Heather Houskeeper, the Botanical Hiker: Plants, Trails, and Belonging

Kaatscast walks a stretch of the Finger Lakes Trail in Delaware Wild Forest with Heather Houskeeper — herbalist, long-distance hiker, author, and founder of the School of Plant and Place Connection — to talk about foraging, plant medicine, and what it means to truly belong in a landscape.

Along the trail, Heather identifies edible and medicinal plants including garlic mustard, jewelweed, and dandelion, and explains how to approach foraging safely, ethically, and with a spirit of reciprocity. She also shares how a post-thru-hike sense of helplessness in the woods sent her to herbal medicine school, how she built a career around botanical hiking, and why she believes our innate knowledge of the plant world isn't quite lost — maybe just dormant.

Find Heather at thebotanicalhiker.com and schoolofplantandplaceconnection.com.