21 - Lee Trebotich - Food For Adventures

Introduction to Natty Trebotich and Food For Adventures
In this episode of the Wellness in Asheville Podcast, host Travis Richardson connects with Lee "Natty" Trebotich, adventure chef, biologist, and founder of Food For Adventures. Natty and his wife Meghan bring people together through wild foraging, outdoor cooking over fire, and immersive experiences that reconnect us with nature and each other.

From leading kids' summer camps teaching scratch cooking and paddleboarding, to multi-day expeditions, wild cocktail classes, and annual nationwide tours, Natty shares his 20+ years of global mountaineering, foraging, and culinary expertise. We dive into the nutritional power of wild edibles, hormesis and adaptogens, rewilding in a modern world, and why sharing food breaks down barriers—no matter the language.

This conversation is packed with stories from Nepal to Mexico, practical tips on safe foraging, and a reminder that in uncertain times, we're all in this together—best around a campfire with wild-gathered ingredients.

Key Takeaways:

• Why wild foods pack superior nutrition and adaptogenic benefits compared to store-bought
• The healing power of community through shared outdoor meals and adventures
• Hands-on experiences like edible plant hikes, forage-to-plate classes, and expedition cooking
• Building resilience through nature connection, Leave No Trace principles, and proper foraging
• Stories of cultural food moments that transcend language barriers
• Natty's partnerships, sponsorships, and excitement for the 2025 Cooking, Camping & Conversations Tour

Timestamps:
00:00 – 03:00 | Intro: Travis's personal connection to wild outdoors and foraging
03:00 – 07:00 | Natty's summer camp for kids: Outdoor cooking, unplugging, and building skills
07:00 – 10:00 | Natty's background: Global travels, mountaineering, and food as motivation
10:00 – 14:00 | Services: Team building, expeditions, edible hikes, wild cocktails, and diverse clients
14:00 – 18:00 | Entrepreneurial journey: Grinding, niching into foraging + cooking, partnerships
18:00 – 23:00 | Nutritional benefits of wild edibles, hormesis, and adaptogens
23:00 – 29:00 | Rewilding, community over isolation, and food as universal language (with stories)
29:00 – 36:00 | Upcoming tour, wild cocktails, and accessible entry points in Asheville
36:00 – End | Wrap-up and thanks

Episode Links:

• Food For Adventures (foodforadventures.com)
• Instagram (@food_for_adventures)

The Wellness in Asheville podcast is produced by Be Well Asheville, your local news source covering health + wellness news + events in Asheville. Get the latest at bewellasheville.com or follow @bewellasheville.

Transcript

outdoor adventures and foraging

 [00:00:00] 

Speaker: Welcome to the Wellness in Asheville Podcast, where we shine a light on the people practices, and places that make this city one of the most inspiring wellness communities in the country. I'm your host, Travis Richardson, founder of Be Well Asheville, your local news source for health, wellness, and community events.

All right, so in today's episode, we explore something ancient, yet wildly relevant, foraging, cooking and reconnecting with the natural world. While modern wellness authentics place in gyms and gadgets, many of the world's most healing traditions begin outside with our feet on the earth. Food cooked over fire.

Lee, AKA, Natty Rebo and his wife Megan, runs food for adventures. And I gotta say, [00:01:00] I am so impressed with this organization now, for me personally, I've always loved the idea that wellness doesn't have to be, you know, the sterile thing that comes from a gym. Although I owned a gym, uh, there's so many other ways to, to do, to do this.

Uh, it can be dirty, gritty, you know, wild and even chaotic at times. For instance, for me, I've always loved to call the outdoors, my primary gym. I've been spotted throwing logs around Hefting boulders doing pull-ups on tree limbs and all manner of things in the woods.

Yeah, I really actually do make people star sometimes. Um, but I really connected with Natty on this one mostly because. I grew up like how he teaches people now, whereas in this episode you will hear how Natty teaches and cooks for people on their treks.

My dad cooked for me on the River Banks of Iowa. I grew up harvesting everything from fish to mushrooms, rabbit, squirrel, frog, and pretty much every other thing. That is wild that you can think of. I don't do so much of this now, aside [00:02:00] from harvesting mushrooms and certain herbs and flowers, but being in the woods and respecting animals and trees and nature, uh, has just been always part of my DNA.

And that's exactly what you will hear in Natty when you hear him speak. And you know more now than ever. We need to reconnect with ourselves and each other. There is just no better way to do this than in the woods, in my opinion.

So grab your wild greens and the cast iron pan. This conversation with Natty is full of adventure and connection, and most importantly, flavor. So without further ado, let's jump right in.

Speaker 21: So we've got Natty here with Food for Adventures here to talk about all things food foraging and adventure. Uh, welcome to the show, Natty. 

