Learn to Forage Your Own Wild Foods: A Course
“Do you have a foraging or mushroom-hunting course?”
This is probably the question I get asked most often.
(Well, perhaps it’s the runner-up to “What’s this mushroom?/Is it ‘eatable’?” but you get the idea.)
Finally, I can answer yes! While it’s not my course (yet) it IS a really good one – taught by people I trust.
Foraging Information Currently Available on FunGal Forager
I love introducing people to foraging and mushroom identification, but delivering a live workshop takes time and, ideally, should be timed to happen when mushrooms and other wild foods are at their prime. Unfortunately, plants and mushrooms don’t always share at sign-up time if they’ll be ready by the class date ha ha! And when things *are* in season, I’m usually harvesting for my own wild food pantry or helping out at forays with the Southern Idaho Mycological Association.
Which is why I provide free info on my website: I can create and post content in the winter off season, and it’s available for you year-round, even when I’ve run away to the woods for a day of foraging.
Plus, I can help hundreds more “yous” with online content than I could possibly help in person. However…
A Video Foraging Course by Home Grown Hand Gathered
…While I do have instructional materials available, such as my Guide to Finding Morels in Idaho, and I’m a guest speaker a few times a year at schools or places like the Vervain Collective, that hasn’t left me much time to create a thorough video foraging course, which would be the next best thing to an in-person workshop.
But Jordan and Silvan, a nature enthusiast- and educator-couple at Home Grown Hand Gathered, whom I truly respect, DO have such a course: The Complete Guide to Foraging Your Own Food. AND they have generously offered my readers a discount!
You may have seen Jordan and Silvan of HGHG in one of their “Living Off Homegrown and Wild Food” challenge videos on TikTok or Instagram, where they share A TON of free educational, funny, and thoughtful content. Seriously. So much – go check them out!
I’ve always appreciated their down-to-earth attitudes and ability to make foraging and growing your own food seem accessible to just about everyone. Even if you live in a city or don’t own your own land!
So when I saw they’d created courses on foraging and growing your own food, I was pretty sure they’d be well-done and worth sharing with my readers who were looking for a full course. And I was right! The foraging course is thorough and beautifully filmed, covering everything you need to get started gathering, identifying, and cooking wild foods safely and sustainably.
25 Wild Foods from The Course Available Right Here in Idaho
Jordan and Silvan don’t live in Idaho, but the 30+ “staple” wild foods they detail in the guide can be found throughout much of North America – I’ve found at least 24 of them right here in the Treasure Valley. (And a few more in nearby mountainous conifer forest areas.)
Each video module walks you through identifying the wild food, and gives instructions for harvesting, and cooking or preserving it. There is also a way to get in touch with the instructors as you walk through the course, so no worries if you need some help.
(But please note there will be some variation in exactly which species are available in Idaho versus back east, particularly where chanterelle mushrooms are concerned. If you have questions about those after you’ve watched the videos, please get in touch with me. I’ll be able to answer your questions more specific to Idaho.)
Learn During the Off-Season
Why not spend the winter dark or other off-season preparing for the upcoming foraging and growing season with some online learning? You’ll be ready in spring when the nettles and morels pop up, and maybe even in time to forage midwinter oyster mushrooms that sometimes pop out during a mild February.
In addition to foraging, each year Jordan and Silvan grow food and challenge themselves to see how long they can go, living off only food they have foraged, hunted, or grown. Their gardening/growing course includes their best tips for doing so, and can help you grow more of your own food even (or maybe especially) if you don’t have much space of your own. They have dealt with the challenge of not having their own space for a garden and have some creative ways to meet it.
Discount on Food Foraging Course and Food Growing Bundle
So, if you’re ready to get started foraging or growing your own food, click below and use the code FUNGAL25 . You’ll get $25 off either their foraging course or the foraging/gardening bundle, and I’ll earn a referral commission. It’s a win-win!
(Please note that the discount does not apply to the stand alone gardening/growing course, but will work toward the bundle with both the foraging and growing course. The bundle is an awesome value!)
Read more about Jordan and Silvan and all of their courses here, or purchase The Complete Guide to Foraging Your Own Food or The Living Off the Land Bundle here. Be sure to get your discount for $25 off if you do!*
Happy learning!
Krista Willmorth // The FunGal Forager
P.S. If you do make a purchase, contact me with “HGHG” in the subject line and I’ll send you some info on exactly which species from their list I’ve found here in Idaho and additional tips on how to find them locally.
*P.P.S. Enter the code after you’ve added the course to your cart, in the “view cart” area