Free Wilderness Skills Lecture

D

DWK2

Joined
Nov 3, 2003
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Chris Nyerges (www.christophernyerges.com) will be speaking on wilderness survival and wild foods at the Adventurers' Club, Los Angeles (www.adventurersclub.org), on Thursday, April 16 at 8 PM. Chris' talk is free but you need to be on the invite list. Feel free to send me a message if you would like to attend. The Club is a fraternal organization so I can invite only male guests (sorry---I'd like to invite everyone).

DancesWithKnives
 
Ever consider doing this on the web? I live in Minnesota but would love to learn!
 
The Adventurers' Club Program Chairman knows Chris so I'll ask him whether this would be possible.

DancesWithKnives
 
For those in the LA area, if you arrive early it's possible to eat dinner at the Club and chat with Chris one-on-one.

DancesWithKnives
 
If someone can't arrive early, there's a question & answer session after the presentation so we have a chance to interact with the speaker. Usually also some free cake and coffee at that time.

DancesWithKnives
 
Did I mention that the Club has a bar that opens at 6PM?

DancesWithKnives
 
Did I mention that I'll be at the bar by 5PM---and I have a key?

DancesWithKnives
 
I just wanted to bump this for Christopher. For anyone living or visitng L.A. his classes are well worth the time and minimal cost. I had the pleasure of camping with Christopher for a week last summer and took my nephew to attended his firemaking class in Feb. We had a great time. At his class we made a huge salad out of wild plants and made fires many different ways. Christopher has amazing knowledge of wild plants and is just a super nice guy. He is also the editor of Wildernessway Magazine as well as the author of several books. If anyone is in the area I think they would be happy they attended.

Christopher and the Dirtime crew have a internet radio show on Sat. morning. Ill post the link when I find it.

http://www.wwmag.net/about.htm

http://dirttime.com/

Matt
 
Thanks Oakietree!

Getting around in LA near dinner hour is pretty rough so I'm not surprised there aren't many takers. I believe the Club will make a video record of Chris' talk so we may be able to ask his permission for sharing.

I've got a bunch of business on that side of town so I'll be leaving in an hour or so. I'm looking forward to it!:D

DancesWithKnives
 
I just got back from a lecture by Chris (www.christophernyerges.com) at the Adventurers' Club, Los Angeles (www.adventurersclub.org) and was truly impressed with the breadth of his knowledge. Chris spoke primarily about edible wild plants. Although he provided far too much information to summarize here, I'll ask about making the video of his presentation available. In addition, his classes seem extremely reasonably priced if you're anywhere near SoCal.

I noted a couple items of interest to post:

(1) Chris warned about eating anything around SoCal that looks like parsley or carrot tops. He found a huge patch of hemlock nearby that looked just like those other plants. He said it would kill you in about an hour.

(2) Chris cautioned that if you dig up a bulb that looks like an onion, don't use it with food unless it also smells like an onion. He indicated that there are a number of onion-looking bulbs that can be pretty bad for you.

(3) Chris said that he has been ingesting poison oak for about 25 years and no longer gets a rash when exposed to it. He didn't give the details of how he consumed it and I would certainly not even think about trying it unless you talk to him, do your own research, consult your physician, etc. However, I was interested to hear this from an acknowledged expert.

Lastly, someone in the audience (ahem...) asked the question: "What is your favorite wilderness/bushcraft knife." There was a list of followup questions about steel, grind type, secondary bevels, handle shape/material, sheath, etc., etc. The answer was: Cold Steel Bushman. OK, so it wasn't a very exciting answer to knife aficionados (so much for the followup questions), but it's certainly an economical, durable, no-nonsense blade.

I thoroughly enjoyed hearing Chris and would encourage anyone interested in his areas of expertise to check out his printed materials and/or classes.

DancesWithKnives

[Edit: Well, I blew that. Meant to post this as a separate thread so people would see it. Maybe I'll just have to re-type it since I'm too inept with a computer to do anything else.]
 
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Hey DWK2, I opened this thread to support it - I didn't realize it was after the fact.

If I had the chance to go and hear Christopher, I'd be there 'with bells on'. The people that had the opportunity to go and didn't, made a very poor choice, indeed.

I commend you on your efforts to do a good thing for your local forum brothers. Too bad they didn't take advantage of it.

Cheers,

Doc
 
Doc,

I appreciate your kind words. I had to fight mind-numbing traffic for an hour to get there---and I went well before rush hour. LA is such a miserable place to get around, I can understand why folks may not have felt like doing the combat driving.

It was pretty entertaining to see Chris spread out a few bushels of foliage over a couple tables at the Club, then explain each and pass them around for those who might want a taste. He also passed around some eucalyptus leaves with small larvae on them that the Aborigines favored for their sweetness.

Tomorrow I'll try to figure out how to make my post-lecture summary into a separate post so a few more people read the tidbits.

Thanks,

DancesWithKnives
 
Really wish I could make this. Christopher is such a knowledgeable guy and he's just plain nice too! I've had the pleasure of attending several of his survival courses and use the plant knowledge I learned there on all my hikes.
 
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