The Hunter Gatherer Society: Foraging, Primitive Fishing, and Camping – Blending Traditional Skills with Modern Living

Hunter Gatherer Society: Foraging, Primitive Fishing, Wild Food Recipes & Outdoor Living Skills

Welcome to The Hunter Gatherer Society, your guide to modern foraging, primitive fishing, and outdoor living. Whether you’re identifying wild edible plants, testing outdoor gear in rugged terrain, or fermenting ingredients gathered from the forest, this is where you’ll learn to reconnect with nature through hands-on experience and seasonal wisdom. Explore beginner-friendly foraging guides, gear reviews, and wild food recipes created for real life. From learning the basics of plant identification to discovering new ways to cook what you forage, The Hunter Gatherer Society is about building confidence outdoors. We blend traditional knowledge with modern adventure to inspire a more grounded, self-reliant way of living.

Broadleaf plantain (Plantago major) growing beside a gravel trail showing distinctive parallel leaf veins and seed stalks

Plantain (Plantago): Identification, Edibility, Uses, Harvesting, and Complete Field Guide

Introduction If there is one wild edible plant that almost everyone has seen but few people recognize, it is plantain. Not the tropical fruit found in grocery stores, but the common lawn and trail plant in the genus Plantago. It grows in yards, parks, campgrounds, gravel roads, logging trails, and disturbed ground across North America. Chances are you have stepped over it hundreds of times without realizing it. Plantain is one of the first wild edible plants I teach beginners to identify because it is widespread, useful, relatively easy to recognize, and available through much of the year. Here in the Pacific Northwest, I encounter it almost everywhere I hike, camp, fish, forage, and ride my ebike. Many foragers focus[…]

Pineapple weed (Matricaria discoidea) growing beside a forest trail showing cone-shaped flower heads and feathery leaves

Pineapple Weed: Identification, Edibility, Uses, Harvesting, and Complete Field Guide

June 11, 2026 rpolipnick Foraging, Wild Edible Plants Foraging and Identification Guides

Introduction Some wild edible plants hide in plain sight. Pineapple weed is one of them. Most people walk right past this plant without realizing it is edible, aromatic, and surprisingly useful. I regularly find pineapple weed growing in places where few people think to look, including hiking trails, logging roads, gravel driveways, campsites, and parking lot edges. The first time I crushed one of the flower heads between my fingers, the scent stopped me in my tracks. Suddenly, a sweet tropical aroma filled the air. It smelled remarkably similar to pineapple. That distinctive fragrance is exactly how pineapple weed earned its common name. Although it may not look like much at first glance, pineapple weed is one of my favorite[…]

Big Tree Trail Hike in Prairie Creek Redwoods

June 4, 2026 rpolipnick Hiking

Exploring One of California’s Last Ancient Redwood Forests The Big Tree Trail in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is one of those hikes that naturally makes you slow down. This morning, after stopping by the visitor center for trail recommendations, we decided to take the roughly 2.5 mile round-trip walk from the visitor center out to the famous Big Tree and back through the towering redwoods of Redwood National and State Parks. Sometimes the best hikes are not the hardest or longest. Instead, they are the ones that remind you how incredible the natural world really is. The trail itself was incredibly approachable. It was wide, well maintained, and had very little elevation gain. Because of that, it made for[…]

Man using a portable water purifier to filter water from a roadside puddle during a hammock camping trip in the Pacific Northwest.

Can You Really Turn a Roadside Puddle Into Safe Drinking Water?

June 2, 2026 rpolipnick Primitive Camping and Hammock Camping

What a Stealth Hammock Camping Trip Taught Me About Water Purification in the Outdoors By Richard Polipnick | The Hunter Gatherer Society Affiliate Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, The Hunter Gatherer Society may earn from qualifying purchases. If you choose to purchase through links in this article, it helps support our content at no additional cost to you. If you spend enough time hiking, camping, fishing, foraging, or exploring back roads, sooner or later you will run into the same problem. Water. More specifically, finding safe drinking water when your supply starts running low. That happened to me recently during a stealth hammock camping trip. I had spent most of the day exploring logging roads on my Wallke ebike, stopping[…]

Forest hammock camping setup beside a river during golden hour with tarp shelter and backpack

Why I Switched to Hammock Camping After Years of Tent Camping

May 28, 2026 rpolipnick Primitive Camping and Hammock Camping

There’s a moment almost every hammock camper experiences for the first time. You wake up in the woods feeling surprisingly rested, no pressure points, rocks under your back, or sliding downhill all night inside a tent. Just fresh air, gentle movement, and the sound of the outdoors around you. That moment completely changed how I camp. I still use tents occasionally, especially in alpine terrain or areas without trees, but for most wooded camping trips, hammock camping has become my preferred setup by far. What surprised me most is that hammock camping isn’t just about sleeping differently. It changes the entire feel of camp itself. You spend more time outside.You notice your surroundings more.And camp somehow feels calmer and more[…]