On May 7th, 2011 we had our second annual ReWild Festival. Here is a recap of the events in case you missed it – hopefully we will see you next year!

First of all I would to send out a HUGE thanks to everyone who volunteered and shared their skills at the event. We could not have done it without you.

Thank you: Nearby Nature, Eugene Tree Foundation, Abby and Rose, Barbara, Justin and Greg, Larry Bradley, Erik Burke, Larena Cornell, Brendan Currie, Grace Gardner, Tracey and Hunter Johnson, Eric Knight, Ben Meyer, Charissa Newell, Elyse and Dan Perambo, Carly Rodgers, Kate Self, Mary Weatherbee, and to all of you who came out and enjoyed the day with us!

We quite literally could not have made it happen without of the support of these folks.

Please enjoy the following photos depicting the awesome day.

Ben Meyer: Bowdrill Demo

Carly Rodgers 'manning' the Taster Table

Dandelion flowers and buds in olive oil

Father and son whittling and the carving station

Families enjoying the day

Elyse Perambo of Nearby Nature storytelling

Grace Gardner leading the Recycled Stoves workshop

Throwing foam swords

And catching foam swords!

Awesome music by Justin and Greg

Whole Earth Nature School and ReWild Eugene thanks you! Anna, Matt, Rees

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ReWild Festival Returns

by Matt on April 11, 2011

Our last ReWild Festival was a great success and we are currently organizing another one. This time the event will be on May 7th from 10-4 at Morse Ranch Park. It’s free. Visit the ReWild Festival page for details. Here is the video from our last ReWild Festival:

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Thursday Feast!

by anna on April 8, 2011

Plant walk is this Saturday (tomorrow!) from 1-3pm. Sign up online for a discount or pay in full Saturday. Sign up here!

Matt and I had a wonderful visit to our cabin from our good friend Abby Goodman. She is in town because she is apprenticing with the Columbines School of Botanical Studies starting today. Go Abby!

Because of this exciting visit we had ourselves quite a wild and homemade feast.

To start of the evening we gorged ourselves with an appetizer of home made salsa Matt and I made and froze last summer. We used home grown tomatoes, peppers, and chilies from our garden.

Thursday afternoon we harvested big leaf maple buds and blossoms or racemes and dandelion flowers so we can make fritters. Right now the maple racemes are just starting to flower and leaf out which is a perfect time for harvesting.

To make the fritters simply whip up a pancake type batter to your liking, drop in the blossoms to the batter and throw them in a frying pan with oil. We dipped the little cakes into Yumm Sauce, mustard, and honey. The maple blossoms were very mild with just a hint of flavor while the dandelion blossoms had the after taste of bitterness.

Along with our lovely meal Abby brought some of her homemade herbal beer including mugwort beer and her own variation of ginger beer. Absolutely delicious. Another exciting edition was her last mason jar of homemade sauerkraut!

To top off the meal Matt pulled out our last piece of pork we home butchered last year. The half a pig we purchased and butchered lasted us over a year!

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Spring Harvest Walk is this Saturday. Click here for info.

For our Wednesday evening meal we decided to do a regular stir fry with the buds and hearts of a dandelion and the leaves and bulbs of wild onions.

During one of our Coyote Kids! after school program we decided to show the kids what an entire dandelion plant looks like. We found a beautiful plant with a very large root and told the kids how one can eat the entire plant at certain stages of growth. After the program we brought the dandelion home for our meal. The picture below isn’t the plant we harvestesd it was just way cool cause all those flowers are on one plant!

To get to the heart of the dandelion simply cut away the root stalk where it meets upper section of the plant where the leaves begin to come out. Then cut just below where the leaves begin to form. You will have generally an inch or so of plant matter that is considered the ‘heart’.

We also threw in the buds, the little unopened flower heads. I was really surprised how much one teeny flower bud can pack such a bitter punch! It really gave the meal a powerful kick. I wasn’t a fan of the dandelion hearts because they were way too bitter for me. Matt seemed to really enjoy them and even liked them better than the fiddleheads we had. To each his own. ;)

Don’t forget about the Spring Harvest Walk happening this Saturday from 1-3. To sign up or for more info click here

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Tuesday Edible – Steamed Fiddleheads

April 5, 2011

Day two of wild foods extravaganza! Tonight we decided to go for a more native plant that is growing in our back yard. The beautiful and rather controversial edible, bracken fern fiddleheads. Bracken fern or Pteridium aquilinum can be found in many of Eugene’s coniferous forests and have deep rhizomes underneath the soil. Each year [...]

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Wild Edibles Week – Monday Tortilla Soup

April 4, 2011

Spring is here and the plants sure know it. Now is the time for ultimate harvesting of spring greens. They are lush, plush, and filled with yummy nutrients and medicine. My goal for this Spring is to try and harvest nearly 100% of my veggie needs and only buy vegetables and fruits that I couldn’t [...]

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Spring Harvest Walk

March 23, 2011

Join us on Saturday April 7th for a walk on the wild side with herbalist Anna Bradley and assistance from Matt Bradley. Spring has sprung and now is the season for the most intense plant growth. This class will show you how to start gathering your own plants for food and medicine with plants growing [...]

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Edible Plants of the Northwest REI Clinic

March 20, 2011

The fields, forests, and even your backyard are overflowing with wild and wonderful things to eat. But for a beginner it can be very intimidating. What part of the plant do I harvest? What plants can hurt me? Does it matter what time of year I pick this? How do I cook this so that [...]

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December Willamette Tracking Guild is this Saturday

December 2, 2010

This month we will be meeting again for the Willamette Tracking Guild at Hileman Landing. I really love that location and it seems like the possibilities are endless for exploration and discovery. This time around the lesson will be on how to read change of direction inside a track. If you would like to read [...]

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Article on the Willamette Tracking Guild

October 28, 2010

I was interviewed for an article in MyEugene. It is a great article. New tracking club to launch in Eugene area on November 6 – FREE and open to public

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