Forager Training Program
May – July, 2026
Foraging is the act of finding and gathering wild food and medicine – but it is also so much more.
The Horn Farm Center’s Forager Training Program is an invitation to rekindle our age-old relationship with the land beneath our feet – to animate the skills, knowledge, and practices that are a critical part of our sense of place.
Through this work, we can provide ourselves with healthy, free, and reciprocal food and medicine while connecting on a deeper level to the landscape in which we live.
Taking place over 10 Tuesday evenings from May to July, 2026, this immersive course will provide foundational knowledge for those interested in beginning (or deepening) their path towards building a relationship with the land, incorporating wild plants into their everyday life, and gaining the knowledge to confidently share with others. Expect a diverse array of lectures, conversations, general plant walks, hands-on exercises, and the opportunity for plenty of tasting of both raw and prepared wild foods.
Program Overview:
The first session of this course covers foundational knowledge like plant observation and identification, safety, and ethics. With each subsequent class, we’ll hone our observation skills while growing familiar with specific wild plant foods and ecosystems, digging into nuances like harvest, preparation, and historic relationships between plants and people, or ethnobotany.
The program culminates with a wild foods potluck, where each student contributes a dish featuring or inspired by foraged ingredients.
Program Coverage
Core Topics:
- Safety and awareness
- Key ethics and techniques for regenerative harvesting
- Plant observation and identification
- Botany: taxonomy, plant parts, and plant families
- Ecology: bioregional ecosystem types, succession, plant communities
- Gathering food: harvest, preparation, cooking, and preservation
Special Topics (guest instructors)
- Plant sketching and journaling
- Wild mycology and edible / medicinal mushrooms
- Herbalism and plant medicine
What to Bring
- Refillable water cannister
- Light, portable snacks
- Notebook (preferably with lined and unlined pages for both notes and sketches.)
- Foraging and harvesting tools (optional)
- Non-serrated pocket knife
- Scissors
- Gloves
- Bags/baskets
- Clothing suitable for spending time outdoors: hat, closed-toe shoes, layers, etc.
New for 2026:
The 2026 program will include three guest instructors who will enrich our learning with topics like foraging wild mushrooms, bioregional plant medicine, and nature journaling.
We will also explore ecosystems beyond the Horn Farm Center with two field trips to nearby public lands.
Program Schedule:
Classes take place on Tuesdays, May 5th to July 14th, 2025 from 5:30PM to 8PM. There will be no class during the week of June 9th.
- Tuesday, May 5th | Introductions, Observation Practice, Foraging Ethics & Foundations
- Tuesday, May 12th | Guest Instructor (plant journaling)
- Tuesday, May 19th
- Tuesday, May 26th | Field Trip 1
- Tuesday, June 2nd
- Break Week
- Tuesday, June 16th | Guest Instructor (wild mushrooms)
- Tuesday, June 23rd
- Tuesday, June 30th | Guest Instructor (herbalism and plant medicine)
- Tuesday, July 7th | Field Trip 2
- Tuesday, July 14th | Final Harvest & Wild Foods Potluck
*Note: information in this course is cumulative from week to week. We ask that anyone registering for this course plan to attend all or most of the sessions. Classes cannot be joined or audited individually, and discounts are not provided for missed classes.
Make sure to read the Horn Farm Center’s Cancellation and Refund Policy before registering.
Standard Program Cost: TBD
- Limited sliding scale options are available to lower the program cost for eligible participants. See the program registration page for more details (coming soon).
- Customized payment plans can be discussed if breaking down payment supports financial accessibility. Please note that using a payment plan will require a non-refundable downpayment in order to secure a spot in the program. Please email education@hornfarmcenter.org to inquire about payment plans. This option is only provided in cases of financial need.
What To Expect:
- Outdoor learning: Barring severely inclement weather, most classes will take place primarily outdoors. Please check the weather in advance and come prepared for rain, humidity, and other conditions of the season.
