Meet Your Instructors

  • Kyle Lybarger

    Native Habitat Project

    Forester & Conservationist

    Classes: TBA

  • Timothy Hammer

    Forager & Horticulturist

    Fermenting (Lacto Ferments, Soda, vinegar, Kombucha)

    Tapping for Syrup + Honey Locust Sugaring

    Conservation in Foraging

  • Cameron Strouss BSc., FH, RH (AHG) Aromatherapist

    The Deep Roots School of Foraging & Herbal Medicine

    Wild Cherry: A Medicine for Everything?

    Making Measured Tinctures: Making Good Enough Medicine

    A Fall Medicinal Plant Walk

  • Alishia Millican

    Teacher & Mycologist

    Mushroom ID Basics – Tools of the Trade

    Hidden Harvest- Where Wild Mushrooms Grow

    Identify, Cook, and Taste: Top 5 Edible Mushrooms of the Southeast

  • Chris Bennett

    Author of Southeast Foraging: 120 Wild and Flavorful Edibles from Angelica to Wild Plums

    Foraging in the Fall- A Walk in Nature

    Grilling with Wild Edibles

    How to Use Wild Foods in the Kitchen

  • Sarah Bell

    Fiber Artist

    Natural Dye Basics

    Wild Basketry: Random Weave Basket

    Wild Basketry: Coiled Basket

  • Spencer Lowry

    Alabama Mushroom Society Vice President

  • Chris Keenum

    Professional Trapper & Hunter

    Fish Cleaning & Preparing

    Trapping Basics

    Fish & Crayfish Trapping from Setting to Harvest

  • Holt Akers-Campbell

    Extension Agent

    Plant Walk: Scouting for Fruit

    Plant Identification for Everyone

    Seed Saving and Wild Plant Propagation

  • Marie-Lies Van Asten

    Fleur and Forage, LLC & Fleur and Forage Free Clinic, INC

    Oxymels: a sweet and sour herbal preparation

    Botanical Distillation Using a Copper Still

    The Essential Home Apothecary

Instructor Bios

Timothy Hammer: Owner Homegrown Native Foods LLC

Owner, forager extraordinaire, and culinary creative at Homegrown Native Foods LLC, Tim is a native of Centerton, Arkansas. A jack of all trades, Tim has spent time as a personal trainer and a CNA and holds a degree in Horticulture from the University of Arkansas. He has a true passion for helping people live happier lives through improved nutrition and flavor of foods. In his free time, Tim enjoys foraging wild plants, mushrooms, and is learning more about hunting and fishing. 

Cameron Strouss: Deep Roots School of Foraging & Herbal Medicine

Cameron is an herbalist, medicine maker, wildcrafter, and teacher dedicated to educating and empowering people in reclaiming health, community, and connection to the land through herbal medicine and primitive skills. She is the owner and founder of Deep Roots School of Foraging and Herbal Medicine and has studied herbal medicine for 14 years. She has over 4,000 hours of Sciences and Herbal Education with 9 years of clinical work. Cameron is a graduate of the University of Montevallo (with a Biology Degree), the Southeastern Institute for Traditional Herbal Studies and The Eclectic School of Herbal Medicine with her Clinical Herbal Certification and has been awarded her FH and RH (AHG) and is a Level 1 Aromatherapist.

Chris Bennett: Author of Southeast Foraging: 120 Wild and Flavorful Edibles

Chris Bennett is a forager, writer, cheesemonger, and trained chef. He grew up roaming the picturesque grassy hollows, dense forest, and open fields of the Appalachian foothills in central east Alabama. Chris enjoys working with top chefs around the southeast and provides unique ingredients to the area’s best restaurants. He has been featured in Birmingham Magazine, Cooking Light, Garden & Gun, Discover St. Clair, and The Hot and Hot Fish Club Cookbook. Also, he was named one of Southern Living's 50 People Changing the South for 2016. He is a frequent speaker presenting sessions at food and wine festivals around the southeast. His first book, Foraging the Southeast: 120 Wild and Flavorful Edibles from Angelica to Wild Plums, is out now from Timber Press.

