WELCOME TO FERAL HOLLOW
Appalachian plant + fungi magic
WHAT IS FERAL HOLLOW?
Feral Hollow is an off-grid botanical sanctuary and forest garden nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We offer Appalachian plant + fungi magic from our beloved mountain forest to our local community, providing native plants, medicinal mushrooms, traditional crafts, and education in land-based skills.
Feral Hollow is also an exploration in slow, sustainable living. We haul water, chop firewood, and grow a portion of our own food in our mountain hollow. We're rooted in seasonal rhythms and kinship systems that allow us to center community and reciprocity as we move towards building resilient and livable futures for everyone that calls our mountain home.
"TO LOVE A PLACE IS NOT ENOUGH. WE MUST FIND WAYS TO HEAL IT."
-ROBIN WALL KIMMERER, BRAIDING SWEETGRASS
OUR STORY
Our family first set foot in Feral Hollow a decade ago, when the hollow was home to the Blue Heron Outdoor School. We came as students, apprenticing ourselves to the land and kinship worldview. We spent several long summers living primitively on the mountain while we learned to forage, track, find clean water, and build shelters for ourselves. In 2020, the pandemic became a portal that allowed us to take over stewardship of the botanical sanctuary we had fallen in love with. Since stepping through that doorway, we've worked to both deepen our skills and rebuild the diversity and resilience of Feral Hollow. After years of study and apprenticeship, we've replanted the missing species we would expect to find in an Appalachian cove forest, built our farm infrastructure slowly and intentionally by hand, and learned a constellation skills to make a project like Feral Hollow flourish from other farmers and gardeners. Now we're ready to weave in community into all the work we've done, and we invite you to share in the magic of our mountain hollow.
OFFERINGS
Appalachian Plant + Fungi Magic
NATIVE PLANTS
As a botanical sanctuary and forest garden, a vital part of our vision is to offer native plants back to our community. In a world where almost half of all plants are endangered, we're inspired to save all that is within our reach. We do that by focusing on what is already abundant in our Appalachian forest and by offering native plants that have been seeded in their natural microclimates so that others can continue to grow these cherished allies in their gardens.
CULINARY & MEDICINAL MUSHROOMS
Appalachia has been called the medicine chest of the world in large part because of the all the culinary and medicinal mushrooms that grow in our mountains! Turkey tails, reishi, and lion's mane are all at home in our forest. So are culinary delights like chicken of the woods, oyster and lobster mushrooms. We cultivate them all and offer them back to you freshly harvested at local markets and crafted into herbal goods like medicinal mushroom hot chocolate and mushroom maple syrups.
TRADITIONAL CRAFTS & SKILLS
Even more than what we offer, Feral Hollow is a way of relating to and stewarding the land under our feet, of reweaving people and place together. To do that, we practice a constellation of land-based skills and crafts - everything from fire-making and herbalism, to tracking and basket making. We invite you to come learn alongside us as we remember together that the land is both our original home and capable of meeting all our needs.
