About this episode

Brett Barry visits Anna Plattner and Justin Wexler at their forest farm to discuss their educational organization Wild Hudson Valley and its connection to nature and history.

Brett Barry visits Anna Plattner and Justin Wexler at their 95-acre forest farm in Cairo, New York, home base of Wild Hudson Valley — an educational organization dedicated to inspiring learning and building connection through shared experiences in nature, history, and wild foods. Justin and Anna trace the origins of Wild Hudson Valley back to 2013, when Justin, freshly burned out from a master's in teaching at Bard College, found his way back to the woods and a fledgling idea for an environmental education business. A serendipitous encounter at a master naturalist training program brought Anna into the picture, and the two have been growing Wild Hudson Valley together — personally and professionally — ever since. In 2021, they took the leap to pursue it full-time, greatly expanding their offerings to include eco camping, foraging workshops, and the Wild Harvest Box, a monthly subscription of wild-harvested ingredients for adventurous home cooks. The conversation covers a rich range of topics: the history and cultivation of American ginseng (the plant that first brought them together), the ecology of forest farming and why it requires so much more than just planting things and…

People in this episode

Host: Brett Barry

Guests: Anna Plattner, Justin Wexler

Topics covered

• environmental education
• wild foods
• eco camping
• foraging workshops
• forest farming
• ecoliteracy

Keywords

• Wild Hudson Valley
• environmental education
• foraging
• American ginseng
• forest farming
• invasive species
• ecoliteracy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Wild Hudson Valley

Books & works: John Bartram

Places: Cairo, New York

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