If you have been checking this site lately, you may have noticed that we haven’t been doing much with ReWild Eugene. The reason for our apparent lack of activity is actually because we have been spending all our time working on our new nonprofit in Eugene called Whole Earth Nature School. Anna and I are both Executive Directors of this new project and we are really proud of the work that we are doing. Whole Earth Nature School offers summer camps, after school programs, spring break camps, and more right here in Eugene. We are also really pleased to now be offering adult classes on survival awareness and bushcraft skills.

If you have enjoyed ReWild Eugene, please be sure to check out Whole Earth Nature School.

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

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:

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!

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

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 the fiddleheads come up out of the ground in Spring and (right now is perfect fiddlehead season!) then die off in the fall leaving behind fern skeletons to eventually decompose.

Harvesting fiddleheads is fairly simple. The little shoots are surprisingly hard to find as they are skinny and are dark green to purple in color so they blend in well. However if you look for the fern skeletons of the previous season you will find the little plants growing up in the same area because of the underground root system. Clip the stem a couple inches below the unfurling leaf. Be sure that the leaf is still well curled as this is the time when the plant is most edible. If you see the leaf beginning to take shape then leave those plants – you may be too late in the season.

To prepare the plant put a couple of inches of water in a pot, place the heads inside and let them steam for 4-5 minutes. You may add whatever topping you would like to suit your taste. We added butter because the fat really helps with the bitterness. I was really surprised by the taste. On first bite I was struck with the bitterness not unlike asparagus, however the after taste strongly resembles anise. Very interesting! We shared our fiddlehead meal with a very tasty baked chicken.

Caution: Bracken fern is not known for acute poisoning however it has been researched and noted that after mass consumption or regular consumption people have been more susceptible to cancers. The leaves are generally thought to be carcinogenic though this will take time to accumulate in ones body. In countries like Japan fiddleheads are consumed on a regular basis as a good food. Eating this plant raw can cause a deficiency of Vitamin B1 which causes the body to reduce its thiamine levels however cooking it is believed to eliminate the problem. The ironic thing is that I read that bracken has been eaten as a treatment for cancer…ahhh plants.

As always approach eating wild edibles with caution. Every body is different so start slow and monitor your body’s reaction to the foods you consume. Have fun with it but understand the risks.

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 possibly harvest at this time of year. So each day this week I (and Matt) will be going out and finding what wild plants we can harvest to add to our dishes. This is also in preparation for our Spring Harvest Walk happening this Saturday from 1-3pm. Check it out here.

Tonight on our way home for the evening we decided to focus on harvesting plants that would go well in Tortilla Soup. We ended up with:

Dandelion leaves (Taraxacum officinale)
Sheep Sorrel (Rumex acetosella)
Broadleaf Dock (Rumex obtusifolias)
Dandelion buds/flower
Red Clover leaves (Trifolium pretense)
Wild Onion leaves (Allium spp.)

Tortilla Soup with wild greens recipe

Ingredients
* 6 (6-inch) corn tortillas, preferably a little old and dried out
* 1/4 cup sesame oil
* 1/2 cup chopped onion
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* Assorted wild greens: Dandelion leaves, Sheep Sorrel, Wild Onions, Broadleaf Dock, Red Clover
* 1 medium Anaheim Chile
* 4 cups homemade turkey stock
* 10 cherry tomatoes
* 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt (kosher or sea salt)
* 1 ripe avocado
* 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1 Cut tortillas in half, and then cut the halves into 1/4-inch wide strips. Heat oil over medium-high heat in a 3-quart pot. Working in three batches, fry the tortilla strips in the oil, until lightly browned and crisp. Remove the tortilla strips from the pan and let drain on a paper-towel-lined plate.

2 Pan fry the tomatoes on medium heat while stirring until tender.

3 Add the chopped onions to the pan, cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the chopped chile and cook for 2-3 minutes more, until the onions and chiles have softened. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds more. Add the broth, tomatoes, and salt. Increase the heat to high, heat until the soup begins to boil, then reduce the heat to a low simmer, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the wild greens just before serving.

3 To serve, pit, peel, and cut the avocado into 1-inch pieces. Divide half of tortilla strips among 4 individual serving bowls; ladle in soup.

(recipe adapted from http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/tortilla_soup/)

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 in your own neighborhood. Find out uses for plants that everyone thinks are just pesky weeds and learn safe and ethical harvesting techniques in urban areas.

Go here for more details and to register

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 it tastes good? In this clinic Anna Bradley will give you a solid foundation of understanding so that you can harvest with confidence. Learn about what to look for when identifying a plant so that you can be confident that you have the correct species. Get introduced to some of the poisonous species in our area so you know what to avoid. And become acquainted with some of Anna’s favorite spring edibles to find in your own yard. Anna Bradley is a Co-Founder of ReWild Eugene and Whole Earth Nature School in Eugene. ReWild Eugene offers workshops for adults and Whole Earth Nature School features programs for kids in the areas of nature awareness, tracking, survival, self-sufficiency, bushcraft, and more. Visit www.ReWild.com and www.WholeEarthSchool.com

March 23rd at 7pm
REI Eugene Store

You may still get a seat on the waiting list!!

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 up on the subject I recommend The Science and Art of Tracking. I hope to see you out there, rain or shine.