What Can I FIND to EAT in Our OVERGROWN Vegetable Garden?

[@Selfsufficientme]

G'day Everyone, I did a late one tonight getting this video out, so hopefully, it's worth the effort! I know the food was top-notch, at least, lol... Thanks for your support! Cheers :) P.S Yes, it really has been raining every day for a month here...

[@user-adoyle123]

Your channel has spurred me into buying a medium size greenhouse and some raised bed so I can grow my own vegetables. Hi from the West of Ireland ❤

[@tamararoberts9307]

I love that you showed us what you did with this tricky harvest 😊

[@melanielinkous8746]

Love this video! It's inspiring 😁💪

[@bethb8276]

South Florida on the east coast is just like that every monsoon season. Feels more like a tropical rain forest than sunny Florida lol. That meal looked amazing, you're quite the cook to be able to do that! I wanted to ask if you are growing any type of sweet peppers such as sweet banana peppers, or Marconi?

[@MzladyGrinn]

I thought the dog jumping up was, maybe a “ground hog”? Startled me…. 😂😂😂

[@kelley_thompson]

I know this was an "improvised" video, but this is one of my favorites. Random veggies thrown together to make a meal and showing the garden when it doesn't look perfect and pristine. As an American Veteran, I appreciate the joy and peace I find in the garden after my military service. Thanks for sharing this one!

[@sknap2728]

And, thank you for your service!!!

[@leeevans2929]

In our family we call it a concoction, just whatever we’ve got goes in the pot

[@TheSoapThatCan]

I second the part with showing the garden when it doesn't look neat and pristine. It happens to pretty much everyone and when I see all these perfect gardens I think I am doing something wrong and get really demotivated. But this is life and the upkeep of a garden to make it look really nice is very hard work. Love the video and the random ingredients to make a meal.

[@Selfsufficientme]

Thanks for the feedback and also for your service mate! Cheers :)

[@patriciatinkey2677]

Thanks for your Service! My husband was a Vietnam Vet, & he too, found peace in his garden. From S. Florida, 🇺🇲💙🇺🇲💙🇺🇲

[@jenniferjsaracino]

The reality of not always have a perfect looking garden is probably the best part of this video! The meal looks tasty too

[@TheNtcc]

Never expected to see Russell Crowe doing gardening!

[@Selfsufficientme]

Thank you Jennifer! Cheers :)

[@saoirseokeeffe4258]

Yes. It made me feel allot better about mine. I'm so grateful to see the reality and it wasn't hidden because it makes me feel normal with our QLD weather.

[@loggerT123]

I cannot stress enough how much joy this man has brought me

[@skmarrama]

I'm so glad to see your overgrown garden! You can not imagine how much this inspires me because it looks like my garden! Thank you for making it real!

[@kezru1581]

Me too!!!

[@nadinegaudet1870]

I love how realistic your videos are, it shows we all have our gardening battles. May we celebrate our successes, and find strength in our woes.

[@__Sara__aa]

I need my vegetable garden 😭😢😢

[@78gravedigger]

Need more garden to table videos. 👍

[@kathrynbillinghurst188]

13:30 …”it might be easier if we just jump up…ugha!!” So relatable! Lols 😂

[@cazinaus4917]

lol yes, and i really enjoyed the jump down too

[@kathrynbillinghurst188]

@@cazinaus4917 😁🫶💐😜

[@LostWhits]

I think most of the audience felt that in their bones.

[@natholloway9147]

I really liked the format of this video. It's nice to see you hunt and cook what you find. It looks really tasty. Thanks for sharing with us!

[@creekbird_homestead]

I could watch him do stuff and just chit chat forever. Love this family. Such a good man with a good family❤❤❤❤

[@natholloway9147]

@@creekbird_homestead I could, too. I love how he butchers words, especially Spanish words.He's really funny with his dry wit. I love it.

[@Mylittleveganhomestead]

The wildness of the garden was so beautiful to see. And the little dog was just the star of the video - just so darned adorable ☺️

[@bmelloyello]

This is a great idea to show the 'final product' of all the hard work. My wife and I have been steadily increasing our garden over the last couple years and we're always on the lookout for what to grow next! Sweet potatoes just got added to the list! Keep it up Mark.

