Foraging and Feasting with Bo Brown at Iowisota

Thursday September 10, 4:30 pm. Join author and guest expert Bo Brown for a Fall Foraging Walk at Iowisota, followed by a mostly wild food feast at 6:45. Come enjoy the wild of the Driftless Area!

Programming Cost:  $50/person for the walk and meal. $30 for just the walk or just the meal. Start registration by clicking the RSVP link; The form will allow you to sign up for either the walk or meal, or the whole event. After you submit a registration, we will send you an invoice for payment.  

Location: on-site at “Iowisota”, 2472 IA-26, Lansing, Iowa.

What to expect:  Bo Brown will guide the foraging walk on the trails at Iowisota, showing us a variety of wild foods that we can gather along the way. We will collect some components to supplement our dinner and add those with items previously collected (by Linda Haugen and Bo). Upon return to the Gathering Room and guest kitchen we will learn a bit about preparing wild food, and we will eat! The menu will include a variety of appetizers, main course, dessert, and non-alcoholic beverages. The main dish will consist of venison (from a deer that was tested and confirmed free of CWD) and wild mushroom stroganoff served over wild rice, accompanied by wild greens prepared in different ways. With adequate notice, we can accommodate dietary constraints.  Maximum participation of 15.

Overnight “Bed and Breakfast” stay:  Additional $75/person/per night, or $100/room/night if there are more than one person sharing a room. Lodging taxes will be added.  Thursday night.  Friday Breakfast is included.

·        Stay in one of our 6 guest bedrooms, with all the modern amenities. Most rooms have queen or double beds, two have bunk beds. (See the accommodations tab on the website for information on all the rooms). AS OF 8/12/26, all rooms in the main retreat center are taken, and only the CABIN is available for Thursday night. The cabin has 2 bedrooms and a full bathroom.

About the speaker/guest expert: Bo Brown hails from southern Missouri. He is the author of two Falcon Guides books - Foraging the Ozarks and Foraging Central Grasslands. Bo is founder/director of First Earth Wilderness School LLC. He is heading north in September to be a teacher at the Midwest Wild Harvest Festival on September 11-14, 2026.

Bo’s career as an avian field biologist began in 1985, taking him throughout the U.S. and Belize until he returned in 1992 to start a wilderness school. Over the last three decades, he has led countless courses on foraging, stone-age wilderness survival, including 9 years as a Naturalist for Missouri Department of Conservation.

Bo also conducts weekly foraging walks and stone-age skills demonstrations at Johnny Morris’ Dogwood Canyon Nature Park near Blue Eye, Missouri, presents foraging programs for various area groups and organizations, and offers public speaking at events.

We’re pretty tickled that Bo agreed to venture up to Iowisota in advance of the MWHF to share his foraging expertise with us on September 10^th!

How to sign up and pay: Registration is limited to 15 participants. On-site accommodation is limited. Click the link for registration and then fill out the registration form. This will hold your space. Once you have completed the form, we will email you an invoice that you can pay by check, credit card, or PayPal. If payment has not been received within 2 weeks of invoice, your spot may be released.