About Me

smallheadshotWelcome to First Ways, where you can join in me in unlocking the ancient secrets of wild plants all around us. My goal is to inspire and empower everyone to connect with nature and experience the joyful remembrance of who we really are.

My name is Becky Lerner and I am one of the best-known urban foragers in North America, as seen in the Los Angeles Times, Oregonian, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Portland Monthly magazine, Utne Reader website, Adbusters online, a wide array of local newspapers, websites, radio, and TV. I am the author of the book DANDELION HUNTER: Foraging the Urban Wilderness, an entertaining and informative nonfiction narrative about my adventures foraging for food, medicine, and survival in Portland, Oregon, published April 2013 by Globe Pequot Press.

Recently, I have spoken about foraging for survival preparedness, herbalism, and sustainability at Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Portland Plant Medicine Gathering, ResiliencePDX, Cannon Beach History Center & Museum, and more. I also teach classes on urban plant identification, medicine making, and plant-spirit healing, and I will be joining the guest faculty of the Virtues of Healing Institute of Integrated Studies in 2015.

Additionally, I have an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Goucher College and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Rutgers University. As a journalist, I have written for dozens of outlets across the country, including The Oregonian, Orion magazine, Syracuse New Times, and the Discovery Channel’s website.

DANDELION HUNTER is available wherever books are sold, including Amazon and Powell’s, and you can get an autographed copy directly from the author here. Find tour dates, a synopsis, excerpts and more at http://DandelionHunter.com.

In addition to speaking, teaching, and writing, I am also a Reiki healer.

Frequently Asked Questions:

How do I get in touch with you?
Write me at RebeccaELerner@gmail.com

Can I write a guest post?
No. I rarely accept guest posts, and when I do, they’re written by close friends who have expertise in foraging and herbalism that I can vouch for. This website is known for its accuracy, and I like to keep it that way.

How did you get into foraging?
I was learning about wilderness survival with Primitive Pursuits while spending a year in Ithaca, NY, when I caught the botanical bug.

Lunaria_sow_thistle-93The following year, when I moved across the country to Portland, I met my friend Emily Porter, an experienced botanist and herbalist who worked as an educator for TrackersNW. She taught me many, many skills, from plant identification to medicine making and sustainable harvesting. It was a wonderful learning experience that I have since continued on my own with tall piles of books and plenty of hands-on experimentation — “dirt time,” as some call it. The more I learn, the more fascinated I become.

Do you eat wild food all the time?

Making wild blackberry mead

In the spring, I eat tons of stinging nettle. Nettle pesto, nettle quiche, nettle smoothies, nettle soup, nettle everything. In the summer, I love to pick berries and makes jams and syrups. In the fall, I like making chestnut flour. I enjoy wild edibles as a special ingredient, whether making a green smoothie, the occasional sidewalk salad, dandelion leaf curry stir-fry, or elder flower fritters. I also like harvesting wild plants for herbal medicines I make myself. It is very empowering to know that I can take care of common ailments at home for myself and my dog, from the flu to strep throat.

That said, wild plants are supplemental to my diet, rather than a staple, for many reasons. Full-time urban foragers are actually quite rare, even among professional educators. One reason is seasonality — the most nutritious and caloric plant parts are fruits and nuts, which are available only a few months per year — and another is the scarcity of bulk sources of wild plants in the city. A third and probably most important issue is the time required to gather and process wild food, which is an issue for anyone with obligations other than being a full-time hunter-gatherer. Interestingly, anthropologist Robert L. Kelly writes in his scholarly book “The Foraging Spectrum,” that today no foragers anywhere in the world eat an entirely wild diet, and that this probably has been the case for hundreds if not thousands of years, because of widespread trade. Whether you are a bushman in the Kalahari or an urbanite in Portland, you probably buy some farmed foods. However, I think our cities are ripe for creative solutions for propagating wild edibles and expanding public foraging spaces, such as supporting a public commons for foraging, as demonstrated by Seattle’s budding food forest.

smoking mullein, chanterelles in the background

I think the most fun aspect of foraging is the gathering itself, the wildcrafting. It’s a great way to develop a deeper relationship with the land around me and a sense of the changing seasons. And not just the land — I like to experience wild animals as my peers and feel something in common with the people who lived here before modern times.

Eating chickweed / Photo by Blair Ryan (BlairRyan.com)

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Thanks for visiting! Please tell your friends about this site and come back soon!

