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Presidents’ Day Herb Walk & “Stone Soup” Picnic
February 17, 2020 @ 9:00 am - 1:30 pm
$35
REGISTER HERE
PLEASE NOTE: This event is full. Please see registration info below.
Join me on Presidents’ Day, Monday, February 17, for an Herb Walk and “Stone Soup” Picnic at Euterpe Farms in Ojai. We’ll walk the borders of the farm adjacent to the Ventura River Preserve identifying edible and medicinal plants such as sagebrush, purple sage, white sage, and elderberry. Then we’ll gather around an oak wood fire for wild food processing demos and a “stone soup” picnic based on the folk tale of the same name. The soup will be built around a California bay leaf (in place of the stone) and onsite-foraged dwarf nettles.
A foraged salad topped with local wild black walnuts might include seasonal greens such as miner’s lettuce, chickweed, thistle, sweet fennel, and mustard. Time permitting, we may also prepare acorn pancakes.
The walk will begin at 9 a.m. At approximately 11:30 a.m. we’ll begin preparing for the picnic which will conclude around 1:30 or 2:00 p.m. The cost is $35 including all materials other than vegetables and herbs contributed to the stone soup.
REGISTRATION INFORMATION:
Please click the REGISTER HERE button below to join the waiting list. Per my usual policy, if someone cancels in time for me to fill the space I will issue a refund and add the person(s) at the top of the waiting list. They will then receive an email with a link to a PayPal button to secure their space. Please note: final PayPal amount includes a processing fee.
Confirmed registrants will receive an email in the days before the event with detailed instructions and directions. Afterwards, they will receive a follow-up email with plant list, recipes and other info.
Lanny,
The Presidents’ Day Herb Walk & “Stone Soup” Picnic was fantastic. It is always interesting to hear you talk about the plants but this event took us to the next level. We actually got to
Lanny,
The Presidents’ Day Herb Walk & “Stone Soup” Picnic was fantastic. It is always enjoyable to hear you talk about how to use the plants but in this event you took it to the next level by having us actually prepare and eat the plants, working together like a tribe. There is no better way to learn than hearing, seeing, and then doing. Thank you so much!!!
I was shelling the walnuts so I wasn’t able to see how you prepared the soup. My question is how did you prepare the nettles for the soup? Were they just chopped up stems, flower buds, and leaves together and thrown into the soup or were the bigger stems removed?
Thanks for the positive feedback, Eric. Glad to hear it. The dwarf nettles are small and tender to begin with and these were young enough to be able to be chopped and added to the soup as-is with the removal of just the largest stems. The giant creek nettles that grow in the creek beds require more separating of the leaves from the stems.