Now that you've gathered bagfuls of wildly delicious goods, what can you do to make it last?

Discussions and demonstrations on a series of activities to ensure you can enjoy your foraged spoils all year long! Including but not limited to: syrups and sugars, salts, canning, blanching and freezing, and dehydrating. Led by Amy and Avery from the Collar City Mushrooms team.

Foraged ingredient snacks and beverages to sample will be included. All vegan.

Participants will hand craft some Foraged Greens and Collar City Mushrooms dumplings to bring home.

Wild edible flora and mushrooms are all around us and often go overlooked as food. The springtime is an excellent time to get to know your plant and fungi neighbors!

Sean Rowe, Singer-songwriter and passionate forager/wild food enthusiast is your guide on this walk to discover the edible abundance within your local land base. The focus will be on proper technique to safely Identify, harvest and process some of the local flora and fungi that will be found within the spring season of the northeast.

Additional areas of focus will cover:

• poisonous plants and “look- a -likes”

• historical use

• nutritional value

Wear comfortable walking shoes, noting that the trail is dirt and may be wet. Bring a basket or bag and, if desired, gloves (in case you harvest stinging nettle) and scissors.

*For more info on Sean Rowe you can go to www.seanrowe.net

Thank you to Rensselaer Plateau Alliance for partnering with Foraged and providing access for purposes of collecting foraged, wild food. And thank you to AdSalt for sponsoring this year’s event!

About this outing
Join us for a two hour walk and presentation and learn all about easonal native wild edible plants, their history and ecology, how to gather them sustainably, and how to prepare them! Led by ethnoecologist Justin Wexler and forest farmer Anna Plattner of Wild Hudson Valley.

​The walk will be held at Rensselaer Plateau Alliance's Valentino Family Community Forest, an easy drive of about 20 minutes from downtown Troy. Please note that this event will focus on identification and uses of native edible and medicinal plants, and no substantial harvesting will take place during the walk.

What to expect & what to bring
This outing will include approximately two hours of walking in the woods over moderate terrain. There will be some periods of standing and stopping. Please bring water and a snack and wear weather-appropriate layers and comfortable walking footwear. 

About the outing leaders

A life-long resident of the Hudson Valley, Justin Wexler has devoted his life to sharing his love for the natural world and for the region's original inhabitants. Obsessed with nature from his earliest years, he has spent most of his life either in the outdoors or in his research on local history and ethnoecology. He has studied regional Algonquian languages, history and folklore for over two decades, sharing discoveries with scholars and with tribal language departments. He has a BA in History and Anthropology from Marlboro College in Marlboro, VT; a Professional Certificate in Environmental Policy from Bard College and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Bard College.

Anna Plattner grew up in the Hudson Valley, spending much of her time in the Catskill Creek watershed, where she fell in love with her natural surroundings. She obtained a  BS Cum Laude in Natural Resources at Cornell University, and gained experience working at the Greene County Cooperative Extension and Agroforestry Resource Center and at numerous local farms. She soon became the general manager of the largest wild-simulated ginseng farm in the world. Anna leads walks and workshops focusing on ginseng and agroforestry, and co-leads walks and workshops with Justin on an array of topics. She has a wealth of knowledge in local ecology and forest farming practices and a friendly, infectious enthusiasm that will persuade anyone to fall in love with our environment.

Now that you've gathered bagfuls of wildly delicious goods, what can you do to make it last?

Discussions and demonstrations on a series of activities to ensure you can enjoy your foraged spoils all year long! Including but not limited to: quick pickling, syrups and sugars, salts, canning, blanching and freezing, and dehydrating. Led by Sean Rowe and the Collar City Mushrooms team of Avery, Amy, Corinne, and Dave.

Foraged ingredient snacks and beverages to sample will be included. All vegan. Participants will hand craft some Foraged Greens and Collar City Mushrooms dumplings to bring home.

We’re partnering with Wild Hudson Valley for this year’s partner foraging tour! Join them for a two hour walk and presentation and learn all about seasonal native wild edible plants, their history and ecology, how to gather them sustainably, and how to prepare them! Led by ethnoecologist Justin Wexler and agroforester Anna Plattner of Wild Hudson Valley.

Join us for a foraging tour led by local musician and “Rent a Forager” - Sean Rowe! Attendees will receive foraging bags and labels for your future foraging adventures, recipe cards for easy-to-make and budget friendly dishes from your finds, and more! Please come prepared for a walk in the woods, and feel free to bring a notebook and writing utensil. Photos encouraged!

