For(a)ging Community with the Appalachian Forager, Whitney Johnson

The Poor Prole’s Almanac

Bleav + The Poor Prole’s Alamanac

Home & Garden, Science, Nature, Leisure, Education, How To

5 • 761 Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2023

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We're joined by Whitney Johnson, a forager who has focused on highlighting the complex and beautiful cultural history of foraging in Appalachia. Johnson has become known to the internet as the @appalachian_forager on Tiktok & Instagram, which she built by hunting mushrooms – and her passion for Appalachian culture and dedication to authenticity keeps people coming back. Her work highlights the ways in which food, ecology, and community intersect, and point to a way in which foodways can help us navigate our way towards healthier communities and healthier ecosystems. To support this podcast, join our patreon for early episode access at https://www.patreon.com/poorprolesalmanac For PPA Writing Content, visit: www.agroecologies.org For PPA Restoration Content, visit: www.restorationagroecology.com For PPA Merch, visit: www.poorproles.com For PPA Native Plants, visit: www.nativenurseries.org To hear Tomorrow, Today, our sister podcast, visit: www.tomorrowtodaypodcast.org/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the Porpo's Almanac. This is Andy, and today we're joined by a familiar face from TikTok, the Appalachian Forager.
0:22.6	Whitney is a forager from Eastern Kentucky who celebrates the uniqueness of Appalachia culture and contextualizes her relationship with foraging through this lens.
0:32.6	We talk about how culture and identity impact why she makes the content she does, the importance of
0:38.1	understanding foraging as a part of a bigger relationship, both with nature and our neighbors,
0:44.3	and what we should all be doing to be better neighbors to both humans and non-humans.
0:49.3	I think y'all will enjoy this conversation.
0:51.5	Let us know what you think and get links to her work in the show's notes.
0:59.3	So Whitney, thanks so much for coming on. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
1:03.2	Thanks for having me, buddy. My name is Whitney, or you might know me as the Appalachian Forger
1:09.4	or the Crazy Mushroom Lady. That's what I get
1:12.4	in Walmart all the time. So I'm from Eastern Kentucky. I'm a therapist slash forager. Started
1:20.4	getting into foraging more so in my college years. I've only really been doing the foraging thing
1:26.2	hardcore for about three years now. Started a little TikTok page, not quite two years. I've only really been doing the foraging thing hardcore for about three years now.
1:28.4	Started a little TikTok page not quite two years ago, maybe a year and some change.
1:34.9	It kind of blew up a little bit. So now I've since started doing the foraging thing full time
1:40.7	with my mental health stuff on the side. And yeah, I just love Appalachia like so
1:48.6	freaking much. And I just aim to be able to share all the goodies that this region has to
1:54.4	offer while crushing some stereotypes and hopefully inspiring some people to get outside.
2:00.8	Yeah, that's awesome. The Appalachia
2:02.9	region is so unique. I don't think people that haven't spent much time, they fully understand
2:08.0	like how wildly diverse and unique the ecosystems are in the foothills of the mountains
2:14.7	in a way that like here where I live in New England,
	...

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