37 thoughts on “About Me”

  1. i received my two copies of Dandelion Hunter on Friday. Finished the book on Saturday, gave one to a friend. Today I am purchasing two more, one for my brother and one for my daughter, Wow! Just lovely Becky! Do you ever have classes in the actual making of medicine? Would like to start with creams and salves…. Thank You!

    • Jana, thank you sooo much!! I am thrilled to hear that. I would love it if you wanted to leave a review on Amazon.com too! RE your question, yes I do offer medicine making classes. I just did one in early March and I am sure I will offer another sometime in the summer as they seem quite popular. I also have plans to create an online version for folks who are not in the area.

  4. Hello, I am not sure how to go about start eating wild plants? I heard so many good things about it and I really want to change my life style and start eating good and doing good for my body. It’s just a hard step to take. Where do I find a good source of wild plants and how do I know that what I picked is ok to eat? Can u help me and get me going? I’m 27 and from Albuquerque New Mexico where not as much vegetation grows.. I was hoping you can help me out, Thank you look forward to hear back from.you.

  5. September 29th is the one year anniversary of my blog. To celebrate I would like to honor the folks I look to, for guidance; with a series featuring quest authors. Please consider writing a quest post. Your words, your way, would be best, although I did considering asking for interviews, I’m not that good a journalist! Certainly photos are, also, welcome. I ask only that the subject matter be related to foraging or nature; in some way.
    Hope to see you here, soon!
    Many Blessings,
    Linda “Inky” Redbird

    • Dear Linda,
      Thank you. :) This is a lovely request. I am not sure what you mean by a “quest post.” Can you explain? You might want to email me at RebeccaELerner(at)gmail(dot)com

  7. This is an exquisite page. I’d love to learn about the plants that can be foraged throughout the year in Portland. Surely there is a lot in September, but what about in the winter? This page makes me want to go out there and start finding wildcrafted treasures soon! Thanks so much for your hard work.
    Zest Regards,
    Kent O>

    • Dear Kent,

      If you subscribe to this blog by e-mail or follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ll get updates on food items as they become available, with info on how to ID them. You also can look through the archives.

      Thanks so much for your support!

  8. I found an interesting looking fruity-thing while on a walk with my children and I would like to send a pic to see if you know what it is. What would be the best way to do it.

    • Hi Candis,

      Just saw your comment. Best thing would be to e-mail me, please, at RebeccaELerner(at)gmail(dot)com.

      Rebecca

  10. I enjoy your website! I really appreciated coming across it. I am very much interested in foraging and learning as much as I can through my African and Cherokee heritage and from the various First Nation peoples who lived (and currently live, though sparingly) in the deep south. I write a lot about urban foraging and wildcrafting as the Charlotte Nature Examiner and I occasionally talk about foraging on my blog Animal Visions. I look forward to continuing your blog.

  11. I’ve a growing interest in wildeness survival skills. I intend to head out into the wilds for a year with only what i can carry on my back. Anyone else’s experiences along these lines would be appreciated.

  12. You’re cute. As far as “survival” situations are concerned, I think you would be an excellent ally, both for advice and as a morale booster.

  13. so happy to have found your blog! i have just recently begun a series on my blog called “wild in the city: foraging fridays”…featuring a different edible/medicinal plant each week that can be found in SF or surrounding areas. so exciting to find other gals doing this! what a pleasure…i look forward to your further adventures. best, mary

  14. I hadn’t visited one of my usual haunts, Reality Sandwich, in a while. Guess I’ve been focusing more on my “homesteading” skill set work these days and seemed to have taken a break form my consciousness work. But something drew me there today, maybe curiosity, maybe a nudge from the creator, who knows. But I am thrilled that I felt and followed the nudge because I got to find your article and now your site.

    This spring, I am really focusing on my suburban foraging skills and your site will come in both handy and motivational.

    Thanks for taking the time to document your travels,

    jed

  15. Hi Becky!

    Nice pictures! ;) I’m glad you got in touch with Blair.

    The video should be up by Tuesday afternoon (fingers crossed)!