Thank you to both Rensselaer Land Trust and Forts Ferry Farm for partnering with Foraged and providing access for purposes of collecting foraged, wild food. And thank you to AdSalt for sponsoring this year’s event!

All foraging tours will cover:

• Safe gathering techniques, potential hazards, and proper identification protocol

• Basic terminology

• How plants are organized/binomial nomenclature

• Foraging tools/collection methods

• A segment of each workshop will be dedicated to “hands-on,” active foraging so that participants can hopefully go home with something to prepare

THIS tour's theme is "Useful Plants"

It’s easy to associate plants with food and nourishment but we also commonly forget how much plants provide for just about all of our basic needs: fire, shelter, oxygen and tools. In this workshop we’ll cover some of those commonly overlooked gifts such as: making rope from local plant materials and fire without the use of modern tools.

Join us for a foraging tour led by local musician and “Rent a Forager” - Sean Rowe! Attendees will receive foraging bags and labels for your future foraging adventures, recipe cards for easy-to-make and budget friendly dishes from your finds, and more! Please come prepared for a walk in the woods, and feel free to bring a notebook and writing utensil. Photos encouraged!

Thank you to both Rensselaer Land Trust and Forts Ferry Farm for partnering with Foraged and providing access for purposes of collecting foraged, wild food. And thank you to AdSalt for sponsoring this year’s event!

All foraging tours will cover:

• Safe gathering techniques, potential hazards, and proper identification protocol

• Basic terminology

• How plants are organized/binomial nomenclature

• Foraging tools/collection methods

• A segment of each workshop will be dedicated to “hands-on,” active foraging so that participants can hopefully go home with something to prepare

THIS tour's theme is "Conscientious Foraging"

The more intimate we become with the plant world which includes gathering, preparing and eating, the more empathetic we become to the needs of these beings. In return for the gifts that they offer to us, we will learn here how to give back in a measurable way by actively “gardening” our wild plants and learn some basic techniques to ensure the health and vitality of the plants and the landscape around them.

Join us for a foraging tour led by local musician and “Rent a Forager” - Sean Rowe! Attendees will receive foraging bags and labels for your future foraging adventures, recipe cards for easy-to-make and budget friendly dishes from your finds, and more! Please come prepared for a walk in the woods, and feel free to bring a notebook and writing utensil. Photos encouraged!

Thank you to both Rensselaer Land Trust and Forts Ferry Farm for partnering with Foraged and providing access for purposes of collecting foraged, wild food. And thank you to AdSalt for sponsoring this year’s event!

All foraging tours will cover:

• Safe gathering techniques, potential hazards, and proper identification protocol

• Basic terminology

• How plants are organized/binomial nomenclature

• Foraging tools/collection methods

• A segment of each workshop will be dedicated to “hands-on,” active foraging so that participants can hopefully go home with something to prepare

THIS tour's theme is "Poisonous Plants"

Some plants are toxic to our bodies, some are toxic until we prepare them in a certain way and some plants have both toxic and edible parts on the same plant. How do we know what is what? This workshop covers the basic steps we can take to avoid toxins in the environment and safely harvest without fear of being poisoned.

Join us for a foraging tour led by local musician and “Rent a Forager” - Sean Rowe! Attendees will receive foraging bags and labels for your future foraging adventures, recipe cards for easy-to-make and budget friendly dishes from your finds, and more! Please come prepared for a walk in the woods, and feel free to bring a notebook and writing utensil. Photos encouraged!

Thank you to both Rensselaer Land Trust and Forts Ferry Farm for partnering with Foraged and providing access for purposes of collecting foraged, wild food. And thank you to AdSalt for sponsoring this year’s event!

All foraging tours will cover:

• Safe gathering techniques, potential hazards, and proper identification protocol

• Basic terminology

• How plants are organized/binomial nomenclature

• Foraging tools/collection methods

• A segment of each workshop will be dedicated to “hands-on,” active foraging so that participants can hopefully go home with something to prepare

THIS tour's theme is "How to Identify Plants and Mushrooms"

Proper identification is the first and most crucial step to a healthy foraging practice. This workshop will cover the practical use of common field guides and how to get the most out of them. You’ll also get an introduction to dichotomous keys - how to use them - and a step-by-step guide to tree identification in all seasons.