Euell Gibbons facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Euell Theophilus Gibbons
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Gibbons circa 1960
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| Born | September 8, 1911 Clarksville, Texas, U.S.
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| Died | December 29, 1975 (aged 64) |
| Other names | Ewell Gibbons |
| Spouse(s) | Freda Fryer |
Euell Theophilus Gibbons (born September 8, 1911 – died December 29, 1975) was an outdoorsman who loved nature. He was one of the first people to encourage eating wild foods in the 1960s. He taught many people how to find and cook plants and berries that grow naturally.
Euell's Early Life and Adventures
Euell Gibbons was born in Clarksville, Texas, on September 8, 1911. He grew up mostly in the hills of northwestern New Mexico. His family moved often because his father changed jobs a lot.
During a tough time when his family was trying to start a farm, Euell began looking for wild plants and berries to help feed his family. This is how he first learned about foraging. When he was 15, he left home and traveled all over the Southwest. He worked many different jobs, like a dairyman, carpenter, and cowboy.
Later, in the 1930s, he lived in California during the Dust Bowl era. He traveled a lot and wrote about workers' rights. He then settled in Seattle, joined the Army for a while, and worked as a carpenter and boat builder.
After World War II, Euell lived as a beachcomber in Hawaii, finding things along the shore. He went to the University of Hawaii when he was 36, studying anthropology and winning a writing award. In 1948, he married Freda Fryer, a teacher. They both joined the Society of Friends (Quakers), a religious group.
In 1953, they moved back to the mainland. After trying to start a farming community, Euell worked at the Pendle Hill Quaker Center for Study and Contemplation near Philadelphia, where he cooked breakfast every day. Around 1960, with his wife's encouragement, he decided to focus on writing.
Becoming a Famous Writer and TV Star
A literary agent asked Euell to turn his ideas about wild food into a book. In 1962, his book Stalking the Wild Asparagus became very popular. It came out when many people were interested in getting back to nature. He then wrote more cookbooks, like Stalking the Blue-Eyed Scallop (1964) and Stalking the Healthful Herbs (1966). His articles were also published in famous magazines like National Geographic.
One National Geographic article in 1972 described his two-week trip to an empty island off Maine. He, his wife, and friends lived only on what they could find there. Another article in 1973 showed Euell and his grandchildren finding wild foods in four western states.
His books made him famous. He appeared on popular TV shows like The Tonight Show and The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour. He even received an honorary degree from Susquehanna University. In 1974, he starred in a TV commercial for Post Grape-Nuts cereal. In the commercial, he famously asked, "Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible." He also said that Grape-Nuts reminded him of wild hickory nuts. These commercials made him even more well-known.
People often joked about his love for wild foods. Johnny Carson joked about sending him a "lumber-gram." Euell himself joined in the fun. When Sonny and Cher gave him a wooden award plaque, he good-naturedly took a bite out of it (it was a prop he could eat!). He was also made fun of in comedy skits, like on The Carol Burnett Show and The Electric Company, where actors pretended to eat unusual things.
Many people thought Euell was a survivalist, someone who prepares for emergencies by living off the land. But he was actually just a fan of healthy, often overlooked plants. He usually cooked these wild foods in a kitchen, adding spices, butter, and garnishes. He even hosted "wild parties" where guests ate dishes made from plants gathered in nature. Some of his favorite wild foods included lamb's quarters, rose hips, young dandelion shoots, stinging nettle, and cattails. He often pointed out that gardeners threw away tasty, healthy "weeds" like purslane and amaranth when they removed them from their spinach plants.
Euell Gibbons is even mentioned in fiction. In Margaret Atwood's 2009 novel The Year of the Flood, a fictional religious group called God's Gardeners considers him a saint.
Euell's Passing
Euell Gibbons passed away on December 29, 1975, at the age of 64. He died in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, from a ruptured aortic aneurysm. This was a complication of Marfan syndrome, a condition he had.
