Nature Wonder Wild Food Weekend

- 42nd Annual Nature Wonder Wild Food Weekend -
Cairo, West Virginia
September 18 - 20, 2009

                            Nature Wonder Weekend Links                              

Registration Form

Local Map

Personal Account

This page is hosted by Wild Food Adventures ™ Institute for the Study of Edible Wild Plants and Other Foragables John N. Kallas, Ph.D., Director 4125 N Colonial Ave, Portland, OR 97217-3338 Phone: (503) 775-3828e-mail: mail@wildfoodadventures.com North American Wild Food Events

West Virginia's Nature Wonder Wild Food Weekend Join the longest running annual wild food event in North America. Held every Fall since it's inception in 1968, this event provides education and experience finding, processing, and feasting on edible wild plants and other foragables in a beautiful park setting in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Founded by Edelene Wood, the long running president of the National Wild Foods Association, this event was inspired by followers of Euell Gibbons. Nature Wonder Weekend is open to anyone from beginning to advanced foragers. Past keynote speakers have included Euell Gibbons, Dr. John Kallas of Wild Food Adventures, Dr. Peter Gail of Goosefoot Acres, Samuel Thayer of Forager's Harvest, Mike Krebill, Edelene Wood, Bill Faust, author John Tomikel, and Doug Elliot, amung many others. To read a personal account of the Weekend with pictures click here. Location North Bend State Park has been the home of Nature Wonder Weekend since the beginning. The Park is located in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. The lodge and cabins are surrounded by Eastern woodland forests, miles and miles of hiking trails, a lake, a duck pond and the winding North Fork of the Hughes River. North Bend has a 305 acre recreational lake. It is a great fishing area. The Park also offers an outdoor pool, tennis courts, and picnic areas. The Park is about 25 miles East of Parkersburg, West Virginia. It can be reached via State Route 14 from Cairo, or State Route 5 from Harrisville.

Saturday afternoon wild food potluck feast. Foods were provided by regularly attending participants and adventurous sorts like yourself.

Contact

Event Information Edelene Wood, President 3301 Hemlock Ave Parkersburg WV 26104 (304) 428-9590

Registration Information WV DIV OF NATURAL RESOURCES 1900 KANAWHA BLVD E RM 669 BLDG 3 CHARLESTON WV 25305 (304) 558-2754 Registration Form

Location Info North Bend State Park Cairo, WV. (304) 643-2931 (800) 225-5982

Accommodations and Meals
Lodging is available in two forms, cabins holding parties of 4 to 6 people, and rooms in the Lodge - not unlike any respectable hotel. Both provide all amenities that you would expect in a hotel. The cabins are rented as intact units, based on "group" occupancies of 4 to 6 persons. Different from the Lodge, the cabins offer kitchen facilites and a fire place. Pets are allowed only for certain situations and in certain areas of the Park - call ahead before you bring a pet. Parents are responsible for the supervision and safety of their children during the weekend. The Lodge provides regular "Southern Style" meals in addition to the Saturday Wild Food Potluck Feast and other wild food sampling activities. Come prepared to eat way more than your stomach can hold.
Camping Options: If you have a camper or you want to tent camp, do the following: On the Nature Wonder Weekend Regisration form, mark the number of people in your party, using the 4th option at $67 per person. Mail in that registration with your check. Then call the Park to make arrangements to camp. This will entail a park fee separate from your wild food reservation. Pay the Park directly. Sites are assigned on a first come first serve basis, so make reservations early. For up to 6 persons: a spot with electrical hookup is $20/day, a spot without electric is $17/day. Call to make sure the fees have not changed.

History of Nature Wonder Wild Food Weekend
In the mid 1960s Edelene Wood was learning and teaching about wild foods in West Virginia. She was conducting seminars and hosting wild food dinners. At the time, Edelene was an officer in the "Little Kanawha Regional Council". The Council's purpose was to foster nature appreciation and recreational activities through regional improvement projects in West Virginia. Edelene told one of her friends of her interest in writing a book on wild foods. Her friend told her that Euell Gibbons had beaten her to it. Edelene bought his books and began using many of his recipes in her wild food dinners. Whenever her participants expressed caution about eating some of the wild foods, Edelene would comfort them by saying that all the recipes could be found in Euell Gibbons books. Edelene wrote Gibbons, telling him of her interest in wild foods and of some of the seminars and dinners she hosted. They began corresponding and became fast friends. In 1968, the people at North Bend State Park in Cairo West Virginia and Maxine Scarlburo of the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources, asked Edelene, as a member of the Little Kanawha Regional Council, if she knew of a speaker who could attract enough participants to fill the Park for a nature appreciation-style weekend. She called Euell, who accepted for a $100 speakers fee. At the time Euell's agent was getting him a $5,000 fee for his speaking engagements. When people found out that Euell was going to be there, the Park, it's cabins, and campground filled completely for that first Nature Wonder Weekend. Euell fondly began referring to Edelene as his "public relations representative" for West Virginia. The weekend was filled with nature walks, talks on wild foods, making friends, and creating wild food dishes for everyone to try. Euell was the feature speaker at the Weekend for the first 8 years until his death in 1975. Euell wrote lovingly about the weekend in his book "Stalking the Faraway Places" in the chapter "Gathering of the Wild Gourmets". Edelene and the West Virginia State Department of Natural Resources developed the charter and began the National Wild Foods Association after Euell's death in 1976 to foster communication and to unite all the people around North America who hold the common interest of wild foods. The Nature Wonder Wildfoods Weekend has been running much the same since the beginning, longer than any other wild food event in North America.


A "Typical" Nature Wonder Weekend Agenda

Friday
 2:00 pm: Registration Begins
 3:00 pm: Park Tour
 6:30 pm: Dinner
 8:00 pm: Welcome, Weekend Preview
 8:15 pm: Keynote Speaker Presentation
 9:15 pm: Contest Winners Announced, Tasting Party and Social Hour

Saturday
 7:00 am: Breakfast
 8:30 am: Short, 2 mile Wild Food Interpretive Hike
 9:15 am: Long 4 mile Wild Food Interpretive Hike
12:00 pm: Lunch
 1:00 pm: Preparation of Foods for the Wild Food Potluck Feast
 4:00 pm: Wild Feast and Social Hour
 6:30 pm: Dinner (You might want to skip dinner, instead, use your meal ticket for an evening snack before 10pm)
 8:00 pm: Keynote Speaker Presentation

Sunday
 7:30 am: Breakfast
 9:00 am: Worship Service
10:00 am: Wild Food Roundtable - Question and Answer Period
11:00 am: Closing Remarks



Other Topics at this Web Site...
Wild Food Adventures Main Directory
John Kallas Biography
Book Reviews / Bookstore
Euell Gibbons Biography
Technical Adviser for Movie Industry
Wild Foods in Wilderness Survival
Wild Food Retreat at Opal Creek
Wild Food Workshops
Wild Food Newsletter
Wild Food Primer
Wild Food Services
Nature Photographs