We had the good fortune of connecting with James Mann and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi James, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
I would say that that most important factor in the success of this business is the passion i feel for our local landscapes. My main mission is to get humans back onto the landscape in a positive way, whether this is gathering food, picking up trash or removing invasive species, anytime i am able to make someone think about nature, wild food and local landscapes in a different way, i feel like i succeeded.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My business, spicebush woodcraft and foraging, was built on my love for foraging and the outdoors. I take groups of people out into the wild landscapes all around them and teach not only about what plants, fruits and fungi are edible or medicinal, i focus heavily on our human role in the enviorment and how being more invested in our local ecology. After classes, i tie it all together with a wild food lunch that i prepare ahead of time. I utilize mostly wild food and ingriedients from my own garden in these lunches. I also give students a follow up email recapping what we learned and providing resources to further educate themselves. I worked really hard to get to where i am today, and still feel like i have a long way to go. I have built a large audience on instagram, providing educational content, as well as doing donation based classes for kids, teaching local nature groups, camp couselors, even doctors!

The world needs to know that wild food is the past and its the future. We can build sustainable food systems utilizing argoforestry techniques, embracing the wild food that is abundant all around, and by interacting with nature as we have done since the beginning of humans, we can fix not only our health, but the health of our enviorments as a whole.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would take them to one of our many state parks or metroparks. Columbus is very lucky to have so many natural, wild spaces all around us.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There is a few people that have mentored me throughout my life, but the two that stick out to me are my chef mentor, Travis Hyde, he took me in as a young chef and taught me disaplince, work ethic and encouraged my creativity in the kitchen. Part of the man i am today is because of him. I also want to shout out Joesph Swain, owner of swainway farms in Northern Ohio. I worked on his mushroom farm for 4 years and learned to hustle at the farmers market, grind day in a day out to build a business into something special and most importantly, i learned to grow food and started to view food, from the garden or the forest, in a new light. I think of these two often, and even though our relationships were not always sunshine and rainbows, i have infinite respect and admiration for two men im honored to call a friend.

Website: www.spicebushwoodcraft.com

Instagram: @spicebushwoodcraft

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