Click on the photo above to read more and sign up to join me and Rondia for another Supermoon Sunset Nature Hike on Wednesday, October 16, from 4:30 to 8:00 p.m. After the sunset/moonrise viewing, we'll have an optional after-party at Ojai Valley Brewery's outdoor patio where we can sample beers crafted with local herbs while watching the moon continue its rise in the eastern sky. Big Mann BBQ will be onsite with their food truck.  

Photo of supermoon rising over Topa Topa Bluffs in October 2023 by Carla Cahill

 

Please join me as we watch the seasons change on a Nature Education Walk at Taft Preserve on Saturday, October 26, from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. Click on the photo above of the Four Directions Stone Circle, our destination, to learn more and register.

 

Jess Starwood is an established author, naturalist, chef, herbalist and educator. She recently wrote and photographed Mushroom Wanderland: A Forager’s Guide to Finding, Identifying and Using More Than 25 Wild Fungi. Jess has been teaching foraging, wild foods and nature education classes for children and adults for over ten years in Southern California. She has been a popular guest presenter many times for Herb Walks and the Ojai Herbal Symposium. Please join her in Ojai on Sunday, November 3, for a morning mushroom walk and an afternoon cooking demonstration and talk. Click here or on the image above to learn more and sign up.

 

Please join me and renowned author-forager-survivalist Christopher Nyerges by Lake Casitas on Saturday, November 9, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for a Fall Foraging and Survival Workshop. You will be able to process acorns and black walnuts for eating, eat wild foods prepared on a campfire made with primitive skills, learn to identify edible and medicinal plants, and practice making fishing line from yucca leaves.

 

Christopher has authored nearly two dozen books, including  Foraging California, Foraging Wild Edible Plants of North America,  Foraging Arizona, and How to Survive Anywhere, among many others. This is a rare opportunity to learn from him firsthand, in person in Ojai. Click here or on the photo above to read more and register.

 

Please join me on Sunday, November 10, for a tasty and enlightening day with Olivia Chase and Steve Sprinkel, co-founders of the renowned Farmer and the Cook organic café and grocery store in Meiners Oaks. Olivia will introduce her latest cookbook, Farmer and the Cook: recipes and farm stories from Ojai, California. The book includes organic, Mexican recipes from her popular vegetarian café and a collection of recipes inspired by the farm-fresh vegetables grown by her partner, farmer Steve Sprinkel.

 

The gathering will begin with a visit to Farmer and the Cook’s 9-acre farm. The farm is located on the grounds of the old Honor Farm, near highway 33 and Old Baldwin Road. At the farm you will have an opportunity to meet Farmer Steve and, dependent on rainfall and weather, help pick the ingredients for the afternoon’s cooking demonstration and food tasting.

 

Then we will gather in one of the kitchens at Farmer and the Cook café in Meiners Oaks. Olivia will give you a glimpse into the journey taken as she and Steve bootstrapped the popular café — side by side for the past 23 years — and shine a light on a core group of talented cooks and bakers at the heart of the kitchen with whom they have co-created the café.

 

The cooking demonstration and tasting will include your participation in the preparation of a salad using the ingredients you picked in the morning. The actual salad will be determined based on what is available in November. You will get to taste a sampling from the cookbook: Nutloaf with Shiitake Mushroom Gravy and Roasted Kabocha Squash along with the fresh-from-the- farm salad. Afterward, Olivia will have books on hand for sale and signing.

 

Click here or on the image above for more info and registration.