Hello Wild Foodies! You're not going to want to miss this delicious mussel foraging and feast with ocean "o-fish-ionados", Ricardo Romero Gianoli and Ryn Sullivan. 

What You Will Learn

Deepen your relationship with the ocean with a magical mussel foraging & feast adventure on the beautiful Sonoma Coast.  Learn how to sustainably harvest and cook fresh mussels, their role in intertidal ecology, how to be a good ocean steward, and region history. 

Each person can take home up to 10lb of fresh foraged mussels.

After we forage, Ricardo will cook up a delicious mussel dish and some other tasty treats and we can celebrate our bounty together. 

Where

A beautiful beach near Bodega Bay, CA.  Exact address is provided with registration. 

Instructors

Ricardo Romero Gianoli (he/him) has been living, foraging, and cooking in Northern California since 2008. One of his passions and career focuses is kelp forest restoration. Ricardo is a certified restoration scuba diver and kelp forest monitor who has surveyed sites from the Salish Sea to Orange County but he focuses his restoration efforts on the Sonoma and Mendocino coasts. It is his greatest joy to connect people with the ocean through adventure, food, and education in the intertidal zone.

Ryn Sullivan (they/them) brings over 10 years of experience in outdoor education and nature-inspired crafts to our team. As a backpacking guide, naturalist, and lifelong maker, they’re always finding new ways to work with what’s around us while caring for the ecosystem. They’ve been foraging since childhood and diving headfirst into their passion for the intertidal zone and all the creatures that call it home. They are involved in many sea urchin projects and are excited to teach Fork in the Path's students how to find and eat urchin as part of their holistic restoration efforts. When not foraging, you might find them teaching wilderness first aid classes, free diving for purple urchins, or crafting cordage from the irises in their backyard. Ryn is a certified Wilderness First Responder, yoga teacher, and California fishing guide.

Ticket Options

A portion of your program fee goes to Native American Rights Fund.  

Adults

• $125 Pay it Forward (I'd like to support someone else to come)

• $100  Standard Ticket

• $75 Community Supported (these are supported by Pay it Forward tickets) 

Teens & Kids

• $75 per teen (age 13 - 17, must be accompanied by an adult)

• $60 per child (recommended for age 12 and up, but you know your child best)

Special Things to Bring

• Fishing license (see advice below this section)

• $10 cash or check per vehicle for parking (or park outside the park gates and walk a bit for free)

• non-slip shoes that can get wet: examples: waterproof sandals, running shoes, diving booties 

• an ice chest and blocks to keep your mussels cool while you transport them home

• any bags will work, but mesh bags are great for draining water (less heavy for you!) 

• a bucket

• heavy duty leather, rubber or gardening gloves 

• a scissors or fiskars

• A change of dry clothes, shoes and socks, you may get wet at this class. But you will definitely get wet up to the knee.

• A headlamp or flashlight. Your class begins with the light and ends as it's getting dark

Fishing License Requirement & Advice

This class requires a CA fishing license for all participants age 16 and up, per CA Dept of Fish & Wildlife regs that you must purchase separately here:  https://www.licenses.wildlife.ca.gov/internetsales/ you must create a profile to purchase the license. You can get a one day license for $20, or annual license is the best option if you plan to fish, clam, mussel, etc more than one day in the next year. If you need help, please contact California Department of Fish and Wildlife - 916-928-2537 (Monday-Friday: 8:00am to 5:00pm, PST) Email - LRB@wildlife.ca.gov 

You can use an annual or a day sport fishing license for this class.  If you are getting a day license, we recommend waiting until a few days before your class to purchase the license in case we need to postpone the class due to a storm or toxic conditions. CDFW will not allow you to transfer your license to a different date. 

About a week before your class, you will receive an email from us with step-by-step instructions on how to get your license. 

More Important Details

These programs are very popular and often fill up very quickly. We encourage you to register right away if you'd like to attend!

You will receive a registration confirmation once we've received this form + your payment + your signed liability waiver. Our programs fill up quickly, and we cannot hold your spot until we've received all 3. If you submit your registration in the evening or on a weekend it may take us 12-24 hours to send the confirmation. 

• If you enroll and must change your plans, we do not offer refunds, but you may sell or gift your ticket

• This program runs rain or shine!  In the event of severe hazardous weather, the class will be rescheduled with the option to reenroll, or get a refund or a credit

• Fees cover program costs only and do not cover transportation or lodging. We do provide a carpool spreadsheet once you've registered that participants use to self-organize ridesharing. 

• You are required to sign a waiver to participate. 

• Recommended age is 12 and up, but you know your child best

• Class is capped at 25 participants

Accessibility

• You will need to walk up and down a steep hillside on uneven surfaces including rocky shoreline, up to 3 miles round trip

Park and Fish and Wildlife Rules and Regs

You are required to follow all park and fish and wildlife rules and regulations.

No other plants, mushrooms or other forms of life may be harvested during this program, per park regulations.  

You must have your fishing license or risk steep fines.