John Fraser's Wild Life

08/24/2026

This latest episode was a fun video to put together. Our worst undocking attempt ever leads to a little tension between Mary and I, and perhaps the best line ever uttered in the series..."yeah, it's called physics, John". 😆 We head over to Saturna Island and have a beautiful sail and set the anchor on the first try! The day just got better and better. I hope you enjoy the show and help spread the word and/or subscribe!

Watch our worst undocking attempt ever. We’re supposed to be sailin...

08/19/2026

I’ve never been very good at having just one thing.

Boats. Motorcycles. Wild places. Good food. Old machines. Cameras. Firelight. Making things. Going somewhere to see what’s there.

I have finally stopped trying to make it all fit into a category.

It’s just my life.

08/13/2026

Seals hunting beneath the dock on Pender Island this morning.

Not a bad commute.

08/13/2026

November in northern Alberta.

Sitting in a tree-stand on my grandfather’s farm, hunting whitetails with my 1957 Bear recurve.

It was a little cold.

08/07/2026

Wild food can feel complicated when you’re new to it. Identification. Regulations. Seasons. Equipment. Knowing where to go.

So don’t start with complicated. Start with the blackberries hanging over the trail.

Pick enough for two jars instead of eighteen. Take them home and make something you haven’t made before. Preserve them. Pickle them. Make a sauce.

Put one of those jars on the shelf. That’s success!

You gathered something from the landscape, learned what to do with it, and turned it into great food.

Then go find the next thing.

Make the first wild-food experience easy enough to succeed. Then build from there. Learn a new ingredient. Teach yourself to do something interesting with it. Build from there. 👊

08/07/2026

A good clam beach usually tells you what’s underneath before you ever start digging.

Look for the clues: holes in the sand, broken shell fragments scattered across the surface, and productive oyster rock immediately nearby.

None of these guarantees clams—but when they show up together, I start paying attention.

Learning to find wild food starts with learning what to notice.

08/03/2026

A tour of our home, W. Grebe while underway to explore a nearby island we haven’t visited before.

Our house takes us to spots that are only accessible by water. Spots for shellfish harvesting, foraging, and fishing. The YouTube channel covers our daily living and sailing adventures if you’re interested. It is called John Fraser’s Wild Life.

08/01/2026

I am so curious to hear about other folk’s experiences with wild food. What are some of your most memorable wild food surprises? A new favourite? Something weird that tasted amazing?

07/29/2026

It’s kind of crazy how simple harvesting shellfish can be.

You don’t need a boat. You don’t need expensive gear.

You just need a safe, open beach, a pair of boots, and something to dig with.

Start by checking the latest shellfish closures on the DFO website, then get outside.

Some of the best wild food is hiding in places most people walk right past.

The link is in the bio.