Boreal Field School
Boreal Field School is a four-day immersive experience for curious people who love wild places, exceptional food, and learning by doing.
Based at our boreal basecamp, we spend four days learning how to live well in the forest. We explore the landscape through food, fire, camp, and the practical systems that make time outdoors more comfortable, capable, and rewarding.
We forage for wild ingredients, travel through the forest, process firewood, build and manage camp systems, cook over open fire, and turn the flavours of the boreal into meals, drinks, and preserves. Along the way, we learn to pay closer attention to the landscape: what grows here, what burns well, what can be eaten, how water and fire shape a camp, and how small skills accumulate into confidence.
This isn't a survival course, a bushcraft school, or a camping trip where you sit back and watch someone else do the work.
It's about learning to live well in the forest.
Our field schools are built around participation. You'll split wood, tend fires, harvest ingredients, prepare food, work with field tools, contribute to camp, and share meals around the fire. The group is small by design, so everyone has a role and everyone leaves having actually done the work.
We believe that people who know how to live well outdoors are more likely to spend meaningful time outdoors. And the more time we spend in a landscape, the better we become at reading it — as foragers, hunters, anglers, cooks, and stewards of the places that sustain us.
Maximum six participants.
Additional Info.
Boreal Field School is a hands-on, team-based experience. There is no audience seating at basecamp — everyone participates.
You'll be expected to:
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Contribute to cooking, cleaning, firewood, camp setup, and other daily camp tasks
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Take part in field activities, cooking, harvesting, and group discussions
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Work cooperatively and respectfully with the other participants
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Bring curiosity, enthusiasm, and a willingness to learn by doing
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Take responsibility for your own personal gear and camp needs
Prerequisites
You don't need to be an experienced forager, hunter, angler, or bushcrafter. The field school is designed to build confidence through participation.
You should, however:
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Have some previous camping or outdoor experience
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Be comfortable spending several days outdoors in changing autumn weather
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Be able to walk on uneven forest terrain and participate in active days outdoors
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Be comfortable learning to use basic field tools such as knives and axes
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Be comfortable handling and eating wild foods, including plants, fish, and game
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Be curious about food, ecology, and the outdoors
You don't need to arrive knowing how to do these things. You just need to be willing to learn and participate.
Location and Logistics
Location: Boreal forest camp near Whitecourt, Alberta. The final location is determined by seasonal conditions and the best available access to the forest.
Duration: Four days, three nights
Group size: Maximum six participants
Included: Field-school instruction and guiding, communal camp kitchen and gathering space, all meals, wild mixology sessions, guided foraging, field cookery, camp skills, and outdoor learning activities.
You'll provide: Transportation to the site, personal camping and sleep gear, and clothing appropriate for cool and potentially wet autumn conditions.
Detailed packing information and final location details will be provided before the field school.
Itinerary
Boreal Field School has a clear rhythm, but the forest gets a vote. Weather, seasonal abundance, fire, food, and the interests of the group all shape the experience.
The four days are built around four connected systems: fire, food, wild flavour, and camp. You'll participate in each one, building skills as the days progress.
Day 1 – Arrive, Make Camp, Learn the Systems
We begin at our boreal basecamp, settling into camp and getting oriented to the landscape around us.
The first afternoon is about understanding how camp works. We'll explore the systems that make outdoor living comfortable and efficient: choosing and processing firewood, managing fire, organizing tools, hauling and storing water, cooking, and setting up the small workflows that make a camp run smoothly.
We'll also begin exploring the surrounding forest, identifying key boreal species and getting our first taste of the landscape through foraging and wild flavour.
As evening arrives, we'll turn our attention to food and drink: a wild mixology session followed by our first shared meal cooked over the fire. Around the fire, we'll settle into the group, talk about the days ahead, and begin learning to see the forest differently.
Day 2 – The Boreal as Pantry
We head into the forest to learn what is here and how to make use of it.
We'll identify and harvest seasonal plants, berries, mushrooms, and other useful species, paying attention not only to what something is, but where it grows, when it appears, how it should be harvested, and what it can become.
Back at camp, the forest becomes the kitchen.
Participants work in pairs and small groups to process ingredients, prepare food, tend fires, and build meals together. We'll explore ways of extracting, preserving, and concentrating boreal flavours through drinks, syrups, acids, and other preparations.
There will be plenty of cooking, eating, experimenting, and talking around the fire.
Day 3 – Into The Forest
The third day takes us deeper into the boreal landscape and puts the previous days' skills to work.
We'll travel through the forest, reading the terrain and seasonal conditions, looking at the relationships between plants, animals, water, fire, and people.
Depending on the season and conditions, the day may include opportunities to explore wild-game harvest and processing, along with the practical realities of getting food from the landscape to the fire.
Back at camp, the evening becomes a celebration of the day — wild beverages, stories, fire, and a collaborative dinner built from what we've learned and gathered.
Day 4 – Put it All Together
By the final morning, the individual skills begin to connect.
We'll work with the ingredients we've harvested, finish preparations, revisit the camp systems we've been using, and look at how these skills can extend beyond the field school into hunting camps, fishing trips, backcountry travel, and everyday time outdoors.
We'll prepare one final forest-to-table meal together before gathering around the fire to reflect on the four days.
Then we pack up, say our goodbyes, and head home — carrying a little more confidence, a little more competence, and a much better understanding of the forest.
Skills & Knowledge Gained
Reading the Boreal
Learn to recognize important plants, berries, mushrooms, trees, and other useful species, while developing a deeper understanding of the ecosystem they belong to.
Fire & Wood
Learn how to select, process, split, haul, store, and burn wood effectively — and how different fires serve different purposes, from warmth to cooking.
Forest-to-Table Cooking
Prepare hearty meals outdoors using fire, Dutch ovens, simple tools, wild ingredients, and practical field-cooking techniques.
Wild Flavour
Explore the flavours of the boreal through foraged ingredients, drinks, extracts, syrups, acids, and preservation.
Wild Food & Harvest
Explore how food moves from landscape to plate, including responsible harvesting, wild game, field processing, and the practical realities of working with what the forest provides.
Camp Systems
Build practical systems for water, food, tools, shelter, sleep, cooking, and daily camp work — the small things that make a big difference when you're living outdoors.
Working Together
Everyone participates. You'll work in pairs and as a group, take responsibility for real camp tasks, and learn by doing rather than watching.
