Wild Food: a taste of the untamed
Get ready to awaken your taste buds and experience the vibrant flavors of the wilderness!
Our immersive Wild Food week is an unforgettable adventure that will take you on a journey of discovery. You will learn to forage and cook with wild edibles, ánd to rethink our food and habitat systems.
Whether you’re a professional chef interested in sustainability or a fanatic hiker with an interest in food, a curious beginner or a seasoned forager: let’s grab a basket and find something to eat!
During this week we will dive into 6 themes of wild foods & foraging:
Mushrooms
Coastal Foraging
Plants
Food for
the Future
Local Cuisine
Wild Game
* if all participants agree
What our journey together will look like
Week flow
Day 1: Arrival and Welcome
Take a moment to connect with the land, yourself and the group. Get ready to activate all of your senses and immerse in nature.
Day 4: Expedition: Local Cuisine
Mid-week we hike to meet Francesco in his kitchen, who will cook a delicious lunch for us while sharing his knowledge of local edible plants and mushrooms.
Day 7: Wild Game
On our last day, we will prepare a wild boar that the hunters have shot on our land.* (*Note: only if all applicants agree, otherwise we can dive into sourdough bread making, fermenting or medicinal/cosmetic plants and mushrooms).
Day 2: Foraging for Fungi
Learn about the mushroom queendom ;) How to identify, harvest and prepare edible and medicinal mushrooms.
Day 5: Food for the Future
We forage for nuts, and prepare dishes that might become our future staple foods.
Day 3: Foraging for Flora
Learn how to identify, harvest and prepare edible and medicinal wild plants.
Day 6: Expedition: Coast
We hike to the coast, and forage for seaweeds, clams.
Day 8: Adios!
You leave with a belly full of wilderness, a head full of knowledge and a heart full of inspiration.
(Oh and literally: you probably leave with a bag of dried mushrooms and herbs, and a booklet with all recipes and info we shared!)
What will you learn?
You will deepen your understanding of wild foods and the natural world, both on a cognitive and physical level. Through a combination of expert-led lessons and guided foraging hikes and cooking sessions, you'll learn how to identify and harvest wild edibles, prepare them in delicious recipes, and understand their nutritional and medicinal properties. Meanwhile you'll have the chance to immerse yourself in the natural beauty of the stunning Spanish wilderness.
Next to gaining knowledge, we'll also dive into thought-provoking conversations about our relationship with food, agriculture and ourselves as nature. Have you ever stopped to consider where your food comes from? Why do we eat foods with ingredient lists that we don’t understand, yet fail to recognize the wild edibles growing in our own gardens? This week, you'll have the opportunity to challenge your beliefs, fine-tune your opinions, and gain new perspectives on the role of food in your life.
And best of all, you'll be surrounded by like-minded and passionate people who share your love for nature and food. Together, we will restore our connection with our edible surroundings, explore the rich flavors of the wilderness, create unforgettable memories, and gain skills that will last a lifetime!
The wild location
There’s fresh produce from the organic veggie garden, homemade sourdough bread, and plenty of wild foods right at our feet. We cook together either in the yurt or in the outdoor kitchen, we share recipes and joy.
It’s an amazing place to disconnect from the noise and chaos of everyday life and find peace in the simplicity of living off the land.
The land on which the Can Cabota finca lies, has everything a forager wants: mushrooms galore, edible plants and trees everywhere, a river to take a *cold* dip in, an organic veggie garden, a young food forest, a water source... and a hammock for your after-lunch nap!
Day flow
7:30: Sit spotting*
8:00: Breakfast
9-12: Program (expedition/class)
12:00: Cook/prepare & Lunch
15-17: Program or Free time
17:00 Cook together & dinner
20:00: Program (around the fire) or free time
If you have any questions about the content, form or practicalities of this program, just drop us a line so we can arrange a call!
*We start our day with sitspotting. This is a beginner-friendly, solo meditation practice in nature. A great way to gently acknowledge and open up all our senses, before we use them for collecting, preparing and eating our food. This way we rekindle our connection with our bodies and (our) nature, and with that turn every bite into nourishment for both body ánd soul!
Price
The price includes all accommodation, food, non-alcoholic drinks, the program, and a Wild Food Week-booklet.
It excludes travel costs and potential costs for pick-up at the nearest train station.
The price is €995,- if you stay in one of our accommodations
The price is €915,- if you bring your own camperbus or tent
We like to have an intimate tribe (and butt space in the kitchen), therefore there is a maximum of 12 people.
