Class Itinerary:
Wild Chef Charlie Borrowman is a graduate of the French Culinary School and has been with Wolf Camp and the Wolf College since 2005. He hails from Alameda, CA and currently resides in Seattle. Join us for this, our new class which arises from some of the meals Charlie prepares all summer during our camps and expeditions.
10 Minutes on Gear: Recommended camp stoves, pots, utensils, knives, etc. Class instructors Kim & Chris Chisholm along with Wolf College wilderness chef Charlie Borrowman will compare brands and share their experiences using them in the field.
10 Minutes on Stoves & Fires: Using camp stoves vs. open fire cooking. We will demonstrate the use of various camp stoves, as well as how to cook over open fires, depending on the limitations of our class location.
10 Minutes on MRE’s & Freeze-Dried Meals: Kim & Chris will bring along a Meal Ready To Eat of military fame, discuss caveats you need to be aware of if you use them, then prepare and share it with you. We will also bring along some of the popular ready-meals sold in outdoor stores, and cook one up, showing pitfalls you want to know. Charlie will also recommend ways to improve their taste.
15 Minutes on Recommended Ingredients: Putting together your own light-weight ingredients for meals. Charlie will discuss many great lightweight breakfast, lunch and dinner options to help you look beyond freeze dried cuisine. We’ll help you learn to prepare a full and satisfying meal. Youth classes will spend half of this time making oatmeal or other breakfast grain, adding their own favorite ingredients.
15 Minutes on Spices: Recommended flavor-enhancers for affordability, weight, and health. Charlie will show you a variety of inexpensive and easy to pack ingredients to add some WOW to your wilderness dinners. He’ll start with how to make your own Italian spice mix, then French, then Mexican, the Cajun, then Asian fusion. Youth classes will spend half of this time making their own spice mix from one of the aforementioned world cuisine traditions.
15 Minutes for a Gourmet Backcountry Dish: Making a quick meal using cous-cous, orzo and other pasta. Charlie will show you his best quick meal for backcountry camping.
15 Minutes for a Collaborative Class Dish: Making a gourmet dish with student-selected choice of ingredients. Now it’s your turn to help Charlie create one of his classic improvised backcountry dishes! Youth classes will spend this time learning to use certain cookware safely, depending on age. Adults can cut and dice with our recommended backcountry knives, and choose one or more of our various cookstoves for their meal.
15 Minutes for a Wild Edible Foods Intro: Primer on backcountry wild edible foods. Chris & Kim will share the Top Wild Edible Foods for our area so that you don’t have to waste time learning unnecessary plants.
15 Minutes for a Wild Edible Dish: Making a dish using wild edible foods. Charlie will demonstrate how to fry up a tasty dish using insects and plants you may encounter on your adventures.
After Class – Feedback & Planning: Please join Chris & Kim after class to review experiences, browse resources, discuss feedback, and brainstorm ideas for the future. Email or Call us at any time with any questions and requests.
PLEASE BRING TO CLASS:
– Hats, warm clothes, proper footwear, and rain gear if necessary for the outdoor portion of class.
– Any of your favorite cooking or plant books. Wild Edible Plant books we recommend and will have for sale at class include:
1. Botany in a Day by Thomas J. Elpel for general learning.
2. Lone Pine Plant Guides such as Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast by Pojar & MacKinnon for itentifying wild plants in the field.
3. Edible Wild Plants by John Kallas for using urban greens.
To get a jump-start on the skills we cover in this class click here for an example blog post on the subject and to practice these skills in depth, check out our summer kids camps, our overnight youth camps and adult expeditions on ethnobotany and backcountry travel.
Other Class Topics During the Academic Year:
• January: Wilderness Survival Skills including Bow Drill Fire Demo
• February: Natural Navigation, Map & Compass, Lostproofing, & Orienteering
• March: Local Wild Edible Plants & Backcountry Herbal Medicine
• April: Safety, Tracks & Bird Alarms in Cougar, Wolf & Bear Country
• May: Backcountry Gourmet Camp Cooking Class
• June: Special Week of Classes at the Wolf Campus in Puyallup
• October: Climate Change Training – Lifestyle, Debates, Emergencies & Carbon Sequestration
• November: Backcountry Crafts – Making Rope, Berry Collecting Baskets, Sleeping Bag Mats & More