The Bay Area is a forager鈥檚 eden. Juicy plums dangle from branches in summer, savory porcinis blanket coastal forests in autumn, and winter brings , named for the prospectors who devoured it to stave off scurvy. The secret to a locally picked bounty is knowing where to look. For roughly a decade, the mycologists, farmers, and nature geeks at have led wild food walks through city parks and along the coast, extolling the superior flavor and nutrition of foraged grub. 鈥淵our lens changes when you realize that so much of what鈥檚 around you is edible,鈥� says founder Iso Rabins.

Aided by celebrity chefs like Ren茅 Redzepi, the foraging craze took off in the 2000s from Seattle to Copenhagen, and it has flourished in San Francisco. By the time ForageSF opened in 2008, some were already writing off foraging as a foodie fad, but enrollment in the company鈥檚 programs has grown. Offerings have expanded to include a variety of classes (including DIY mushroom cultivation, starting this fall), and Rabins has created a restaurant incubator. 鈥淎s tech gets bigger in the area, people are hungry to do something with their hands,鈥� he says.

We asked ForageSF鈥檚 guides to share some beginner steps to get started in your own neck of the woods.

Travel light.聽鈥淚f foragers were action figures,鈥� says naturalist and author , 鈥渢hey鈥檇 probably come armed with a plastic bag and a pair of scissors.鈥�

Steer clear of contaminated soil. That includes busy roadsides, industrial sites, golf courses, train tracks, and spots with lots of dead vegetation, where herbicide may have been used.

Start with easy-to-ID plants that聽don鈥檛 have toxic look-alikes and eat only what you know. (For example, steer clear of the common field mushroom, Agaricus campestris, and , Amanita phalloides.) Naturalist and mycologist Maya Elson recommends sourgrass, found throughout the U.S., which 鈥渁dds a nice lemon flavor to your water,鈥� and miner鈥檚 lettuce, which grows up and down the West Coast. 鈥淢y two-year-old is easily able to identify both of these,鈥� she says. To expand your skill set, see if your city has a foraging club or tour.

Keep it legal. Picking plants in most public parks is against the law, but you can stretch your identification muscles in these flora-rich zones.

Never pick rare or endangered edibles. And only take as much as you鈥檒l eat. Rule of thumb: limit your gathering to a quarter of any single patch. Check your state鈥檚 legal maximum for higher-volume harvests like seaweed, which can range from ten pounds per day in California to .

Be discreet. Foragers tread lightly in fragile ecosystems and never spill the dirt on where they find rare treasures. Save the social-media post for the roasted fennel you whip up afterward.

Prepare your spoils safely. Most plants have washable skin, but mushrooms should be cooked for ease of digestion. (Cooking usually won鈥檛 neutralize poisonous fungi, though.)

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Last winter, when returned to the area where he grew up, it looked like the aftermath of a war. The Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California鈥檚 history, had ripped through Butte County less than two months before, flattening entire communities, killing scores of people, and displacing tens of thousands.

The town of Paradise, just 15 miles from Grammer鈥檚 hometown of Chico, was leveled. Lone chimneys鈥攖he rare structures that could actually withstand the fire鈥攕tood surrounded by ash and twisted metal. Nails once buried inside walls now lay exposed, jutting up from the ground. Grammer watched workers fell trees weakened by the flames and the odd hazmat-suited resident sifting through rubble looking for any surviving belongings.

Then he began to paint.

Over the course of three months, the 47-year-old created a series of more than a dozen spray-painted murals on the remains of buildings and vehicles rendered useless by the flames. The images included a victim of the fire, a young girl who survived but lost her house, and a series of biblical characters. The project garnered national attention, including and , and will culminate in at the Museum of Northern California Art (MONCA) in Chico. Titled Beauty from Ashes,聽the event will feature images of the Paradise murals (since demolished during the cleanup) by Sacramento-based photographer Terence Duffy聽and paintings and a new multimedia installation from Grammer. Residents from the region will be admitted for free, and proceeds from ticket sales will benefit a MONCA summer youth program as well as the Paradise Art Center, an arts-education nonprofit.

For Grammer, these works are an extension of what he鈥檚 always done. As a Christian missionary and street artist, he鈥檚聽spent much of his adult life traveling to areas of misfortune鈥攁n orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico, a youth ministry in downtown San Francisco, a nonprofit for child sex-trafficking survivors in Cambodia鈥攁nd painting murals there. 鈥淚 want to do something powerful and create art that moves people,鈥� he says.

The difference was that this time, the tragedy had hit home.

Growing up in Chico, Grammer found refuge in art. His father, who聽he never met, died of a drug overdose when Grammer was young, and after his mother remarried, he struggled to feel accepted at home. Art provided an outlet for his emotions, a way to experience a sense of connection. 鈥淚 can sit in front of a Rothko or a Pollock in a museum and just cry,鈥� he says. While taking community-college classes near Chico in the early 1990s, Grammer saw a documentary called about New York鈥檚 graffiti scene. 鈥淚 thought, Whatever that is, I have to be a part of it.鈥澛燗 few years later, he moved to the Bay Area and opened a聽business creating murals and installations for clients ranging from theme parks to houses of worship.

