culture, and art, from field collaborations with First Nations communities in Australia to recent projects with the Richmond Arts Service’s Cultural Reforesting programme.

Tom Baxter is the founder of Bristol Fungarium, the UK’s first organic-certified medicinal mushroom farm. A former organic vegetable grower and forest school leader, Tom has spent years foraging in the wild across the Pyrenees, Siberia, and the forests of Somerset. Today, he leads a pioneering operation that not only cultivates native strains of mushrooms but also funds neuroscience research and runs the only dedicated analytical lab for medicinal fungi in the UK.
In this episode, Tom joins Robin Harford for a rich and far-reaching conversation about the power, mystery, and challenges of working with medicinal mushrooms. They explore the rise of lion’s mane, the pitfalls of the supplement industry, why most mushroom powders are misleading, and what makes a mushroom extract genuinely effective. It’s a frank and passionate look into one of nature’s oldest and most complex kingdoms.
🎧 Listeners get 15% off at https://bristolfungarium.com/ — use the code WILDPOWER at checkout.