SPRING FORAGING
May
3
to May 5

SPRING FORAGING

This hands-on class is designed for those with an interest in self-sufficiency, human health, and a deeper relationship with plants.

Foraging provides many avenues of connection with nature and fosters a greater appreciation of the many things that local landscapes can provide for us.  It has become increasingly clear through many independent studies that diets rich in wild foods promote health and defend the body from many of the debilitating ailments that plague modern societies (e.g., cancer, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, coronary disease, periodontal disease).

Students should expect to spend much of the weekend outside identifying, collecting, and preparing wild plants for food (so be prepared for weather and uneven terrain).  Class will focus on gathering plant foods and medicines that are appropriate for the season (leaves, shoots, bulbs, rhizomes).  Throughout the class, simple tools will be used and reference will be made to primitive and contemporary methods of processing plants.  As well, wildcrafted medicine and utilitarian plants will be discussed to provide a more holistic understanding of how plants can positively affect our lives.  Wild nutrition is both a link to the past and a gateway to a sustainable future.

This class will be taught by Arthur Haines and will be offered at the Delta Institute of Natural History in Canton, ME (click here if you need directions).  All meals are included for the weekend. They are entirely organic/pastured and wild. Expect omnivorous fare with a balanced mix of plant and animal offerings, some lactofermented vegetables, and raw dairy.

Some locations will be visited off site so please be prepared to carpool short distances from the property.  Bring footwear for uneven ground, and proper clothing for whatever the weather may be on that day. Camping is available on site.

Price is $395.00 and class is limited to 12 students.

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WILDCRAFTING HERBAL MEDICINE
Aug
9
to Aug 11

WILDCRAFTING HERBAL MEDICINE

Coping with and recovering from illness, injury, and debility has always been part of being human.  And for these complaints, plants have served as the major source of medicine.  This class will examine the use of wild plants, fungi, and lichens for healing sickness and injury and supporting the body.

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Spring Foraging Class
Apr
30
to May 2

Spring Foraging Class

  • Thorne Mount Road Canton, ME, 04221 United States (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

This hands-on class is designed for those with an interest in self-sufficiency, human health, and a deeper relationship with plants.

Foraging provides many avenues of connection with nature and fosters a greater appreciation of the many things that local landscapes can provide for us.  It has become increasingly clear through many independent studies that diets rich in wild foods promote health and defend the body from many of the debilitating ailments that plague modern societies (e.g., cancer, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, coronary disease, periodontal disease).

Students should expect to spend much of the weekend outside identifying, collecting, and preparing wild plants for food (so be prepared for weather and uneven terrain).  Class will focus on gathering plant foods and medicines that are appropriate for the season (leaves, shoots, bulbs, rhizomes).  Throughout the class, simple tools will be used and reference will be made to primitive and contemporary methods of processing plants.  As well, wildcrafted medicine and utilitarian plants will be discussed to provide a more holistic understanding of how plants can positively affect our lives.  Wild nutrition is both a link to the past and a gateway to a sustainable future.

This class will be taught by Arthur Haines and will be offered at Wilder Waters Community in Canton, ME (click here if you need directions).  All food will be included and prepared by Nezinscot Organic Farm and Cafe.  Expect local, wild, and/or organic food offerings from the four food kingdoms prepared in a traditional manner (i.e., a Weston Price-inspired menu).

Some locations will be visited off site so please be prepared to carpool short distances from the property.  Bring footwear for uneven ground, and proper clothing for whatever the weather may be on that day. Camping is available on site.

Price is $395.00 and class is limited to 12 students.

Class begins at 6:00 pm on Friday and ends at 12:00 pm on Sunday.

Sign up HERE.

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Wildcrafting Herbal Medicine
Jul
17
to Jul 19

Wildcrafting Herbal Medicine

Coping with and recovering from illness, injury, and debility has always been part of being human.  And for these complaints, plants have served as the major source of medicine.

This class will examine the use of wild plants, fungi, and lichens for healing sickness and injury and supporting the body. Students will learn a suite of species that grow in New England that can be used for many common ailments, such as colds, infections, gastrointestinal upset, headaches, dermatitis, insomnia, etc.  The species discussed on this day will mainly be those that have modern study corroborating indigenous use.  Methods of collecting will be discussed, as well as directions for making various types of medicine (e.g., infusions, decoctions, poultices, tinctures, double extractions).  A double extraction of a wild-collected mushroom (such as chaga, hemlock reishi, or turkeytail) will be prepared during this class and students will leave with this medicine that can be used for bolstering immune system function, as a powerful antioxidant, killing viral pathogens, and fighting cancer.  Throughout the day, stories and examples will be shared demonstrating how plant-based medicines have preserved life and influenced aboriginal and contemporary people.

