Sydnee Galstaun

For this years Botany & Foraging Intensive, we will travel from the mid-Oregon coast northward and inland into southern Washington, exploring ecosystems ranging from coastal wetlands to coniferous forests, alpine meadows, oak savannah, high grasslands, and the Mediterranean zone along the Columbia River. Throughout the trip, students will:

Gain proficiency in plant identification using the patterns method

Learn the uses of common plants in the diverse habitats covered, including as food, medicine, dye, clothing, cordage, and so on

Learn to forage, process, preserve, and cook wild foods

Visit communities practicing restoration work, permaculture, and regenerative principles

Receive place-based knowledge from local guest instructors and guides at each new site location

Experience a sense of community by living and traveling with an intimate group of people and create lasting friendships and connections

Registration is now open; spots are limited. For details about instructors, communities and sites that will be visited, class content, and how to register, visit our webpage at: https://www.greenuniversity.com/Class_Schedule/Botany_Foraging_Intensive.htm

About Green University LLC and its Founder:

Thomas J. Elpel is the founder of Green University® LLC and Outdoor Wilderness Living School, LLC (OWLS), as well as HOPS Press, LLC and the Jefferson River Canoe Trail. He has authored nine books and produced seven videos on topics ranging from wilderness survival and botany to stone masonry, sustainable construction, and green economics. This intensive is geared toward developing proficiency in plant identification using the patterns method of plant identification outlined in Tom's book Botany in a Day.

Tom's basic philosophy is that wilderness survival skills are useful to connect with nature, yet you shouldn't run away from the problems of modern society. Instead, we need to apply the lessons of living close to nature to the challenge of solving our worldly problems. Outdoor Wilderness Living School, LLC is dedicated to providing Stone Age living skills classes and camping trips to public school groups. Tom launched Green University® LLC in 2004 to expand the curriculum from teaching merely primitive skills outward towards addressing issues of global sustainability.

Here is a video from last years trip:

There is a two week foraging & botany intensive coming up this September in Idaho. For two weeks, a group of people will travel together, visiting a diversity of eco regions to learn the skills of foraging and identifying plants using a very easy and efficient patterns method. We will harvest and learn to process and cook various plants, as well as learn other uses of plants such as medicine, fiber for clothing and baskets, tools, friction fire, and so on.

This intensive happens at a new location every year. I attended for the first time last year and we travelled throughout Oregon. I learned a lot, and continue to practice the skills of wild foraging and creating things with wild plants. I’ll be going again this year, and I’m helping to organize it. I’m trying to help get the word out since this is such an amazing opportunity that I think a lot of people would be interested in but don’t necessarily know about it!

I’ll attach a flyer with some info, and here is the website with all the details: https://www.greenuniversity.com/Class_Schedule/Botany_Foraging_Intensive.htm

Easter Esparza wrote:Your basket backpack is super cute! Where did you get it?

Hi Easter, I made it with some willow I came across along the Kern River. A beaver had been tending the willow there, so there were many new shoots perfect for basketry.

Mary Egan wrote:Hi Sydnee-
I am on the North Coast in Humboldt County. I don't know if I have exactly what you are looking for but i do have a situation with lots of possibilities. if you are vivisting nearby you could check it out, I am new to this site and don't know how DM works- if you do- please send a message so we can talk more about my place.
Mary

Hi Mary, I sent you a purple moosage (the DM equivalent for this platform).

Ben Zumeta wrote:As a Prescott College alum, I am wondering where in Arizona this post monetary labour bund has gained a foothold.

Northern California is bigger than most states, especially if the LA definition of “anything north of San Luis Obispo” is applied, so I cannot speak for all of it. Up here in NW CA, Del Norte County, it has been called “Calabama”, or “Caltucky by the Sea”, which has some truth to it for better and worse. I do not know of any post monetary communities down here I can recommend, by we do have a growing Wild Rivers Permaculture Guild full of nice, generous and intelligent people with varying skills, means and properties. We are happy to help how we can. We are currently providing permablitz work parties several times a year for fellow members, school and community gardens, and philanthropic organizations’ campuses. We also host events at the Crescent City Food Forest (I believe weekly volunteer workdays are still Tuesday afternoons) and elsewhere.

We will be having a Seed and Plant Exchange at the Del Norte County Fairgrounds, March 16th, 2024. This will include workshops and kids activities. This may also be a good place to meet people in the area that could help you find what you’re looking for.

Good luck!

Hey, Ben!

Good to hear from you again. I appreciate the NW Cali intel from someone so plugged into the community there it sounds like many great things are happening, and I hope to make it to some events eventually.

