We connect people with plants, local landscapes, and cultural traditions.
Wild edible foods and healing herbs thrive all around us in yards, forests, fields, and back alleys. Many common “weeds” are nutritionally superior to store-bought foods. Learning about wild plants also helps us to attune to the seasons and connects us with the land.
During GRuB’s 20 years in building just and sustainable food systems, the value of revitalizing wild edible and medicinal plant knowledge has emerged as a priority. We have partnered with Native educators, Elders, cultural experts, and plant specialists in developing educational tools that are place-based, promote respect for the land, and increase understanding of tribal history, traditions, and food sovereignty.
Our educational toolkits, including Tend, Gather and Grow and Plant Teachings for Growing Social Emotional Skills, help people to access nutritious wild foods and medicines; create opportunities for students to experience hands-on, place-based, multimedia, and culturally relevant activities; promote the development of sensory observation, storytelling and documentation as a means for self-expression and social change; and build a sense of cultural pride among children and youth, and a greater understanding of Indigenous people and connection to local landscapes among non-native students.
We partner with the Native Plants and Foods Institute to offer seasonal teacher trainings that give educators hands-on support in adopting and adapting the resources to their teaching environment. We also offer community workshops on plants at GRuB. Check our events page for upcoming opportunities.
Stewarding Models of Ecosystem Gardens
We give thanks to Salish tribes who, for thousands of years, have stewarded this land, practicing management techniques, including: burning and weeding camas prairies and mountain huckleberry meadows, building clam gardens on saltwater beaches, enhancing wetlands habitats, and harvesting sustainably so that plant and animal communities can continue to thrive. These practices create an abundance and diversity of foods, medicines, and other culturally significant plants. European colonization and modern agricultural practices have greatly diminished native plants, and we give thanks to tribal communities that are leading the way in land preservation and restoration.
As part of GRuB’s three-acre farm, we have preserved and enhanced a half-acre green belt, including a demonstration food forest, a micro-camas prairie, and a wild berry garden. We also have medicinal herb gardens. Hundreds of students and community members visit our site annually and engage with the many species living there. Deer and rabbits frequent the trail, and explorers may find long-toed newts and frogs in the seasonal stream. Many species of birds—from osprey to pileated woodpeckers to songbirds—are often heard and seen. Pollinators, including hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees, visit native flowers in spring through early autumn. This living classroom is a place for people to connect with and learn from nature.
Plant Teachings for Growing Social-Emotional Skills
Plant Teachings is a toolkit on how plants can lead us in being healthy and resilient. It includes a book, plant teaching cards, movement videos, coloring pages, posters, and an activity guide, and is especially useful for mental health workers, educators, and community members who are exploring behavioral health skills that are rooted in the land and Coast Salish culture. Access the toolkit on the Native Plants and Foods Curriculum Portal. You can order the Plant Teachings book and cards from our online store. For bulk orders and other curriculum materials, visit Chatwin Books.
Tend, Gather, Grow Curriculum
Tend, Gather and Grow (Tend) is a K-12 curriculum that focuses on native and naturalized plants of the Pacific Northwest region. Through hands-on activities, students explore themes in wild food traditions, herbal medicine, plant technologies, cultural ecosystems, and tree communities. Northwest Native American plant knowledge and stories are woven throughout the curriculum. Learn more here.
Cedar Box Experience
This interactive and educational website offers an immersive journey into Pacific Northwest plants, foods, cultural ecosystems, and Coast Salish foodways. Learn through stories, art, photos, videos, and games, and explore the sounds found in cultural ecosystems. The project was a collaborative effort between GRuB’s Wild Foods and Medicines Program, Feed Seven Generations, Tahoma Peak Solutions, and the Swinomish Community Environmental Health Program. The Cedar Box Experience is intended to ignite people's curiosity and inspire connection with the land, seasonal cycles, and cultural traditions.
Other Resources
See our free resource page for a list of some of our favorite books on wild foods and herbal medicine, a youth empowerment toolkit, herbal medicine resources, and more!