Healing with plants provides people and families with another avenue of self-sufficiency and furthers connection to the landscape.  The class will be taught by Arthur Haines (who personally uses plants, fungi, and lichens for all medicinal needs).  Class will be offered at Wilder Waters Community in Canton, ME and run from 6:00 pm Friday to approximately 12:00 pm Sunday.  All food will be included and prepared by Chef Frank Giglio.  Expect local, wild, and/or organic food offerings from the four food kingdoms prepared in a traditional manner (i.e., a Weston Price-inspired menu).  Some locations may be visited off site so please be prepared to carpool short distances from the property.  Bring footwear for uneven ground, and proper clothing for whatever the weather may be on that day.  Camping is available on site.

Price is $395.00 and class is limited to 12 students.

Class begins at 6:00 pm on Friday and ends at 12:00 pm on Sunday.

Go HERE to sign up.

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Wilder Waters Community at Common Ground Fair
Sep
21
3:00 PM15:00

Wilder Waters Community at Common Ground Fair

  • 294 Crosby Brook Road Unity, ME (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Arthur will be giving a 60 minute talk titled ‘What's wrong with our conservation paradigm’ at Common Ground Fair at 3:00 PM in the Litchfield Speakers Tent.

Arthur’s talk ‘What’s wrong with our conservation paradigm?'' will address the human need to interact with wild plants to prevent the loss of these plants and concurrently promote human health. To illustrate this, examples of the nutritional superiority of wild plants and their role in protecting from chronic disease will be discussed. Examples of eco-conscientious practices of harvesting and evidence-based herbal medicine will be highlighted.

This will be an extended version of his TEDx Talk.

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Rewild the Androscoggin Monthly Meeting #2
Feb
26
5:00 PM17:00

Rewild the Androscoggin Monthly Meeting #2

THE FEBRUARY MEETING WILL BE POSTPONED DUE TO SNOW AND HIGH WINDS. THE DRIVEWAY AT WILDER WATERS IS IMPASSABLE DUE TO WEATHER. WE WILL POST A NEW DATE WITHIN 48 HOURS.

Rewild The Androscoggin Monthly Meetings are oftentimes potluck style gatherings at Wilder Waters Community in Canton, Maine but sometimes we meet elsewhere.

We will collaborate on ways to be protectors of the Androscoggin River, a waterbody that was once rich with sturgeon and atlantic salmon. Now her waters are so polluted, we don't even eat the fish from the river.

The meetings may take the form of:

Reaching out to the paper mills, the Androscoggin River residents, the former indigenous peoples who resided along the river, NRCM who formerly did work on this topic

Conducting a ceremony on the river to send our praise and grief down the rivers waters

Taking a trip to the point source of pollution

Visiting a foraging site to connect with the life along the river

Taking an activist photograph to send to National Geographic (the paper mill's biggest customer) asking for help with healing the river

Etc.


The activity along with proper meeting place will be announced at the top of this page and on our Facebook page days prior to the meeting.

Please send an email to Sara at Wilder Waters Community with any comments or questions-- wilderwaterscommunity@gmail.com.

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From Tree to Table: Acorns into Food
Feb
25
6:00 PM18:00

From Tree to Table: Acorns into Food

This class is through Region 9 Adult Education in Rumford, ME. To sign up, go here.

The fruit of the oak tree has been used as an important staple by aboriginal people across North America.  Although rarely eaten today, oak trees still produce large numbers of fruits in many years and represent an under-utilized food source.

Given their nutritional profile, low glycemic index value, and ability to be stored for long periods, acorns make a wonderful wild food that can be enjoyed throughout the year.

Further, New England is blessed with a number of oak species that produce large acorns.

This class will introduce students to methods of preparing them for food. Some of the important details concerning acorn collection will also be noted. A freshly made acorn food will be enjoyed at the end of the class.  

$15

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From Tree to Table: Making Pine Bark Tea
Feb
11
6:00 PM18:00

From Tree to Table: Making Pine Bark Tea

This class is off-site in Rumford through Region 9 Adult Education. To sign up, go here.

Looking for a way to help keep yourself healthy this winter? Sipping on homemade pine bark tea might just be the answer!

