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Instructor: Patricia Armstrong

Amaze yourself and friends by identifying trees and shrubs by their bark and branching pattern and enjoy winter walks in the woods honing your skills. The Winter Edible Wild Plants course, Eat the Trees, will teach you to identify about 70 of the 100 edible trees in our area using bud, leaves, branching pattern, bark and fruits. Learn what part of the plant/tree to harvest, when to harvest it, and how to prepare it. The course will be taught using slide lecture, specimen handling, and through field observation. All students will prepare a recipe from an edible tree to share with their classmates. The recipes will be compiled into a recipe book available in the summer of 2015.

Class will meet 4 Tuesday evenings from 7-9:30 pm at the Clow House (Jan 20, 27 and Feb 3, 10) with one field trip on Sunday, February 1st from 2 - 4 pm, and will concentrate on edible trees such as the pines, oaks and walnuts.

The instructor, Patricia Armstrong, has a Master of Science degree from the University of Chicago in Ecology (Biology-Botany). She taught a multitude of nature classes at the Morton Arboretum for 16 years, plus Botany, Ecology, and Geology at the University of Wisconsin Extension, and Michigan State University’s Juneau Icefield Research Program in Alaska.

Pat’s knowledge and understanding of all things wild and free comes from a life-long personal and intimate relationship with nature that is passionate as well as scientific. She lives in a home she and her husband designed and built to fit into the natural ecosystems of northern Illinois. It is active and passive solar, energy-efficient, and landscaped with over 300 species of native trees, shrubs, prairie grasses and wildflowers, approximately 40% of which are edible. Pat is actively involved in living joyfully with nature. She runs a consulting firm, PRAIRIE SUN CONSULTANTS, to educate and assist others in appreciating and using native plants and wild edible plants in home landscaping.

Required Material:

One tree identification book. Feel free to bring one you have or purchase one of these listed. Please use The Resiliency Institute Amazon Smile link to make purchases - an easy way to donate

• Trees of Illinois field guide, Stan Tekiela, Adventure Publications, Inc.
• Master Tree Finder and Winter Tree Finder, May Theilgaard Watts, Nature Study Guild Publishers.

One book to identify edible wild plants

• Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and Central North America
• Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide to over 200 Natural Foods
• The Forager’s Harvest
• Nature’s Garden

Suggested Material:

• A comprehensive recipe book
  • Wild Plant Family Cookbook, Patricia K. Armstrong, available from www.blazing-star.com or Pat has CDs for $10.00 which have the cookbook on it in Kindle format and pdf file.

CLASS REQUIREMENTS:

• Experience in Plant Identification. Please take the Introduction to Winter Plant Identification class if you have little or no plant ID experience.
• Students should have an inquiring mind and willingness to try new foods
• Students are expected to attend every class: all absences must be made up
• Students are expected to take notes on plants in class and participate in class activities including the field trip regardless of weather
• Students are to prepare at least one wild plant and evaluate it as food
• Students desiring to earn a Edible Wild Plant Certificate will have to pass an exam identifying wild plants

Price: $140
$550 for the Edible Wild Plants Certificate (includes all 4 courses) Please make payment when you register.

Dig deeper into Edible Wild Plants through our certificate program. Discover edible wild plants each season to observe the full plant cycle, what part of the plant to harvest and eat when, and which plants to look for in each season. You will learn to identify over 200 species of edible wild plants from handling actual specimens and from seeing them growing in their natural environments. Learn recipes that use wild plants to make tasty food. The Edible Wild Plants certificate Program will be taught both in a classroom and through site visits to various public and private locations to provide a thorough experience of the plants. To earn your certificate, you are required to take all four courses and pass four seasonal exams (using your notes and books) to demonstrate that you can identify edible (and poisonous) wild plants successfully. These courses will be offered each year, so if you miss one, you can take it the following year. Certificate courses are open to everyone, whether or not you’re pursuing the certificate.