Forager Reduced to Eating Acorns in January Insists This Is 'the Good Kind of Seasonal Living'

Dedicated seasonal forager Brynn Leafmold, 31, who committed in March to eating only what she could forage within a five-mile radius of her home in rural Vermont, is now subsisting almost entirely on acorns, frozen rose hips, and what she describes as 'bark tea' and insists she has 'never felt better.' Leafmold, who documented her year-long challenge on a now-viral Instagram account, thrived during the summer and fall months, posting photographs of abundant wild berry harvests, chanterelle risottos, and elaborate salads made from 14 species of edible greens. The tone of the account shifted noticeably in November. 'Day 247: Made acorn porridge again,' reads a recent post, accompanied by a photograph of a gray, lumpy substance in a bowl. 'Leached the tannins for three days this time so it's less bitter. It's still bitter. But it's less bitter. Growth.' Friends and family have expressed concern. 'She came to Christmas dinner and brought her own acorn flour bread,' said sister Hazel Leafmold. 'It weighed about four pounds and tasted like a tree's autobiography. She ate three slices and said it was delicious. Her eyes said otherwise.' Leafmold has lost 15 pounds since October, a fact she attributes to 'the body finding its natural winter weight, which is how our ancestors would have experienced the season.' A nutritionist who reviewed Leafmold's recent food diary expressed alarm. 'She's getting adequate calories from the acorns, technically,' said Dr. Karen Sustenance. 'But there are only so many ways to prepare acorns before the soul begins to object.' Leafmold maintains that the challenge will be worth it when spring arrives. 'Ramp season is only ten weeks away,' she posted yesterday, with a photograph of a snow-covered forest and what followers describe as 'the most desperate caption we have ever read.'