50 YEARS OF FORAGING -- an interview with Christopher Nyergesgoogle.com, pub-8623877305223293, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0

 

CHRISTOPHER NYERGES HAS TAUGHT SELF-RELIANCE, SURVIVAL, AND WILD FOOD SINCE JAN. 1974 –       NEARLY 50 YEARS!

Christopher Nyerges:  “After 50 years of teaching, and 27 books later,

 I still enjoy learning new things….”

 

GZ INTERVIEWS CHRISTOPHER NYERGES, web site: www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com

 

GZ:  How do people find out about your classes?

CN:  Various ways ,such as word-of-mouth, the web-site, news articles.  I often just get random phone calls such as the guy who asked me to teach him and his family how to be self-reliant.

GZ:  What did you tell him?

CN:  With such a question,  I asked him what the term ‘self-reliance’ means to him.   He wasn’t all that sure, so it led to a conversation to find out what he already know, and to find out  his life situation.  I wanted to know what skills he already had, and more importantly, what deficits he believed he had.

GZ:  So what did you end up advising him?

CN:  In this case, he took a few private Wild Plant walks with me, and a few classes on storing and purifying water.  That satisfied his need to learn more self-reliant skills and I still see him.

GZ:  You must get odd requests sometimes too, right?

CN: Right.  A man called me  who wanted to take my wild food classes, and cut his food bill in half because he had a big family. That was his main concern, saving money.  I told him that Botany is a science and that it takes time and that there are many benefits. However, if his primary motivation was to save money, I felt he’d be disappointed by studying wild foods. I mean, it’s about so much more than saving money.  So I advised him to join a food co-op, begin using coupons, go to the 99 cent store, get an EBT card from the government, and things like that.  I don’t think he thought much of what I was telling him, and I never heard from him again.

GZ:  So you’ve been doing this a long time.  Much longer than anyone out there.  How did  you get into this field as a teacher and writer?

CN:  In the 1970s, when barely in high school, I became alarmed by studying the world situation, and realized that there were threats to my survival around every corner.  I realized that in order to eat, I should study botany, ethnobotany, and mycology, which I did intensively.  I began studying the works of Euell Gibbons and Bradford Angier, and I joined the L.A. Mycological Association. I was in it for the long haul.  I also became familiar with Larry Dean Olsen, who was the foremost teacher of primitive and indigenous living skills. 

GZ:  I know Euell Gibbons – the author of “Stalking the Wild Asparagus.”  But who is Larry Dean Olsen?

CN: Olsen taught primitive skills – skills that the indigenous peoples used – at Brigham Young University in the 1960s, and he is largely responsible for the primitive skills interest we have today. His very popular book was “Outdoor Survival Skills.”  He passed away just a few years ago.

GZ:  I see.  Many of our younger readers may have never heard of them.

CN:  Right, that was before the days of the internet and cell phones.  And so back then, I had to learn by all the old school methods.  I made a point of going to every lecture that I could in order to learn about the plants and skills that I thought would save my life one day. In high school and college, I took courses in botany, ethno-botany, field biology, geology, astronomy – all the sciences that I thought would help me.

By 1974, Mr. R.E.White, who founded the non profit WTI, and sponsored the first Wild Food Outing that I led in January of 1974. Within a year,  I met Euell Gibbons, and I started a serious ethnobotanical study with Dr. Leonid Enari of the L.A. County Arboretum.   I regarded the pursuit of “self-reliance” as a serious life study, and I am indebted to the various high-quality individuals along the way who assisted me in my journey.

I wrote my first book and it was published in 1978, “Guide to Wild Foods,” with the help of R.E. White and Dr.Enari.  The book is still in print, now in color, and I still suggest that those seeking to learn about self-reliance read that book.

GZ:  1978!  Wow.  And is that book still in print?

CN:  Yes, still in print, many version later, and now all in color.

Along the way, I have continued to teach in field trips, in the classroom, and various lectures and workshops.  We have figured that we’ve seen up to 50,000 students in the last 50 years!  A lot of the up and coming naturalists have participated in our classes, and we’ve been written up in magazines and books, such as in Neil Strauss’ “Emergency” book.    Besides my first book, I’ve produced over two dozen related books, on wild foods, wilderness survival, and urban self-reliance.   

GZ:  Yes, I noticed that you have many books available on Amazon.  You must be busy all the time.

CN:  (Laughs).  So, today, when someone wants to learn about “self-reliance,” I usually tell them to read my “Extreme-Simplicity: Homesteading in the City” book, where I detail what my wife and I did for 20 years in our attempt to live a more self-reliant life in Los Angeles.  The book discusses raising animals, using solar electricity, gardening, collecting rainwater and so much more.   The sequel book was “Self-Sufficient Home” which I also highly recommend.

Along the way, I have also written eight Foraging Guides by Falcon Books, the most relevant here would be “Foraging California” and “Nuts and Berries of California.”  All these are fully illustrated with color photos. I also more recently wrote “Urban Survival Guide” which is my most current thinking about how cities should be built, how homes should be built, and h ow we all should be living.  This book includes an extensive section on Health and Economics, topics not normally found in “survival” books. 

GZ:  Yes, I have the Urban Survival Guide book.

CN:  So, after 50 years of teaching, and 27 books later, I still enjoy learning new things, and sharing those practical skills with those close to me.  And though the threats today to our very existence are still there, and greater, I no longer pursue this path based on fears.  It’s very exciting and fulfilling to live better with less, to realize that each of us holds at least some of the keys to our survival, depending on  how we think and live. 

I share in my newspaper and magazine articles, and in my books, the ideas and skills that I think everyone would benefit by learning.  In my on-going education and teaching experience.  It’s really been a fulfilling experience, and I’ve met so many great people along the way.

GZ:  Thanks for your time!

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