[@ArbiterDan]

I have too. One thing that I like to grow is green beans. Perfect side dish when you need one. Also anything that doesn't get into the pot, we can for the winter. It's great.

[@sherryfishlock6887]

We too have just added sweet potato to our garden.

[@julspurser9833]

What a fun video. My 4 year old son was laughing at points while you were in the garden. Love watching garden produce turn into real meals.

[@Selfsufficientme]

That's great to hear about your young one being entertained by gardening! Cheers :)

[@Casandra-e7g]

What an adventure. Glad you didn’t find a snake. That spider was scary enough

[@Swrqltr]

Isn’t it satisfying to be able to go out and pick fresh vegetables from your yard

[@bloodthorne26]

Thanks Mark for including the cooking and end product into your video. Don't let yourself become disheartened with the upcoming work once things dry up outside abit. Sometimes the work itself is a reward.

[@benman6298]

This is more than enough mate anything you post is appreciated and loved, could be 2 mins of food prep or 2 mins of something you’ve spotted from your window. Anything you post can’t not be liked

[@Selfsufficientme]

Thanks mate, cheers :)

[@SBoots29]

I am a person that forages for a good percentage of my food. Acquiring the food is one thing. Knowing how to preserve and cook it another. Great video Mark. Just shows if you are smart you can obtain enough to eat. I hope the weather gets better for you. right now we are still in the grips of winter so it is just planning for us and living off our canned and frozen food we harvested.

[@midwestribeye7820]

Do you follow Homegrown and Handgathered? They forage, hunt, and garden for most of their food. You might enjoy them, too.

[@bradlafferty]

Thanks for the reference! I’ll check them out.

[@Selfsufficientme]

Good to hear how prepared you were for winter. I only need to grow differently each season, so it's easier than needing to preserve for the cold winter ahead when nothing grows. Great stuff! Cheers :)

[@reneeclark9903]

I love that you are salvaging food from the overgrown garden. We wait anxiously for your videos!

[@Selfsufficientme]

Thank you! All the best :)

[@RelaxationStation-cc8hq]

I really loved this video. I watched it together with my kids. We live in South Africa and have a small spot where we grow a few items. They were so encouraged by this and look forward to a time when we to can find enough to cook a full meal for ourselves. Thank you so much for your hard work and your encouraging videos. I do not have time to watch many. Thank you!

[@LailandiAdventures]

I think this is a great direction you can take the channel in. Growing food is amazing but eating it is too!

[@julienfowler8274]

That's some serious weeding to do😃

[@a.p.5429]

For me, its the real sometimes. Gardens aren't always the beautiful bountiful loveliness you see so often. You can only fight weather and critters so much. You have to make do and get what you can at times. Getting creative. 👍 Love the snake pin stick. Glad I just have to deal with black snakes and the occasional copperhead. Fun "jungle" video. I'm watching from NC in USA.

[@jehammond2119]

Always enjoy your videos here in Alabama USA. I'm glad to see other veterans getting back to our cultural roots.

[@drumgoldie]

You're a Green Thumb Warrior Mark. Seeding goodness around our beautiful planet 💚😊💚

[@kevbe144]

I love that opening shot, you literally have a jungle of food!

[@raunchyrarebit]

@kevbe144 • Please leave the anti black racism out of your comments

[@cathymadsen2930]

I am go grateful for this video... I'm 2 hrs North of Mark and my garden is similar. We've not had as much rain but with 35°c by 6am and 90% humidity, getting out into the garden is impossible.

[@lemonyskunkketts7781]

​@@raunchyrarebitElaborate

[@Rebeccabebeify]

I love how real this is and inspiring. Totally understand the overgrown and over ripened. But the variety you have is incredible.

[@anniecochrane3359]

Aussie style Hunter gatherer - awesome!! With his trusty dog at his side, sniffing out the possibilities. And good on you for leaving the spider to sleep out the day.

[@sarabelden7092]

I loved the improvisation style! Also Bella is so like my dog Red I often do a double take. Lol Love your videos, no matter the content. You are so positive and encouraging.

[@lilmak889]

Yes! Please!!! More foraging of what you grow and use it for content! 😃😃😃

[@tammy6678]

Wow Gardner and a chef!! Impressive!!