Lee Trebotich: Hey, man. Thank you for having me, man. I'm stoked to be on here. 

Speaker 21: Yeah, it's really fun outta all the, uh, folks I've got lined up. I was really excited. I'm excited for all of them, but I was really excited, uh, to talk to you because in our initial [00:03:00] conversations.

It's just you're doing such, such cool things. Some of the stuff I actually thought, you know, when I was younger I'd be like, man, I'd, I'd really like to have kind of lifestyle because you're, you're like going on on tour across the country, you're speaking at places, you're teaching people stuff, and. Right now you've got a, a summer camp that you're rocking out, and I know you're pretty busy with that.

What's, what's up with that summer camp you're doing? 

Lee Trebotich: Yeah, so we, um, we teamed up with a big old camp called Camp Greer that's outta old Fort North Carolina. And, and it's a sister camp right here in Fairview, just, uh, east of Asheville. And we host right now, uh, in July four week, uh, outdoor, um, camp for kids, uh, which consists of not only outdoor culinary cooking.

Uh, teaching kids how to cook from scratch and outdoors, but we also offer paddleboarding because we have a lake on site, um, beekeeping and other array of classes like bike mechanics and stuff. But, uh, we're in the midst of that right now. We're in the third week, uh, looking to hopefully extend that into June, hopefully starting next year.

But yeah, we are in the heart of it. Monday through [00:04:00] Thursday. It's free for all the local school kids and they show up around nine 30 and 10. And, uh, for our class culinary, we immerse 'em in. Homemade recipes, competitions. They present it in front of judges and stuff like that, and then they roll over and kind of actually help cook, uh, lunch for the camp that day and serve it and kind of go about the business.

Speaker 21: Man, that's awesome. I think, uh, it's, it's pretty much, you know, like nowadays getting kids out into nature in any capacity is, is a, is an awesome, uh, win for any organization that's doing that. And the way that you're doing it Sounds really interesting. Do they, um, I mean, what kind of things do they learn that are new to them?

Lee Trebotich: Well, um, you know, like I said, there, there is a variety of, uh, classes that we offer and they rotate the room throughout the week. But as far as culinary goes, we offer 'em this hands-on experience. You know, these kids are unplugged. Literally, we're kind of a remote camp, not too much phone service. There is wifi, you know, in case emergency reasons, but these kids have the phones down and they're fully immersed.[00:05:00] 

We're teaching them how to make beignets from scratch. We're teaching them, you know, cookie challenges. We're doing, um, tacos from tortillas, from scratch and building, uh, you know, a complete taco in their, and the overall goal is to not only unplug these kids away from the phone, get 'em to nature, kind of get them not only to, um, work with one another, but also take this home with them.

Because, uh, the most rewarding thing is when we have these kids' parents reach out to us and say, Hey, our kid came home and cooked dinner for the family tonight. And, uh, you know, it's just something that. Kind of just overall gets involved and immerses these kids and outdoors, whether it be culinary, beekeeping, paddleboarding, et cetera.

You know, there's, uh, middle school kids. So we, um, it's, uh, seventh, eighth, and ninth, uh, or sixth, seventh, and eighth and ninth grade. Um, but it's a pretty even split. Is it? Um, I would say about 50 50. 'cause we have a, excuse me, different variety of schools like. Asheville City Schools, Buncombe County Schools, and a lot of different, um, um, different schools that come in all in one.

So you have kids that know each other that went to school with each other. You have kids that've never met. [00:06:00] Maybe they've competed against one another in sports. Uh, but yeah, so it's a mix of different kids, but it's a pretty split ratio. If I had to lean more towards, I'd say a little bit more females.

Speaker 21: Nice. That's awesome. Yeah. Uh, yeah. Yeah. And it's really cool because I think like at that age it can really feel hard sometimes to make friends. Kids are dealing with lots of probably, you know, different emotions that come up around being that age. So getting them out and getting them like amongst each other, so is probably really healthy and healing thing, uh, for 'em to do.

Lee Trebotich: Yeah, I was just saying I remember middle school being a really weird and awkward time myself back in the day. And so, um, it's really cool to, I, you know, I was a kindergarten teacher for the longest, so it's really cool to work with this different variety of kids and, uh, it's a new experience and we've been doing this for about three years now.

And, and it's, it's, it's, it's, it's going great. 

Speaker 21: Speaking of experience, you have like over 20 years in this, and I saw, I was on your website and I saw a picture of Nepal. Have you, where have you [00:07:00] been? Like, just gimme a rundown on, on a little bit about you. Like where this even started, how you got into it.

'cause it's very unique. 

Lee Trebotich: Yeah. So I mean, you know, we could open that book and then we could go down a rabbit hole. But, uh, yeah, I've traveled a lot around the world, a lot of different countries doing a lot of different things. Uh, uh, food has definitely, uh, enhanced me or kind of motivated me to do a lot of traveling.

