Permies and Nomadic Harvesters Stories??

Hey Folks,
Our family has been collecting wild plants for food and medicine, growing our food and have been continually doing the permaculture thing for years.(I teach about plants at a local wilderness school and have made wild plants the center of my career and life. I teach wilderness survival and take 10 people on a 7 day survival walkabout every year.) We are doing this intentional, seasonal nomadic harvesting more and more in combination with our home farm efforts.

We travel as far as 200 miles to Eastern Washington for acorns, huge dried rosehips, pine needles for baskets, to gather medicine, go hunting and also go rafting on my favorite fall river. Locally, well, I could go on forever but this last weekend I harvested Black Cottonwood buds for massage oil, Usnea for tincture and Licorice Fern for tea after we took down some trees for next years wood.

We are combining functions of travel for food gathering , recreation and to visit places that just plain sacred to us. Just curious if there are any other stories out there of folks who are doing something similar? I have made a calendar of our seasonal rounds that are both here and during our nomadic harvesting....I will post a sample of it if anyone is interested!

Can't wait to see your stories!

Thanks,

Lindsay

I think this is an interesting topic. We participate in some of this, but I would say it's more oriented toward our local yard and recreation. In the winter we xc ski, sled, whitewater canoe and kayak and snow board. We also guerrilla garden, gather scion wood from various places, and move plants. In late winter, we graft. All spring we paddle whitewater, but fly hang gliders and paragliders. Fishing mostly takes place in Spring, as well as razor clamming. Berries start late spring, summer is sailing and windsurfing, plus bay clamming, and many more berries. Fall is the best time for mushrooms, as well as elder berries, as well as crabbing. We go up high into the mountains for flying and gathering berries and mushrooms and trout in the summer and early fall. Also in winter we gather teasel stems and Jerusalem Artichoke stems to make homes for bees.
John S
PDX OR

I harvest building materials, fruit and mushrooms within the city. Some of the building stuff is from tree and landscaping jobs. Most is from demolition work. I sometimes take the rock and soil.

Hi! Just to let you know, This is my first post on permies. I've been doing the perm/agrarian thing for over 10 years now (I am 34). Definately searching for a deeper understanding of seasonal rhythms (ie. when the cottonwoods are flowering the morrels are popping, when the geese are migrating it is my official sign of the seasonal transision ect.) Recognizing that rhythm is my foundational approach to reaquiring my place in the natural world. It makes sense, right? As humans brought up in isolation from our natural habitat and it's respective rhythms all we have to do is relearn the natural calendar from the teachers who are keepin it real, the ones who have not lost touch... the plants and wild animals of our respective bioregons. I would love to share some of the revelations I've had and listen to what y'all have experianced.