Earth Week Wild Food Experience with Lanny Kaufer

Join author-forager Lanny Kaufer and his wife Rondia on Sunday, April 23, from 10 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. to continue your Earth Day weekend celebration with an Earth Week Wild Food Experience. The event will begin with a morning foraging walk on the grounds of Euterpe Farms’ outdoor study area overlooking the Ventura River Preserve. After the walk, hands-on food processing activities will take place under an oak tree to prepare a vegetarian community meal. Everyone will have a chance to participate in all activities.

Participants will:

•       learn to identify and forage edible and useful plants of the season

•       make a salad or vegetable dish with wild greens collected on the property

•       process acorns for pancake batter

•       prepare elderflower fritters and acorn pancakes

•       process wild black walnuts to top off the meal

There may be other activities, depending on seasonal foods and supplies available.  Kaufer will have his book, Medicinal Herbs of California, available for sale and signing after the meal along with his entire mobile bookshop.

This event will go on RAIN OR SHINE with the exception of a heavy downpour in the morning and/or a 100% chance of heavy rain that day. No dogs (other than service dogs) and no smoking, please.

Paid registrants will receive a confirmation email with all necessary info, including weather forecasts and parking directions, a few days prior to the event.  They also will receive a follow-up email afterward with a list of all plants identified, recipes, valuable links, and more.

The cost for the workshop, including all materials, is $55 for adults and $25 for children under 18, one child per adult.

For more information and to register, please visit HerbWalks.com or call (805) 646-6281.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS:

Lanny Kaufer

Lanny Kaufer has been leading Herb Walks and Nature Hikes in Ventura, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles Counties since 1976, educating hundreds of people on the local flora with a focus on herbs that can be used for food and medicine. As an herbal educator, Lanny also leads workshops and presentations on the edible and medicinal uses of California plants.

He is the author of Medicinal Herbs of California: A Field Guide to Common Healing Plants(Falcon Guides, 2021). The book is in its third printing and received Honorable Mention for Excellence in Botanical Literature in the popular/consumer category from the American Botanical Council.

Lanny acquired much of his plant knowledge in a field study with well-known herbalists and ethnobotanists, including the late herbalist William LeSassier and the late Chumash plant expert Juanita Centeno. Lanny has co-led workshops, field classes, and expeditions with Ms. Centeno as well as noted experts such as author-forager Christopher Nyerges, author-herbalist Michael Tierra, and Chumash educators Julie Tumamait-Stenslie and Patrick Tumamait.

Lanny is the founder and director of the Ojai Herbal Symposium, returning on November 11-12, 2023. He serves as chief consultant on medicinal plants for the Swimmer Medicinal Garden in Playa Vista.

Rondia Kaufer:

Rondia Kaufer was born in Texas and grew up in Chicago where she became the family cook for a household of seven at an early age. From her mother and grandmothers, she learned the authentic recipes handed down from mother to daughter over generations in the Mississippi Delta. Her food education continued during the summers at her Aunt Emma’s store and diner in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Through her teenage years, Rondia and her family of musicians hosted community barbecues at which she was the head cook and well as guitarist in the family band.

Since retiring from a career as a registered nurse, Rondia became known for her brand of “southern comfort food” at the Ojai Bowlful of Blues and the Ojai Mardi Gras celebrations. Rondia now caters to private dinner parties in Ojai and beyond as well as working with her husband Lanny to present food-related Herb Walks events like her Southern Soul Supper in November 2022.