I grew up in the pine forests of Montana on a goat farm, where my parents embraced a lifestyle rooted in self-sufficiency.
Our family land was shared with my maternal aunt and grandparents, and I grew up watching the women in my life craft everything from homemade bread, yogurt, and cheese to butter and ice cream. They preserved the harvest through dehydrating, freezing, and canning any excess fruits, vegetables, meats, and fish. Nearly five decades later, those early lessons still shape who I am.
Professionally, I’m a doctorally-prepared Clinical Nurse Specialist with expertise in gerontology, palliative care, clinical program development, and staff education. For the past 17 years, I’ve worked across home health and academic settings, committed to improving care delivery and mentoring the next generation of nurses.
In my spare time, I started foraging and studying herbalism for several years before this project formally began. In 2022, after the loss of my oldest friend to alcoholism and during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, my priorities shifted.
My spouse and I sold our Wisconsin farmhouse.
We packed up our lives and took to the road in our RV with our two dogs and five cats.
My initial goal was to forage and cook with one wild food in every state we visited. Even after settling in Florida for a few years and eventually returning to Wisconsin and getting a divorce, the journey—and the experiment—continues.
