[water splashes]
JOHN: So, if any of you
think you're gonna be neat and tidy about this,
forget it right now.
You're gonna get wet.
You're gonna get muddy-
PARTICIPANT: And you'd better tie your shoes
a little bit tighter than they were.
[John laughs]
JOHN: Yeah.
REPORTER: When we decided to follow John Kallas around,
for what, to him was a day of grocery shopping,
we weren't sure what to expect.
[water splashes]
JOHN: Embrace the cold.
REPORTER: What we did know
was that John's unique skill is finding food
anywhere and everywhere in nature.
In fact, it's his business.
And on this weekend,
clients happily followed John through mud and muck
so that they too could learn how to find dinner in the wild.
Right in this spot right here,
there's like 30 gaper holes right here.
If you look, every time you see this, they're all over.
[sand thunks]
REPORTER: Let's face it,
no one has to hunt or harvest for their meals anymore.
But, isn't this more fun than grabbing food off the shelf?
JOHN: I wanted to show you the strategy
of digging these guys so that you don't break 'em all.
PARTICIPANT: Yeah. Wow.
Look at the size of that guy.
[participant laughs]
There's something primal about all of us.
You know, we all started out gathering our food
from the wild.
And now we just go to a grocery store and buy everything,
it's just totally available.
But when you're actually gathering from the wild,
it's a totally different experience.
REPORTER: The goal here is to find not just food,
but food worth feasting on.
JOHN: Everything's good with butter and garlic.
Hmm.
This is my first time.
I think it's gonna be a tiring day.
You know, everybody takes showers every day
and they're soaked up and they're clean
and everything's perfect and pretty.
I love getting out there and getting dirty,
getting my hands dirty.
[seagulls caw]
JOHN: Hey, you guys watch out.
The buckets are being attacked over here!
[John laughs]
REPORTER: Despite run-ins with scavengers,
buckets quickly filled with gapers, mahogany clams
and cockles that were destined to be tonight's main course.
The clamming was exceptional,
hours went by like minutes.
The problem was,
we were standing in the middle of Netarts Bay.
JOHN: Okay guys, the tide's coming in.
I think we should head back!
Yeah, it's actually come in quite a bit.
PARTICIPANT: Oh, yeah.
JOHN: Yeah, let's go. Come on!
[water splashes]
REPORTER: As our luck would have it,
the tide had flooded our escape route.
We were soon surrounded by cold rising sea water.
MAN: The county sheriff will be here shortly
to pull you outta there!
JOHN: What?
The county sheriff is gonna be here shortly
to pull us outta here.
That's good to know.
REPORTER: We made our way
to the last remaining island of sand.
John didn't skip a beat
and got right back to raking for clams.
But by the time the sheriff arrived,
the the field guide crew
had begun to think about how this would look
back at the office.
CREW MEMBER: Hey Todd,
are you gonna do any more shoots with me?
TODD: Nope.
PARTICIPANT: This is not deep enough.
TODD: I'm done.
I'm gonna go do Art Beat.
Do I need to start looking for a new job?
[both laugh]
CREW MEMBER: Let's get the camera stuff up there.
CREW MEMBER: What did we learn?
[man laughs]
REPORTER: There's a reason John calls his business
Wild Food Adventures.
But before we had time to dry or dwell on our mishap,
we were off in search of more food.
[door slams]
We've got thimbleberries growing on the side,
they're in flower right now.
Stop as soon as you can, Lady Fern,
at least it looks like from a distance.
These are the mature plants.
And so you're not-
REPORTER: John grew up near urban Detroit,
but he sought out trees and rivers and streams
wherever he could find them.
Clip 'em, and you've got a whole salad in your hand.
REPORTER: That early wanderlust
grew into a quest to learn
about living by nature alone.
This is Japanese knotweed.
With plants like this, you want the young stuff.
There's a lot of romance around the independence
of being able to sustain yourself in the wild.
I kept finding myself more and more oriented
towards plant life because there was so much of it,
it was all over the a place.
Everywhere you went, there were plants.
[traffic hums]
My guess is about 99% of the people drive by
see green everywhere, and that's about it.
You know, it's actually one of the pleasures
I think of learning about nature,
is that you see with a whole different set of eyes.
You know, you see details instead of general things.
[foliage rustles]
Right here, we have Lady Fern.
And this is the one with the fiddleheads.
Well, mostly I just get looks, you know,
like, "What is he doing?"
The biggest looks I get
is when I go to somebody's house
and ask them if I can pick their weeds.
There's like three wild foods right there.
REPORTER: John makes the point
that you don't need to head deep into the wilderness
to find good eating.
Even within Tillamook city limits,
in sight of strip malls and gas stations,
free food is everywhere.
But we're right here next to the asphalt in an urban area,
and here is cow parsnips.
So once you see this guy, you know from here up
is the part you wanna collect.
I was surprised how many things
you just find on the parking strips.
You know, I've thrown chickweed into my salad
along with dandelion greens and mallow.
This is Himalaya blackberry.
The young shoots like this actually have an edible core.
So...
[John munches]
PARTICIPANT: Mm.
REPORTER: With a little training,
the sea of green along the road
starts to look like can all you can eat buffet.
JOHN: Wow. Look at that.
That's a whole field of Lady Fern.
REPORTER: It's hard not to get hungry
looking at food all day, which in our case was fine.
Because after 10 hours of gathering bushels full of weeds,
flowers, and seafood, the real fun began.
[knife thunks]
PARTICIPANT: It's actually looking edible.
[food sizzles]
JOHN: Okay, and this is the sea lettuce.
Glasswort for flavor.
And that was the cow parsnips.
Reward after fighting the surf
and everything all day today.
PARTICIPANT: Oh my goodness.
PARTICIPANT: To die for.
Every step that we're taking is an eyeopener.
You know, it's like, oh, that's how you identify it.
Oh, you know, these are all ahas
that are going on for people.
[waves crash]
REPORTER: One of the reasons
John started Wild Food Adventures
was to spark a sense of wonder in people.
And to let them see nature
as indigenous people have for millennia.
Gathering these days
is more often just a form of recreation,
but with a useful culinary purpose.
JOHN: What we're gonna do is sample this.
PARTICIPANT: Take a piece of that.
The more that you eat these things,
the more you'll be able to distinguish what the flavors are.
And then you can play with the nuances
a little bit while you're cooking.
REPORTER: There are dangers to all this of course.
JOHN: Watch out!
[John laughs]
One man down in a bunch of nettles.
REPORTER: But everyone we met
was raiding the brambles, mud and surf
not just of find a meal, but to have an adventure.
And that's exactly what they got.
[participant laughs]
JOHN: The only reason to do wild foods right now
is not because you need the nutrients,
even though they're highly nutritious,
even though it will expand a variety of your diet,
you should be doing this 'cause it's fun.
[seagull caws]