2023 Great Lakes Foragers Gathering

Join us for the 10th Anniversary Event!

Thursday, June 8, 4:00pm – Sunday, June 11, 2:00pm at Frog Holler Farm in the Irish Hills region of Southern Michigan. Come spend the weekend enjoying great food, meeting new friends, and learning about foraging and traditional skills.

Register here.

The Great Lakes Foragers Gathering is the largest annual gathering of wild food enthusiasts in the Great Lakes region. You can look forward to a variety of classes and workshops covering foraging, cooking with wild foods, and other traditional skills. Plus you will have the opportunity to sample amazing wild food dishes at every meal. And, of course, we will continue our tradition of creating great memories, making new friends, and building a strong community.

Classes will be taught by herbalists, naturalists, ecologists, wild foodies, lifestyle foragers, hunters, trappers, bushcrafters, and wildcrafters from around the Great Lakes region. There will be edible and medicinal plant and mushroom walks, and classes on a wide range of topics including cooking with wild foods, herbal medicine, plant and mushrooms ID, sustainability, ecology, wilderness skills, bushcraft skills, and much more. And there will be classes devoted to kids and family activities. But this event is much more than just walks and classes. This is a community. So we will also have group foraging, a potluck, a scavenger hunt, multiple cooking contests, open mic, weekend long projects to participate in, and space for participants to vend and shop each other’s wares. We encourage everyone to participate in any or all of these activities.

Check out #greatlakesforagersgathering to see some posts from previous events

Register here.

Weekend Pass: All event activities and meals, plus a place to hang a hammock, pitch a tent, or park your camper,

• Individual (14 and over): $250
• Couple (2 individiuals sharing a camp spot): $450
• Kids ages 4-13 (kids under 4 are free): $125
• Family (2 individuals plus kids): $575

Day Pass- 8am until dusk Friday/Saturday, includes group meals, $100 per day per person (over age 4).

Potluck and Keynote: 4pm Thursday until dusk, $50

Food: We use wild ingredients in every meal, giving you the opportunity to sample several different foods throughout the weekend. Thursday evening we have a Potluck, along with our Wild Foods Cooking Contests. Since wild foods caterers are rare (understatement of the year) we don’t have anyone to cook for us the rest of the weekend. Instead, participants all take a shift in the kitchen and we prep the meals in groups. Since we use wild ingredients in nearly every dish, this is an excellent opportunity to learn to work with wild foods. Don’t worry, you will be supervised by experienced cooks. We forage all year long, gathering and preserving foods for the event. We also do a Group Forage to collect seasonal fresh foods. And much of our additional produce comes from local farms.

Camping: The field can accommodate just about anything, even the biggest, fanciest glampers. Or, if you prefer, you can sleep on the grass by the campfire under the open sky. Or anything in between. Most people opt for a tent or a hammock. Note: This is not a campground, it’s a farm field. It will be fairly primitive. We will have a place for charging phones, port-a johns, and a place to fill water bottles. There is only 1 shower on site, so bring your swimsuit for the pond. There is also no electricity or dump station for RVs. If you must use a generator at night we ask you to use the far end of the field, where the sound will not bother other campers.

Watch this page for updates and additional info!