EVERYTHING WILD SOUTHERN PLANTS — FORAGING, HERBALISM, GROWING, AND MORE
The Wild South Foraging and Herbalist Training Guild
Where Southern Families Learn — Together — to Harvest Wild Food, Build a Home Apothecary, Propagate Useful Plants, and Design Their Own Backyard Food Forest, One Month at a Time
The Knowledge that Fed and Healed This Continent for Thousands of Years — Then Nearly Vanished
What if everything you needed to feed your family, treat an illness, and live off the land was already growing within walking distance of where you live right now?
For thousands of years, before Europeans ever got here, that wasn't just an idea — it's really how people lived.Â
For generation after generation, people lived completely off the plants already growing wild around them. All their food. All their medicine. All their farming. Everything they needed came from plants already growing nearby.
When the first settlers arrived, they didn't find an empty land waiting to be tamed. They found a place already rich with essential cultural knowledge for living with the land — traditional medicine, farming, and food gathering skills,
An entire civilization living off what grew around them.
Much of that Native American plant knowledge was passed down to early Americans, who paired it with the skills they brought from home and used it in daily life for centuries — what they grew, what they ate, and what they turned to when someone got sick.
That old plant knowledge didn't stop working. So why did we stop using it?
Answering that question has become my life's work: Rediscovering, practicing, and bringing back America's lost plant knowledge.
That eventually became Legacy Wilderness Academy, where I now teach foraging and herbal medicine to over 250,000 subscribers on YouTube.
Introducing: The Wild South Foraging and Herbalist Training Guild
Harvest Useful Wild Plants, Increase Your Emergency Food Security, And Turn Your Yard Into An Edible and Medicinal Paradise
The Wild South Foraging and Herbalist Training Guild is a monthly online membership built for one purpose: helping you turn the plants growing all around you into food, medicine, and a way of life — steadily, together with a community of like-minded people.
Each month, we go deep on just two or three plants, and use them as a jumping off point into the world of self-sufficiency. You'll learn how to identify them, prepare them, grow them, and turn them into real remedies for your home apothecary.
This isn't just a course. It's a live experience with monthly workshops and a real community that will be showing up with you, all working towards the same goal: Growing and foraging their own food, teaching their kids and grandkids to love the outdoors, and slowly turning their backyard into a food forest, one steady step at a time.
A Wall of Green to the Untrained Eye, but to the Experience Forager, a Wealth of Valuable Resources...
Plants, Skills, and Techniques Tailored Specifically to the Southeast
Enrollment Isn't Open 24/7. Current Sign Up Period Ends In:
00
DAYS
00
HOURS
00
MINS
00
SECS
Once it closes, you'll have to wait for the next opening.
Build the Self-Sufficient, "Little House on the Prairie" Lifestyle You've Always Wanted
Grow Your Own Food, Make Your Own Medicine, and Learn the Skills of Our Grandfathers’ Generation.
Fun Kitchen Activities: Make Tasty, Healthy Food Directly From the Land, Grown or Foraged From the Wild…
Stock Your Own Home Apothecary With Medicine You Made Yourself, From Plants Growing Right Outside Your Front Door
Design an Edible & Medicinal Food Forest and Create a Self-Sustaining “Garden of Eden” In Your Own Backyard
Get Valuable Insights and Strategies for Living Off the Land in a Real Food Emergency- Learned From Over 12 years of Regular Foraging and Extensive Research
Grow Steadily Without Overwhelm! We’ll All Go Through the Journey Together as a Community, Not Separately All On Your Own.
The Path That Gets You From Here to There...
Small, steady progress, one month at a time, alongside people doing the exact same thing with you...
I. Guild Hall Gatherings
Live Virtual Workshops Twice a Month (Held On Tuesday Nights, Recorded If You Can't Make It)
Each month we’ll focus on just two plants — that’s by design. Those two plants become your jumping off point into the world of self-sufficiency: First you’ll learn how to identify them, their basic uses, & preparation.Â
Then throughout the month we’ll branch out into using them in cooking, medicine making, specific formulas for health conditions, garden & ecological design, and more!
