John Kallas

John Kallas is one of the foremost authorities on edible wild plants and other foragables. The plants covered in Volumes 1 & 2 of this Wild Food Adventure series are those native to North America or naturalized from European origins. Volume 1 of his book series, Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods From Dirt to Plate, and Volume 2, Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods from Foraging to Feasting, focus on important, abundant wild plants found widespread across North America and Europe. John learned about wild foods through formal academic training and over 35 years of hands-on field research. In 1975 John did a six-month vagabonding trip through Europe. He planned to supplement his diet with wild foods, hoping to save some money during his travels. In preparation, he took college courses in wilderness survival, nutrition, and edible wild plants. John spent his time in the European countryside, traveling on old back roads and through small villages where tourists did not travel. In these areas, people were still practicing traditional foodways and daily foraging. In the process of traveling, he met locals who invited him over for dinner or to stay with them a few days. John routinely asked the food preparers if they knew of and used any wild foods. They almost always did and gladly showed him what they knew. After studying in this way for months, John was getting all of his vegetables from wild plants. John has a doctorate in nutrition, a master's in education, and degrees in biology and zoology. He's a trained botanist, nature photographer, writer, researcher, and teacher. He's taught thousands of people about wild foods, given hundreds of wild food presentations to a wide variety of groups, assembled a comprehensive wild food library, and documented hundreds of wild foods in photographs and notes. Between newsletters, magazines, academic periodicals, and the Internet, John has published over 100 articles on edible wild plants. In 1993, he founded the Institute for the Study of Edible Wild Plants and Other Foragables along with its educational branch, Wild Food Adventures. That outdoor school is based in Portland, Oregon, USA, where he offers regional workshops, and multi-day intensives on wild foods. John travels the rest of North America conducting field research, training special groups and organizations, and speaks at conferences and universities. Dr. Kallas' books are designed to provide readers with in-depth practical information they cannot get anywhere else. Books in the series are designed to be substantial in content, authoritative, easy to use, cleverly written, and fun to read. Rich with photographs, they will give the reader the tools to be successful early and often at identifying, gathering, and dining on the plants covered.