Samuel Thayer
Author of The Forager's Harvest (2006), Nature's Garden (2010), Incredible Wild Edibles (2017), and Sam Thayer's Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants of Eastern and Central North America (2023). Sam is one of the leading experts in the US about wild edible plants and continues to set the mark as a foraging authority. He has been an instructor for us every year since the festival started.
Sam began foraging as a child and has been teaching and writing about wild edibles for over 25 years. Not only is his writing impeccable, he is a very engaging and knowledgeable instructor. In addition to wild food foraging, Sam is an all-around naturalist with particular interest in reptiles, amphibians, bird watching, botany, and mammals. His passion for wild food extends to studying the origin of cultivated plants and the socio-economic history of the human diet. Other favorite activities include running, bicycling, archery, fishing, cliff diving, swimming, photography, cooking, growing fruit trees, using scythes and other old hand tools, hunting, and anything with the family. www.foragersharvest.com
Author of The Forager's Harvest (2006), Nature's Garden (2010), Incredible Wild Edibles (2017), and Sam Thayer's Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants of Eastern and Central North America (2023). Sam is one of the leading experts in the US about wild edible plants and continues to set the mark as a foraging authority. He has been an instructor for us every year since the festival started.
Sam began foraging as a child and has been teaching and writing about wild edibles for over 25 years. Not only is his writing impeccable, he is a very engaging and knowledgeable instructor. In addition to wild food foraging, Sam is an all-around naturalist with particular interest in reptiles, amphibians, bird watching, botany, and mammals. His passion for wild food extends to studying the origin of cultivated plants and the socio-economic history of the human diet. Other favorite activities include running, bicycling, archery, fishing, cliff diving, swimming, photography, cooking, growing fruit trees, using scythes and other old hand tools, hunting, and anything with the family. www.foragersharvest.com
Ellen Zachos
Ellen Zachos is the author of eleven books including The Forager’s Pantry, The Wildcrafted Cocktail, Backyard Foraging: 65 Familiar Plants You Didn’t Know You Could Eat, and most recently Mythic Plants: Potions and Poisons from the Gardens of the Gods. She shares seasonal wild recipes at www.backyardforager.com. A former Broadway performer (cast of Les Miz), Ellen is a Harvard graduate and earned multiple certificates in horticulture and ethnobotany at the New York Botanic Garden. She taught at the NYBG for many years, before moving to Santa Fe, NM. Foraging is tougher in the desert southwest than it was in the northeast, but it's fun exploring new territory and getting to know new edible plants and mushrooms.
Ellen Zachos is the author of eleven books including The Forager’s Pantry, The Wildcrafted Cocktail, Backyard Foraging: 65 Familiar Plants You Didn’t Know You Could Eat, and most recently Mythic Plants: Potions and Poisons from the Gardens of the Gods. She shares seasonal wild recipes at www.backyardforager.com. A former Broadway performer (cast of Les Miz), Ellen is a Harvard graduate and earned multiple certificates in horticulture and ethnobotany at the New York Botanic Garden. She taught at the NYBG for many years, before moving to Santa Fe, NM. Foraging is tougher in the desert southwest than it was in the northeast, but it's fun exploring new territory and getting to know new edible plants and mushrooms.
Vince Aiello
I have always been drawn to nature. I can’t really say when it started exactly, but I do know that I was inspired by the stories my grandpa would tell over the dinner table. I’d hear about all the wild foods they would collect to survive on, and the plants they used for medicines. Years later I attended a foraging walk with a friend that was led by Sam Thayer. He is a true expert in foraging. I was stunned by how much one person could know about plants and nature. After the walk I remember telling my friend I don’t know how he knows that, but that’s what I want to know. Not knowing where to start I did the only thing I could think of. I bought a book on Wisconsin plants and started learning slowly, very slowly. Over time I improved on identifying plants. That first year with certainty I could identify about 6 plants. Now I can identify over 130.
From then on, I was driven to learn any and everything I could about nature, foraging and herbalism. I did this by attending many plant walks, workshops, and herbalist classes. Eventually, I started leading walks. I started a business to help others deepen their connection to their local environment by learning about and collecting wild edible and medicinal plants. If you are interested you can find out more at https://www.fireandforaging.com
I have always been drawn to nature. I can’t really say when it started exactly, but I do know that I was inspired by the stories my grandpa would tell over the dinner table. I’d hear about all the wild foods they would collect to survive on, and the plants they used for medicines. Years later I attended a foraging walk with a friend that was led by Sam Thayer. He is a true expert in foraging. I was stunned by how much one person could know about plants and nature. After the walk I remember telling my friend I don’t know how he knows that, but that’s what I want to know. Not knowing where to start I did the only thing I could think of. I bought a book on Wisconsin plants and started learning slowly, very slowly. Over time I improved on identifying plants. That first year with certainty I could identify about 6 plants. Now I can identify over 130.