Eastern white pine contains proanthocyanidins, powerful antioxidants and potentiators of vitamin C (a potentiator helps small amounts of a substance, this case vitamin C, exert the same effect on the body as higher amounts would). The inner bark possess among the highest levels of these polyphenols in the plant kingdom. 

Also, pine bark tea is an anti-diabetic! 

Pine has a plethora of other uses as food, medicine, bandages, cordage, water-tight bark containers, and weaving material among other gifts and we may touch on a few of these additional uses in class.

Please bring a sharp knife and a jar (that you don’t mind having resin on).

$15

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Rewild the Androscoggin Monthly Meeting #1
Jan
28
5:00 PM17:00

Rewild the Androscoggin Monthly Meeting #1

THE JANUARY MEETING WILL BE AT WILDER WATERS, THORNE MT RD, CANTON, ME.

Rewild The Androscoggin Monthly Meetings are oftentimes potluck style gatherings at Wilder Waters Community in Canton, Maine but sometimes we meet elsewhere.

We will collaborate on ways to be protectors of the Androscoggin River, a waterbody that was once rich with sturgeon and atlantic salmon. Now her waters are so polluted, we don't even eat the fish from the river.

The meetings may take the form of:

Reaching out to the paper mills, the Androscoggin River residents, the former indigenous peoples who resided along the river, NRCM who formerly did work on this topic

Conducting a ceremony on the river to send our praise and grief down the rivers waters

Taking a trip to the point source of pollution

Visiting a foraging site to connect with the life along the river

Taking an activist photograph to send to National Geographic (the paper mill's biggest customer) asking for help with healing the river

Etc.


The activity along with proper meeting place will be announced at the top of this page and on our Facebook page days prior to the meeting.

Please send an email to Sara at Wilder Waters Community with any comments or questions-- wilderwaterscommunity@gmail.com.

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Wild Food Thanksgiving & Rewild the Androscoggin Talk
Nov
11
12:00 PM12:00

Wild Food Thanksgiving & Rewild the Androscoggin Talk

Wild Food Thanksgiving

Sunday, November 11th at Wilder Waters Community in Canton, Maine, is the 11th annual Wild Food Thanksgiving. 

We bring dishes that include wild food (the more wild food, the better), including meals, breads, soups, snacks, and deserts. People label their food (location, ingredients, etc.) so folks know what is found in each dish. 

This is an event where we celebrate our relationship to wild food with friends and family and loved ones.

Arthur will also be giving a 45-minute talk on the Androscoggin River to kick off our "Rewild the Androscoggin" Wilder Waters Campaign. 

Children are welcome. 

Need inspiration for your dish? Thank you to Rob Wolfe, here is a list of the dishes from 2016:

1. Tuberous sunflower french fries with autumn-olive ketchup
2. Heart and liver from a deer killed this morning
3. Acorn flour & maple sugar chocolate chip peanut butter cookies
4. Meads (there were many): tart cherry, strawberry rose-hip, wild grape, baslam fir - spruce - cedar
5. Wild rice & wild boar bacon
6. Venison stew with oyster mushrooms
7. Seafood chowder with a broth that was heterogeneously orange-red and milk-white from profligate levels of lobster and heavy cream
8. Autumn-olive kombucha
9. Pickled Maine coast kelp
10. Blueberry crisp
11. Woodstove-baked pollock
12. Buttered scallops

If you’ve never been, you have no idea what your missing out on!

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New Moon Women's Circle
Aug
11
5:00 PM17:00

New Moon Women's Circle

Come to our community for our magical new moon women's circle!

We'll sit around a fire overlooking Thorne Mountain while we sing, craft, & talk about special powers, mama Earth, men, periods, whatever... maybe we'll work on a collective project during each circle... like weaving cattail mats to sit on or planting native flowers around the circle.. who knows

Show up whenever, leave whenever (sleep over if you want, but bring a tent or check in with us and we may have our guest cabin open). Bring your lady friends, some craft projects and delicious snacks if you feel inclined or don't bring a thing but yourself! Wilder Waters will provide the essentials: tea and chocolate.

167 Thorne Mt Road, Canton, Maine

If you show up late, you will find us in the large field (directly in front of where you park your car). Walk into the field and continue walking until you see smoke coming from a fire on your right in the most northwestern part of the field. 


