Man forages his food shop from city streets and forests, going barefoot as he gathers weeds, nettles and pine needles

placeholder image — Leo with his foraged foods

Leo Utton began studying plants on walks throughout Brighton.

A barefoot forager who talks to trees and eats “wild food” sourced from forests and the streets of Brighton every day, including weeds, stinging nettles and pine needles, has become a viral sensation.

Leo Utton, 35, a nature educator living in Brighton, developed an interest in plants in 2023, beginning to study them on walks around the city.

After months of observation, he began foraging barefoot, gathering mushrooms, stinging nettles, wild flowers, berries and leafy greens.

He eats foraged food every day, even including acorns ground into flour for pancakes.

He now has “hundreds” of jars of homemade foods in his kitchen, including cherry plum hot sauce, pine needle syrup, tapenades and dried mushrooms, while making his own fermented “wild sodas” from foraged plants, yeast, sugar and water.

Leo shares his foraging on TikTok and Instagram under the handle @thebarefootforager, with some of his videos gaining almost two million views.

Leo told PA Real Life: “I’m obsessed with nature, a stinging nettle on the street corner is as exciting as a mushroom deep in the woods for me.

“Sometimes I will just say hello to a tree because I think we’re all connected.

“Going barefoot makes me feel even closer to nature.”

Leo believes “everyone is born with an innate feeling towards the natural world” and said he was fascinated by the outdoors from around age five.

He went on to become a guitarist in a band before, in adulthood, developing an “intense” interest in plants.

“I felt like I had a moral responsibility to learn and identify different plants and I wanted to understand how environmental damage was happening at a fundamental level,” he said.

In 2023, living in a city and without a car, Leo began walking from his home to a local park, studying plants in people’s gardens along the way and trying to identify different species.

“Wild carrots are a fun one – there’s a plant that grows out of the cracks in the pavement and it’s the wild ancestor of the carrots we buy,” he said.

“People consider them weeds, but it has actually shaped what the supermarket even has in it.”

He would then take the train to woods in Sussex, which became his “learning places”.

After learning about what he could eat in the “natural world”, he began foraging himself.

While in the woods, Leo would forage barefoot and speak to trees to feel “even closer to nature” and said it also helped improve his mood.

He added: “I don’t go barefoot in the city or on concrete, I’d end up standing in glass or on a needle – I draw my line at going barefoot in the pub!

“I would go barefoot as a kid and then never really stopped when I was in nature.”

Mushroom foraging is what fascinates him most, as finding them often requires him to “learn about host trees”.

“The facts are interesting – there’s mushroom spores in every breath we’re breathing,” he explained.

“They come in so many different shapes and sizes – I’ve foraged a huge chicken of the woods and last year I found a rare purple mushroom called a violet webcap, that was really exciting.”

In spring, he mainly forages “fresh nutritious greens”, including dandelions and stinging nettles.

During summer, he picks fruits, pine needles and edible flowers, often using them to make wild sodas.

“I cover them with yeast, sugar and a bit of water and leave it, and you end up with a fermented natural soda, it’s delicious,” he said.

Leo said he eats “wild food” every day, while still buying some supermarket staples such as tinned coconut milk.

When shopping for food, he tries to focus on buying organic, locally grown produce, sometimes with a higher price tag.

Leo added: “I always make my own teas and drinks, and I have a lot of mushroom on toast for breakfast, yoghurt with foraged fruits like blackberries, cherry plums and mulberries.

“For lunch and dinner I make a lot of stir fries and curries – there’s a group of plants called the goosefoots which are like a green leafy vegetable, I use all the new ingredients in a familiar way.

“I chuck wild garlic into everything too.

“I’ve taken it one step further and foraged seeds and acorns and ground them down to make flour, to make pancakes.”

His kitchen cupboards are packed with “hundreds” of jars containing homemade foods, including cherry plum hot sauce, tapenades, syrups and dried herbs and mushrooms.

Since embracing foraging, Leo believes his “body and mind work loads better”.

“There’s a slight amount of bitterness in some wild foods and you have to use your jaw more to chew things if they’re a bit tougher – I think we’re not used to this after having processed foods and things,” he said.

“We need to go outside and spend time in nature. If I’m stressed, if I’m sad, I go to the woods or even a park and it helps.”

In his job as a nature educator, Leo runs workshops teaching people how to forage, while explaining the historical and scientific context behind the plants they find.

At the end of each session, he then teaches participants how to cook and ferment what they have foraged.

However, Leo believes there are still misconceptions about foraging.

“Foragers can get a bad rep sometimes because people think we are coming to the land and ravaging it, taking everything you find, and encouraging other people to do the same,” he explained.

“But we care for the land deeply, so we’re out there educating people on how to maintain a good relationship with it, rather than taking everything you can.”

To help educate even more people, Leo created Instagram and TikTok accounts under the handle @thebarefootforager in 2025, sharing his foraging knowledge and discoveries.