Foragers Level 2: Deep Ecology & Reciprocal Living

Taking Foragers Level 1 is not necessary! This level 2 foraging series is meant to help you tighten your skills and deepen your direct relationship with the ecosystem you are in. Monthly meetings will be on the 2nd Sunday of the month from 9 am-1 pm February through November. We will also have three Zoom conversation classes throughout the season. Dates listed below.

Level 2 Foragers will learn skills like: 

Mycoremediation and Forest Inoculation

Pruning for Tree Health and Bark Harvest

Collecting and Processing Nuts and Seeds for Flour

Intermediate and Advanced Botany and Ecosystem Study

Population Dynamics and Indicators

Phenologic Journaling

Root Processing and Preserving

Canning, Freezing, Fermenting, and Drying Harvests

Uses and Awareness of ‘Invasive’ Plants

Diseases and Insects

Land Stewardship Design and Rewilding

Some new plants we might meet or go deeper with are: Japanese Knotweed, Barberry, Bloodroot, Spicebush, Japanese Honeysuckle, Sweetflag, Eastern Red Cedar, Oak, Chestnut, Yellow Dock, White Clover, Red Bud Tree, American Beech, Black Walnut, English Ivy, Watercress, Cattail, Willow, Wild Ginger, Wild Geranium, Sumac and various Mushroom species for remediation and eating.

Series Materials 

Book for Year – The Forest Unseen by David George Haskell

Film – Tending the Wild

Essays – Where the Wild Things Aren’t, Voices of the Land

Podcasts etc – For the Wild

Class Dates & Zoom Meet-ups

2/12 Winter Tree and Shrub ID, Pruning for Plant Health and Harvesting

2/22 7:00 -8:30 pm Evening Digital Class – Introduction to Phenology

3/12 Pear Grafting and ‘Wild’ Planting, Sharpening Tools

4/8 Saturday Spring Ephemerals and Meeting Bloodroot

5/14 Plants for our Watershed and How Water Shapes our Land

5/24 7:00 – 8:30 Digital Check-In Book discussion, local history sharing

6/11 Grasses, Sedges and Rushes and Beginner Weaving

7/9 Canning, Drying and Freezing and Skill-Sharing

8/13 Field Trip to Forested

9/10 Mycoremediation and Forest Inoculating

9/27 7:30-8:30 pm Evening Digital Check-In – local history sharing and final project progress

10/8 Foraging Level 2 Processing Chestnuts & Hickory Nuts

11/11 9-12 Foraging Level 2 Teaching Level 1 about Seed Saving, Root Division and Land Stewardship

Whole Series Cost: $420 ($380 Early Bird Discount – use code Level2 at checkout)

Early Bird Deadline is December 3rd

“The Fox Haven Level II Foragers program exceeded my expectations and shifted my perspective as a forager, from human-centric to a broader view of the ecosystems and their complex relationships and changes over time. I loved how hands-on it was, and built both skills and knowledge in a fun and accessible way.” ~April Thompson

In 2023, Fox Haven will continue to pay $2 from every ticket sale to the Piscataway Land Trust as a LandBack tax for the land Fox Haven inhabits. Land taxes to indigenous nations function similarly to paying rent or a home mortgage. Payments such as a mortgage provide access to living space, whereas LandBack taxes recognize our access to stolen Indigenous land.

The Piscataway Land Trust is a long-term Indigenous-led effort led by the 501(c)(3) Cedarville Band of Piscataway Indians Inc. to restore and rematriate ancestral land and sovereignty in the Chesapeake region to Piscataway and other Chesapeake Indigenous people. To learn more or pay land tax, visit: https://www.piscatawayindians.com/projects