[@midwestribeye7820]

Bella was a joy to watch! Such zest for life!

[@isador4784]

Excellent video Mark. Watching you jump in and out of that raised bed made me think of my usual saying now, "well I aint 24 anymore!"

[@TmanzaBlueDot]

Copy that

[@nellieblighhill4575]

Me too. Not like Tigger anymore, we have lost our bounce😅

[@Selfsufficientme]

Thank you! Yes, I hate getting old... I say to my sons that they need to look after their knees (unlike me) lol. Cheers :)

[@fongtracy]

Been watching for a few years. I live on the sunshine coast, 1.5 acres, so im grateful that the conditions are relatable. I watched this video with my 10yo who loves screens. Apparently he's coming out in the garden today to find some food to cook with. I better get to the shops and get him some gum boots lol Keep upthe great work Mark!

[@rrosario4657]

I loved this video. I definitely would not mind seeing more of a gather and eat vid.

[@Saric1011]

One of my favorite videos. More like this every now and then would be much appreciated! ❤

[@ruthatkinson-adams3512]

I also love that your garden doesn't always look perfect; that you have flooding sometimes like we do, and your work to clean up is in front of you❤

[@SherryEllesson]

Mark, I love this video and have recommended you on my Facebook page, for gardeners and people who respect the Earth. Such good info and a high-quality video to enjoy. Thank you!!

[@Selfsufficientme]

G'day Sherry, thank you, and I appreciate you sharing my vid on your Facebook page! That's nice of you. Cheers :)

[@SherryEllesson]

@@Selfsufficientme Good of you too, Mark, to respond, and thank you for your service. Not all of us in the U.S. back the orange child, but believe deeply in the importance of our military allies.

[@JessicaSnyder-n1j]

Absolutely LOVE the incorporation of cooking your harvest. The main question I always have when choosing what to grow is how will I use it. This is such a wonderful idea and will have me coming back for more from your channel.

[@EileenHjertum]

I love the honesty of your videos. If your garden is overgrown because of excessive rain you show it. Makes the rest of us mere mortals feel okay about our own overgrown gardens because of rain. When you clear some of your pathways, wood mulch from tree fellers could help sop up the moisture and build your pathways. I do mine at 20cm deep and it quickly breaks down into the soil slows weeds and grass for a while and adds humus to the compacted pathway soils. Win/win. Thanks Mark.

[@pavlosandroulakakis9523]

"Hunting" in the garden :)

[@artemkanarchist]

Thanks for your work - and a special thanks for not disturbing the spider, there’s something very sweet about it

[@jeff3257]

Love this idea. Might be interesting to explore more of this type of content. It's interesting how you transform what you're able to pick into final meal.

[@Handles_AreStupid]

Mark, why don't you place some paving/stepping stones around the beds with spaces between them so that you can still tread the ground while its wet? You would want spacing of about 30-60cm between stones, just make sure you use something with a grippy surface, or you will probably slip. If you set it at ground height, you should also be able to mow over it without an issue. You might also want to look into installing a "french drain" in areas of your property that get particularly flooded. Might not help the raised beds, but it might be worth the effort for the fruit trees.

[@natalieallen5484]

Thank you for sharing this. I enjoy your videos normally, but getting to see you lovingly prepare a meal for your family was really special.

[@tharsthat]

Cassava Would be another good one. The tropical potato

[@FreeThinkersZa]

Love it, home grown goodness we all should and can enjoy Gardens will bring humanity back to it's most beautiful roots.

[@littlejackal0207]

I love the mystery and adventure in not knowing what you're going to get in the garden, and having to cook all the things you harvest. this has been one of my favourite gardening videos of all time. thank you for sharing :)

[@januarysdaughter6664]

❤ that bay leaf tree! I've tried to grow my own and the deer ate it all! 😅 I just want to add that I appreciate the real life encounters of this episode...the true issues of gardening! 💚

[@canabisquick]

I love these videos. Everything is so wholesome. Great job 👍

[@vincei4252]

It's still winter here and the ground is still covered with snow. My garden got completely overrun with weeds last year and I've been putting off cleaning the disaster up! Thanks for the encouragement!

