WELCOME TO FERAL HOLLOW

Appalachian Plant Magic Land Wisdom Deep Healing

WHAT IS
FERAL HOLLOW?

Artistic illustration of a black and white tree and bird, symbolizing Feral Hollow’s Appalachian forest sanctuary

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 community, providing clinical consultations, 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, you will find these lessons - and the spirit of this place - woven into the very fiber of the plants, fungi, and skills we share with you.

We offer:

all rooted in the magic and resilient spirit of our mountain.

18252859_446800902336121_2406094095727460352_n_edited.jpg

"TO LOVE A PLACE IS NOT ENOUGH. WE MUST FIND WAYS TO HEAL IT."
-ROBIN WALL KIMMERER, BRAIDING SWEETGRASS

THE ECOLOGY OF US:
OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH FERAL HOLLOW

Stylized illustration of hands cradling a snake under stars, representing the connection between humans and nature at Feral Hollow.

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 of 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 + INVITATIONS

Appalachian Plant + Fungi Magic

White bloodroot flower in a woodland habitat, representing the wild-harvested botanicals used in Feral Hollow's apothecary and clinical practice

Small-batch herbal remedies and medicinal mushrooms crafted in a farm-to-clinic apothecary in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Community workshop featuring traditional land-based skills like basket weaving in an Appalachian forest setting.

Stylized graphic of a moth with intricate wing patterns, representing the transformative nature of Appalachian forest ecosystems.

TRADITIONAL SKILLS + NATIVE PLANTS

As a botanical sanctuary and forest garden, we're inspired to save all that is within our reach. In a world where almost half of all plants are endangered, we do that by focusing on what is already abundant in our Appalachian forest and by offering forest-grown native plants so that others can continue to grow these cherished allies in their gardens. But more than what we offer, Feral Hollow is a way of being in right relationship to land - of reweaving people and place together through fire-making, tracking, basket weaving, herbalism, and the other crafts. Come learn alongside us and remember that the land is your original home.

FARM-TO-CLINIC APOTHECARY

Our mountain apothecary is a bridge between land stewardship and clinical support, between plants and people. Crafted from the plants and fungi we tend in our sanctuary, we distill the wild resilience of Feral Hollow into potent, land-based medicine using traditional methods and modern clinical insight. Each remedy is rooted in relationship and the unique ecology of the Blue Ridge Mountains - often called the "medicine chest of the world - before being made available to our community exclusively through our clinic, where small-batch remedies are shipped monthly to our clients.

CLINICAL HERBALISM + FUNCTIONAL NUTRITION CONSULATIONS

Some bodies speak in a language conventional medicine was never trained to hear. If you've fought for every answer, collected pieces of a puzzle that never quite resolved into a whole picture, or simply know that something is wrong and haven't been believed - you're welcome here. River works with complex, highly sensitive bodies at the intersection of rigorous clinical herbalism, functional nutrition, and a decade of deep apprenticeship to this mountain land.

We open to a small, intentional cohort each season - because this work requires genuine depth, and depth requires room to breathe. Autumn 2026 invitations go out in September. Join the waitlist to find your place.