Uh, I'm a mountaineer as well as I am, uh, cooking. So when I travel, I like to climb big mountains, get up in altitudes, hence Nepal. Um, we go down to Mexico to calm a lot of volcanoes. A lot. Traveled all around the world, but really love the us. Uh, we do, as you mentioned, like an annual cooking tour. And so what we do as a base of the company, which we'll touch on later, uh, one of the things we do is travel across the country and international.

Not only teaching about outdoor education, but also cooking, uh, outdoor culinary, and whether that's learning ourselves or teaching, uh, international as well. 

Speaker 21: Hmm. Very cool. So as far as, uh, groups in and, and around Asheville, tell me the [00:08:00] kind of groups that you work with. Like who would benefit from doing, having an experience with you?

I know that, and I, and I've seen the, you, you do like expeditionary kind of cooking stuff. So you go out, you could, you could probably go on a, a backpacking hike, you know, overnight and you're, and you're cooking for a group. Like, tell me who comes on these trips with you. 

Lee Trebotich: Man, it's, uh. It is a diverse clientele because, you know, the amount of services we offer brings in as mentioned, diverse clientele.

And you know, whether it's doing the summer camp for, uh, some middle school kids or cooking, uh, uh, different camps on Denali or going across sea with like Backpack of magazine and doing different uh, stuff, it's uh. There's a variety that we do, especially with the education and cooking. I mean, we do multi-day bike bike packing for groups and bike along with them and cook with their groups.

So there's a lot of hiking companies that, uh, guiding companies that hire us to do multi-day trips where we just go along cook with them. Same thing with mountaineering, uh, river. We do a lot of paddling down [00:09:00] rivers and do a lot of cooking for companies. Yeah. And uh, and that's just on the cooking side, but flip toward the education side.

Uh, we do a lot of edible medicinal 1 0 1 hikes, uh, where we take people out. You kind of just talk about what's underneath our feet all the way to, you know, wild cocktail classes, forage the plate experiences overnight, kind of immersed classes where we take people out to remote cabins, forage. Full on meals, you know, make some awesome cocktails and kind of have the full on experience tied in.

And you know, I could go down that, but as it shows on our website, we offer diverse services, so that offers a lot of diverse clients that come in from young to elderly as well. 

Speaker 21: Hmm. Yeah, I could imagine like kinda what you do too is really good for team building and things like that. You ever have any groups coming in to, to do sort of team building?

Yeah, 

Lee Trebotich: yeah, exactly. We have a lot of people, um, uh, that do that as well. We've, uh, worked with a lot of, um, companies that come in remotely to do that stuff, uh, especially overnight, uh, trips. I'm actually getting hired to go to Wyoming to do some cooking and [00:10:00] teaching for, um, kind of like a seminar for investors that kind of like coming together, doing some stuff.

Um, so yeah, we definitely, um, have that, uh, amongst everything, it runs parallel with everything we do. I'm 

Speaker 21: curious, was there any like, rough, rough patches along the way that, that, that two ran into and like, what did you do to kind of get through it? Just for any of the budding entrepreneurs out there that might be listening?

Lee Trebotich: Yeah, it's um, you know. We're in it for about four and a half, five years now, and it was, it was a grind. You know, you gotta put that commitment in for anybody doing whatever it's doing, whether it's something similar or totally different. And, uh, I wouldn't say a couple rough years, this is just putting in some grinds.

I would pick up maybe some secondary jobs to help fund. I never got a loan, never got a credit card for the company because I didn't really want that. Over my head in case something didn't work out. But, uh, I knew that we had a niche, or a niche, however you wanna say it, that in a field that we've created.

And I just wanted to hone on that. And it took about a year or two to [00:11:00] kind of hone in. And not only that, maybe convince some people, because what we do, um, to a lot of people, especially in Western North Carolina, is great. But for some people, especially in the South, it may be some type of witchcraft going out there and forg and making medicine, you know, stuff like that.

Believe it or not. Totally. There is people that believe that. Convincing people. I'm a six four tatted up, dread headed guy. So, uh, it's funny, once people get around me, they're locked in. It's full focus and we have a great time. But I would say not too many rough patches as far as just honing in, kind of dialing in on what we wanna do.

'cause there's a lot of great companies out there that cook outdoors. There's a lot of great companies. Teach outdoors, but we really just wanted to hone in on that specialty and that foraging that, uh, making food with the foraging, the making medicine, and then teaching people about it and stuff like that.

Speaker 21: And you've got a lot of partnerships and, and sponsorships. I mean, this is obviously while you're doing, you've got your 2025 tour and you've got multiple places that you have already been to and [00:12:00] are still going to lots of them in Colorado. Of course. That makes sense. Mm-hmm. Uh, how do you go about like.

