Henry Ford lived off weeds and peculiar meals, yet still made it to the age of 83

Henry Ford is known as the man who revolutionized the automotive industry with the assembly line and mass-produced cars – but he was also quite the eccentric character. Besides being a successful businessman, he was also a declared fascist with a fondness for Hitler, a strained relationship with his son, and a strong aversion to unions. Despite his somewhat tense life, Ford nevertheless lived an unusually long and healthy life – possibly thanks to a diet that mostly resembles something from an organic hippie festival.

“Roadside greens” and wild herbs on the menu

According to Sidney Olson’s biography Young Henry Ford, Ford was “always a birdseed-type eater,” who only made a half-hearted attempt to eat at gatherings, while the food on his plate remained almost untouched. However, his actual diet was somewhat more distinctive.

Ford primarily ate what he called “roadside greens” – weeds and wild herbs, which he either mixed into a salad, cooked into a kind of stew, or spread on bread as a kind of “weed spread.” Among his favorites were:

Wild bergamot

Narrowleaf plantain

Purslane

Pigweed

Dandelion

Sorrel

Wild radish

Ford was reportedly so fond of his “natural diet” that neighbors began to call him “Crazy Henry.”

A culinary connection to George Washington Carver

In the 1930s, Ford became good friends with agricultural researcher George Washington Carver. They shared an interest in “chemurgy” – the use of agricultural products in industry – and this common focus on sustainability also led to a shared fondness for eating wild plants and weeds.

Ford and Carver enjoyed meals together consisting of dandelions, narrowleaf plantain, and burdock, while they discussed how agricultural products could be used in everything from plastics to fuel. You might almost call them pioneers in what we would today call plant-based living.

Food as fuel – literally

Later in life, Henry Ford began to regard his stomach as a kind of boiler that just needed to be filled with energy – taste was secondary. Ford was a vegetarian and lived by the motto that food was fuel, not pleasure.

His favorite meals included:

Stewed burdock

Soybean bread with dandelion and mustard

According to Ford himself, this diet kept him healthy and well throughout his life. He claimed to have only experienced “a few hours of illness” throughout his entire life.

Was it the weeds – or the money?

Ford reached the age of 83 – quite an impressive age for his time. The question is whether it was the diet that did it – or the fact that, as one of the world’s richest men, he had access to the best medical care, lived in a large house, and spent his winters in Florida.

Regardless, one must tip their hat to the fact that Henry Ford not only revolutionized the automotive industry – he was also ahead of the plant-based lifestyle long before it became modern. 🌿

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