From then on, I was driven to learn any and everything I could about nature, foraging and herbalism. I did this by attending many plant walks, workshops, and herbalist classes. Eventually, I started leading walks. I started a business to help others deepen their connection to their local environment by learning about and collecting wild edible and medicinal plants. If you are interested you can find out more at https://www.fireandforaging.com
Jesse Akozbek
Jesse is a forager, and he wants you to be one too! He has taught thousands of students how to bring wild food into their lives through in-person foraging walks and online videos on his educational platform, Feral Foraging.
Obsessed with developing and refining better methods for gathering and processing wild food, Jesse is always looking for ways to make foraging easier and more accessible for everyone.
He helps students build a strong foundation for their foraging journey—emphasizing core skills and guiding them to put it all together, brick by brick.
https://feralforaging.com/
Jesse is a forager, and he wants you to be one too! He has taught thousands of students how to bring wild food into their lives through in-person foraging walks and online videos on his educational platform, Feral Foraging.
Obsessed with developing and refining better methods for gathering and processing wild food, Jesse is always looking for ways to make foraging easier and more accessible for everyone.
He helps students build a strong foundation for their foraging journey—emphasizing core skills and guiding them to put it all together, brick by brick.
https://feralforaging.com/
Bo Brown
Bo Brown is a self-taught naturalist and author of two popular Falcon Guides books, Foraging the Ozarks (2020) and Foraging Central Grasslands (2023). Since starting First Earth Wilderness School (www.firstearth.org) with Don Brink in 1992, Bo has led countless courses on foraging, stone-age wilderness survival, and nature education. He and Don also have co-hosted the Bois d’ Arc Ancestral Skills Camp & Knap-In every year since its founding in 1998. (www.boisdarc.info) Bo started doing contract work as an avian field biologist in 1985, getting extensive experience with plants while doing habitat vegetation surveys on assorted studies every year throughout the United States & Belize. These projects included a 10-year development study on habitat impacts in the Branson MO area, a 9-year stint as a naturalist with Missouri Dept. of Conservation near Branson, and ongoing songbird monitoring for MDC. He currently presents weekly foraging walks and primitive skills demonstrations at Johnny Morris’s Dogwood Canyon Nature Park near Blue Eye MO. Bo is also a professional musician performing with several regional groups, catch his mandolin and dobro work on the 2010 film Winter’s Bone with Jennifer Lawrence.
For Bo’s full schedule and book ordering info, visit: www.bobrownforaging.com
Bo Brown is a self-taught naturalist and author of two popular Falcon Guides books, Foraging the Ozarks (2020) and Foraging Central Grasslands (2023). Since starting First Earth Wilderness School (www.firstearth.org) with Don Brink in 1992, Bo has led countless courses on foraging, stone-age wilderness survival, and nature education. He and Don also have co-hosted the Bois d’ Arc Ancestral Skills Camp & Knap-In every year since its founding in 1998. (www.boisdarc.info) Bo started doing contract work as an avian field biologist in 1985, getting extensive experience with plants while doing habitat vegetation surveys on assorted studies every year throughout the United States & Belize. These projects included a 10-year development study on habitat impacts in the Branson MO area, a 9-year stint as a naturalist with Missouri Dept. of Conservation near Branson, and ongoing songbird monitoring for MDC. He currently presents weekly foraging walks and primitive skills demonstrations at Johnny Morris’s Dogwood Canyon Nature Park near Blue Eye MO. Bo is also a professional musician performing with several regional groups, catch his mandolin and dobro work on the 2010 film Winter’s Bone with Jennifer Lawrence.
