Urban Foraging

Urban landscapes are rich with wild foods and healing plants—if you know where to look. In this hands-on workshop, you’ll learn how to confidently identify common edible and medicinal weeds, Native plants, and introduced garden species found throughout the West Coast of Canada. We’ll explore how these resilient plants support both human health and urban ecosystems, and how responsible foraging practices can help deepen our relationship with the land. Drawing from the knowledge and practices of Beyond the Garden Gate Botanicals, this workshop empowers you to forage safely, ethically, and sustainably in your own neighbourhood.

Topics covered in this workshop:

• How to identify common edible and medicinal urban weeds
• Key Native and introduced plants found in West Coast neighbourhoods
• Safe foraging practices and how to avoid contaminated sites
• Understanding plant energetics and traditional uses
• Ethical harvesting guidelines and land stewardship principles
• Seasonal tips for gathering throughout the year

Instructor Bio

Megan Edge is a naturalist, herbalist, and passionate urban forager who loves helping people discover the edible and medicinal plants growing right outside their door. For more than 30 years, she has explored the parks, shorelines, and city spaces of the West Coast, learning the stories of the plants that call this region home—both Native species and the many hardy garden volunteers that have taken root here.

Through her work with Beyond the Garden Gate Botanicals, Megan teaches approachable, hands-on ways of working with wild plants for food, wellness, and everyday connection. Her joyful curiosity and deep respect for the land create a welcoming learning environment where participants can build confidence in plant identification, ethical harvesting, and using their harvest in simple teas, meals, and remedies.

Megan’s teaching weaves together her long background in holistic healing, her love of local ecology, and her belief that nature is one of our greatest sources of resilience. She is committed to honouring traditional plant knowledge, supporting ecological awareness, and empowering people to reconnect with the living landscape around them—one plant at a time.

How to Register for this Event

This workshop is happening in person only. Please dress appropriately for all types of weather, the workshop may be outside or in our heated strawbale building.

Only current members in good standing are eligible to use the free ticket option as a part of their member benefits package.

There are a limited number of Pay What You Can tickets available for folks who self-identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC), and people who are facing significant financial barriers to their involvement in our programming. The Compost Education Centre is continually in the process of examining the ways in which our program accessibility can be improved for all members of our community. This ticket gesture is by no means a fulsome examination of the systems of oppression that exist for people inside and outside of our community. We welcome your ideas and feedback.

You must pre-register for this event. You can purchase a ticket through Eventbrite. You can also register for the event by calling our office at 250 386 9676 or via email by contacting office@compost.bc.ca

Customers can receive a full refund (less the Eventbrite processing fee) up to 7 days before the workshop. Customers who request a refund less than 7 days before the workshop can request to switch their ticket to a different workshop within the calendar year if tickets are available. To request a refund or switch your ticket, email office@compost.bc.ca.

VERY IMPORTANT: Please be in touch if you are no longer able to attend but hold a ticket so we can make your space available to someone else.

Accessibility

The Compost Education Centre site has flat paths made of woodchips. The strawbale learning classroom is accessed via a wooden ramp and has a wide double door and a ramp leading up to it. Once inside everything is flat.

There is a single-stall gender neutral washroom on site. The washroom is not wheelchair accessible. There is a steep ramp from the wood chip pathway onto the washroom boardwalk, and a 2-inch step up from the washroom boardwalk into the washroom.

About the organization

The Compost Education Centre is located on unceded and occupied Indigenous territories, the land of the Lekwungen people— specifically the Xwsepsum and Songhees Nations. These nations are two of many, made up of individuals who have lived within the porous boundaries of what is considered Coast Salish, Nuu-Chah-Nulth and Kwakwa'wakw Territory (Vancouver Island) since time immemorial. At the CEC we seek to respect, honour and continually grow our own understandings of Indigenous rights and history, and to fulfill our responsibilities as settlers, who live and work directly with the land and its complex, vital ecologies and our diverse, evolving communities.

Compost Education Centre memberships get you free workshops, discounts at garden centres around town and more great perks! Sign up or learn more on our website.

Please consider supporting our work as a registered charitable organization by making a one-time or monthly donation. You’ll receive a tax receipt for any amount you contribute.