[@GumboGalahad]

Goes to show that gardens can get out of control and still provide. Also goes to show that with proper maintenance along the way things may not get too far out of control. That meatless dish you cooked looks delicious.

[@TerencePonting]

It was great to see you cooking what you got from in the garden.

[@SuzieHQ72]

I love seeing harvest to table. It was one of my favourites. Especially with your beautiful dog being such a star.

[@Cidtalk]

Mark, LOVE this video and your determination to make due with what you have! I appreciate your efforts to share this part of your gardening year with us. It looks like it's been pretty rough in your area with the weather, so seeing a gardener work with what nature has handed them is amazing! Thank you!

[@lisamamabear3017]

Great video. Remember, ginger leaves, taro leaves and sweet potato leaves are all edible too. I fry the leaves in my stirfrys. Yum

[@Inkiequill]

Absolutely loved this style of video, more from garden to plate in the future please! Thanks for all the content you create, hope you guys get a bit of a chunk of sunshine up there now to dry out!

[@travelchoice89]

🥦🌱 Exploring the overgrown vegetable garden for a meal? What a unique adventure! 🍽 Can't wait to see what delicious surprises you discover! 🥕🍅

[@creekbird_homestead]

Professor Plum In the garden With a tarot root 😂😂😂😂 I love your vids like this. I swear you wouldn’t even have to edit if you didn’t want to sometimes. It’s great. Love the addition of showing the meal, Sir. Thank you and your Wife for y’all’s service ❤❤

[@brassmule]

It's definitely great that Russell Crowe shares his post-acting gardening adventures with us! So much knowledge and wisdom, and so easily and wittily shared, too. Always a pleasure to watch him in action. I wish the food prep was narrated a bit, though.

[@creekbird_homestead]

@@brassmule Russel Crowe is the best gardener in the whole of the world ;-)

[@PeterLawton]

I have a Clue what youre talking about.

[@creekbird_homestead]

@@PeterLawton ahhhhhh, clever clever :))

[@ruffcamz5332]

I’ve been watching your shows for about a year now I’m from North Carolina in the USA… your a true inspiration for sure keep them coming I love the knowledge

[@pureenergy5136]

It's so adorable that you made dinner out of your home grown harvest. That's what my Grandma used to do. Decide what's for dinner that day at around 2 o'clock from whatever she harvested from the garden. So I endorse that you're definitely on to something good. Bon appetit🍜🍠

[@Selfsufficientme]

I think many of us have fond memories like you of our grandparents improvising and making great meals out of whatever they could get. We can certainly learn a lot from that generation! Cheers :)

[@billy4147]

Mark, thanks for sharing and keeping it real. We too live in the subtropics and with all this rain, high humidity, heatwave conditions and mozzies, our veggie patch looks more of less like yours. We also have a big tree down that needs to be cut up and removed. This year we made a conscious effort not to grow veg this summer and let the garden go. We do much better with our autumn/winter veggies plus there are fewer pests and diseases to contend with than we have during hot humid summer months. We can successfully grow huge lettuce in winter, our cabbages and garlic do fantastically well and Asian greens and peas love a subtropical winter too. Of course the eggplants and capsicums don't like our winter so we rarely grown them. Keep up the good work and the sharing of warts and all gardening.

[@Selfsufficientme]

G'day Billy, yeah, winter is the best growing season (in a hot climate) for regular greens and veggies. You can still grow some great food through summer, but during those really hot summers, the pests and diseases can be challenging, whereas in the cooler months, crops and good harvests are more reliable. Cheers :)

[@JacquesduToit-k9e]

YOU ARE MY HERO. YOU ARE FAMOUS IN SOUTH AFRICA 🇿🇦

[@juliehartley3652]

Thank you Mark - it's great that you can get meals from your garden. Hope the rain stops soon.

[@geraldhowse8597]

Mark! Your a bloody genius.

[@Matt-hy7dw]

Really like the new format, was great to see one of your recipes.

[@foodiebrucie6167]

Still, so inspiring, watching you. This is truly farm to table. Keep it up!

