Russ Cohen, expert forager and author of Wild Plants I Have Known…and Eaten, joins us for a guided hike to explore a wide variety of edible wild plants growing throughout Norman Bird Sanctuary property. Russ will teach the key ways to identify each species, along with edible portions and seasons of availability. Russ will also include guidelines for foraging in a safe and sustainable way.
About the Speaker:
Until his retirement in June of 2015, Russ Cohen’s “day job” was serving as the Rivers Advocate for the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game’s Division of Ecological Restoration, where one of his areas of expertise was in riparian vegetation. Now Russ has more time to pursue his passionate avocation, which is connecting to nature via his taste buds, and assisting others in doing the same.
Russ is now playing the role of “Johnny Appleseed” for edible native species. He has set up a small nursery outside of Boston, where he grows/keeps over 1,000 plants that he propagates from seed (some of which he collected himself), as well as obtains from other sources, such as the Native Plant Trust. He is then partnering with land trusts, cities and towns, schools and colleges, state and federal agencies, organic farms, tribal groups and others to plant plants from his nursery in appropriate places on their properties. Russ has initiated over two dozen such projects in the past six years.