For Bo’s full schedule and book ordering info, visit: www.bobrownforaging.com
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Andy Gricevich
Andy Gricevich is the guy who weirdly decided to start What Got Gathered, which mostly makes weird food nobody needs and everybody seems to like, featuring combinations of foraged and fermented foods, and also conducts regular wild food walks with adults and kids. He's also spent a lot of time working with young people around foraging, nature connection, and ancestral skills. Andy lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with his partner and a gaggle of children, and has a lovely side gig helping to restore oak savanna in one of the city parks. As of this writing, he's just starting to tap the maples in the yards of generous neighbors, and looking forward to working with friends of all ages to haul sap and have bee balm tea around a big fire in the backyard. |
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Alexis Nelson Alexis Nelson is an all-around awesome human sharing with the world her love of the outdoors and wild food. Her study of theater in college comes through in her TikTok's a.k.a Black Forager. She has been featured on the Jimmy Kimmel show, the New York Times, done a Ted Talk, and many other notable articles. We are thrilled she has agreed to joins us again this year!
Chris Gavin
Chris Gavin is a naturalist and outdoor enthusiast born and raised in Wisconsin. After a stint in the Marine Corps where he traveled the country and the world, he returned to Wisconsin and earned a degree in Wildlife Ecology. He spends his time raising a family, hunting and gathering, and teaching outdoor skills like foraging through his business, Eagle Outdoor Skills eagleoutdoorskills.com
Chris Gavin is a naturalist and outdoor enthusiast born and raised in Wisconsin. After a stint in the Marine Corps where he traveled the country and the world, he returned to Wisconsin and earned a degree in Wildlife Ecology. He spends his time raising a family, hunting and gathering, and teaching outdoor skills like foraging through his business, Eagle Outdoor Skills eagleoutdoorskills.com
Crystal Brown
Crystal Brown, of Inspired North, is an ethnobotanical educatort, bio-regional herbalist, and writer/creative, focusing on wild edible food and medicinal plants and fungi. She assists students in developing connection to nature, self, and community through creative outdoor experiences that incorporate an integrative approach to health, wellness, and personal growth. She has a background working as a psychiatric mental health nurse with children, adolescents, and adults. Crystal teaches foraging and herbalism classes and workshops in Wisconsin, for the public, private, and non-profit groups and schools, as well as programming to experiential educators throughout the Midwest working with youth and adults, including connecting nature/adventure experiences with mental health and trauma-informed education. For more information, go to www.inspirednorth.com
Crystal Brown, of Inspired North, is an ethnobotanical educatort, bio-regional herbalist, and writer/creative, focusing on wild edible food and medicinal plants and fungi. She assists students in developing connection to nature, self, and community through creative outdoor experiences that incorporate an integrative approach to health, wellness, and personal growth. She has a background working as a psychiatric mental health nurse with children, adolescents, and adults. Crystal teaches foraging and herbalism classes and workshops in Wisconsin, for the public, private, and non-profit groups and schools, as well as programming to experiential educators throughout the Midwest working with youth and adults, including connecting nature/adventure experiences with mental health and trauma-informed education. For more information, go to www.inspirednorth.com
Dwight Zietlow
Dwight Zietlow is known in foraging circles as simply “The Wizard”. Full of impossibly fanciful stories (most of them true), he is kind, quick with a laugh, and deeply attuned to the voice of nature. Dwight carries a profound reverence for plants and the planet into both his life and his classes.
His floral, fermented soft drinks, which he calls “kordialls” (pronounced kor-dee-uls) are not to be confused with syrupy or boozy cordials with a “c”, Dwight's creations are fresh, tangy, and–quite literally–full of life. If you cross paths with him, expect to be offered a sample (or ten!).
Usually barefoot and sporting a wool hat and tangled beard, Dwight’s wild sparkling eyes tell you that magic (and mischief) is surely afoot. He radiates joy and wonder found in a simple life well-lived. If you’re lucky enough to spend time with him (foraging, fermenting, or simply trading tales), you’ll catch that wonder, too.
Dwight Zietlow is known in foraging circles as simply “The Wizard”. Full of impossibly fanciful stories (most of them true), he is kind, quick with a laugh, and deeply attuned to the voice of nature. Dwight carries a profound reverence for plants and the planet into both his life and his classes.
His floral, fermented soft drinks, which he calls “kordialls” (pronounced kor-dee-uls) are not to be confused with syrupy or boozy cordials with a “c”, Dwight's creations are fresh, tangy, and–quite literally–full of life. If you cross paths with him, expect to be offered a sample (or ten!).
Usually barefoot and sporting a wool hat and tangled beard, Dwight’s wild sparkling eyes tell you that magic (and mischief) is surely afoot. He radiates joy and wonder found in a simple life well-lived. If you’re lucky enough to spend time with him (foraging, fermenting, or simply trading tales), you’ll catch that wonder, too.