Two years before the Camp Fire, Grammer had moved with his wife, Missy, and their three young daughters from outside Sacramento to the Los Angeles area, where he found work as a theme-park designer and creative director. When the fire hit in November, he read about it in the news, but the demands of fatherhood and his day job pulled his attention back to life at home. Then he began to see the pictures on Facebook. A single mother he knew shared聽a photo of ash and rubble where her home once stood. A childhood friend鈥檚聽post showed her聽burned-down house; destroyed inside was聽a painting of聽Grammer鈥檚聽that聽she owned. In another photo, Grammer鈥檚 brother and his kids, who still lived in the area, peered out from behind respirator masks, lungs protected聽from the particulate-clogged air. More than two dozen friends and relatives had lost their homes.

One image in particular grabbed him. A friend named Shane Edwards shared a photo of the burnt remnants of his family鈥檚 home, the lot littered with ash, a brick stairway leading nowhere. Only the chimney remained standing. 鈥淎s soon as I saw it,鈥� Grammer said, 鈥淚 knew I had to paint it.鈥�

When Grammer contacted him to ask for his permission to put a mural up on the chimney, Edwards was honored. 鈥淏ut at the same time,鈥� Edwards says, 鈥淚 knew the mural would have to be torn down, and that was sickening to me.鈥� Nevertheless, he and his wife, Jennifer, gave Grammer the OK. 鈥淎fter the fire, you couldn鈥檛 go anywhere without being overwhelmed by the destruction,鈥� Edwards says. 鈥淥ur hope was that people would get to see a little beauty and a little life.鈥�

On a crisp New Year鈥檚 Eve morning, Grammer and Edwards set out from Chico toward聽Edwards鈥檚 property in Paradise. Dozens of wooden crosses lined Skyway Road, the main arterial into town, a handmade gift that commemorated each life lost in the fire from an artist in Chicago.

They arrived at Edwards鈥檚 home, and Grammer set his supplies in front of the chimney. He chose black and white, transparent spray paint鈥攖he palette of smoke scars鈥攁nd began outlining the face of a woman from the Song of Solomon, a biblical love story about a king and his bride, believed to symbolize God鈥檚 love for humankind. He didn鈥檛 sign it. He wanted it to look like part of the environment.

Grammer posted some photos to Facebook, anticipating the typical smattering of responses. But when Edwards shared the images on a page for Camp Fire survivors, reactions poured in by the thousands. 鈥淵ou have given a town something beautiful in a time of darkness,鈥� commented one woman. Another wrote, 鈥淚 personally feel loved and encouraged by your act of loving kindness.鈥�

Soon Grammer was inundated with messages and invitations to paint more murals鈥攖he portrait of a young girl on the single surviving wall of her family鈥檚 burnt home, Jesus鈥檚 image on the baptismal font of a razed church, a memorial to an 84-year-old woman who died in her mobile home after her daughter couldn鈥檛 reach her in time. He returned eight times, painting 17 murals in all (with permission from property owners), fleeting works of art that existed only briefly,聽when people most needed hope.

In the months that followed, construction crews demolished the artwork in the cleanup. By then, the town had grown so attached to them that Edwards says he took some flack for failing to preserve his chimney mural, the one piece he could have taken from the rubble. He asked the crew to film the demolition, however, and . 鈥淚 wanted to let people know that although this is a beautiful thing, there has to be progress,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e have to move forward and start rebuilding.鈥�

More than six months have passed since the spark ignited that聽went on to聽burn聽over 200 square miles of homes, businesses, hospitals, and places of worship. Of the 50,000 people displaced, many have moved away, while聽many others remain without permanent shelter. The rebuilding has begun, but it鈥檚 hard to imagine 鈥渢he ridge,鈥� as local calls the area, will ever resemble its former self. 鈥淧aradise isn鈥檛 just another disaster where most things go back to normal in three months or six months or a year,鈥� says Grammer. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e wiped out.鈥�

Since word has spread about his murals, Grammer thought the best way to respond would be to organize an art show, which MONCA agreed to host. The centerpiece of the event will be a multimedia installation called Hope Rises,聽the details of which Grammer is keeping under wraps. He has shared that he鈥檚 constructing it from materials donated by a theme-park design shop, and it will be scored by movie and TV composer David Bawiec. 鈥淚t will feel like this structure is going up into heaven,鈥� Grammer says.

In the meantime, he鈥檚 still trying to process the attention his art has received. 鈥淧eople have tried to saint me,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey say, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e so humble,鈥� but that鈥檚 because I鈥檝e had my butt kicked.鈥� Memories of hard times鈥攚hen he and his wife struggled to afford rent, when they saw their car repossessed鈥� never completely fade. 鈥淚 know what it鈥檚 like to have nothing,鈥� he says.

He considers it a miracle that his artwork has moved so many people in Northern California and throughout the world. He聽hopes聽the new installation will do the same. 鈥淚鈥檇 love to see people cry,鈥� he told me. Then he laughed. It sounded cathartic.

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