“It’s a bird that is otherwise pretty hard to find, but if you walk the bike path… you’re almost guaranteed to see some in the late spring and summer,” Brehm says. Being outside has educational and mental health benefits, Brehm says, especially when doing an activity such as birding that doesn’t require much besides patience and concentration. Rural Action is making it a priority to get people outside and learn again after the ongoing pandemic. A festival called Birds in the Hills, which takes place in Hocking County, is a family-friendly weekend learning about the birds in Southeast Ohio. “A deep knowledge about birds can and should lead to questions about other species that the birds rely on,” Brehm says. Birding teaches people about how all of the elements in an ecosystem depend on one another. A person can learn a lot just by stepping outside. One thing is for certain: Birds will make their presence known. Often, the human ear will catch the bird’s song before the eye sees the one behind it. ABOVE | Two Robins cross territory in-flight
Free Range Foraging ‘the fat of the land’ Story by HALLE DRAY | Photos by CARRIE LEGG & PROVIDED
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olk artist and business owner Talcon Quinn is about as resourceful as resourceful gets. As an eighth-generation Athenian, foraging and wildcrafting using traditional techniques, objects and living beings from her environment has been a lifelong sacred practice. Whether it’s selecting weeds and roots for wellness tinctures or utilizing junk wire and deer bones for jewelry, Quinn is creative with how she celebrates the land. “The fact that I’m Appalachian is a huge piece to my business. I really like expressing my roots in my heritage through my work. And as well as that, my larger spiritual belief, which is that we are interconnected with the world, and our community is not just humans and what humans make but also the plants, the rocks, the animals, everything that is on this planet,” Quinn says. Within the Appalachian wilderness lives a lush and unique cornucopia of edible plants and fungi, which people have reaped the benefits of for generations. Foraging has stood the test of time and remains a highly cherished way of sourcing food in Southeast Ohio. Quinn grew up knowing her Appalachian grandmother and great grandmother, who both passed down the tradition of using local plants and fungi as food and
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ABOVE | Morel mushrooms found foraging. medicine. Quinn’s expertise also comes from her studies at Columbines School of Botanical Studies and Hocking College, among other local classes she’s taken. She now pays it ward by teaching her own wildcrafting classes and mentoring people who want to live off the land. Quinn believes foraging is an act of stewardship and that in order to celebrate nature, we must respect it. “I think it is a good trend. There’s things to be aware of. Harvesting is a huge issue … Most people didn’t grow up knowing their great grandmother, didn’t have an elder who was like, ‘Go out and pick this for me,’” Quinn says. Ramps, or scallion-like plants, are particularly sensitive to reaping. Quinn says a good rule of thumb is
