Kids Day Camp: Wild Cooking & Herbology

Give your child the gift of our Wild Cooking & Herbology day camp which is excellent for focused learners ages 8-15, and seven year olds okay if they attended a prior camp, if attending with older sibling, or if really focused in group teaching situations. Campers are grouped with others closest to their age within our hallmark 6-1 average student-teacher ratio that’s so critical for safe and profound outdoor experiences.

##### July 28 – Aug 1, 2025 Wild Cooking & Herbology Day Camp Description

Wild Cooking & Herbology is celebrating its 27th summer as we continue our mission to provide real skills and connections in nature for a new generation of young people who need this experience more than ever. Enjoy the fields, forests, streams, ponds, and backyards of Puyallup’s beautiful Clark’s Creek Park and Blue Skye Farm as we discover wild foods and medicines reflecting all the gifts that Pacific Northwest plants have to offer.

Campers will work with even more than the Top 10 Most Important Survival Plants of our area, and be able to identify their look-alikes. The kids will also learn to start and use fire safely, cook with ancient and modern methods, spin natural rope, purify drinking water, and come home with oils and creams they blended with herbs to heal common ailments, among other accomplishments.

We wish parents could watch the unfolding of this camp week, because the journey for these young chefs and healers is amazing. From discovering wild foods and medicine, to investigating their properties, to fully utilizing their gifts, and finally being able to tell their true stories, campers develop more real skill than you might imagine.

Camp includes optional wading/swimming and games/archery during lunchtime, depending on annual park rules, camper safety tests, weather and other conditions.

##### August 18-22, 2025 Advanced Herbal Medicine, Cooking & Craft Day Camp

Advanced Herbal requires successful attendance at Wild Cooking & Herbology or two other Wolf Camp programs earlier this summer or in past years. The advanced camp provides participants with an opportunity to go deeper into the skills of ethnobotany. Each day, participants will produce at least one herbal project and one wild foods/cooking project. Roast cattails over open flame, process nettles into a delicious pesto, drink delicious teas, and produce medicinal salves and glycerites to help heal maladies**. The goal** of this week is to provide participants with additional hands-on learning about Wild Edible Foods & Herbal Medicine. Skills covered include:

• How to understand the meaning of plant characteristics (astringents, etc.);
• How to harvest, process and administer the most important medicinal herbs of the northwest;
• How to honorably harvest and process plants;
• How to make fire, cook over an open fire, and “rock boil”;
• How to make rope from stinging nettle, cattail; cedar bark, and fire weed;
• How to harvest and cook with cattails, and hazelnuts;
• How to dry and store herbs to take home, make herbal chocolates;
• How to purify water naturally for cleansing wounds and making teas;
• Practice wilderness medicine emergency response scenarios;
• How to make and maintain fire in any weather, and witness traditional fire by friction;
• Learn Easy Plant Drawing and complete Journal Entries on your healing plants, and on corresponding poisonous plants;
• How to dry and store herbs;
• How to make salves, oils, tinctures and other medicines to take home.

##### Sample Camp Itinerary

All itineraries are subject to some amount of change based upon location, season, instructor and student preferences, camp group age range, and natural resource availability.

Monday:

Morning Session: Introductions; Awareness Skills; Plant Walk – ID Nettle, Cedar, Plantain & More;
Lunchtime: Bring & Eat Lunch from home, then our After Lunch Activities (ALA) include choice of Chill Time, Games & Swimming (creek wading)
Afternoon Session Options: Ethical Harvest; Harvest Plantain for Salve & Leaf Rubbings; Cedar Leaf Rubbings; Make Seasoning from Sesame Seeds, Ground Nettle, or Ground Bullwhip Kelp;

Tuesday:

Morning Session Options: Mint Tea; Observe Fresh Mint Specimens; Mint Bouquets – Lavender, Lemon Balm, Basil, Rosemary; Bath Salts – Lavender & Spearment; Try Mint Sprays
Lunchtime & ALA: (see monday description)
Afternoon Session Options: Plant ID by Smell; Leaf Venations & Arrangements; Scavenger Hunt of Venation & Arrangement; Herbal Tag; Intro to Top 10 Wild Foods

Wednesday:

Morning Session Options: Wild Carrot/Parsely Family; Make Fennel Candy & Fennel Tea [Decoction]; Learn about and sketch Poison Hemlock and compare to edibles/medicinals;
Lunchtime & ALA: (see monday description)
Afternoon Session Options: Nettles; Make Nettle Tea [Infusion]; Nettle Saute; Make Nettle Shampoo or Hair Rinse;