Connecting. Do they find you, do you find them? Like how do you get these, these, these partners? They're, they're pretty, pretty cool partnerships. Yeah, we, 

Lee Trebotich: um, uh, you know, I've been working with, uh, outdoor companies for nearly a decade plus now, and, uh, I've been a VP of marketing for a company as well. And it's, um, we just building these relationships.

You know, we work with some amazing companies like NEMO Equipment, excuse me, Eno, hammocks, local companies, like Made by Mountains and I can go on. Um, and we just build these relationships, kind of a trust factor, kind of not only marketing. It kinda lines up what we're doing. Uh, you know, I used to actually work with Eno and work with their marketing team and go around and do these tours.

You know, it's one of those, Hey, maybe we can take a little bit off their plate and put it on ours. Since we're going to, uh, our annual cooking tour and show off some of their gear. That helps that we actually set up a base camp and at our camp [00:13:00] kitchen and, and stuff like that, building relationships and using a lot of the gear that coincides with what we do, uh, especially with outdoor education and, and the.

Messages, like a lot of these companies like NEMO Equipment put forward and stuff like that. Uh, especially behind the gear, the care and uh, the promise to the environment. So that runs right up there with us. So we work with these companies and we check out our website. It's called the season partnership.

And that's where we, a lot of different things with companies, whether it's sponsorships and modeling. Um. Uh, a variety of things. And so, uh, yeah, we go on an annual cooking tour where we leave from, uh, North Carolina, going off to Oregon, up to Maine, Vermont, and I'm back around and we hit up various events teaching like Reis, uh, Oberland expos, or we go out to PCP CT days and feed about, you know, five to 600 hikers.

And so we go around doing a lot of private and, uh, public events. 

Speaker 21: Whatcha most excited, uh, for in 2025 to do. That's a loaded question. 

Lee Trebotich: Uh, [00:14:00] uh, I'll, I always, I always look forward to going to PCT Days out at Cascade Locks just because, uh, I have a lot of good friends out there. We've been doing it for about four years now.

We work with the outside magazine, backpacker magazine closely and do classes. And not only that, we also team up with like Triple Crown coffee and speed, uh, a lot of hikers through hikers free, uh, pancakes and stuff like that. So it's a good time. Good excuse to get out to the West Coast and, uh, see some good people.

Speaker 21: Where's 

Lee Trebotich: the coolest place that you've been and why? The coolest place, man, that's, again, that's a loaded question. You know, we, if we're talking continental 40 eights, uh, lower 40 eights, all that, you know, right now, just 'cause you brought it up. Nepal was a great experience going over there, spending some time in Himalayas, getting up to 18, 19,000 feet, climbing, tracking, uh, you know, leading groups with, uh, uh, one of my best friends, Steven Ron, hold.

Uh, you know, but other than that, I tell you one of my favorite places though, is going down south, uh, equator, whether you're gonna Ecuador, [00:15:00] Mexico and comment a lot of the volcanoes. I'm a big fan of that because the food down there is just, it's unmatchable. It, it really is. 

Speaker 21: Yeah, yeah, yeah. One of my favorite places I've been to is Ecuador, because like some places.

On the planet of so many different geographic terrains within like close proximity of each other. You know, at one point I'm in the Amazon, at another point I'm in the Andes Mountains. There's Galapagos Islands nearby. And then, and then like you've got like these really cool towns. They're just like, these got these awesome town squares and it just reminds you of this a, um, very communal.

Uh, culture, you know, there too. And of course then you have a bunch of expats, so you got like, you got such a really cool mix. Yeah. Yeah. I gotta tell a story. So I was in, um, if you don't mind, this is pretty funny about how Yeah. You, you don't know what you're getting, you know? What you're getting into, you go to another culture, you don't know their customs and such.

And [00:16:00] so we were in Nepal and, uh, excuse me, um, uh, the Andes Mountains. We were in Andes Mountains, not Nepal. And, uh, we were doing a, a custom of, of this particular, uh, mountain village that they would get together. And I don't know on exactly what occasions they would do, but they would all bring out their, their sheets.

It was like white sheets, tablecloths or something. And they would all, we'd lined them up in a row on the mountain. And then they would come and dump their food, their, their food offerings onto this, onto the, the, the cloth. And so it was like, imagine just like, you know, 10, 15, 20, uh, table sheets lined up all in one row.

They dumped the food on there. And so then everybody goes up and just like, kind of looks and sees what they want, picks, picks at it, gets it onto their plate and, and, and goes see. And then there's like a kind of a hierarchical order where certain people are honored by being able to go up first and whatnot.

