Rewild Camp 6.4.11

This morning me and the Rewild Portland staff went out and pulled ivy for basket-making at Rewild Camp. It was great to see so many faces discovering the art of basketry. We also played music and ate great food. Thanks all for coming and having a good time!

Rewilding Lolz #2

Rewild Camp 5.28.11

Rewild Camp today was at the Archery Range. When the weather report said rain, rain, rain, we feared the worst. We were pleasantly surprised by a beautiful and sunny afternoon! The knappin’ pit was hoppin’ per usual. Tony worked on a net bag, Kelila lead a bunch of Chinuk Wawa games, we all shot some arrows, and Garth got a hand-drill coal!

Rewilding Lolz #1

For your enjoyment, every week from now on we will be posting a rewilding lolz on our blog. This first one was created by Willem Larsen. If you’ve got a hilarious rewilding lol you can submit it to info@rewildportland.com.

Rewild Camp 5.21.11

Today Rewild Camp was at Irving Park in Northeast Portland. It was an exciting rewilding camp because Kelila got her very first bow-drill coal! She has been working at it for a while and today it finally happened. So congrats to Kelila for creating fire! We also worked on making cordage from Yucca leaves to eventually move away from the nylon cord on her bow-drill and toward the more natural approach. Kyle played some guitar between carving his own bow-drill set. Thor and Emily came and worked on some flint-knapping. Thor also had a fun hand-drill fire kit that we played with and I ruined (sorry Thor!). Garth showed up and also worked on a hand-drill fire. Seems like fire fluency is building all around. On the docket for the summer Rewild Camps: brain-tanning rabbit skins, deer skins and raccoon skins, more basketry with pine needles, willows and ivy, more bow-making with all kinds of woods, atlatl making, plant walks, etc, etc. Rewild Camp is so much fun!

Rewild Camp 5.14.11

Kelila and I were grateful the rain held off for Rewild Camp today, which was at the archery range. We started off playing some Chinook Wawa, which proved to be more difficult than we expected, with our other speakers MIA. Nevertheless, we were able to play off one another and keep things going. Then we worked on some friction fire building. Our new friend Dallas proved to be a natural, as evidenced by the pictures. Unfortunately, I didn’t have such luck, and only managed to grind out some dust. Next time though! We ended the day shooting arrows- always a favorite.  All in all: good weather, good friends, good food, good times.

 

Rewild Camp 5.7.11

Dandelion Donut Recipe

By popular demand we are posting Rewild Portland’s secret Allergen-Free Dandelion Donuts (also called dandelion fritters) recipe for all to enjoy.

(Wheat Free, Gluten Free, Corn Free, Soy Free, Dairy Free, Sugar Free)

Ingredients:

1 cup Arrowroot Flour

1 cup Water

3 tbs Flax Seed (as egg replacement)

9 tbs Water (for flax seed egg replacement)

3/4 tsp of Aluminum-Free Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Sea Salt

1/2 tsp Powdered Stevia

Olive Oil

Dandelion Flowers

Instructions:

1. Gather dandelion flowers from a place you know has not been chemically sprayed or is too close to a roadside where it will collect metals and other pollutants. Take just the fresh, newly opened flower tops, pinching them off with little or no stem attached. (Be sure to say thank you to the plant)

2. In a large bowl mix together 1 cup arrowroot flour, 3/4 tsp of baking powder, 1/2 tsp sea salt, 1/2 tsp powdered stevia (or sweeten to your liking).

3. Grind up 3 tbs flax seed. Coffee bean grinders work very well for this.

4. In a separate bowl, mix the 3 tbs finely ground flax seed with 9 tbs water. Stir until thick and sticky.

5. Add sticky flax seed mix to arrowroot flour mix and stir.

6. Add one cup of water and stir until it has a nice pancake batter consistency; not too watery but not too thick.

7. Heat up a frying pan with olive oil in it.

8. Dip the dandelion heads into the batter, covering them completely with the batter and then place them in the frying pan.

9. When one side is fried and crispy, flip and cook the other side the same way you would a pancake but a little crispier.

10. Once cooked through, put on a plate to cool and then eat them!

This batter works well for all kinds of other bready-type replacements. I use it in place of pancakes, and even in place of tortillas. Enjoy!

Trip to Oxbow Park

We went on a trip to Oxbow Park yesterday to do some Sign-Language tracking. In the morning we found the tracks of all kinds of creatures, four legged, two-legged, and winged. We saw the tracks of coyote, deer, raccoons, beavers, rabbits, snakes, and a variety of birds. In the afternoon we worked on starting a fire with a bow-drill set pulled from surrounding materials. We ended the day with some challenging and fun sensory awareness exercises involving blindfolds. All in all, it was fantastic to trade the concrete environment of the city for a more natural one- and we could not have asked for better weather!

Rewild Camp 4.30.11

Rewild Camp at the archery range was awesome yesterday-  the dandelion doughnuts might’ve had something to do with it.