Cairo, West Virginia. 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 forageables 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, John Tomikel and Doug Elliot, among many others.
Participants offering wild foods they’ve made to other participants at the Saturday Wild Food Feast.
For a 2026 informational brochure complete with printable registration form, go HERE.
Each year park rangers and local wild food enthusiasts help teach and facilitate the weekend. There are usually one to three outside wild food instructors who speak or teach at the event. Dr. Kallas teaches at this event about once every 5 years. He is NOT attending this year. This event is listed here to help spread the word to people who check this web site. Links are provided.
One of the group cabins you can rent with other attendees, or you can stay in the hotel-like lodge while you are there.
North Bend State Park has been the home of Nature Wonder Weekend since the beginning. 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.
While we post the Nature Wonder Weekend here at our Wild Food Adventures web site, you must contact them for information and updates. I believe they have an e-mail list you can get on. Contact the WV Dept of Natural Resources to get details:
Call 304-558-2754 or contact Amy Larch at Amy.J.Larch@wv.gov or Julia Greathouse at Julia.L.Greathouse@wv.gov
For a report on the Wild Food Weekend, go here: