This 22nd Annual Pacific Shores Rendezvous is an intensive on the role and use of wild harvested seavegetables, shellfish, and coastal edible wild plants in everyday life, recreational foraging, re-connecting with nature, self-reliance and survival.
$415, Early registration discounts are listed below.
A multi-day, hands-on wild food adventure and teach-in, learning natural wonders in the context of current realities. The focus of this event is on the roles sea vegetables, shellfish, and coastal wild foods can play in one’s diet, recreational foraging, self-reliance, and survival. Participants will learn about, use, and gain experience with a variety of wild edibles along with the techniques used to bring them to the table. Everyone attending will share their knowledge, ideas, methods, and wisdom based on their own experiences. Participants arrive and set up on Friday. The program begins Friday evening and ends on Monday noon. Oregon Field Guide, a human interest outdoor regional program covered the Pacific Shores Rendezvous (formerly called Native Shores) in 2005. We are accomplishing even more over a decade later.
Photos: 1 and 4 by Chip Belden
To help participants understand the roles that wild foods can play in recreational foraging, contributing to your everyday diet, self-reliance, and survival; to provide hands on experience with some of the most important shellfish, seavegetables, plants and processes that could be used in those situations; to provide the opportunity for participants to share and learn from each other regarding their cumulative experiences with wild foods; to promote a sustainable harvest mentality with a strong support of protecting and respecting green, coastal and wild places; to directly address the great mass of misinformation found in the popular literature and the internet; and to have fun, make friends, and connect with people who are interested in the same kinds of things.
We want this to be a fun and educational outdoor experience and adventure. We expect everyone to be friendly, respectful, encouraging of others, and open minded. Leave bad attitudes at home. You are welcome to be a lone wolf or be as social as you feel comfortable – as long as you are respectful to others and do your part to make the event successful. We will be together a lot of the time so take the opportunity to get to know people and make friends.
John gathering knotweed. Photo: Robert VanCreveld
Everyone attending will share their knowledge, ideas, methods, and wisdom based on their own experiences. Participant skill levels will range from beginner to advanced. All input will be respected as personal experience to be learned from. The main instructor and moderator is Dr. John Kallas, Director of Wild Food Adventures. Dr. Kallas has a Ph.D. in nutrition and a Masters in education. He is a trained botanist, nature photographer, writer, researcher, and teacher. John has researched edible wild plants since 1970 and taught in colleges, universities, primitive technology conferences, and to the general public since 1978. He has taught and trained thousands of people about wild foods from all over North America, and given hundreds of wild food presentations. Dr. Kallas founded the Wild Food Adventures outdoor school in 1993, edited the Wild Food Adventurer newsletter from 1996 to 2006, and published Volumes 1 and 2 of the Wild Food Adventures Book Series; “Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods from Dirt to Plate” in 2010, and “Edible Wild plants: Wild Foods From Foraging to Feasting” in 2023. Go here to learn more about John.
Training, hands-on experiences, field trips, projects, and wild food discussions will occur throughout the four day event. Camping space is provided. Vehicles are in a separate area from camping. A limited number of rooms are possible in the lodge for an extra charge. You will be responsible for some of your own meals – though much of what we eat will be wild foods gathered by you and other participants.
We will be in the same location for four days with access to modern kitchen and bathroom facilities. Beginning on Saturday, breakfasts and dinners will be provided through Monday morning. You are responsible for 2 sack lunches and snacks. Refrigeration for personal items will not be provided. Bring a plate, bowl, drinking cup and utensils for your camp site. Conventional food supplies will be available in town. Wild foods will make up the bulk of our evening meals. We will all improvise recipes to incorporate into our meals.
Outside of your typical camping gear, you should consider following: We will travel daily to several gathering sites. Bringing the harvests back to camp for processing and cooking. To gather shellfish, you are required to have a current Oregon Shellfish Collecting License. This is mandatory! See below for details. It is helpful to bring a small backpack for day trips and a good knife. Prepare for temperatures usually ranging from 40 F to 75 F. Bring clothing for comfort. For coastal forests, bring rugged but layered hiking cloths and comfortable hiking boots.
All seashore clothing should be layered and able to withstand immersion in salt water and protect your body from a fall on sharp rocks. Bring old wetable tennis shoes and very warm layered wool clothing (socks, pants, sweaters). If you do not have much wool, check out thrift stores for old sweaters and pants. Wet suits are generally overkill as most people will only get wet typically up to their knees. Waiders are bulky, heavy and typically hot to wear. Shorts, bare feet, sandals, and light summer cotton clothing are inadequate for our field trips.
Prepare for variable coastal weather! While we hope to go through water at only foot level, depending on Mother Nature, you may have to wade through thigh high water, slog through muck up to your ankles, and climb over hillsides. It is all in a day’s adventure!
Arrive anytime after 4:00 p.m. on Friday May 30, 2025 – set up camp/meet other participants. This event’s first activities begin with a program around 7:00 pm Friday. The last activity will end by noon Monday, June 2, 2025.
