Enjoy a refreshing weekend in the Catskills foraging and cooking in connection with the earth and each other.  Arrive Friday night for an introduction to Beecher House, the Catskills, and seasonal eating.  In the mornings we will have the opportunity to quiet our minds in the historic zendo used prior to the building of Dai Bosatsu Monastery.  

Saturday we will be led by Melina Hammer for a day of foraging wild ingredients to go towards a delicious lunch and dinner we will prepare together. Melina's expertise in the kitchen will be shared as we sharpen our cooking awareness.

On Sunday, Dina Falconi will lead us on a foraging journey—a meditative and interactive exploration of the wild plants. We will engage our senses to learn directly from the plants with Dina as our guide. This collective experience will weave a path of discovery with each other and the plants. We will return to make a nourishing lunch with these ingredients.

We will also be applying principles of cooking and eating from the zen perspective to broaden our understanding of connection. You may choose to participate in the full weekend or come for a day of foraging.

Contact Kyotai with any questions: [email protected]

For addition information please visit our websites:
https://thebeecherhouse.org/
https://www.melinahammer.com/
https://www.botanicalartspress.com/


At the foot of the Shawangunk Mountain Ridge in the hamlet of Accord, Melina Hammer welcomes guests from near and far to stay and eat at her home, Catbird Cottage. Her award-winning cookbook, A Year at Catbird Cottage: Recipes for a Nourished Life, melds layers of gardening and foraging with celebration eating, and building humanity at the table. The harvests from her heirloom kitchen garden and wild ingredients from the landscape become stories on the plate: She preserves the bounty via cures and confits, ferments, spirits, jams, salts, and syrups, and laces these into layered dishes that deliver big flavor, celebrating the season. Melina believes everyone should eat well, no matter the occasion.

Dina Falconi is a clinical herbalist with a strong focus on food activism and nutritional healing. An avid gardener, wildcrafter, and permaculturist, Dina has been teaching classes about the use of herbs for food, medicine, and personal care, including wild food foraging and cooking, for more than thirty years. She offers online courses at www.InTheWild.Kitchen. She produces Falcon Formulations natural body care products and Earthly Extracts medicinal tinctures. She is the author of Foraging & Feasting: A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook and Earthly Bodies & Heavenly Hair: Natural and Healthy Personal Care for Everybody.