Biography

Alexander Meander is a feral homesteader, subsistence ecologist, and advocate of wildness. He is largely self-taught on a wide range of topics that, as a whole, “tend human biology through ecological stewardship”. Thanks to occasional extended camping trips with his eccentric father, Alex has eaten wild foods since he was a child. As an unorthodox Georgia-born 20-something searching for meaning, he moved north to the mountains and officially began an intensive self-study of plants and mushrooms in the early 2000’s. In 2006 he began a life-changing four-year residence as an intern and staff member at the Sequatchie Valley Institute in Whitwell, TN, a non-profit dedicated to providing research and education on sustainable living. Following a year out west in Washington state to recalibrate, Alex returned east, spending 2011 at the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine as an apprentice to Coreypine Shane, after which he became a certified Holistic Herbalist with over 800 hours of study. In the winter of 2012-13, he acquired his Permaculture Design Certificate with Permaculture in Action at Earthaven Ecovillage in Black Mountain, NC. In early 2015 he was a content editor for the second volume of Ancestral Plants, written by Arthur Haines. Through various outdoor classes and plant walks he elucidates the importance of wildness while demonstrating proper identification, gathering, cultivation, and preparation of wild foods and medicines. Along with his partner Stacey and daughter Meissa, Alex lives on sixty acres of forest and field nestled in the foothills of the Southern Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. Here they teach and host community events, forage and wildcraft, grow nutritious food and medicine, raise animals for eggs and meat, and tend to Feralwood, an experiment in indigenous food plants. All of this work is done with the primary goal of fostering a mutually beneficial relationship with the land that they call Ardea. www.dwellerofthewood.com www.ardeasanctuary.com