With more than 25 years of wilderness travel under her boots and kayak hull—including through-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail from northern California to Canada and kayaking solo from Ketchikan, Alaska, to Washington—writer Jennifer Hahn relies on wild harvesting to keep her pack and kayak light. Currently she is an adjunct professor at Western Washington University's Fairhaven College teaching courses on northwest wild food.
WHERE THE WILD FOODS ARE (click for link to YOUTUBE)
She holds a B.S. from Huxley College of Environmental Studies, Western Washington University, and a B.A. in writing and ecology from WWU’s Fairhaven College, at which time she studied with Pulitzer-prize author Annie Dillard and worked at Audubon magazine in New York City.
Her first book "Spirited Waters: Soloing South Through The Inside Passage" won the Barbara Savage “Miles From Nowhere” award for adventure narrative writing in 2001. In 2003, on behalf of the Washington Commission for the Humanities “Inquiring Mind Lecture Series,” she traveled across Washington State speaking and serving up wild edibles for her lecture, “Feasting on Flotsam: Eating Between Tides, Fields, and Forest as Cuisine, Culture, and Ecology.” Her second book, "Pacific Feast: A Cook's Guide to West Coast Foraging" with the companion work "Pacific Coast Foraging Guide: 40 Wild Foods from Beach, Field and Forest" (a six-fold, laminated guide) debuted in fall 2010. Pacific Feast made the Best-seller's List for NW INDE BOOKSTORES.
Jennifer continues to divide her time between teaching, writing and guiding wilderness adventures and foraging trips. She founded her own sea kayak and natural history company called Elakah Expeditions (see Elakah.com) in 1989. She sold the company to devote more time to writing. She has led tours in Washington, Canada, Alaska, Baja Mexico, and the Galapagos with Wilderness Travel, North Cascade Institute, Galapagos Travel, Elakah Expeditions, Pacific Catalyst, and Seawolf Adventures.
Jennifer's favorite foraged lunch is sea urchin, nori seaweed, and “goose tongue” leaves. She lives in Bellingham, Washington with her husband, sculptor, Chris Moench. View his fascinating work at axisofhope.net
