Sunny Savage | Inviting the Wild Inside

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ALOHA, I’M SUNNY SAVAGE

As author of Wild Food Plants of Hawaiʻi and creator of the Savage Kitchen mobile app, I’ve taught thousands of people about wild foods. My travels have taken me to every continent, including Antarctica, and the television series Hot on the Trail with Sunny Savage has aired on 4 continents. I enjoy distilling my observations of the natural world into storied solutions.

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Discover six edible invasive species in Hawaii with the Savage Kitchen App. Find wild foods near you, with mapping and recipes for tropical and subtropical locations around the globe. Wild adventures await!

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SUNNY’S WILD WORLD

Blog of all things wild.

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Protected: Spiny Amaranth Artichoke Dip

Protected: Too Hot to Handle

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Tripping out on the relationship between plants li

Tripping out on the relationship between plants like this narrow-leaf plantain (Plantago lanceolata) and endophytic fungi ~ powerful ~ so many healing metabolites produced ~ you’re literally eating both plant and 🍄 See stories for more! Besides the leaves being edible, today I fed over 50 kids and adults the unopened flower buds. Proud of an about 80% approval rating when taking the boiled buds (cooking liquid used for tea that they also loved) and marinated them in olive oil mixed with lemon, local garlic powder, local salt, local pepper, with local @haleakalacreamery goat cheese, wild Chilean primrose flower petals, wild fennel flowers, on a cracker. Healing foods, one keiki tastebud at a time….relationships with a powerful food & medicine changed. #plantain #plantagolanceolata #endophyticfungi #🍄 #sunnysavage #onewildfoodeveryday #wildfoodplantsofhawaii #foraging #herbalmedicine #wildfoodlove

I’m in love, the first dahlia I’ve ever grown

I’m in love, the first dahlia I’ve ever grown - cut in my garden this morning! Did you know the Aztec’s ate the tubers/roots of these wild plants, and even began cultivating them as a vegetable. There are so many underutilized foods, even in our domesticated species like dahlia. A delicious dinner plate awaits. #flowerpower #underutilizedfoods #forgottenfoods #biodiversity #dahlia

How does this photo make you feel? We have birthed

How does this photo make you feel? We have birthed a baby - it is not going away, this is the new normal. Not the robot kind like this photo, but ChatGPT and what it spawns in Artificial General Intelligence. I want to know what you think. I’ve been incessantly listening to podcasts - grappling with my animistic views that all of this reality we experience is alive and intelligent and beautiful and wouldn’t this be a part of that natural evolution - and then I fall into fear around not that it’s smarter than myself but by it’s control. Why should we “control it”…isn’t it like atomic energy and genetic modification, not inherently evil but all about how it may be manipulated to act in harmful ways? Love the cover image art by @vizzee.art and meme by @themonkeyuser

There are 2 spots left for my wild food walk this

There are 2 spots left for my wild food walk this Saturday 9-10:30…hope you can join! Click on link in bio and navigate to the store for class registration.

We unplugged from the onslaught of emails and plug

We unplugged from the onslaught of emails and plugged into the abundance of nature…Zeb has been free climbing cocos for the last year and wanted me to feast this past weekend. Multiple rounds of coconut bacon, coconut milk, coconut sponge, coconut water…paired with wood ear mushrooms he found. My favorite tea blend of the weekend being wild basil (Ocimum gratissimum) and false awa (Piper auritum) flowers! #mauinokaoi #coconut #woodearmushrooms #onewildfoodeveryday #sunnysavage #foraging #wildfoodplantsofhawaii

Made one for Mother Earth who has so graciously he

Made one for Mother Earth who has so graciously held me on this planet for 46 years, one for my human mama who has showered me with love my whole life, and one for myself…thanks for all the birthday cheer today family + friends 🧡

Whoa, the #SavageKitchenApp surpassed 11,000 users

Whoa, the #SavageKitchenApp surpassed 11,000 users in 65 countries today! So proud of what’s been woven together in the digital realm without any advertising dollars. Tech is changing so fast these days…my one-woman operation can’t keep up in current form with it financially or technically, so the app will phase change…who knows what will become of this citizen science effort to map our invasive wild food plants - be sure to get your favorite recipes though before the end of it! God bless our collective evolution. #onewildfoodeveryday #sunnysavage #wildfoodplantsofhawaii #tech #wildfoods #foraging

Filling dreamscapes and the #biodiversity of scent

Filling dreamscapes and the #biodiversity of scent to my lung microbiome with this darling little aromatic wild plant called fragrant heliotrope (Heliotropium amplexicaule). Not edible, but infusing my life with biodiversity - what a fun and enjoyable ride it can be. These are long-lasting bouquets! #naturalperfume #invasivespecies #blueheliotrope #fragrantheliotrope #heliotropiumamplexicaule

