Foraging School 2023

Ashland, WI area Weekend Immersion: September 8th – 10th

Minneapolis, MN Day School: September 20th

Madison, WI area Weekend Immersion: September 29th – October 1st

Duluth, MN Day School: October 14th

Registration is closed for Foraging Schools in Wisconsin and Minnesota

Below here is for Foraging School August 18th-20th in Maryland:

We are elated to share with you the opportunity to attend Foraging School! Learn how to identify, harvest, and prepare wild food and medicine! August 18th-20th at The Reed Center (about one hour northwest of Washington, DC).

Foraging School will be hosted and taught by Robin Greenfield and Eric Joseph Lewis.
Robin and Eric have been teaching foraging together for the last year and have independently been leading Reconnection to Earth classes for a combined experience of over 15 years. This Foraging School is a new offering we are so excited about.

Foraging School Content:

• Identifying, Harvesting and Preparing Wild Food and Medicine
• Foraging Walks and Plant Identification (daily)
  • Tips to become a successful forager from us, experienced foragers!
  • Including discussion of toxic plants
  • Identifying plants to avoid and “lookalikes”
  • Timing the harvest and identifying when plants are edible 
• Food Processing and Preservation Workshop (daily)
  • Including the basics on foraging equipment – drying, freezing, canning and cold storage
  • Including tips for efficiency so you can actually break free from the grocery store 
• Sustainability and Ethics of Foraging
• How and Where to Safely Forage
  • Including discussions on pesticides, industrial pollutants, car exhaust, urban foraging, etc.
• Deepening your Connection with Earth and our Plant Relatives

Through the plant walks, you will be introduced to 50+ different plant friends, with a minimum of five minutes of discussion of each plant.

We will select 3-5 plants to immerse with, and learn about them in the field, how to process and preserve them and we will enjoy them together in a meal. 

We will likely get acquainted with greens, vegetables (shoots, stalks, tubers/roots), herbs, herbal teas, mushrooms, fruits and berries, nuts, seeds and grains. Depending on what is on site, we may not have examples of each of these categories of food. 

Habitat restoration project. As stewards to the Earth and to the land, we will take part in some habitat restoration as a community.  We will be doing some removal of “invasive” plants to create more suitable habitat for native plants. Some of the “invasive” plants we harvest will be part of our workshops on food processing and medicine making, doing an ecosystem service while meeting our needs for sustenance. 

We will share communal meals made of foraged and locally grown food!

We will bring samples of foods and medicines that we have preserved so you can learn from these examples as well. We will bring herbal teas, dried mushrooms, dried fruit, nuts, canned meat, sea salt and more.

Meet the Instructors:

In 2019, Robin completed an entire year of growing and foraging 100% of his food and medicine. In 2022, he completed a month of foraging 100% of his food, with no gardens, down to the salt, oil and spices. He began passionately leading plant walks in 2022 and has a wealth of practical advice to share from experience of how you can truly break free from the global, industrial food system and live happily on the abundance of Earth. 

Eric began foraging in 2010 and quickly realized that deepening the relationship between people and plants would become his life’s work. He leads foraging walks and permaculture courses regularly in the mid-Atlantic area near Washington DC. Inspired by the wise words of Frank Cook, Eric is always encouraging people to eat something wild everyday, and to treat  plants like friends. (Follow Eric on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube)

Read the Welcome Letter and Community Guidelines here

Location: The Reed Center (1932 Mountain Church Rd., Middletown, MD 21769) (About one hour northwest of Washington, DC)

Dates: August 18th-20th. Arrival Friday afternoon or evening, get settled in, welcome circle Friday evening, classes Saturday morning until Sunday late afternoon, departure Sunday late afternoon/evening or Monday morning.

Lodging: Camping on site, with each person being responsible for their own camping gear (tent, sleeping gear, etc.). Camping in your own vehicles is available as well. (For those who desire indoor accommodations, you could book something nearby and come for the days.)

For information on food, suggested donation, service trade, scholarships, children, pets and communal chores, please read the Welcome Letter.

Ride Share: We have created a community ride share coordination document for those offering/seeking rides.

Our focus is to provide you with an incredible opportunity to immerse in a weekend of foraging and return home informed, inspired, motivated and with a sense of community to make foraging a foundational part of your life. We aim to run Foraging School on a very grassroots level, so that we can focus on foraging, rather than logistics. At the same time, we hope for this to be a practice of connecting deeply with Earth, existing simply and in gratitude for the basics of life, and in breaking free from consumerism and the conveniences of our industrialized lives.

Foraging inspiration:

Visit Robin’s Foraging Guide for New Foragers!

Meet Eric Joseph Lewis and learn about his top ten wild edible greens to harvest!

Go on a plant walk with Robin from your seat at home: