Foraging and Tasting Experience: A Culinary Adventure in Nature, Aug. 4th

Join us for a unique and immersive two-hour foraging walk and cooking session led by forager and wild food cook Rachel Alexandrou. Rachel will lead you around the landscape in Monson where you’ll learn how to safely begin to identify, responsibly harvest, and taste of the best wild edibles in the Maine landscape. This experience is designed for both beginners and seasoned foragers, offering a blend of education, adventure, and culinary insight.

Itinerary: Sunday, August 4th, 9am-12pm

1. Welcome and Introduction (15 minutes)
   • Meet at the designated starting point.
   • Brief overview of the session, safety guidelines, and the importance of sustainable foraging.
   • Introduction to the local flora and fauna.
2. Foraging Walk (1 hour 30 minutes)
   • Guided walk through diverse habitats including woodlands, meadows, and streams.
   • Learn to identify and harvest a variety of seasonal wild edibles
   • Insights into the medicinal properties and culinary uses of different plants.
   • Hands-on foraging experience with tips on sustainable and respectful harvesting practices.
3. Break and Wild food tasting, Questions (45 minutes)
   • Return to the starting point
   • Brief rest and hydration break.
   • Share experiences and discuss the day’s discoveries.

What to Bring:

• Comfortable walking shoes and weather-appropriate clothing.
• Water bottle and snacks.
• Notebook and pen for taking notes.

Provided:

• Foraging tools and gloves.
• Recipes and informational handouts.
• Wild food snack

Meeting Point:

• 8 Greenville Road, on the Gallery Patio

Price:

• $25

More Class Details

Foraging will require walking on uneven terrain. No other experience needed.

This workshop is designed for all ages, is an immersive, place based practice in seeing and making. Rachel Alexandrou, a forager trained in both plant science and the arts will lead participants  through their local landscape. Whether it is a parking lot, an old growth forest, or a riverbank, Rachel will point out the plants that are of ethnobotanical importance and how one may process them into food or into materials for art making. Together participants and Rachel will scan the landscape for useful plant materials. Individual participants will be encouraged to find inspiration for the plant(s) they choose to focus on. Rachel will guide them in how to successfully turn their harvest into a final product.  Participants will learn how to sustainably harvest their plant(s) of choice to bring back to the studio and begin the processing. The final outcome of this workshop will be a wild food tasting.

Participants can expect the following from a PLANTWALK:

– An embodied experience in nature, viewing, touching, smelling and tasting wild plants

– A better understanding of how to sustainably interact with the local landscape

– A beginners understanding of viewing patterns for plant identification purposes

– Processing instructions

– Cooking instruction

–  Recipe development

– Creative, critical thinking

For any questions about this class email info@monsonarts.org or call 207-997-2070 

This workshop is currently full. Please contact us if you would like to be added to the waitlist.