By anchoring our focus to just two plants, we’ll avoid going down “research rabbit holes”, learn together as a community, yet still be able to pursue our own specific interests that month.
By the end of each month, you'll walk away with new skills you'll actually use to take care of your family for the rest of your life.
II. Monthly Guild Quests
Small Monthly Challenges That Turn Knowledge Into Real, Lasting Skills
This is where everything comes together.
Each month you'll be presented with a list of monthly challenges tied to the plants we’re learning that month. (Including useful info & resources to help you complete them).
The goal isn’t to complete every challenge on the list. The goal is to pick 2 or 3 small, hands-on activities that you want to accomplish in the field, the garden, or the kitchen.Â
“Consistent growth without overwhelm” is the mantra of this guild!
The challenges you pick each month may be different from other guild members, but they’ll all surround that month’s two featured plants.
Everyone grows together, while we all master the skills that interest us the most.
III. The Wild South Online Training Community
A Group of Like-Minded Southerners On the Same Journey
In the Guild's members-only online community you'll be able to ask questions and get expert advice, post pictures of your wins, and share your experiences with other Guild members.
IV. The Field Guide Vault
Your Growing, Personal Library of Southern Plant Profiles
Every month members will get two new 1-Page Plant Profiles covering the month’s featured plants.
Each profile shows multiple parts of the plant, with a focus on key identification features so you can learn to identify each plant with confidence.
Profiles also summarize important edible or medicinal uses for each plant to give you a starting point for further research.Â
The profiles can be downloaded to your phone for use in the field, or downloaded to your computer so you can print them and have access to the information without internet or electricity.
Check out an example of one of the 1-Page Plant Profiles below!
A Few Extra Gifts from the Guild
Surprise Guest Instructors Throughout the Year
Throughout the year we'll have on experts with specialized knowledge about that month's plants or topics: Professional herbalists, nurserymen, chefs who specialize in wild food, etc.
This bonus isn't a guarantee every month, but a serious attempt will be made to make it a regular occurrence.
My hope is that this group becomes one of the most complete, trustworthy sources of Southern plant knowledge in the country.
Print-Your-Own Edible and Medicinal Plant Flashcards for Learning Plants Quickly
One of the very best tools for memorizing large numbers of plants quickly is flashcards.
That's why I created this deck of edible and medicinal plant flashcards. Scan through the pictures for a few minutes each day, and you’ll be amazed at how quickly you start finding new plants!
It includes 128 cards, covering 64 plants (2 pictures for each plant), and includes only wild Southeastern plants.
My Southeast Foraging Calendar
Print It, Stick It On Your Fridge, and Always Know Exactly Which Plants are Ready to Harvest In Your Area!
Meet The Founder
Matthew Hunter is a professional foraging instructor and author of several online courses including Medicinal Plants of the Southeast and The Southerner’s Guide to Foraging. He is the creator of the Legacy Wilderness Academy YouTube channel, where he teaches foraging and herbal medicine to more than 250,000 subscribers.
Matthew lives with his wife, son, and two daughters in West Monroe, Louisiana.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will Workshops Be Recorded So I Can Watch Them at a Later Date?
Yes! Guild members will have access to workshop workshop recordings, so if you can't make it to the live workshops, you can watch them at a later date.
What If I Don't Live in the Green Area on the Map?
Many of the plants covered in this program grow outside of the green area on the map above. However, some of the plants we'll be discussing only grow in the Southeast. The further outside of the green zone you live, the less likely you'll be able to find all of the plants we discuss.
More specifically, if you live just north of the green area(in the Midwest), you'll still have a decent amount of the plants we discuss growing in your area.
If you live west of the green area(central TX and central OK), or in south Florida, I do not recommend signing up, as the plant life tends to change more drastically in those areas.
© 2026 Legacy Wilderness Academy LLC
By visiting this page, you agree to terms and conditions & privacy policy.