Recreational Shellfish Licenses are now required for anyone 12 and over to collect shellfish in Oregon. In-state licenses are $10/year, Out of state licenses are $19 for 3 days or $28/year. 3-Day licenses must specify the days you intend to do the collecting. You must carry the License with you during the workshop (in a phone app or a printed copy) or you will only be allowed to watch. If shellfish are found in your possession on the beach and you do not have a license, the fine is $80 and up. Licenses should be purchased “PRIOR” to our events by going to the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife web site. DO NOT wait until the last minute! Here is how to do it:
Go to the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife web site Or you may be able to do the whole thing from your phone from their “MyODFW” app. I have not tried the phone app route to pay so the directions here are only how to do it on your computer.
Wait until after January 2 of the current year.
If you are new, press: “Create an Account Today”
Create a user name & password – Record them since you will use the same account every year when purchasing a license or to open the app.
If you already have a digital account, press: “Verify/Look up your Account”
Follow the prompts.
Once an account is created click, “Purchase From the Catalog”
Type “Annual Shellfish License” in the search bar.
Click “Add” to add it to your cart. Then go to your cart to purchase.
When done, the license will be added to your, “Recreational Portfolio” for 2024. It is good until December 31 of the year you buy it.
Print out or save a pdf copy to your computer.
On your phone go to your APP Store and search for “MyODFW”. Add it to your phone apps. Load in your user name and password and it will display your license. Then if you are ever stopped by the coastal authorities you can just pull up the app.
If you have trouble understanding the process, the licensing office number is: 503-947-6101
For more information:
Call the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife at 800-720-6339 or 503-947-6000.
General Clamming Information: Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife
Shellfish Regulations & Limits: Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife
Enrollment Limited! – Advanced registration reserves you a place in the Rendezvous.
Full Registration: $415 (in US dollars) for the full 4 day event. If you want to support our work you can always pay the full amount regardless of available discounts. If discounts are valuable to you, register before the following dates.
*These early registration discounts require that you pay in full (received in our office) by these cut off dates.
**Children through and including the age of 17 must be under the supervision and responsibility of a parent or guardian at all times. No more than 2 children per adult attendee. The Pacific Shores Rendezvous, Dr. Kallas, Wild Food Adventures, and anyone associated with them are not, and cannot be responsible for children. There are no child care facilities. That being said, children will find a friendly and inclusive environment.
Previous attendees of this event get an additional $60 discount off any of the cut-off dates above. The following adults (18+) get a $30 discount off any of the cut-off dates above: Full time college students, persons identifying as indigenous, adult family members that register together and the involuntarily unemployed. You cannot combine discounts.
There are no discounts for partial attendance. One or two day (Saturday + Sunday) attendees pay full price based on registration dates listed above. Due to the progressive/building nature of the planned learning process, it is recommended to attend the full Rendezvous if you possibly can.
Our basecamp is at the ColonyHouse Lodge, 882 N Miller St, Rockaway, OR 97136. Here is a map to the site. Camping on the grounds or staying in your vehicle is included in your registration. Those wishing to stay in the lodge pay an additional fee. Beds and rooms are limited and assigned on a first come first serve basis, combined with relative need. The lodge offers a few basic rooms with two beds and small desks. Sharing a room is also possible.
Lodge beds come only with bare mattresses, so sleeping bags and/or sheets, blankets, and pillows must be brought by participants. There are no private baths. We are all responsible for cleaning the rooms we use before we leave – there is no room service or staff.
Here are the costs to stay in the lodge for the full event:
Private Room for 3 nights: 2 beds = $180 (add $40 for each person more than the 1st 2)
E-mail us for inquiries.
There is no charge if you cancel before we’ve had the time to process your registration. If that is the case, upon your approval, your check will be destroyed and you will have paid nothing. If your registration has been processed, the following schedule is done for an adult registration. This schedule is designed with the following in mind. That the closer to the event, the more up-front investments we make for each participant.
If there is a group registration, the above amounts apply to just one of the group’s registrants, adding $5 per additional registrant to process the withdrawls.
Registration
Download the REGISTRATION/WAIVER Forms. Print and fill out necessary forms and mail them with payment to John Kallas.
Note: Due to the nature of these workshops in natural habitats that are out of our control, we cannot accommodate certain special needs.
Due to warming oceans, red tides have become more frequent. For the first time in 30 years (so it is rare) the whole coast was closed for about a month in 2024 to any clamming. If a major closure happens during the dates of this event, we would have to cancel it. Any time we have to cancel an event, it is a huge inconvenience to all of us. A cancelled Rendezvous costs Wild Food Adventures four to five thousand dollars in time, advertising, bookkeeping, management, rental fees, and refunds. It could also cost you, even if I refund all your money. If you decide to rent nearby lodging at the coast, incur travel or other expenses, or plan with other people, we can not reimburse you or make up for any change in your plans. If we have to cancel, the only thing you can do is make the best of whatever plans you already made.