Things Alexis Nikole Nelson Has Said on Podcasts

“People love suggesting literally everything else except for just turning a bunch of hungry hippies loose. That's what I want to do with Japanese knotweed too. Just be like, have you just told your 10 crunchiest friends that this is edible?” — Alexis Nikole Nelson, Seattle Eats

During audience questions about what to forage around Seattle, Nelson gets to the invasive Himalayan blackberry, which she calls bad but tasty. Her proposal is to eat it into submission.

Seattle Eats · 2026-10-01 Permalink → Listen →

Seattle Eats Around 37:37 into the episode

Speaker 4

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Brandi Fullwood

…was time to turn to the many audience questions. After Alexis took a dig at the quality of Washington State service berries, I went to a question about what she might like to forage in Seattle instead. What are some of the native plants out here in Seattle you're hoping to find? I'm not just like

Alexis Nikole Nelson

dunking here in your Western service berry species. It's a pivot. Listen, it's okay because you guys have like a million other delicious berries that can like easily take their place. The birds couldn't have the service berries. I did used to get very confused when followers from the western side of the country would be like, you keep going on and on about these amalankier species. And I ate one and it was fine. And before I had done extensive foraging on this side of the country, I was just like, well, I guess this person's dumb. Wow. You know, and that's okay. And then I was hiking in Glacier last year and I came across a wild service berry. I was like, oh, what a mitzvah. This is so exciting. A service berry. Yum. And y'all, it was just okay. I mean, thank goodness I never responded to that person. A couple of years back, because I would have gone to find it. It would have eaten me alive. It would have kept me up at night. But you guys also have like huckleberries out the wazoo. That's very nice. We love that. We have…

Brandi Fullwood

They make great chips.

Alexis Nikole Nelson

In one of my favorite parts back home, Japanese knotweed was starting to become an issue. And I was just like, and what if this was the only thing I was allowed to forage in the park? And the friends at the park were like, we can run a trial. And that patch is getting smaller.

Brandi Fullwood

What is one of the worst tasting things you've ever foraged?

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

“Foraging historically has been something to get you through lean times, not a reason to go and participate in more mass consumption.” — Alexis Nikole Nelson, Seattle Eats

At a live show, Nelson is asked why she calls herself a "filthy vegan" in her book. She ends up on why she tells viewers not to buy anything new for her recipes and to use what is already in the fridge.

Seattle Eats · 2026-10-01 Permalink → Listen →

Seattle Eats Around 21:12 into the episode

Alexis Nikole Nelson

…and they're like, that dish you brought was really good. Like, can you write that recipe down for me? No. No, I cannot, but I can tell you a story. And he did write down what I said. And he sent me a selfie of him with cow parsnip in the woods a week later. And I was like, yes, Chad. One of us. So

Brandi Fullwood

if you don't know, Alexis is a vegan, but in the book, you call yourself a filthy vegan. What does that mean? Is it good? First of all,

Alexis Nikole Nelson

…back feels weird and a little bit sad. And now it's become something that I really like proudly proclaiming in my videos. But I also like proudly proclaiming in my videos, like, don't go and buy something new for your fridge to make this recipe. You know, I also very frequently say, use what you got in your own fridge, honey, because that's what foraging is supposed to be doing for us. You know, foraging historically has been something to get you through lean times, not a reason to go and participate in more mass consumption.

Brandi Fullwood

I wanted to read a short little passage from your book. Since my ancestors gave so much of themselves to the work of cultivating relationships with the soil, the plants, and the signs of the seasons, some by choice and others not, it seems inevitable that I would feel most myself when I do the…

Alexis Nikole Nelson

Well, like a lot of people of color, and especially specifically black people here in the United States, you know, my family's history here has been a storied one. It's been one filled with a lot of tragedy on both sides of my family. I also exist at a crux where one line of my family is very well…

Brandi Fullwood

The warm, fuzzy feeling that I got opening your book, besides the connection to ancestry, is your chapter about magnolias.

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

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