Your Hosts
SASKIA BOER
Saskia Boer hosts foraging workshops and events in the Netherlands. Hereby she focuses on our relationship with place, humans being a part of nature, and our hunter-gatherer lineage. If she´s not out ethically harvesting wild plants, you can find her farming the urban foodforest. Both her foraged and farmed plants and mushrooms are used by pioneering, sustainable restaurants (including a restaurant with 2 michelin stars!).
She quit working for news media to actually do something about climate change and raise awareness about our species´ dependency on nature’s equilibrium. With a background in cultural studies she finds inspiration in artistic circles and traditional (indigenous) knowledge. (Also: she’s a nerd with no off-button when it comes to mushroom info..)
BASTIAAN VEENMAN
Bastiaan's inspiration mainly came from his extensive travel experiences. During these journeys he broadened his perspective, learned from indigenous people and worked on permaculture farms. He continued his path by a dedicated (and continuous) self-study on the areas of permaculture, foraging, food forests, agroforestry, regenerative agriculture and more. He was part of various ecological projects in Mexico and Guatamala and put his knowledge into practice by creating a food forest and kitchen garden in the Netherlands and setting up the holistic Land-management of a project in Spain, including a food forest, kitchen garden and regenerative farm.
JORIEN HENDRIKX
Jorien has been working alongside social entrepreneurs, as a consultant for social initiatives, coordinating sustainable events and setting up a retreat venue in Spain. Meanwhile she has been unfolding herself on a personal and spiritual level through conscious dance (5Rhythms, Gabrielle Roth), indigenous nature rituals (VisionQuest, School of Lost Borders), mindfulness (Plum Village, Thich Nath Hanh), and as a Spirit of Nature guide. She has a strong intuition for working with our inner nature and our bodies, which she puts to use as a facilitator, space-holder and mentor.
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Accommodation
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Bring Your Own tent: find your own spot and pitch your tent on the land. Maybe you want to be close to the river, or maybe to the toilets ;)
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Bring Your Own campervan: bring your own little home with you and find your spot on our camping space.
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Stay in one of our Comfortable Tents: a spacious canvas tent in which you can stand up, where there is a bed with comfortable mattress with all the blankets and bedlinen, ready for you to dive in. With towels included. We host two people in one tent, meaning you will share your tent with someone else.
*For couples or friends, we could also make one double bed instead.
*Depending on availability, it is possible to rent a Comfortable Tent for just one person.
The facilities are basic, but adding to the nature immersion, since they are all made from wood of the land. The two sanitation sheds offer 3 dry-toilets and 3 showers, of which 2 warm. Under a big roof is the communal outside kitchen, a central meeting point where we cook and eat. For rainy days (when you are done dancing in it), we have a cosy yurt where you can also read a book of our library.
It's a remote finca: the water comes from the source and river and after use it runs back onto the land, the energy comes from solar panels. All organic waste (including from the toilets) is composted into fertile soil.
Travel
To get to the finca, you can either drive to us by car, or let us pick you up at Figueres Vilafant trainstation. This trainstation has good connections with Girona, Barcelona, Perpignan and Paris.
Our programs usually start around 18:00 in the evening, and finish around 10:00 in the morning. We provide a pickup at Figueres Vilafant at 17:00h and drop-off at 11:00.
After you sign up, you will receive more extended information on how to get here. To make sure your timing is aligned with the times of the program and taxi service, please check this information before booking your travels.
If you have any hesitations or questions, you can always ask us!
Your Questions about Wild Food
Will I be able to find the Spanish wild edibles at home too?
Yes. Almost all the plants, mushrooms and coastal wild edibles we´ll gather, can be found all over Europe. We will discuss the growth regions and places and local varieties of each plant. The one thing that can be more tricky to do at home is getting hold of wild game.
Is there a kind of hand-out of the things I´ll learn?
Yes. You will receive a booklet with the wild edibles we discussed, including recipes and preperation methods.
What is the cancellation policy for this week?
We ask for a deposit of €200. If you have to cancel your participation, our policy is as follows:
- if you cancel six weeks before the starting date of the program or earlier, we will fully reimburse you
- if you cancel between six weeks and two weeks before the starting date, we will reimburse 50% of the deposit
- if you cancel two weeks before the starting date or later, we will not reimburse the deposit
More Questions?
Book a free 20 min call to ask all your questions and see if this program is a good fit for you!