But so we did, it was ama, it was like an amazing display. We're just thinking, man, this is the coolest [00:17:00] thing that they've. Honored us by being able to do this thing except, oh man, except brother, that our, our gut, our gut bacteria really wasn't up to snuff. Oh my God. Let's just say that we couldn't handle what they threw down, man, uh, was rough.

My gosh. It was rough for the, a few days, 

Lee Trebotich: especially in a foreign country, uh, with a problem like that. It's a, it's a different situation. 

Speaker 21: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You ever have any experiences like that where you go into a, a different culture and you're like, and you're like, uh, wow, I didn't expect to, you know, find this, or, oh my God.

Lee Trebotich: Yeah. It happens. Especially if you're not too careful of the way the food's handled. Pretty much. That's the biggest thing, you know, you see some of street vendors in some of these countries and the way they handle food and the way they serve it via the, just the hand and the palm. Yeah. It's, it's sketchy, but, you know, it's, it's, it's rolling the dice for sure.

Speaker 21: Yeah. I think some of the, I think some of it is just that the, uh, the, like I said, gut bacteria is different [00:18:00] and, you know, they're probably, and I think they leave their food out. They, they can leave their food out for where we would consider it spoiled for them. It's just, uh, it's kimchi. Yeah. But, uh, it's 

Lee Trebotich: a different beast.

Yeah. 

Speaker 21: Yeah. Well, speaking of which I was gonna ask you, so, um, just about the, like, the quality of. Why somebody would want from a, you know, this is a wellness podcast and so why would somebody care to, other than the interest, it being interesting to go off and find wild edibles, which it is. I mean, my dad took me mushroom hunting when I was a kid, and I, I love trying to find different varieties of safe mushrooms to, to, for, but.

We're now finding that these things are so beneficial nutritionally, mushrooms and greens in particular. Like why, why is that? Why, why are these, uh, wild edibles so much better for you in some ways than any food you can get at the grocery store? 

Lee Trebotich: Because, you know, it's pretty much simple, easy. It's not, [00:19:00] there's no manipulation.

You know, they're growing wild. They have all these macro micronutrition, uh, nutrition, excuse me, protein. These, you know, whether we're talking about plants, fruits, natural vegetables, um, you know, whether it's food or medicine that, I mean, you, a lot of the baselines of natural medicine that's over the counter comes from herbs and plants, uh, mushrooms and stuff like that.

So it, uh, eliminates a lot of the, uh, manipulation, um, that you get and tampered with. Um, you know, a lot of the growing these days, you know, uh, it's, it's a sad thing, especially when you drive across country. Seeing a lot of the farming disappear, you know, and, um, you know, a. Bio and stuff like that, that's taken place and, um, and all the substitutes and it's a scary thing.

But that's one thing we teach, kind of like the basis is what kind of, what we're getting from earth. All the nutrients. Uh, we talk about that through medicine, through food. And my wife is a rd, a registered dietician, [00:20:00] so she also offers us through our, uh, through our company as well. Whether you're gearing up for a expedition or just trying to gear up for day-to-day life.

We offer like one-on-one consultations. For, um, like these wild forging trips, um, not, uh, and also diets, uh, for athletes as well. So, 

Speaker 21: nice. I mean, 'cause if anybody's doing any serious, uh, trekking, like nutrition is a big deal, especially in the back country knowing Correct. What you need to do. One of the things I study is light longevity.

And one of the things that, uh, they find. I think it was Dr. Uh, David Sinclair from Harvard University. And he, um, talked about this idea of hormesis, where you've got, uh, these plants that are trying to survive. I mean, you think about a wild plant, like everything is, like, everything is massively competing, just trying to suck every nutrient away from it.

So it gets, so, it gets nothing. And think about like, uh, quinoa is a great example. It grows up high altitude. It's not a lot of soil, sometimes rocky environment. [00:21:00] So it's just got a scrap to get like to, to make it in the world pretty much. Yeah. And, and basically what I learned was that these, the, those, those plants, uh, when you ingest them, they the exact same mechanism that's helping it survive signals for you to, for you to survive, which I thought was really cool.

We're eating the. The, the chemical signaling of a, of the plant we're actually benefiting from its survival mechanism. I thought I just blew my mind. I'm like, this is cool. Yeah. 

Lee Trebotich: Yeah, adaptogenic. You know, a lot of things we talk about in our classes, uh, is like, you know, a lot of people have seasonal allergies.

Well, let's look at the plants that's growing, introduce us into your diet, and you'll see a, just a dramatic change of, uh, you know, adapting to the seasons, adapting to these allergies. Now, I ain't saying to go out there and just, and hell a big power, uh, pine p and by any means, but I've put people on small amounts of pine power and, uh, diet, whether through [00:22:00] tea or capsules, and then it's actually beat the, um, allergy.

