“Our wildness reminds us of what it means to be human. What we are connected to, rather than separate from.”
– Terry Tempest Williams
IYE offers year-round foraging, plant and mushroom identification, and wild tending classes
Why do we forage?
Foraging is an opportunity to connect to the land in a way that many of us have never experienced. Not only does foraging offer us incredibly healthy, living and high enzyme food – but it offers us a chance to remember that the world around us in rich in diversity, and that when we wander in nature or even weed our garden beds – we are surrounded by gifts.
Foraging has been a core element of being human for thousands of years. It’s only recently that we’ve been able to buy pineapples in January and strawberries the size of a small potato. But the land is still there, and plants and mushrooms that have been recorded as sources of nutrition and medicine for thousands of years still populate the sides of the trails you hike.
If you’d like to shift your views of nature from a “green wall” to a world of individual plants and mushrooms that we hold a deep connection to, foraging and wild tending may be calling to you.
It called to us, and we are here to share the knowledge. Come join us in the forest!
Monthly Foraging & Wild Tending Classes
We teach foraging, plant identification and wild tending classes year-round. During these 1.5-hour classes, our instructors will teach you how to identify seasonal edible & nutritious plants and mushrooms, what you can use them for, where to find them, and ethical foraging practices. Katie will also share an introduction to the practice of “wild tending,” which acknowledges our human relationship to the natural world and is an approach to foraging that is founded on respect, appreciation and reciprocity to the land, the people who have tended to it, the wildlife, and the amazing plants we meet on our walk.
Click here to learn more about Foraging & Wild Tending classes.
Plant & Mushroom Workshops
We learn how to forage ONE plant or mushroom at a time, and we love some plants and mushrooms so much that we host special workshops to help you develop a relationship with them. Join us in the spring for morel mushroom workshops to learn how to identify morels and false morels, where to find them and when to look, how to preserve them and more. Join us for “green powder” workshops, where we’ll teach you how to make your own nutritious green supplements for smoothies from the weeds in your yard, and join us for foraged meal workshops, where we’ll forage and cook together. All of our upcoming workshops are listed on our Calendar and Booking page. Click the button below to check out what plant and mushroom workshops are on the schedule!
FORAGE-AT-HOME Private Foraging Packages
Do you own land, but you’re not sure what’s growing there…? Check out our newly enhanced FORAGE-AT-HOME packages (formerly known as Rent-a-Forager) to learn more about the edible plants and mushrooms that call your land home! This service package is designed to not only help you learn about what is growing on your land, but also to help you grow your confidence about how safely harvest wild foods and actually consume them in your daily life. FORAGE-AT-HOME packages include a wild food identification walk on your land with our professional foraging teachers, wild food flags to mark out plants or mushrooms on your land, and a personalized “Wild Food Report” written by our instructors after the walk, serving as a helpful reference for you going forward and teaching you more about each individual plant/mushroom. Also included in these packages is all travel within 30-miles of Ada, Michigan (additional travel possible) and unlimited email support in your wild food adventures for LIFE. If you’re ready to explore how foraging can help you develop a deeper connection to your land, while providing you with nutritious, LOCAL food, this service is for you!
Testimonials
We’ll see you in the forest!