[@susi1550]

I woke up watching this garden recipe and couldn't stop salivating! I got a hankering for Thai. Thanks Mark

[@MrDwyers1]

Man - you are AWESOME! Stumbled upon your story on Gardening Australia and immediately subscribed. Love the positivity and love your message.. not enough blokes talk about mens health and the benefits of a wholistic lifestyle. Keep up the amazing work!

[@chance1986]

The wife and I have a garden "end-of-season" dinner every Fall, usually late October here in New England. Some things are over-ripe or pest damaged or lacking flavor. But that makes us thankful we can pull everything up and relax.

[@lisamarieb3853]

I loved this video!!! Thank you for showing the reality of it all and what you cooked. It was awesome.

[@bublhed]

I enjoyed this video. I like that you can base your entire meal on your harvest. You show the reality of the problems we gardeners face and how everything is not always perfect. Take us along on more garden journeys and follow up in the kitchen, please! Bella is adorable ❤

[@stacy742]

Beautiful! Gardening is a lot of work & mother nature often does her own thing. You are wonderful at explaining & teaching that there is so much more to living a healthy sustainable life! Thank you!!

[@AFrayedKnotMate]

Just ordered a 5.1m x 1.2m x 78cm plus a 2.2m x 1.2m x 78cm raised garden beds from Birdie in Australia using your discount code, saved $55.55, cheers mate, love your videos.

[@Selfsufficientme]

Awesome! Thank you! All the best with your new raised beds and may you grow a ton... Cheers :)

[@msblue8155]

I always love a wild garden. Particularly if there's food crops. It's the thrill of the hunt!

[@TheBachBabe]

Aww, your pet orb spider is a cutie

[@chah9916]

In Hawai'i we eat the taro leaves cooked .... add coconut milk and it's fabulous... sweet potato leaves too!!

[@kasession]

I'm a beginner gardener. I always love it when I can harvest something from the garden to eat. My first year was tomatos. I don't eat them raw, but I learned how to can them. I was able to use them for spaghetti sauce. Then with the green tomatoes, I found a recipe to make green. tomato relish. Absolutely delicious. The next year was collard greens. I had so many, I was able to give some away. I am super jealous of your bay leaf tree. Super jealous!! 👍🏿

[@tsugima6317]

I've been using a very good recipe for end of the season green tomato recipe for for forty years. It's got onions, cabbage, and bell peppers as well as the green tomatoes.

[@Selfsufficientme]

Congrats on your beginnings in gardening - you sound like you are doing very well! I'll tell you a quick story about that bay leaf tree: we had it growing in a pot down in Victoria when I was in the Army. We got posted to Brisbane, so I put it in an open trailer and drove 1500 km to our new home, only to find the hot wind stripped the tree bare (what was I thinking). Anyway, I thought I killed it... But, it slowly came back to life, and then when we purchased our home here back in 2006, I planted it out the back deck and look at it now! Cheers :)

[@carolscott8069]

This is a revelation! Make a meal around what is mature in the garden! BRILLIANT!

[@purplethumb7887]

Holy cow, Mark, I'm overwhelmed for you, looking at your overgrown garden. It's going to take a lot of work to get that cleaned up/reworked! Well done today on the harvest and dinner!

[@nicolejoy6618]

This is why we garden! Real gardening/HOMESTEADING.

[@JameelBoos-y7n]

Great video Mark. Our home garden looks like that also when there is too much rain. Here in Trinidad we use the leaves and stems of the taro (dasheen) root as a leafy vegetable side dish. Peel the outer skin from the stems and cut up the peeled stems together with the leaves. I cook mine with ochroes (okras) and pumpkin, fresh green herbs and coconut milk. It is very delicious. Hope the weather clears soon.

[@Selfsufficientme]

Thanks for the tips on the taro stems and leaves! See, this is why I read the comments section! Cheers :)

[@tharsthat]

7:13 The weed looks like Amaranth. The leaves are like spinach. The seeds are like pop rocks in cooking or a salad. I think it is one of the super foods that grows everywhere.

[@bradlafferty]

Wow, really enjoyed this video journey! Knowing how to cook up the garden’s bounty has always been a challenge for me, so seeing what you did with the harvest showed how creative nutrition can be. Hope that it dries out there very soon, unbelievable the soggy ground (it was a bit nerve wracking thinking of venomous critters that might be hiding). Please give us more like this garden-to-plate story if you get a chance, it’s great!

[@nickjindra2322]

Springtime is approaching in North America which means its time to get motivated watching Self Sufficient Me!

[@marilynturcotte5304]

Love the idea. It is so satisfying to grow and eat a meal that you have grown. Bella just wanted to play in the veggie bed. Love that Kitchen counter, like WOW!! If I ever had to re-do my kitchen again, stainless steel-wrapped counters for sure!!

[@capslockpenguin7518]

This was a very enjoyable watch. I would have liked for you to talk us through the cooking process, because I tend to find that very relaxing, especially because you have a very pleasant way of talking.

[@veganwinter]

Oh mark we enjoyed this so much! My three girls aged 5,8 and 11 watched this with me and we learned a lot. And we were double excited as vegans to incorporate this meal into our lives as we are growing all these crops ( thanks to heads of watching you) we just got some cuttings of cassava so that's going to add to our starchy survival crops too. Your kitchen Reno looks amazing absolutely love the kitchen. I love watching you cook. Thank you for respecting our awesome wildlife . We love you Mark and Bella and your wonderful family and the positive life skills and messages you give to the world. Was feeling challenged and down today but you have bumped me up and given me more drive to keep growing in these challenging times.

[@Selfsufficientme]

Thank you for such a lovely comment and feedback! I have yet to grow Cassava, but I have heard a lot about its benefits. I'm glad you and your girls enjoyed the video - all the best with your garden! Cheers :)

[@Aleera616]

Where I live there are six to seven months of cold and I miss working in my parents garden. I bought raised garden beds similar to the ones you use but couldn't install them yet because I had several surgeries last year. These videos soothe my soul on so many levels. Seeing an overgrown garden is lovely as well. Not only because it's realistic and nice to see but also because this abundance of plant growth is something I miss so much right now

[@melissaforget8831]

This video was so fun to watch! Growing food is great but seeing what you cook makes it full circle. I would love to see more of these every now and then. 😊

[@bj_md2473]

In Philippines, we dry the Taro leaves and stems to cook in a dish called "Laing".. Hope you can try that dish. Very savoury.

[@yourpalscotty2627]

I am very thankful you showed what you ended up cooking. I was hoping to at least see picture, but I was happy to see the full meal process from garden to table. Big cooking thumbs up.

[@WeepingWillow422]

Awww your dog is named Bella. I had a cat named Bella. She was like my little shadow, followed me everywhere. She died back in 2018, though, at 18 years old. Still miss that cat. She helped get me through A LOT of bad times with her furry cuteness and cuddles. This was a cool video to watch. You should do more of these.

[@anapaulacrawford5837]

There's nothing like a cook meal from your backyard garden , and I delicious one too !!

[@joanneschaffer7960]

I am so glad I found this channel. Mark is a joy to watch and I have learned a lot from watching his videos. Keep up the great work ❤

[@FlokieLooney]

Hey Mark! i'm not sure why i haven't said anything before just now, but with seeing the rain again there i recalled how badly you sometimes get flooding. So, have you thought about putting in mulch paths between each Bed? just each year add a little more, would help raise your ground level up. Cheers mate.

[@chrisbain6366]

Thank you Mark for making me feel better about my garden, .

[@loghomebuilder407]

I needed this break from the sorry state of affairs here in the USA. Thanks for the reprieve.

[@Selfsufficientme]

LOL... Australia isn't much better - everything is negative at the moment. Gardening keeps my sanity! All the best :)

[@shervegas]

Mark Bella is adorable! I am glad you did not encounter any snakes ☺️

[@laina6219]

My friend I have been watching for years. If were me I would have a hard metal rake with wood handle while walking to catch the snakes...also works good as a walking cane 😃

[@mamabear5425]

not sure if you are aussie, but it actually illegal to kill a snake in aus, ridiculous when it can be a life threatening meeting. but yes he is very brave going in the tall grass 😱😳

[@chabridgettumusiime8994]

❤❤❤ thanks for improvising you are a responsible farmer,father and provider indeed. You inspire me . From Kampala city, Uganda, Africa 🌍