See you here :)

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Recovering Ancestral Skills
Aug
9
to Aug 12

Recovering Ancestral Skills

For over 300,000 years, Homo sapiens has practiced place-based technologies that have allowed them to live as integral parts of their landscapes.  These skills gave humans true sovereignty because they were not dependent on growers, manufacturers, and retailers.  Importantly, these are a set of practices that are documented as being the least impactful manner of interaction with the planet (i.e., primitive technologies are the most sustainable lifeways ever witnessed).  Given that everyone alive today has hunter-gatherer ancestors, the practice of ancestral skills is part of all people's heritage.

Join Arthur Haines for four days of recovering our ancestor's ways of being.  You will be exposed to a broad array of nature-based technologies, including shelter, friction fire, primitive cooking, fiber arts, container manufacture, edible and medicinal plants, tracking, nature observation, trapping, and hunting weapons.  Where possible, students will be approached individually in order to further their skill set (i.e., those who have previous exposure to primitive living skills will be advanced beyond introductory material).  Time will be allotted for discussion of topics central to human rewilding, especially the relevance of ancestral lifeways in today's world.

Students should expect to spend much of the weekend outside, including time roaming the landscape (so be prepared for weather and uneven terrain).  This class will be taught by Arthur Haines and will be offered at the Delta Institute of Natural History in Canton, ME (click here if you need directions).  All food will be included and prepared by Chef Frank Giglio.  Expect local, wild, and/or organic food offerings from the four food kingdoms prepared in a traditional manner (i.e., a Weston Price-inspired menu).

Bring footwear for uneven ground, and proper clothing for whatever the weather may be on that day. Camping is available on site.

Price is $500.00 and class is limited to 12 students.

Class begins at 6:00 pm on Thursday and ends at 12:00 pm on Sunday.

*****This class is full and registrations are no longer being accepted.  To join the waiting list, please use the contact link in the upper right portion of the page.*****

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2018 Dawnland Gathering
Jul
27
to Jul 29

2018 Dawnland Gathering

The Dawnland Gathering will remind people of their ancestral way of being. Our ancestral lineage interacted with their landscape through methods of hunting, gathering, cooking, and a number of other skills. In these daily activities, the people formed deep relationships with the land based on reciprocity rather than extraction. These indigenous ways of living were the most eco-conscientious life-ways ever practiced on our planet, in which the land provided and the people protected the land in which their ancestors resided. We aim to instill these lost connections in our gathering attendees.

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May
15
5:00 PM17:00

New Moon Women's Circle

Come to our community for our magical new moon women's circle!

We'll sit around a fire overlooking Thorne Mountain while we sing, craft, & talk about special powers, mama Earth, men, periods, whatever... maybe we'll work on a collective project during each circle... like weaving cattail mats to sit on or planting native flowers around the circle.. who knows

Show up whenever, leave whenever (sleep over if you want, but bring a tent or check in with us and we may have our guest cabin open). Bring your lady friends, some craft projects and delicious snacks if you feel inclined or don't bring a thing but yourself! Wilder Waters will provide the essentials: tea and chocolate.

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New Moon Women's Circle
Mar
17
6:00 PM18:00

New Moon Women's Circle

  • Thorne Mount Road Canton, ME, 04221 United States (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Come to our community for our magical new moon women's circle!

We'll sit around a fire overlooking Thorne Mountain while we sing, craft, & talk about special powers, mama Earth, men, periods, whatever... maybe we'll work on a collective project during each circle... like weaving cattail mats to sit on or planting native flowers around the circle.. who knows

Show up whenever, leave whenever (sleep over if you want, but bring a tent or check in with us and we may have our guest cabin open). Bring your lady friends, some craft projects and delicious snacks if you feel inclined or don't bring a thing but yourself! Wilder Waters will provide the essentials: mead, tea, and chocolate.

167 Thorne Mt Road, Canton, Maine
See you here :)

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New Moon Women's Circle
Feb
15
6:00 PM18:00

New Moon Women's Circle

  • Thorne Mount Road Canton, ME, 04221 United States (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Come to our community for our magical new moon women's circle!

We'll sit around a fire overlooking Thorne Mountain while we sing, craft, & talk about special powers, mama Earth, men, periods, whatever... maybe we'll work on a collective project during each circle... like weaving cattail mats to sit on or planting native flowers around the circle.. who knows

Show up whenever, leave whenever (sleep over if you want, but bring a tent or check in with us and we may have our guest cabin open). Bring your lady friends, some craft projects and delicious snacks if you feel inclined or don't bring a thing but yourself! Wilder Waters will provide the essentials: mead, tea, and chocolate.

167 Thorne Mt Road, Canton, Maine
See you here :)

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