Sarah Bell: Fiber Artist

Sarah Bell is an artist, farmer, and educator based in Birmingham, Alabama. Descended from Chinese and American ancestry, she grew up using art and creativity as a way to find a sense of connection to her experiences of death, familial emigration, and home. She is greatly influenced and inspired by the use of natural and sustainable materials, ancestry of people and land, as well as ancient craft processes and land tending techniques that interweave into her daily engagement with place, materiality, and its impermanence.

Spencer Lowry: Alabama Mushroom Society President

Spencer has been foraging mushrooms for over 12 years and currently serves as the Vice President and Treasurer of the Alabama Mushroom Society. He also runs an online platform called "Forage North America", where he teaches a little bit of everything. He loves to share his knowledge with beginners and help them take their first steps in mushroom foraging.

Chris Keenum: Trapper & Hunter

Chris Keenum, a seasoned trapper and hunter from Hartselle, Alabama, began learning wildlife skills at age 14 under his grandfather's guidance. Together with his wife Allison, he founded Keenum's Problem Wildlife Control, Inc. in 1996. Initially serving residential, commercial, and industrial clients, Chris now focuses exclusively on industrial wildlife management.

His extensive experience tracking and understanding animal behavior has made him a respected expert in the field. As he says, "If it has hair, feathers or scales, we handle it.

Holt Akers-Campbell : Auburn University Extension Agent

Holt is the commercial horticulture Extension Agent for northeast Alabama with Auburn University & Alabama Cooperative Extension. He aspires to work at the intersection of ecology and agriculture, helping growers produce food in environmentally, financially, and culturally sustainable ways. His areas of interest include market farming, agroforestry and native plant landscaping, but his foremost goal is to serve the local needs of farmers and horticulture professionals. He is also currently working towards a PhD from MS State University in Plant & Soil Science, assessing the potential to increase the yield and quality of Passiflora incarnata (maypop) as both a fruit and herb crop. Outside of agriculture, Holt enjoys hiking, cooking, foraging, woodworking and spending time with his family.

Marie-Lies Van Asten: Herbalist & Free Clinic Organizer

Marie-Lies Van Asten is a community herbalist in Atlanta, Ga. She hosts various workshops such as plant rambles, medicine making and hydrosol distillations. She launched the Fleur + Forage Free Clinic in 2022, and it became a 501c3 in 2024. The Fleur and Forage Free Clinic focuses on serving herbs to people who experience homelessness and using herbal medicine to build connection and community. She also offers a 12 month long apprenticeship program and a training for herbalists interested in joining the crew.

Kyle Lyberger: Forester & Conservationist

Born and Raised in Morgan County Alabama, Kyle has been exploring the outdoors for as long as he can remember. This has led him to an interest in wildlife and eventually a Forestry Degree from Alabama A&M. After college he gained an interest in the overlooked grasslands of North Alabama which pushed him to start educating through social media and ultimately to founding the Native Habitat Project.

Alishia Millican: Mycologist & Assistant Curator of Fungi for the University of West Alabama Herbarium

Alisha grew up exploring the forests of Northeast Ohio, developing a deep love for the outdoors, wild edibles, and gardening. Seeking a milder climate, she moved south, where her passion for nature continued to flourish. In 2017, she earned her Master Gardener certification, further fueling her interest in foraging. After discovering the Alabama Mushroom Society, she immersed herself in fungi identification, continually expanding her expertise in Alabama’s diverse mushroom species.

Dedicated to education and conservation, Alisha strives to inspire curiosity about fungi while promoting responsible stewardship of our wild spaces. She served two terms as President of the Alabama Mushroom Society and continues to lead as Chair of its Collection Committee. She also sits on the Executive Board of the North American Mycological Association as a Trustee at Large, contributes to NAMA’s Vouchering and Nominating Committees, coordinates the Southeast Rare Fungi Challenge with the Fungal Diversity Survey, and serves as the Assistant Curator of Fungi for the University of West Alabama Herbarium