Foraging in Alaska: Fiddleheads, Fireweed, Spruce Tips, and Alder Leaves
Now that I'm here in Alaska, I need to learn which plants I want to forage during the different times of the year. For this trip, I focused my search on fiddlehead ferns, fireweed, spruce tips, and alder leaves. There's plenty of options here--both in terms of...
Wandering in Alaska: Road Trip, Camping, and a Little Foraging
This was one of those days where I didn't have a plan, but needed to get outside...so I did. What I thought would be a short drive turned into a long one as there seemed to be something new and interesting around ever turn in the road. I ended the day with some simple...
River Valley Hike and Some Bow Drill Practice
In this Adventure Ryan video, I spend the day hiking a river valley and getting in some practice with the bow drill. Alaska is finally starting to thaw out a little (this was filmed in early May), and while there is still snow in the higher elevations, places like...
Foraging and Brewing Spruce Needle Tea in Alaska
It's been cold lately here in Alaska, and the frost been forming in layers over everything as the night days get shorter, but it's always feels good to get out and spend some time in the light. In this video, I set out to explore the quiet frozen landscape a little,...
Desert Foraging: The Kitchen Side of the Process
In my last video, I managed to forage a good variety of edible plants from the desert. In this video, I bring them home to the kitchen and make them into a meal. I'll include some details on the process that I used, but this is far from the only way to prepare these...
Desert Foraging, Dodging Lightning, and Connecting With Nature
Spring in the desert has made foraging for edible plants a lot easier. Sudden lightning storms, however, have a way of slowing the process down. I couldn't have asked for a better day after having been stuck indoors for longer than I like. I had set out with the idea...
Making a Medicinal Plant Salve for Snakebites (Arizona Snakeroot)
This is the process I used to make a medicinal salve for use against snakebites. Last summer, I foraged some Arizona Snakeroot that is one of the main ingredients for this salve (link to that video is below). My primary resource for this project was the book,...
Friction Fire and Soup in the Desert
I built a fire using friction fire, after resolving a couple of issues, and then cooked my soup over the fire. For my recent knife review video for the ESEE JG3, I wanted to get a feel for how the knife performed during basic food prep so I set out on a hike with some...
Purifying Water in a Plant Container (2nd Attempt) and Making and Using Natural Cordage
My last attempt at this didn't work out the way I hoped, but I learned from it and came back for a redo--this time using hot rocks for a quicker boil. I also make and use natural cordage in order to rig up a set of fire tongs.
Primitive Fire: Hand Drill Friction Fire in the Desert
An informative demonstration of making fire by friction using a hand drill. The information here is specific to desert regions as I discuss different materials that can be used and what to look for. Instead of making this video a 1 minute "highlight style" video of...