They don't have it. So it's like introducing these small things that we kind of probably was shunned to or put away from, or probably didn't grow up around that give, gives us these allergies, uh, just like you said, adaptogenic. It's, uh, in ingesting these plants that's growing in the environment, dealing with these, uh, stressors.

And we in, uh, ingest those and we learn how to deal with the stressors ourselves. 

Speaker 21: Love that. Yeah. Yeah. We have beautifully said, man. I, and I think it's very important. What, um, sticking with this theme of sort of adapting, you know, in the world today, we're trying to adapt to a modern culture that is just, you know, literally, like with AI and everything going on, we we're, we're, we're not even, I wouldn't even say it's a hundred year old thing that we are adapting to.

We are like, the modernization that's happened in the last 50 years or so has been. So crazy. So getting back to, so in my, I kinda like [00:23:00] this idea of rewilding, I don't know if that's a term you use, but I, that to me is basically encompasses this idea of saying, Hey, let's get back to, to nature and sort of like being more, um, how we used to be.

And so with, with you, with what you guys do. If you were to sum up how, what somebody learns when they work with you, aside from, yeah, great, this plant is adaptogenic. These are all of course important. Like, what are you really teaching people, 

Lee Trebotich: you know, whether we're forging, whether we're cooking together, you know, we're, we're learning how to survive together.

We're all in this together, whether we go into apocalyptic downfall tomorrow. Or whether we just continue struggling with this fricking advancement of ai. We're all in this together, and so one of my goals to. From the biology standpoint is just teach people about these plans. I don't expect them to, you know, learn these scientific names overnight.

I encourage them, uh, I give 'em resources to take home to, uh, maybe buy, [00:24:00] kind of advance their skills after they leave the course. Uh, we, uh, I'm leave no trace, uh, educators. So we, we uh, we teach these a lot. A lot of the people leave no trace of, um, properties here while we're outdoors. Proper foraging techniques where, where you cannot forage.

And then that's, it kind of builds a ladder once we proper techniques, how to properly clean these plants, how to get 'em ready for ingestion, how. Tell poisonous plants from no poisonous plants, how to, you know, and going from there. And overall goal is that, hey, look what we've made. We've made a full on meal, full on recipe that we can take in, we can communally eat because we put this together, we forged together because usually our classes are usually anywhere from six to eight people.

So it's a communal thing. And overall, when people are eating, and I, I like this and I'm, I'm trying to use it as a new slogan. There may be language barriers, but no matter what, when that food hits the table, we all speak the same language. You know, we're all sitting there shaking our heads whether it's good, you know, and so it's, uh, it's a, it's a language barrier that gets broken when that food is set down at the campground [00:25:00] or on the table.

And so that's overall goal is just bringing people together, learning stuff, but you know, just letting them know we're all in this together and let's learn some stuff while we're doing it. 

Speaker 21: That's cool. Uh, I think that's definitely a missing piece right now. And you, you know, with, with ai it's funny because as there's talk about all the problems that it can solve and all the things, you know, medical problems, whatever you want, it will not solve isolation and the loneliness that a lot of us are feeling.

And so I think, um, remembering that there are. Ha. Having folks like you remind us of what we already know to be true, which is mm-hmm. We need each other. Correct. We, for, we so easily forget. So when we get in community with, with like thing, you know, going on, uh, trips with you and doing things like, like you're promoting, we remember.

And so yeah. Thank you for that. Really appreciate 

Lee Trebotich: that. No, no, it's, it's, it's deep and like I said, it's in a time where we definitely need to hear that. And like I said, whether we're forging and whatever, we're all gonna need one another. [00:26:00] And so that's the overall message. While we're doing it, we usually do a lot of good foraging and cooking and eating along the way.

Speaker 21: Heck yeah, buddy. That's what, that's what it's about. That's what it's about. You know, you, you, you talked about, you know, uh, when food's on the table, we speak the same language, and I recently, we, one of the other places I was at recently was Thailand and I. Intentionally put myself in a spot where I didn't know.

I was like, there ain't no tourists around. It's me. And, and the Thai people. Like I was in a place where, you know, even they were like, what, what is this guy? You know, this guy is not really where, uh, we normally see guys like that. Yeah. Yeah. And, but like, you know, it was cool 'cause I, I intentionally did that and it was.

I walked into this restaurant, there wasn't even a menu like people just ordered verbally. There's no menu. It was just like a little sh little shack with like some people cooking and stuff, and I, I recognized it as a, somewhere I could get some food. So I sat down and it cost me like a dollar for the, for the, for the meal, but I had to, for.

I had to like [00:27:00] sign language and point, and then other people were coming up to help me and they're pointing at stuff and I'm like, yeah, that, that, that's good. That's good. Do that one and over, over here. And they're pointing up at the sign and I'm like, I don't know. And so, but we figured it out. And then once the meal, once the meal came, you know, they, there was also additional, um.

