Delphanie Colyer and Jeremy St. Onge were not lost in the wilderness for a year, but they certainly ate like they were.
The North Bay area couple just finished a unique journey in 2019 they called, "the Big Wild Year."
Their goal in 2019 was to only eat wild food for 365 days.
St. Onge says it was an interesting but successful challenge.
"On top of living our regular lives and keeping busy with our kids and our jobs and our hobbies we carved out the time to hunt, fish, gather and forage our food - starting in a year in advance - but to feed us through the entire year," said St. Onge.
"One part of the story is all of the hunting, fishing, gathering and cooking all that wild food. No gardens, no groceries, and the other part is all the things that we gave up to do that year. No caffeine, no gluten, no dairy, no alcohol and that was the other half of the story really."
Aside from wild mushrooms and berries, their Big Wild menu in 2019 included feasting upon bear, crane, deer, moose, porcupine and even racoon.
The couple hunted and gathered well before January 1, 2019 using most of 2018 to prepare for the long year.
Despite all that planning, Delphanie says the biggest challenge was assuming areas, where they foraged for roots, berries and mushrooms in the past, would stay the same, were sometimes overturned or destroyed by area construction.
"I had found a really great spot and then this year when I went back knowing I was going to get several different kinds of foods, that whole area was completely bulldozed and that was crushing," said Delphanie.
"That is part of the challenge of foraging in a town area because things are constantly changing."
Sticking to their Big Wild diet was a challenge especially since they were also preparing normal meals for the seven kids in their blended family.
"They were real cheerleaders," said Delphanie.
"They were the best group of supporters that we have."
Jeremy and Delphanie say the stories of their journey endless. That's why they are looking to share their adventures in a new book as well as creating a unique Big Wild Cook Book full of wild natural food ideas.
