Foraging
Here at HarvestWild, we believe that a well-rounded outdoor outfitter experience includes gathering skills. Any outdoorsperson should know at least the basics of gathering wild plants. To boost your botanical knowledge, we offer clinics, home consultations, and guided nature walks. You’ll gain confidence in sustainably finding, identifying and preparing wild foods.
Just like hunting and fishing, foraging is a primal activity, sparking a quality of attention that is all too often missing from daily “civilized” life. Sure, we forage because wild food is tasty and rich in essential vitamins and minerals. But we also forage because it sharpens our eyes, re-organizes our brains, and revives our spirits. It re-connects us to our role as caretakers of the Earth, and teaches us to hear a landscape we may once have considered silent. Ultimately, we forage because it is what we were born to do.
Our fun, family-friendly wild food clinics promote creativity in the kitchen, prepare you for the unknown, and bring fun conversations to the dinner table. We want to inspire this lifestyle in future generations to come. We’ll cover medicinal plants too – green allies to aid in your everyday life and in emergency/survival scenarios.
We’ll post our schedule shortly. Please contact us to let us know you are interested! We also welcome custom group classes for family and friends.
Snapshot of Events
Introduction to Foraging Class
Admission $80/pp | Private Class $90/pp
2 Hour Walk, 1 Hour Break, 2 Hour Class
Foraging and Nature Walks
Admission $50
2 Hour Walk
Foraging and Mushroom Walks
Admission $50
2 Hour Walk
Home Consultations
$60 per hour - 2 Hour Minimum
“Foraging supplies us with cheap and nutritious food. But, pending the apocalypse, most of us don’t really forage because we are broke or malnourished. Instead, we do it because the acts of searching, harvesting, hoarding, and processing wild food are deeply satisfying in an instinctual and ancient way.”
What To Expect
Introduction To Foraging
Class size: 10
Learn the basics of identifying, gathering and preparing wild, edible foods
Hands on experience
Sustainable harvesting methods
Cost
$80/Person - Introduction to Foraging
$80/Person - Acorn Processing Class
$150/Person - Mushroom Picking, Education Coming Soon
$100/Person - Field-to-Jar Blackberry Jam
$80/Person - Elderberry Processing Workshop
$15/Sacramento Valley Feast Book
Foraging/Fishing - 2 Day Clinic Coming Soon
Foraging/Hunting - 2 Day Clinic Coming Soon
Clinics are in-depth courses, lasting at least a half-day, that will give you the confidence and "nature eyes" to safely, sustainably harvest wild foods and medicines. Whether you're a seasoned botanist or "everything kind of looks like grass" to you, our experienced wild food educator will help you meet your green allies, the foods and medicines you were born to taste. In most cases, we'll harvest and process wild foods or medicines on site, and you'll get wild foods to take home that you foraged yourself.
Learn to read the landscape, hear the life stories plants are telling you, and harvest wild plants in a way that actually makes them even healthier. The plants are here to take care of you, and you are here to take care of the plants!
Guided Nature Walk
Class size: 10
Hands on experience
Informative nature walk to learn to identify, sustainably harvest, and prepare local wild food.
Wild food walk averaging 90-120 minutes
Note: Many people retake classes throughout the year as new wild food emerges seasonally.
Cost
$50/Person
$15/Sacramento Valley Feast Book
Private Group Rates available
Upcoming Clinic Dates: See the drop down Clinics
Nature Walks are shorter, approximately (two hours). Yet these two hours may transform your life for years to come. Meet the plants you walk past every day, and learn the stories they have to tell you. Taste flavors you don't know the words for. Learn to look for insects or birds that tell you what plant goodies are nearby: Even learn indicator plant species that tell you what soils you're standing on.
This is more than a botany walk, it's an introduction to seeing the world through a forager's eyes.
Home Consultations
Get the most from your home ground! Our foraging instructor does home consultations, and is ready to help landowners create wild food and medicine inventories of their land. It is time to see your land with new eyes.
Cost
$60/Hour - 2 Hour Minimum
Travel Cost May Apply
Precaution
It is our recommendation that you utilize our services before gathering on your own. It is crucial to properly identify all wild plants before you eat them. There are some varieties that are poisonous and even deadly. Take caution and utilize our services or use several wild plant identification guide books to help properly identify before you eat.
