Eric got his start foraging as a young boy with his grandmother on his grandparents' South Georgia farm. Together they walked along the fence lines and fields picking blackberries and scuppernongs.
She showed him how to cut the outer bark of sweetgum and collect the sticky sap to make chewing gum and how to pull sassafras roots for tea.
Eric learned to hunt on the same farm and for several years ate meat only from deer and small game that he harvested or scavenged from roadkill.
These early experiences with wild foods instilled a lifelong passion for foraging and living close to the earth.
Eric strives to continue learning and has studied wild edible and medicinal plants with Doug Elliott and Steven Snow Bear Taylor among others at Earthskills Rendezvous.
He and his wife Cindy homestead on a small farm deep in the woods of West Virginia, where Eric works remotely as a senior front end developer.
Cindy and Eric occasionally lead wild foods walks and provided recipes and food photography for Mark "Merriwether" Vorderbruggen's book Idiot's Guides: Foraging.