rewild@theoldway.info
07518 369919
The Wild Practice is a monthly rewilding group that will incorporate the wild into your everyday life and help you regain your natural human fitness through regular participation in hunter-gatherer activities.
A foraging life is deeply satisfying. Each month brings another plant, fish or animal into focus and there is a comfort and deep sense of belonging when that time of year comes around again, palpable excitement at the prospect of each new harvest. The Wild Practice is based around foraging for the abundant, nutrient dense foods in each month.
But life as a forager is not just about food, it’s also about moving in the landscape as we go about the harvesting and processing of nature’s gifts. Nourishment happens on many levels. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors were toned and fit, shaped by their adaptation to the environment and the tasks they engaged in on a regular basis to procure food. Walking, carrying, climbing, stalking, squatting, ground-sitting, moving constantly, in tune with the earth, at ease in body and mind.
Our monthly Wild Practice will open a doorway to wild health.
* Learn to move and eat the way nature intended.
* Safely forage, ID, process, store and cook wild food
* Learn to fish and hunt small game
* Improve your movement and posture through hunter-gatherer activities
* Experience deep connection with the landscape through meaningful engagement
* Learn the art of fire-making and outdoor cooking
* Use wild plants for medicine
* Learn to recognise track and sign
* Explore the role of humans as a keystone species in reciprocal relationship with nature
* Receive ongoing mentoring and peer support in wild food, natural movement and wild living
* Build a local rewilding culture with a community of likeminded folk
* Rewild yourself for optimal health and wellbeing
The 'strong foods' named in the calendar below will guide us to the location for each meetup but the content of each of the days is definitely not limited to that food species only, there will be many abundances to explore within each month and the day will set you up to forage in your own locality over the following weeks. There will be a plant food element every month. Food availablity is reliant on seasonal weather conditions so these Moons are only a guide as to what will actually happen at each meetup.
Who is this for?
The Wild Practice is for anyone who wants to be part of a Devon-based wild human community, whether you're new to foraging and wild living or you've been doing it for a while but would like to rewild with a group of likeminded people on a monthly basis.
It offers an alternative pathway for people whose work schedule or family commitments prevent them from joining our residential Old Way Immersion. It also complements the 4 part Immersion programme and provides an opportunity for previous Old Way participants to continue to deepen their practice.
While foraging we will sometimes be walking for several hours over uneven terrain, climbing, balancing and ground sitting so an adequate level of fitness is required.
We are offering two independent membership groups, one meeting monthly on Saturdays, the other on Sundays.
The Wild Practice calendars 2024/25
Chestnut Moon - October 19th / 20th
Acorn Moon - November 16th / 17th
Squirrel Moon - December 14th / 15th
Deer Moon - January 18th / 19th
Wild Greens Moon - February 15th / 16th
Birch Sap Moon - March 15th / 16th
Seaweed Moon - April 12th / 13th
Pine Pollen Moon - May 10th / 11th
Spider Crab Moon - June 28th / 29th
Bilberry Moon - July 26th / 27th
Mackerel Moon - September 6th / 7th
Mushroom Moon - October 4th / 5th
Timing and locations
Most days will begin at 10.30am and end between 4 and 5pm. Sometimes, depending on tides or season or the nature of our harvest, we may start later and go on into the evening around a campfire.
Foraging peoples have always roamed far to procure their food and we'll be following in their footsteps, visiting a variety of wild locations. We will usually gather on Dartmoor, somewhere between Chagford and Ashburton and sometimes we will meet in the South Hams or South Devon Coast. Most locations won't be accessible by public transport so you will need to arrange your own transport; we highly recommend lift-sharing as parking will often be limited. There will be a WhatsApp group to co-ordinate this and we'll give exact locations and parking details in the week prior to each event.
Pricing
Membership £80 per month payable by standing order (cancel at any time*)
Prices are kept intentionally low with the expectation that members may not be able to attend every month.
In order to retain a place in the group the monthly fee is payable every month regardless of attendance.
*Cancellation of rolling monthly membership subscription requires 6 weeks' notice.
Rejoining the club at a later date having cancelled is subject to a space becoming available.
GUIDES
Emily Fawcett
Emily is a forager, tracker, outdoorswoman and musician with 20 years experience in nature connection mentoring. She has a masters degree in Experimental Archaeology which led to her co-founding The Old Way in 2017 to help people catch a glimpse of our ancient past through practical engagement in hunter-gatherer lifeways. She believes the key to health and happiness lies in remembering and emulating these ancient wild human practices as closely as is possible in the modern world.
Charlie Loram
Charlie’s life and teaching explores how we can move closer to our evolutionary norm in order to support greater well-being and health in the modern world. He draws on over 25 years in parallel careers as both an outdoor guide/bushcraft instructor and an Alexander Technique/natural movement teacher to help you get back in touch with your natural coordination, primal vitality and sense of belonging within the wild. He has also been inexplicably obsessed by fish and fishing since boyhood.
