Christa Whiteman - Wild Food Lifestyle, Diversity Outdoors, and a Lifetime of Learning

@ArtemisAscendant joins us for this week’s show!! Christa Whiteman is an adult-onset hunter, conservationist, practicing chiropractor, and clinical herbalist who shares her passion for the wild foods lifestyle she has so lovingly dedicated her life to with all manner of newcomers to the outdoors through social media, and through multiple educational outdoors organizations and mentoring opportunities.

I hope you leave after listening to todays episode with a deeper sense of belonging and feeling of being welcome in whatever outdoor pursuits you have a mind to start engaging in, and how life can be enriched when its shaped by the seasons and influenced by the landscape.

One thing will be really apparent as you listen in - When our minds are focused on engaging in the outdoors as an intrinsic value that is heavily connected to someone’s lifestyle, theres always something to be excited about.

We quickly flow into a talk on the importance of always striving to expand your knowledge of the local and not so local landscape to provide valuable insight to listeners new to hunting or foraging on the nuances and amount and types of effort it takes to actually be successful in procurement of wild foods. Each season’s peak may only be a certain month out of the calendar year, but each and every individual pursuit has year round work for us if we want to find sustainable success.

We then appropriately spend some time discussing optimizing our time in the outdoors and the dedication it takes to develop a well rounded relationship with your local ecosystems.

We also talk about how strong community exists in outdoors circles, the value of good mentorship in outdoor pursuits, biggest barriers to entry as adult hunters, for women, and for members of minority groups trying to get involved outdoors, social media’s influences on hunting and fishing culture, and what needs to change for this type of lifestyle to evolve with the times.

Tons of valuable info and great resources in the shownotes for today’s talk. Please do check out @artemisascendant - her content is awesome - and hope you enjoy the show!!

Show Notes:

Christa on Instagram

Christa’s Herbalism page on Insta

Artemis Sportswomen

Hunters of Color (HOC) - BIPOC Outdoors Mentorship and Resources

Arthur Haines - Foraging and Wildcrafting author and teacher

book - Conquistadors of the Useless

Backcountry Hunters and Anglers

Podcast with Jen Davis of Artemis Sportswomen

Time Markers:

@Start - 33:02 Introductions, Outdoors Small Talk, Christa’s Current Outlook on Wild Food in 2022, and the Value of Building an Expansive Network of Lands you Know

@33:02 - 50:11 Better Ways to Begin Hunting, Why One Person’s Tactics Might Not Work for Another, and Deciding to Begin Pursuing Wild Foods as an Adult.

@50:11- 59:11 Balancing Our Passions with Life’s Need for Our Participation - Optimizing Our Use of Time Outdoors

@59:11 - 1:13:05 Stepping into New Ways of Being in Nature, How Outdoorsmanship Offers a Lifetime of Learning, the Value of Mentorship, and Where Real Community Still Exists

@1:13:05 - 1:21:02 Biggest barriers to Entry - Knowledge and Confidence

@1:21:02 - 1:33:40 Unique Challenges of Becoming a Sportswoman

@1:33:40 - 1:51:32 A Social Media Driven Hunting, Fishing, and Foraging Renaissance, and What All Outdoorsmen Should Know to Promote Diversification in the Field.

@1:51:32 Christa Shares Some of Her Favorite Resources for Learning to Become Engaged Outdoors