Her happy place is being outside in Nature, storytelling, teaching, and helping other see the world with the help of science, poetry, and traditional ecological knowledge. Currently she is a teaching professor at Western Washington University's Fairhaven College and her popular course is a science class: "Wild Food."
WHERE THE WILD FOODS ARE (click for link to YOUTUBE)
Jennifer holds a M.A. in Environmental Studies from College of the Environment, Western Washington University (WWU), B.S. from Huxley College of Environmental Studies, 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.
Jennifer's newest wild foraging book--"Pacific Harvest: A Northwest Coast Foraging Guide" debuts in Spring 2025. To order copies thru the publisher, Mountaineers Books/Skipstone Press: https://www.mountaineers.org/books/books/pacific-harvest-a-northwest-coast-foraging-guide
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 delivering 20 energizing talks 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) 2010-- made the Best-seller's List for NW INDE BOOKSTORES.
Jennifer continues to divide her time between teaching, writing, sea kayaking, welding, and guiding wilderness adventures and foraging trips. She founded her own sea kayak and natural history company called Elakah Expeditions 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 Seawolf Adventures, Wilderness Travel, North Cascade Institute, Galapagos Travel, Elakah Expeditions, and Pacific Catalyst. In 2025, Jennifer is teaching for North Cascade Institute her popular "Salish Seaweed Garden" workshop.
Jennifer lives in Bellingham, Washington with her husband, potter and sculptor, Chris Moench. (More about Chris' work: axisofhope.net). She enjoys foraging, hiking, kayaking and rafting with her two wonderful children through marriage and four wild grandkiddos!
WHERE THE WILD FOODS ARE (click for link to YOUTUBE)
Jennifer holds a M.A. in Environmental Studies from College of the Environment, Western Washington University (WWU), B.S. from Huxley College of Environmental Studies, 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.
Jennifer's newest wild foraging book--"Pacific Harvest: A Northwest Coast Foraging Guide" debuts in Spring 2025. To order copies thru the publisher, Mountaineers Books/Skipstone Press: https://www.mountaineers.org/books/books/pacific-harvest-a-northwest-coast-foraging-guide
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 delivering 20 energizing talks 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) 2010-- made the Best-seller's List for NW INDE BOOKSTORES.
Jennifer continues to divide her time between teaching, writing, sea kayaking, welding, and guiding wilderness adventures and foraging trips. She founded her own sea kayak and natural history company called Elakah Expeditions 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 Seawolf Adventures, Wilderness Travel, North Cascade Institute, Galapagos Travel, Elakah Expeditions, and Pacific Catalyst. In 2025, Jennifer is teaching for North Cascade Institute her popular "Salish Seaweed Garden" workshop.
If you hanker to explore S.E. Alaska, walk in ancient forests, visit stunning glaciers, watch for humpback whales and bears, sea kayak, revel in chef-inspired cuisine, and explore with a small group of 12 co-ventureres aboard a classic, comfy small ship as our base--join Jennifer who will be your Naturalist/Guide aboard M.V. Sea Wolf on S.E. Alaska's Inside Passage from mid August thru September. Truely a trip of a lifetime! (more info: https://seawolfadventures.net/)
Jennifer lives in Bellingham, Washington with her husband, potter and sculptor, Chris Moench. (More about Chris' work: axisofhope.net). She enjoys foraging, hiking, kayaking and rafting with her two wonderful children through marriage and four wild grandkiddos!