I’ve been having fun in the kitchen replacing to

I’ve been having fun in the kitchen replacing tomato sauce with Natal Plum (Carissa macrocarpa) pink sauce, along with hugely increasing my intake of the white wild vegetable ‘opiuma (Pithecellobium dulce) arils. #lifegoal - embodiment of #biodiversity

Any guesses on how this wildcrafted dish of blende

Any guesses on how this wildcrafted dish of blended Natal Plum (Carissa macrocarpa) sauce with ‘opiuma (Pithecellobium dulce) arils tastes? Get your wild fruit + veg from totally unsuspecting places…free and delicious yo! #foraging #hawaii #sunnysavage #onewildfoodeveryday #natalplum #carissamacrocarpa #opiuma #manillatamarind #pithecellobiumdulce #wildfoodlove

Had so much fun singing the praises of Wild Amaran

Had so much fun singing the praises of Wild Amaranth, a much maligned plant, in today’s released podcast with @RosaleeDeLaForet I’ve linked it in my bio…🌿

Yummy feasting on bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare) s

Yummy feasting on bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare) stems this morning! After peeling the outside, this crunchy wild vegetable is delicious. Flower petals and roots are edible as well. #bullthistle #Cirsiumvulgare #wildfoodplantsofhawaii #onewildfoodeveryday #sunnysavage #foraging #wildfoodlove

Hawai`i Mushroom Festival highlights. Last year th

Hawai`i Mushroom Festival highlights. Last year the mushrooming was so good with all the rains, this year it was the people who connect in deep ways with mushrooms that shined. Incredible art by @ChrisRitson - photos 1 & 2…legendary Don Hemmes talking about endemic mushrooms and is author of Mushrooms of Hawai`i - photo 3…Chase of Tropical Fungi Academy - photo 4…mushroom ID table from surrounding area finds - photo 5…mush props - photo 6…@benjabenn of the Hawai`i Fungi Project and Mālama Mushrooms - photo 7…bloody polypore (Pictnoperois sanguineus) - photo 8…false turkey tail (Microporus sp) - photo 9…I did a edible wild plant ID table - photo 10.

Wow, to live in such a beautiful and magical place

Wow, to live in such a beautiful and magical place…Hawai`i nei seen in a new way today - Moloka`i sea cliffs and even some wild greens (nettle-leaved goosefoot) during a touchdown near Kahakuloa. My first time in a helicopter, the ride a gift from a client 🥰 aloha is alive. Mahalo @airmaui for safe passage through the skies!

Today I did a private wild food hike with a couple

Today I did a private wild food hike with a couple and the woman cried like 10 times…this work ignites so much for people. How lucky am I to be the hollow bone through which it passes, to witness plants and people in relationship - remembering. Monday was the same thing, rotating through groups of students @rootsmaui to harvest, and then prepare two ways, the New Zealand Spinach (Tetragonia tetragonioides) in the photos. Served up on wild sea grape leaves! Sometimes life swells up into this incredible experience of deep joy and gratitude…that override and help get through the two vehicles in our household breaking down this week and endless remodel. feelin it - full moon, my youngest sons birthday today, deep connection with plants and people. 📸 of me - Melita Charan #Tetragoniatetragonioides #warrigalgreens #newzealandspinach #wildfoodplantsofhawaii #onewildfoodseveryday

There’s 1 spot left for the PoliPoli Wild Food H

There’s 1 spot left for the PoliPoli Wild Food Hike on Saturday, April 22 from 9-10:30am. Link in bio (grab it quick, the Kīhei walk sold out in a few hours!)

I drink tea made with blue butterfly pea flowers f

I drink tea made with blue butterfly pea flowers from my garden nearly every day, but what a festive treat to pair with red hibiscus petals and lychee for this fabulous purple concoction - LOL what do my insides look like!?! 💜

See Kīhei through the lens of wild and under-util

See Kīhei through the lens of wild and under-utilized foods growing in the urban landscape! $20 class, register using link in bio.

Ulu gnocchi made with @nohoanafarm flour, buddha’s hand from @la_kahea, wild lettuce greens foraged by me…made this in a cooking class with the wildly talented and absolutely fabulous Rosa of @molto.ono.maui…we also made sourdough pincinelli pasta with wild wood sorrel, and a wild amaranth pasta. So much fun, can’t recommend her classes enough. We also learned a wine pairing and made cookies as well. See stories for more!

Venus💋Jupiter (up at the very tip top of photo,

Venus💋Jupiter (up at the very tip top of photo, just before being swallowed by a giant rain cloud)…planetary conjunction happening now✨

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