WHO IS JOHN KALLAS, AND WHAT IS HE HAVING FOR LUNCH?

THIS EXPERT WILD FOOD EDUCATOR SHARES HIS PASSION AND OFFERS ADVICE.

- Christopher Nyerges

Wild food educator John Kallas was born in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. When he was a child, he was so fascinated with the skills Native Americans had for living off the land that he began to learn them.

Extensive Background

Kallas’s interest in wilderness survival and Native American skills became a more serious life study when he began college in 1970. As his studies progressed, he realized he was most interested in how our ancestors fed themselves with wild plants.

He focused on wild foods, using Bradford Angier’s How to Stay Alive in the Woods as one of his first references. He soon graduated to Alan Hall’s book, The Wild Food Trailguide, along with other serious sources of information.

By 1974, Kallas was taking college classes in wilderness survival and nutrition, along with pursuing an independent study in edible wild plants. He chose these academic pursuits because he wanted to be prepared for a six-month “vagabonding” trip through Europe. He took that trip; and, by the end of that adventure, he was getting all his food during the trip from wild plants, including field mustard, wild spinach and cleavers, among others.

Kallas then returned to college and took classes in botany and taxonomy. His professors and administrators at Michigan State University (MSU) recognized that Kallas was following an inner guidance on his path of study, and they encouraged him to teach senior-level university classes in edible wild plants. As a result, Kallas taught at MSU for seven years.