Gary Hochgraf in his element, a canoe on the Huron River. Gary is moving from Ann Arbor this week, and will soon begin his bicycle trip around the world.

Linda Diane Feldt | Contributor

Passion, knowledge, enthusiasm and tenacity. These are the qualities embodied in my foraging friend. Enthusiasm is contagious, fun to be around and certainly inspiring. Three years ago I met Gary, who was as enthusiastic and passionate about wild plants as I am. Maybe even more. His knowledge of wild medicinals wasn’t very strong, and he knew way more edible wild plants than I did. Over the last three years, we have had the pleasure of exchanging knowledge — learning from and with each other.

Many of my pursuits have been lonely, wildcrafting included. An uncommon interest or quirky enjoyment can be isolating, To find someone equally strange, who finds those interests normal and even admirable, is a wonderful thing. Gary has been an enthusiastic partner and foraging friend.

I’ve never seen anyone approach a black raspberry patch with such intensity and tenacity. He has total patience and presence to pick whatever is at hand and to keep going as the cups and quarts and even gallons accumulate. I tend to wander off after 15 or 20 minutes. He has kept me focused on large-scale harvesting. And when I plunge into brambles and thickets, off the path and making my own way, I think of him and his determination. Purpose mixes with open expectation that he will either find what he is after or something just as interesting and exciting.

I’ve frequently referred to him as “my foraging friend” in these posts. His hands have been photographed many times, holding fruit and seeds and other finds. Today, his identity is formally revealed, and this is my public “thank you” to him as he leaves Ann Arbor to begin the next phase of his life. He intends to bicycle around the world.

Gary Hochgraf has had a bicycle based home repair business in Ann Arbor for the last few years. He traded his carbon hungry van for a simple bike and homemade trailer. I’ve written repeatedly that you need to get out of your car and use foot or bicycle transportation to find the great wild and edible plants. Gary certainly exemplifies that idea. He has phoned in frequent reports of his findings, many that we later returned to and harvested.

Using a homemade poling paddle, Gary often stands in the canoe for better visibility, and because it's fun.

Linda Diane Feldt | Contributor

It is great to have a friend who gets excited about a new taste, a new plant, a new area discovered and explored. An expert canoeist, some of our best adventures and discoveries have been by water, a way I had never used a canoe before meeting him.

There is bravery, a certainty, and a dedication that he brought out in me that has been a joy to discover. He has reinforced my knowledge by putting it to the test, bringing it out into the open and wild spaces, making outdoors a more real and accessible place.

And as I’ve learned and experienced and shared more and more the last few years, my hunger for expanding that knowing has been tickled and supported and shared by my friend. My teaching now has less theory and more experience. My “real” life has taken a jump in making wildcrafting a daily experience. I found a greater balance in integrating my passion and pleasure in being outdoors and seeking out those wonderful plants. All this inspired by my foraging friend.

One of the many photos I've taken and published of Gary with something we've harvested, showing hands but no face. Here he is with acorns, that turned into acorn flour and eventually pancakes.

Linda Diane Feldt | Contributor

Much of our sharing of tastes and sights, sounds and smells, textures and changes in the land around us, requires proximity. And that has now come to an end. The phone and texts and sharing e-mail links will also only last for a short while, and just here and there. Traveling in such a very basic way — by pedaling — often negates communication with those who have stayed in some far off place. I will miss that.

My sadness for the end of our time walking, biking and canoeing to favorite and new places is certainly balanced by the richness of what we have shared and have helped each other to learn. We each have adventures and discoveries ahead of us, but now of a very divergent and distant kind.

This is my thanks for three years that have made a wonderful difference in my life. It is also the beginning of seeking those new friends and allies who will take me — or join me — in even more interesting, expansive, quirky, fun and amazing places, learning and exploring. I no longer want to do this work and discovery alone; Gary has spoiled me for that.

I look forward to hearing about the wild things in the new places you will travel, my friend. Thank you for our travels closer to home that have made me more of who I am and all the places around me that I now know more deeply and fully because of exploring them with you. And thank you for those skills that I now have — talents new and those I already possessed moved to greater depth. But especially, thank you for sharing and inspiring passion, knowledge, enthusiasm, and tenacity.

Linda Diane Feldt is a local Holistic Health Practitioner, herbalist, and writer. You can follow her on twitter, visit her web site, or contact her at ldfeldt (at) holisticwisdom.org. Her cookbook “Spinach and Beyond: Loving Life and Dark Green Leafy Vegetables” is available locally at Morgan and York, Crazy Wisdom Bookstore, Nicola’s, and Indigo Forest. You can also find it at Amazon.com.