What is Foraged & Forged?

Foraged & Forged began with two people who had spent much of their lives learning how to survive, & who knew that survival alone was not enough.

We wanted to thrive.

We are both folk in recovery, & though our paths looked different from one another, we learned that our lives shared the common threads of living through hardship, stress, failing health & the long work of becoming "well". Over time, we began to understand healing as something built slowly: through support, structure, daily practices, determination & the incredibly patient work of learning how to inhabit our bodies again, even & especially when to do so felt scary or painful.

As we rebuilt our lives, we began to look more closely at the systems that fed us & were heartbroken by what we found. We didn't have a perfect answer, but we knew we wanted to start somewhere tangible. We had to. Our journey continued with small steps: learning more about our bodies, mental health services, herbal supports, navigating the western medical system, our food systems... & eventually building a small rabbitry.

Raising rabbits brought us into a more direct relationship with our food, animals, the land & all the responsibilities that come along with tending these things. We learned to care for the rabbits (or "The Buns" as we call them) through the ordinary rhythms of the day: feeding, cleaning, observing, responding & loving on them. When the time came to harvest, we learned that ethical care did not end there. It asked us to remain present through the entire process, to acknowledge the weight of taking a life, & to use what had been entrusted to us with as little waste as possible.