Wishing you a cozy winter.

Sydnee

Dan Love wrote:I travelled around Northern California for a while. The people are cool up there, but there really isn't much in terms of community, it's mostly hostility from the locals. It's definitely a dying dream up there. AZ I like through.

Dan, sorry to hear of your unfruitful experiences in Northern California. I have a handful of friends in that region who are very kind and welcoming, and I have yet to experience hostility. I’m glad you’ve found a place that works for you in Arizona.

Riona Abhainn wrote:On ic.org the Foundation for Intentional Community has a good communities directory which can tell you your options in those areas so you can start there and research them and hopefully visit and see what's a right fit.  There's also an advert for a cabin for rent in one that isn't listed in the directory, on the same website in the classifieds section, a primal living cabin with few modernities.

Additionally, the Inside Community podcast, also accessible via the ic.org website, did an episode recently on there, episode 021, in which the guest mentioned her community she lives in, which is on the Illanois river and doesn't appear in the directory on the website.  And the host of the show herself, Rebecca, and her family are founders in the newly forming Terra Lumen community in Winston OR, which doesn't appear in the directory yet either because its in the forming stage, but there is land already.

I hope some of these options are helpful for you.

Riona, thank you for sharing these options! I will look into the podcast and the people you’ve mentioned. As for IC, I agree it’s a great way to find some established communities I’ve had some success connecting with folks through that platform in the past, although I find it is somewhat limited with many communities not listed on the site. So this post is an attempt to connect with some folks/communities that aren’t on platforms like IC

Thanks again, Riona!

Dan Love wrote:Hey Sydnee, I have a homestead, off-grid type property that I am setting up in NE Arizona. I am from California myself, but moved out here a while back. I am a 38 year old male, I do remote work, and live pretty simply. Send me a message if you are interested in want to chat,

Hi Dan,

I appreciate you reaching out! I am going to stick with searching in the region I’ve described for now. Best of luck to you for finding what you are looking for.

Sydnee

Greetings,

Are there any groups of people living together in the far Southern Oregon / far Northern California region looking for another person to join their community? I'm interested in folks living simple and sharing earth-based practices, regenerative agriculture, and permaculture.

I'm a 28 year old woman from the central Oregon coast currently on the search for a place to become rooted in. I’ve spent a large portion of my life working with marginalized populations, eventually drawing a focus on working with low-income or disabled children. My chosen career was in occupational therapy (OT), in which I’ve worked with underserved pediatric populations both abroad and within the US. Following a second calling, I’ve since transitioned out of my OT career and have been living off-grid for the past three years, learning, practicing, and sharing ‘primitive’ skills. I’ve been semi-nomadic throughout this time, living either in my bell tent or just sleeping under the stars, following the seasons and wild foods.

This liminal period of time has been paramount to my self-growth, allowing me the much needed space and slower pace of life to deeply reflect. It has been a time rich in dissolution, deprogramming, quiet listening, and observation. I am now feeling called to start weaving together a life that is in alignment with my core values; a life deeply interwoven and belonging to a specific place and people to which I will be beholden to for my foreseeable future. I’m searching for a place where people are living together communally and in right relationship with the land.

If you are part of a community that might match what I have briefly described and would like to know more about me, please send me a message. I prefer to not have an online presence and do not have any social media, but I do have detailed information regarding my vision, values, skills, and intentions and a photo of myself that I can share via email by request.

I will be visiting people and places throughout southern OR/Northern CA for the next few weeks. If you’d like to meet up while I'm in your area, then feel free to reach out. I look forward to connecting with the folks of this region.

My best,
Sydnee

Howdy!

I'm a local Oregonian who will be out exploring trails most of this Fall. I'm looking for a new friend to partner with out in the wilderness and exchange skills and knowledge. I specifically want to get to know our mushroom relatives, so anyone with a strong relationship with mushrooms and abundant knowledge would be much appreciated! In exchange, I can offer knowledge on foraging for other wild foods, felting with raw wool, animal processing, basketry, knitting, 'primitive' cooking and food preservation, and so on.

Anyone in the area interested?


I suppose I'll say a little more about me.. I'm nomadic full-time with a bell tent, moving with the seasons to follow the wild foods year-round. I practice and teach ancestral skills and natural fiber arts, with a focus on animal processing, hide tanning, felting, and basketry. I currently have my tent set up in the Siletz area. I'm interested in exploring parts of the Willamette, Deschutes, and Mt Hood wilderness this Fall.