They brought out some additional herbs and spices and things like that. And, and the, A lady came over, this older woman came over and she saw me just struggling. You know, I'm like, God, I dunno what the hell I'm doing. And slightly nervous about should I even be, you know, I don't know, it's this place, should I even be here?

But she comes in and she's like putting, helping doctor it up. And anyways, I just, uh, tell that story. 'cause it's, it reminds me of what you're saying, just how people come together, help each other out around survival, around food. 

Lee Trebotich: Yeah. And I, I, I wanna tell a quick, just a quick story. Yeah. Because there's, when I was calming down, uh, in Pico Orava down there with my good friend Steven Roho, it's pretty much the same story.

We're down there at a Camp Oso, and it's, it's just a base camp for a lot of different [00:28:00] mountaineers. And, and there was a handful of people from around the world, I mean London, uh, you had people from, uh, um, Switzerland, Germany, just a lot of different people. The people in there were just, just full on, uh, you know.

Heart of Mexico, and so we're in this one room waiting for dinner, and people are trying to communicate widows. You know, the, the language barriers is very strong. You have people over here speaking, you know German, you know you got Russian, you got just a handful of people in here, and we're all just.

Mountain, you know, we're kind using terms where we understand and trying to communicate, and it's getting a little awkward. Then the ladies come out and then the plates at the table, and then everybody just exhaust and calm and starts eating. And as we're eating, everybody's looking up, making eye contact.

Yeah. Nowhere to set. We're all just shaking our head. Yeah. Yeah. And everybody's on the same page. It's like everybody's, we're tired from climbing. This is great food. Like it, it was just a great moment and it stuck with me and it still does. So, yeah. Yeah. [00:29:00] That's that. That's 

Speaker 21: it, man. That's a, yeah, that's a, you can't really know somebody unless you have, have a meal with them.

I used to think it was, I think it was, uh, I used to, used to be a, if you don't have a, you can't. You know, know somebody if you don't have a beer with them, which is maybe still true, but, but I would say a meal does it too. I like it, man. That's awesome. Well, uh, you got, um, you've got something coming up here.

Uh, the, uh, cooking, camping and Conversations tour. It's an annual tour, uh, that looked really interesting. We kind of talked about that briefly. Can you tell me, uh, what, what's that tour, uh, about again? 

Lee Trebotich: Yeah, so, uh, pretty much sums up what you, uh, the title is. We Hit the Road and we, uh, go to a, a variety of stops, whether it's, uh, um, Reis across the country.

We have a couple of Oberlin expos and private events. Um, and, uh, we, we line up with a couple of distilleries and breweries where we teach our wild cocktail classes. And so we do a lot of education and cooking. Across the us. [00:30:00] Um, and this is also where we bring on a lot of our sponsors. So on our vehicle we have a lot of logos, we have different sponsorship packages, and we have a, a lot of, uh, sponsors anywhere from 12 to 20 sometimes that buy in and, and join our tour.

And we go around and not only highlight what they've done for us, highlight their gear, we do giveaways. So we get the sponsors, uh, sponsors involved in a lot of variety of ways. But yeah, it's a cooking, camping, a conversation. We, uh, cook some food. Talk about a lot of cool stuff and, uh, yeah, and we, we we're usually camping, so it's pretty much in the title, but we, uh, just hit a variety of places while we're on the road.

Speaker 21: Do you have those places picked out yet, 

Lee Trebotich: or are you still working? Yeah, we have a, no, we have a couple already. I mean, we, we have the tour. If you go on our website, you can actually see 'em. But off the top of my head, when we leave out August 1st. First stop is REI in Colorado Springs, and then we go to Snitching Lady Distillery, which is in Fair Play Colorado, where we're linking up one.

One of my, uh, good buddies and head bartender there, Kirby, and we're teaching a wild forging [00:31:00] cocktail class. We take people out for, and we bring back and do these wild cocktails like a smoked, uh, Aspen spin on a old fashioned and stuff like that. And, uh, then we're heading to PCT days. Uh. We have Overland Expo in Colorado, and then we're doing a private overland event in Wyoming.

Um, we kind of make our way to Northeast with a few more, uh, events, uh, concerning Overland. We hit up a few outfitters and just kind of do what we do, talk, educate, and talk about plants and sample, 

Speaker 21: uh, food and everything. Nice. I gotta tell you, man, I, one of my favorite drinks I've had in my entire life, it just reminded me that I had, I've had something, I think kind of like what you're talking about, but, uh, it was in Mexico and it, it was a mezcal and it was a smokey mezcal and it came out.

And what it came, came with. They had, I dunno if they had infused some kind of smoke into it or what, but it also came out smoking with some, I think it was sage or some dang, or some [00:32:00] green, some fern or something. And it was just this real like earthy, rich, smoky smell to it. I have never, and then the, the drink was amazing.

