Celebrate the pleasure of the West Coast’s wilderness (or even your backyard) with forage-to-kitchen cooking, featuring recipes using forgeable foods- from seaweed to mushrooms and everything in between. Maria Finn shows you what to do with the delicious foodstuffs you can dig, snip, or catch anywhere from Alaska to California, putting it all together in homecooked meals. Create beautiful, rustic dishes from the bounty of the coast, forest, and urban spaces up and down the West Coast. Unlock new flavors from the abundance that surrounds us and reimagine your ingredient inspirations. 

Maria will share tips for sustainable foraging, and we’ll make and eat a multicourse meal together.

This event is in partnership with the Mechanics Institute. 

MARIA FINN, a chef, author, journalist, and storyteller, shares her passion for foraging through her company, Flora & Fungi Adventures, and her recently-launched Institute for Ecosystem Based Living, which produces events with science, art, and food. Finn's extensive knowledge and experience, particularly her eight years in the Alaska fishing industry and her innovative approach to foraging, have culminated in a range of immersive workshops and camps across the West Coast. These include morel and seaweed camps in the Sierra and Western Marin, Dungeness crab catching in San Francisco, and wild food weekends in Washington and Alaska. Finn's cookbook, Forage. Gather. Feast. 100+ Recipes from West Coast Forests, Shores and Urban Spaces!, showcases over 100 ways to prepare foraged bounty, reflecting her commitment to integrating wild foods into everyday cuisine. Residing on a houseboat in Sausalito with her own oyster garden, Finn continues to inspire with her hands-on approach to nature's offerings. The theme that runs through them all her endeavors is how nature can teach us to become a keystone species on planet earth. (@maria_finn1)

Sausalito chef shares the fun of foraging in new cookbook – Marin Independent Journal 

20% off class price for Mechanics’ Institute members - see Mechanics’ Institute for discount code.

Photo Credits: Marla Aufmuth