Thursday:

Morning Session Options: Elderberry Syrup; Fried Cattail Rhizomes; Finish Herbal Salve;
Lunchtime & ALA: (see monday description)
Afternoon Session Options: Introduction to Dandelion; Harvest Dandelion; Make Dandelion “Coffee”;

Friday:

Morning Session Options: Pine & Rosehip Tea; Practice Herbal First Aid Scenario; Gratitude Ceremony
Lunchtime & ALA: (see monday description)
Afternoon Session: Herbal Market Trade Circle & Closing Ceremonies;

##### Daily Camp Schedule, Pick-Up & Drop-Off Directions

Meet at the Clark’s Creek Park – South Shelter, 1710 12th Ave SW, Puyallup WA 98371 located one mile west of the Puyallup Fairgrounds. The best arrival time is 8:45-9:00 am, and the best departure time is 3:45-4:00 pm.

8:30-9:00 Check-Ins & Morning Care (no early check-ins available)
9:00**–**9:15 Songs, Stories, Stretches & Late Check-Ins
9:15-11:45 Morning Lessons with snack break at 10:30
11:45-1:15 Lunch, Games & Archery
1:15-3:45 Afternoon Lessons with snack break at 2:30
3:45-4:00 Best Pick-Up Time
4:00-4:30 Aftercare & Late Pick-Ups

##### Camp Leaders

Camp Director Kim Chisholm directs this week with staff instructors at our hallmark 6-1 average student-teacher ratio that’s critical for safe and profound outdoor experiences. Read our FAQ’s for more details and check out camp testimonials dating all the way back to 1997.

##### Day Camp Tuition in Puyallup/Tacoma

$495 is our full tuition rate in Puyallup, but we operate on a sliding scale and we don’t turn anyone away from being able to attend at least one week of camp due to financial reasons. Just email us and let us know how much you can contribute to the cost of camp, or to apply for financial aid from the Conservation College via the Max Davis Scholarship fund, click here and submit answers to their 8 simple questions. If your camper has physical disabilities that make other camps inaccessible, please call to discuss the accommodations we have available and register over the phone at literally any contribution level. To contribution to the Conservation College – Max Davis Scholarship fund, click here.

You will need to pack a healthy lunch, water and substantial snacks every day. Tuition includes t-shirt at your first camp with us, then in subsequent camps a choice of orienteering compass, recommended field guide, firesteel and other outdoor essentials depending on number of camps attended, age and availability.

##### Registration Options

STEP 1 – Reserve your spots in camp by making $100 deposit per camper per week (or $50 if requesting scholarship or reduced tuition) via one of the following methods:

• Zelle is preferred using our email address with that extra “e” on skye plus try to add a note including camper name/age, camp start date/theme, plus your CONTACT INFORMATION (phone number is fine if system doesn’t allow sharing email) if we don’t already have your info since Zelle doesn’t automatically share that with us;
• Or use Venmo to @Chris-Chisholm-13 or • CashApp to $wolfschool but again, try to add your contact information, camper name, program theme and dates, or follow up right away with that via email;
• Or use Credit Card or Apple Pay by clicking here;
• Or call us between 9am-9pm at 425-248-0253 ex 1 with a credit card to register over the phone;
• Or use PayPal appearing on our website;

STEP 2 – If this is your camper’s first year with us, complete our once-in-a-lifetime Registration Form within one week of making your deposit, otherwise we will have to refund you and give your spot(s) to others. We’ll also email you Word/PDF versions of the registration form in case you’re having trouble downloading or making a copy of our Google Doc form which you can send or share back to our email address for review within one week to maintain your reservation. If your camper has attended Wolf Camp in the past, a new registration form is not needed, but we will may email a questionnaire for your camper to submit as application for this year.

STEP 3 – Pay balance before or during your summer camp weeks. We’ll email you an invoice this spring with camp prep info and balance payment options that can be done in advance or during your first camp week. All payments are non-refundable unless we refuse your registration. However, if you cancel (at any time for any reason is fine) we will save your payments as credit for you to use in future years, or you can choose to have us move the funds into our scholarship account if you prefer. The best practice is to make the minimum deposits to register, and then wait to pay the remaining balances during summer.