So. Um, I definitely wanna take your, uh, I started to think about that one take, take your, uh, your wild cocktail class. Yeah. Wild co cocktail class. Uh, that sounds fun. Yeah. 

Lee Trebotich: If you ever make it to Western North Carolina in this area, or, I mean, when you head back this way, I know you've been on the road. Um, there's a place, uh, over in Waynesville Mag Valley called the Swag, and it's a resort that sit the the mountain.

Myself, myself, I'm a expert resident there. I do a lot of teaching foraging classes, and I team up with, uh, experts, uh, bartenders there, uh, who are amazing, and we just come up with a couple signature drinks there. One of them is, uh, uh, a smoked birch, uh, old fashioned where we go forage. Birch and we actually make a simple syrup with the birch and we make it not only used for the cocktail, but then we make homemade cream sodas and stuff with it as well.

But, and then we smoke the birch bark and it's one of those, if you go there, definitely order a smoke [00:33:00] birch, uh, old fashioned. It's something that, it's definitely Appalachian, if I could say, you know. Uh, 

Speaker 21: sweet man. I'll put that in the show notes 'cause I think that that's gonna be something people might want to take advantage of too.

Definitely. Yeah. Cool man. Awesome. So the other question I have here for you is in what's the best way for somebody in Asheville? Like what's the most accessible way to kinda learn about what you do? Like what's an intro class or what's an intro kind of entry point into your world for somebody in Asheville?

Lee Trebotich: Yeah, so, uh, we're based outta South Asheville, so, uh, it's easy to get ahold of us. We're always collaborating with a lot of different groups here. We're teaching a lot at the Asheville, REI. But one of the, um, best ways to kind of introduce yourself to Food for Adventures is taking one of our edible medicinal plant hikes, and we do it right here in Asheville at.

Call Your Nature Preserve, which is in South Asheville's, a hidden gym on top of a mountain and just loaded with a lot of [00:34:00] awesome natives and invasives that we talk about. Uh, and we go through and talk about, Hey, this is something you may pass over every day. This is something you can eat. This is something you can use on for poison vy, uh, you know, for medicine, headaches.

And we kind of go over the basics and either spark interest or maybe scare people away. You know, it's, it's one of those where we've had people that. Have, uh, studied plants for years and still take the class, or we've had people that just really wanna scratch the surface on studying plants and join that course.

So that would say that would be the most basic, and we work our ways up all the way to level 400 classes and we certify people and, and, uh, but yeah, so, uh, that, that's kind of the best way. Go on our website. We offer classes year round. We even do winter foraging classes and forge the plate classes. They, uh, during the winter.

So, uh, yeah, we're always available. 

Speaker 21: It sounds like you and your partner are like the perfect team. Her, with her, her, uh, RD and, and you with all your vast experience, uh, doing everything, um, and the, the multiple [00:35:00] layers of what you offer people, I just think is awesome because you're, it's definitely not a one hit one or you're doing a lot and it's, it's, uh, it's pretty cool.

So thank you for your time. I really appreciate. Everything you shared and I look forward to, uh, meeting you in person and, and yeah, taking advantage of some of the things you're doing, uh, myself. Well, 

Lee Trebotich: yeah, man. Thank you. Enjoyed this, heard great things. I'm stoked to hear it, uh, when, when you, uh, put it out.

But yeah, come join us anytime, man. Uh, reach out to me via email or text and, uh, join us on a hike or one of our wild cocktail tasting classes. I guarantee you'll. Leave hungry for more, as we say. 

Speaker 21: Well, I'm thinking, I, I'm thinking I'll, I'm thinking maybe a group, uh, a group outing, you know, with, with the organization I'm building.

So I'd love to, uh, I think that'd be ama an amazing bonding experience for like a core group of members. Uh, so we'll see what I can do to, to pull something together. 

Lee Trebotich: Be freaking awesome. Travis, I can't thank you enough for having me on your, uh, show and on your podcast, man. 

Speaker 21: Alright man. Well take care.

[00:36:00] Good luck to you. Thanks for being on. Appreciate you. 

Lee Trebotich: Appreciate it.

Thanks for joining us on the Wellness Nashville Podcast, where we delved into the wild wisdom of forging and outdoor cooking with our incredible guest. Natty Treit whose passion for reconnecting us with nature through Edible Adventures truly inspired us all.

Head over to Food for adventures.com and get ready to step outside, embrace the wild and savor something fresh from the earth.

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You can catch the next episode while on your way up to visit Mount Mitchell or cruising down I 26 or on your way to catch a nice sunset view over at the Black Balsam Knob. You can check out more Asheville Wellness News and Events and join our newsletter@bewellasheville.com. Thank you for being the best part of our wellness community and until next time, be well.

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