Botanist Takes Dining Out to a New Level

It’s not easy to trip up Max and Anna, two young hikers who have logged many hours on Fryman Canyon’s trails in Studio City. But on a recent spring-like Sunday afternoon, the two adventurers were caught off guard when their wilderness guide popped a sprig of fresh poison oak into his mouth and savored it like a mint.

“I’ve been eating it for some time now,” said botanist Christopher Nyerges, who runs the School of Self-Reliance in Highland Park. “It helped me build up an immunity so I can walk right through it and not get a reaction.”

He admitted that the wild plant did give him a stomachache the first couple of times he ingested it, but for a guy who’s used to eating prickly sow thistle and the bitter herb horehound, what’s a little discomfort?

Sunday’s hike, one of many Nyerges leads through the mountains of the San Fernando Valley, produced a salad unlike any Max, 9, or Anna, 11, had ever tasted, but one that Nyerges, 43, enjoys frequently. Bunches of chickweed and sour grass, a handful of wild cucumber vine, just a splash of vinaigrette dressing brought from home and the children walked away completely satisfied.

“It actually tastes good,” Anna said.

Nyerges gets a definite kick out of converting junk food junkies into lovers of wild edibles. He has been sharing his knowledge of wild foods and survival skills with hikers, school children and Scouts for 24 years.

“If people could just take some time to step away from their TVs and computers and get into the simple value of sitting together and talking, we’d all be better off,” Nyerges said. “Our salvation is in finding ourselves through nature. And it’s right in our backyards.”

The Pasadena native spent his youth wandering the trails of Angeles National Forest, turning to backpacking during his teens. Wanting to get closer to nature, he started investigating how the Native Americans of San Gabriel used plants for medicinal and nutritional purposes.

Nyerges went on to study botany at Pasadena City College and UCLA, and hung out with noted botanist Leonid Enari at the Arboretum of Los Angeles County.

Nyerges began sharing his knowledge of basic safety and wilderness survival skills in 1974, and continues to do so now with Dolores, his wife of 12 years. Their School of Self-Reliance offers classes in identifying and cooking wild foods, weaving, building shelters and fire-making.

Nyerges also lectures at Glendale College and offers workshops at the TreePeople, the Wilderness Institute and the Sierra Club. The fourth edition of his “Guide to Wild Foods” was recently published.

But reaching out to children is the naturalist’s first love.

“Christopher is magic with kids,” said Michael Reddish,(CQ) program director for Agoura Hills’ Wilderness Outdoor Leadership Foundation, )which organizes overnight nature trips for local schoolchildren and at-risk teens.

As Anna and Max combed the hillside for wild greens, they spotted a common, parsley-like plant that looked perfect. The tempting plant, they learned, was hemlock, and one handful of it would kill them in an hour, Nyerges warned.

“There’s magic out there. It’s in your backyard and in your own heart,” Nyerges said. “The natural world has the answers. You just have to look for it.”

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