Plants often live quite unnoticed around us, especially in the winter months. How can we open up more to plants? In this winter foraging workshop, cook and nature guide Rens Spanjaard will take us into the lives of plants through a number of observation exercises to make contact with plants and their environments—seeing, smelling, tasting, and experiencing the plants ourselves. Everyone will discover different qualities of plants in this process, making the collective walk a rich and instructive way to share knowledge. We’ll be discovering, tasting, and smelling the plants to engage with the hidden lives of plants around us, especially in urban environments and cities. Both edible and medicinal plants will be explored, in an effort to think together about how to sustain ourselves, and our communities, in the face of scarcity.
This walk is part of the community programme for Taking Root Among the Stars, where we want to make visible the possibilities of making connections with speculative literature beyond imagination and theory. By gathering to learn new skills and be in community with one another, we reinforce that the speculative is grounded in gaining tools for the future.
The walk will begin at the pond in Westerpark, near the big oak tree, where we will start our experience with a warm acorn drink together.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/JYVXnZKiscgdMUaE6
*You don’t need to bring anything with you for the workshop. Just be sure to check the weather beforehand and dress appropriately for the weather conditions and the two-hour walk through the park.
Rens Spanjaard is a cook and a nature guide. Rens studies herbal medicine and was the initiator of the food forest in Almere and Amsterdam.
