A Walk in the Wild cover

Live wilder · ebook & activity guide collection

A Walk in the Wild

Plants, trees and the gifts of the woodland

What does the woodland offer, and what should I leave?

A walk with someone who knows the woods: plants and trees, their relationships and gifts, with safety, restraint and gratitude alongside any use.

Walk with someone who notices: gather well, make wild tea and nettle cordage, and learn which plants help and which harm.

The ebook
40 Wilding activity guides as printable PDFs
Templates and charts the activity guides need

Coming soon. Jay is giving this book and its activity guides a final proofread before they go on sale as downloads. Ask to be told when they're ready.

Safety first. Outdoor activities carry real risks. Each activity guide has safety notes, but you are responsible for yourself and anyone in your care. Supervise children, get permission, never eat anything you cannot identify with certainty, and only light fires where it is allowed and safe.

Prefer to learn it outside? See course dates →

The activity guides in this collection

Live wilder

Fire lighting and fire lays

Finding natural tinderLive wilder

Making a tinder bundleLive wilder

Using a ferrocerium rod & steelLive wilder

Transforming an ember into a flameLive wilder

Gathering natural materials

Gathering foliage & flowersLive wilder

Gathering plant stemsLive wilder

Harvesting tree sapLive wilder

Gathering clayLive wilder

Processing natural materials

Extracting the outer fibres from a common nettleLive wilder

Extracting the outer fibres from a bramble stemLive wilder

Removing the inner bark from a willow stemLive wilder

Splitting & storing tree rootsLive wilder

Making a withyLive wilder

Preparing acorns for consumptionLive wilder

Edible plants and tree parts

Making wild teaLive wilder

Making a wild saladLive wilder

Making wild pestoLive wilder

Making nettle soupLive wilder

Making a nettle burgerLive wilder

Making dandelion syrupLive wilder

Making elderflower cordialLive wilder

Cooking burdock & dandelion rootsLive wilder

Making a seed & nut barLive wilder

Making wild flourLive wilder

Making a coffee substituteLive wilder

Making a fruit leatherLive wilder

Traditional first aid and medicinal plant uses

Natural first aid dressingsLive wilder

Making a plant salveLive wilder

Practical uses of natural materials

Making charcloth tinderLive wilder

Making wood shaving & wax fire lightersLive wilder

Making charcoalLive wilder

Making resin glueLive wilder

Making natural dyeLive wilder

Plant uses for health and hygiene

Making wild soapLive wilder

Making a toothbrush & toothpickLive wilder

Ethnobotany & crafts

Gathering nuts & berriesLive wilder

Using edible tree sapLive wilder

Support nature

Everyday care

Take 3 for natureSupport nature

Open your senses

Awaken your sense of taste

Wild tea tastingOpen your senses

Edible walkOpen your senses

← Back to the Wilding Rucksack

Safety, and where the activity guides come from

Look after yourself and others. Outdoor activities carry real risks: fire, tools, water, weather, heights, plants, fungi, animals and getting lost. Every activity guide includes safety notes, but you are responsible for your own safety and for anyone in your care. Supervise children closely, get the landowner's permission, follow the Countryside Code, never eat anything you cannot identify with complete certainty, and only light fires where it is allowed and safe. If in doubt, leave it out.

With gratitude to the lineage. The Wilding Practice Keys and many of the activities in the activity guides have been adapted from the core routines of nature connection in the 8 Shields approach (Coyote Mentoring), mapped by Jon Young and shared in Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature (Young, Haas & McGown).

These ways of noticing and belonging are far older than any book. They grow from the knowledge of Indigenous and land-based peoples around the world, who have lived in close relationship with the land for thousands of years and have kept that knowledge alive, often in the face of great loss. Jon Young describes 8 Shields as built on patterns of nature connection he found in Indigenous cultures around the world, and on what his mentors taught him, including the teachings passed down through Tom Brown Jr. from Grandfather Stalking Wolf. Our own ancestors in these islands once knew the land in this way too.

I offer Wilding with deep respect and thanks to all of them. It does not claim or copy any culture's ceremonies or sacred practices. It is a UK way of carrying forward simple, shared human ways of paying attention, giving thanks and belonging to a place. — Jay