Foraging for wellness with Joanna Ruminska
Joanna Ruminska is on a mission to reconnect people with nature through the practice of foraging and wellness exercises. She’s encouraging people to make the most of the outdoor spaces around us
Foraging is an ancient practice that used to be an integral part of human survival. These days foraging offers a relaxing experience that transports you from the worries of modern life. A time to forget work-life stress and look to wellness and decompression.
Joanna is a foraging expert and member of the Association of Foragers, who has been foraging since she was a small girl. She leads walks, runs events and offers courses all centred around different aspects of foraging in Devon and Cornwall, with her business Incredible Edible .
She is also a qualified nutritionist who uses her knowledge to understand the health benefits different plants and fungi offer.
Primarily based in Plymouth, Joanna’s Urban Nature Walks project, which she piloted last year, aims to expose people to the wellness aspect of foraging. “I run the project in deprived areas with the aim of encouraging people to make use of green spaces and parks,” says Joanna. “I use foraging as a reason for people to go out and explore these spaces more”.
Joanna’s walks are open to people of all abilities and are wheelchair accessible, opening the opportunity to forage to everybody.
After the success of the pilot program, Joanna gained recognition and now receives funding from Plymouth Council, ensuring she can run these courses for free and reach a wider area.
“It’s just reaching out to people who usually don’t go out and explore green spaces, who think they don’t have a reason to be in the park,” she says. “Giving them plant identification skills, gives them the reason to go out”.
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“I used to do it with my parents and grandparents, but nobody ever called it foraging,”
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Joanna has started implementing mindfulness exercises on her walks in order to show people the inherent connection we have with nature and uses elements of ‘forest bathing’, an ancient Japanese practice that encourages going out into forests, to focus this connection in a sensory way.
“We try to find a quiet space and just practice listening, observing, and including different senses in our walks, along with the foraging as the main activity,” she says.
Joanna noticed that people in urban areas seem to have a real disconnect from nature but growing up in Poland, foraging and being in nature formed a big part of Joanna’s childhood.
“I used to do it with my parents and grandparents, but nobody ever called it foraging,” she says. “It was just a nice way of spending family time on the weekend and collect ingredients to use for dinner”.
While foraging is second nature to Joanna, she describes a common conversion she hears on her walks: “‘It’s the first time I’ve been here, and I’ve lived here, for 20-odd years. I’ve never visited this place before,’”. As a result, Joanna aims to continue her project and reach as many people as she can so more people will have an introduction to the nature they’ve been missing out on.
For Joanna, it’s about finding “a reconnection with nature, that gives us peace, because it’s where we belong”.
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