Feral (adj) - having escaped from domestication and become wild

Mission

To empower people with the knowledge and tools needed to become more confident, ethical, and effective foragers.

Purpose

To create a world with more foragers who are deeply connected with their land and inspired to defend it, thus carving a path to reverse the loss of natural habitat.

The Story

Hello! I am Jesse, the creator of Feral Foraging. I create and curate the content for this platform. By engaging with this content and our events, I hope that something will inspire the inner wildness in you and push you to test the boundaries of your relationship with the natural world!

What sparked my inner wildness?

This is how it all began…

Acorns

I was an avid listener of the ReWild Yourself podcast by Daniel Vitalis. Before each episode, he gave something of a monologue about what was going on in the wild food world. Every week during Autumn, I heard something new about acorns, the wild staple of North America. After several weeks of listening to all of the wonderful and empowering benefits of acorns, I decided to gather some of my own. A handful turned into a basketfull and eventually several gallons. I learned how to process them and before long I was pulling a hot loaf of acorn bread out of the oven. From the moment I took my first bite out of the rich, dark, delicious bread, I was hooked…

Photography

I became increasingly obsessed with wild food and at the same time was developing an affinity for photography. I couldn’t have picked a better match. Going into the woods was now a treasure hunt that I could not resist and my camera was always by my side. At this point, I’ve taken thousands of photos of wild plants and mushrooms in the Southeast region, and my catalog continues to grow!

Teaching

One of my biggest passions is teaching. I have been very excited to get to lead plant walks and foraging workshops in the Southeast region, particularly North Alabama. Being able to bring people to the woods and show them a whole new world of plants and mushrooms is one of my absolute favorite things.

The Result

Feral Foraging is the culmination of three loves: foraging, photography, and teaching. One of the biggest problems that the foraging community faces is the loss of natural habitat. This is my answer to that problem. My goal is to inspire and educate as many people as I possibly can to develop relationship with the wild. My hope is that strength in numbers will allow us to being to reverse our ever shrinking natural wild spaces.