- Wild ecosystems: Each class will involve a fair bit of movement across uneven, varied terrain, along with occasional “bushwacking” in wild spaces. Come prepared for muddy conditions and some uphill walking. Closed-toe shoes and long pants are encouraged to safeguard against ticks.
- Punctuality: Plan to arrive ~10 minutes early to each class so the group can get started on time. There is so much to explore during the spring!
- Extracurricular Practice: While this program meets weekly, studying plant identification, ecological knowledge, and foraging is like studying a language. It requires time, repetition, humility, and an ongoing commitment to self-study. We don’t assign official “homework” week to week, but do encourage students to practice what they’ve learned and hone their skills between classes to truly reap the benefits of the training program. Shared resources and supplementary readings are offered for optional engagement throughout the program.
- Fun!: Safe and ethical foraging is a great way to experience joy and fulfillment in community. In short, expect to have a good time with the land and each other!
About the Instructors:
Jonathan Darby
Jonathan is a wild foods enthusiast and educator, avid gardener, former farmer and has served the Horn Farm Center in varying capacities for over 15 years. He currently serves as Land Manager & Educator. Jonathan received his Permaculture Design Certification in 2011 from Susquehanna Permaculture and in 2014 completed his Permaculture Teacher Training through Dynamic Ecological Design. He is married with 2 kids and 3 cats
Andrew Leahy
Andrew is an avid forager and student of wild spaces, interested in rekindling ways of living on the landscape that are place-sourced and mutually nuturing. Moving to the Lower Susquehanna Region from the mountains of Northeastern PA in 2021, he currently serves as the Educational & Outreach Speciaist for the Horn Farm Center. With an academic background in English Literature and Music, Andrew has since embraced ecological learning and lifelong wildcrafting, honing his skills through the Horn Farm’s training programs and the Northern Appalachia School’s Foundations of Bioregional Herbalism program. In addition to the Forager Training Program, he presently teaches monthly and special-topics foraging classes for the Horn Farm.
Guest Educators
Diane Podolsky
Plant Journaling
Pennsylvania artist Diane Podolsky has focused a large part of her art career studying the natural world. Being from Philadelphia, her focus was originally urban ecology but then shifted to agriculture and general conservation concerns upon relocating to North Carolina. Shortly before moving South, Diane completed the Master Gardeners Program through Penn State Extension and worked for a season as a gardener at the historic Glen Foerd Museum. Upon moving to North Carolina, Diane joined Central Carolina Master Naturalists and took a job on a small commercial farm, tending several acres and a large greenhouse, while also volunteering with a local Herbarium. Eventually, Diane was hired at the Herbarium to mount a large collection of plants and also was part of the team that managed the day to day operations of the herbarium. Her main mediums are printmaking, drawing, and artist books. She has exhibited extensively and her work is in public and private collections in the US and abroad.
Sarah LeTourneau
Wild mushrooms
Sarah Le Tourneau is a mushroom huntress, Myco-photographer, citizen scientist and forager. Born and raised in the Green Mountains of Vermont, she went on to attend Global College where she studied in India and Central America. She got her start working in wilderness education in rural New Mexico and continued to work as an educator and family development specialist. She has been a resident of Lancaster county for seven years now and has been immersing herself in the wild spaces around the region since she arrived. Her interests in mycology are rooted both in a love for healthy ecosystems and in human development. She believes that the many uses of fungi offer a more sustainable path into the future. Learn more about Sarah’s photography and education at @forest_apsara
Calyx Liddick
Plant Medicine
Calyx Liddick is a certified clinical herbalist and nutritionist, field botanist, wildcrafter, activist, writer, and mother of two. She was born and raised in the mountains of central Pennsylvania. She sees the human body as an ecological microcosm, and that by reconnecting to the land we can heal the land as well as ourselves. In her practice, she integrates the long, rich history of traditional herbalism with modern, scientifically sound research. Calyx is a graduate of the Colorado School of Clinical Herbalism and is the founding director of the Northern Appalachia School.