Ohio Wild Food Fest Fundraiser

Join us in an exploration of Ohio's wild foods!

* Once you've purchased tickets, be sure to check your "Spam", "Promotions", and "Other" folders in your email account!!!*

We are a passionate group of wild food foragers who hunt, fish, and search for wild foods. In 2023, we came together to collaborate on a day-long event to celebrate and educate wild foods. We will share our knowledge and curate presentations, experiences, and vendors to provide a broad base of knowledge that both green and grizzled foragers will enjoy. Many of us are experienced at bringing people together to learn, and we hope to create an educational and fun experience that becomes an annual celebration of regional wild foods.

Organizing the Ohio Wild Food Fest costs money, and as a brand new organization we are working to raise funds to help this event grow into a dynamic and sustainable endeavor. So we are holding this short special event to raise funds and give you a taste of the Ohio Wild Food Fest.

This event will be a mini version of the main event, to give participants a chance to see what we have up our green sleeves.

Plan your trip:

1. Wear appropriate clothing and footwear for walking in the woods and being out in the sun.
2. Bring snacks, water, and anything else that will keep you comfortable.
3. Bring notebooks, writing utensils, and cameras to help you keep track of what you learn.
4. Bring extra cash for raffles and other surprises to help us raise funds for the Ohio Wild Food Fest.

The Ohio Wild Foods Experience

Go on a guided walk

This portion of the experience features the options to take a walk to learn about mushrooms with Don King OR take a walk with Leah Wolfe, herbalist and folk artist to learn about using plants as food, tools, fuels, dyes, and medicines. Walks will happen simutaneously in two locations, when we get closer to the event we'll send you the details.

Mix and Mingle

After that, mingle and get a mocktail with herbal mixologists Cristiana Vespucci and Nicki Schneider. This is a chance to get to know us and network with other wild foodies while enjoying botanical mocktails with recipes to get you through the summer months.

Fundraising Activities

We are putting on our thinking caps to bring fun activities to raise funds. As we brainstorm, we'll share our ideas to entice and enthrall.

Leah is the archetypal herbalist. You know the one, living at the edge of town with all the weird plants. A childhood in a village sandwiched between two national forests led to a lifetime study of the wild. In 2013, Leah started the Trillium Center in NE Ohio, an educational project for natural arts offering hands-on and online experiences in herbalism, foraging, homesteading, folk arts, and disaster preparedness. Join her to see what kinds of wild plants can be used as dyes, foods, tools, and medicines.

Don, aka the Mushroom Hunter, to learn about mushrooms. Don loves to share his knowledge of wild foods, and how to prepare them, through private and group identification workshops and wild edible hunts, as well as video tutorials and other appearances. He has been featured on NPR's Good Eats with Vivian Goodman, and has made over a dozen appearances on Fox 8's New Day Cleveland. Don has been foraging for two decades, and has been teaching mushroom identification for 15 years.

Nicki has been actively foraging, eating and using wild plants for over a decade. Having a B.S. in Biology, she began her career as an Interpretive Naturalist with the MetroParks Serving Summit County, went on to manage a health food store and now teaches about wild food, herbalism and other esoteric topics with her business partner under the name of Earth Wisdom Wellness. They will be reopening an education space in Lakewood, Ohio called the Galactic Oasis.

Cristiana is a culinary enthusiast and herbal storyteller whose journey weaves through vibrant vegan culinary adventures to the serene landscapes of Washington's mountains. As the creative force behind CC Tea and Apothecary, Cristiana crafts elixirs that seamlessly blend wellness with indulgence. Cristiana believes profoundly in the power of plant-based medicine and sees food as a vital aspect of overall well-being.