  16. Pingback: Sample Press Release: Wild Food Week « Rebecca Lerner

  17. hey- great job bringing the notions of basic human skills to the masses via writing. keep it up. stay in touch- us types should stick together. i practice survivalism- actively and for the sake of spending time in the most beautiful (and coincidentally? harshest) alpine territories. been doing it my whole life, with a mountain-loving family, boy scouts, and the company of friends (indigenous and otherwise) who wouldn’t be restrained by civilization or hindered by luxury. i am a strong advocate of primitive ways, individually and as a society. i have some writings you might appreciate.
    oh, and to add to a point i read here, i am a vegetarian and fare just fine in the alpine of the rockies. winter requires more discipline if you want to remain at altitude, but it’s doable. field grains become a staple- which means work.

  19. Rebecca,
    I found your stories through Culture Change.
    Thank you so much for what you are doing to show us that there are other ways to sustain oneself. To help show that we can subvert the dominant paradigms.
    What struck me most about the KOIN news video footage linked on your home page; was how you come across so absolutely beautiful in demeanor, in contrast to the (I hesitate to disparage) superficial news-women.
    Very simply: you are beautiful.
    Sincerely.

  22. As a caution: You may want to test plants taken in urban environments for heavy metals as well as other sources of unban pollution. Some plants are great at removing nasty things from the environment, but by storing them in their structures. Plants that are not harvested and removed, will dump the metals, etc. back into the local soils to be recycled year after year. Systematic removal each year can reduce the toxins, but the plants may not be edible or useful.

    Perhaps a study of urban pollution and plant recyling and removal might make a great project? Or a study on which plants resist uptake of toxins and which do… and what toxins? Anyway would be useful for unban foragers.

  24. it is amazing to know that you are doing this foraging thing this could really be the next extension if we keep active unaffluent and real about it, though pinapple sweet tea i have yet to beat

  25. Greetings Becky Lerner, “Wild Gal”. I have followed your reports in Culture Change and admire your dedication to survival through plant foraging. It appears that, although wild plant edibles can be found almost anywhere, there would be “preferred” areas for this activity.

    I would imagine that along rivers near coastal areas would be optimum for vegetarians. Do you agree? It seems like the higher mountain regions would offer less opportunities for vegetable sustenance. To live higher one would have to eat meat and poultry. (Deer, Rabbit, Squirrel, Turkey, Quail, etc.) But these creatures can be found lower near the rivers and sea coast too. I think the Coastal Range Mountains along the Northwest Coast would be optimum for food variety and there are “semi-wild pockets” where one can avoid communities, if one were so minded.

    Protein is very important. Can you do some articles that would teach which plants equal beans in nutritional value? Particularly ones found in the Pacific Coastal regions of North America?

    I value your work very much and appreciate your sharing of your sacred and pragmatic knowledge. I hope you succeed in gathering dependable tribe around you. Would it be Matriarchal in structure?

    Respectfully, DAN 1 “The Tribeless” 64 year old bald white male, who has long dreamed of being part of a good tribal people.

    • Dan 1, That is a fabulous idea. I put the idea out to my herbalist friends…so far no one I talked to knew of wild beans in the Pacific NW. Maybe this is why the indigenous people of this region were not vegetarian. They ate a lot of salmon and deer. In fact, I’m not sure it really is possible to be vegetarian without using agriculture.

  27. Congrats to you! I have been wondering about foraging in the woods out here in the Northeast–often I’ve felt that my leafy greens from the store is quite limited. How did the Indians live here, I’ve asked. So glad to see your blog! I’ve tried purslane with sauteed with olive oil, it’s delicious!! Also I have tried a burdock tea with fenugreek, dried licorice, and some other ingredients I don’t remember at present. Also, burdock root is great sauteed with mushrooms, carrots, in olive oil. Olive oil has got to be good with a lot of dark leafy greens.

    But watch out for wild carrot; it could be confused with the poisonous hemlock.

  28. A few years back I was onto the peak oil situation and took comfort in keeping my garden. Then somehow the energy drained away and I found myself looking with delight at the dandelions that were now populating my beds. I was thrilled when friends knowing my love of nettle tea began bringing me my own nettle plants. The first one gifted I kept inside for a while so I could just admire it’s beauty. I live on a floathome and I had got into the habit of feeding the chickweed that filled my planters to the ducks now I am eying it up for salads.

    Thank you for taking on this adventure with wild plants I look forward to learning from you and being inspired to go more wild myself.

    I believe it is wise wild women like us who will lead us out of this domesticated nightmare where connection with our Mother was lost. Now more than ever we must reclaim it..

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