by Mackensy Lunsford   .   photos by Brent Fleury

To look at Erin Fahey, an attractive and spritely woman of 23, you’d never guess that she willingly dines on bugs, raw organ meat and even road kill. Fahey lives in West Asheville and studies with an herbalist, Juliet Blankespoor, at the Chestnut School of Medicine in Leicester (she also works one day a week at UliMana, an Asheville company that makes raw and organic chocolate). She moved to Asheville three years ago, has been an avid forager for four, and loves learning how to collect wild foods and medicines in the mountains of Western North Carolina. She’s also quite willing to describe her culinary adventures in fairly vivid detail.

It all began about five years ago when Fahey was aboard a Greyhound bus in Colorado that struck a deer. The animal’s back was broken, but it did not die right away, struggling in pain on the side of the highway. A hunter in transit noticed the commotion, pulled over and dispatched the deer as humanely as possible. This struck Fahey deeply. “Death by car is one of the worst deaths I can imagine,” she says, adding that she wanted to “make use of the death.” She wasn’t far from her hometown of Boulder, and, despite the fact that she had been a vegan for two years, arranged for a friend to fetch the abandoned carcass later so as not to waste the animal’s life. With the help of a neighbor, they processed and packaged the meat, creating a wealth of future meals. “Then,” she says matter-of-factly, “I just started eating road kill.” 

It’s one thing to eat a freshly killed deer, but what of an animal that’s been sitting about ripening? Fahey does have some limits. She won’t eat meat that’s turning green, for example, but notes that many people around the world do eat “high” meat—another way of saying rotten. Fahey is quick to defend the practice, explaining that microorganisms that work to break down the meat during the rotting process provide health benefits—beneficial bacteria for the gut, she says.

In addition to the supposed health benefits, Fahey points out that slightly ripe meat sometimes actually tastes better. “Meat kind of partially aged and rotted has more intricate flavors,” she says. “Just like cheddars—the four-year cheddar is the good cheddar. Sometimes the aged meat has flavors that it doesn’t have when it’s fresh.” The taste and smell of ripe meat doesn’t stir up a negative response from her body, but she admits she hasn’t eaten anything that’s too far along. When asked about the menu of road kill she’s sampled, Fahey lists squirrel, possum, raccoon and dog—which tastes a lot like raccoon (which tastes a bit like turkey). “All of the omnivores have a similar flavor, some can be gamey. Each one is a bit unique.” 

In July, Fahey plans to attend the Firefly Gathering, an annual outdoor, multi-day primitive skills workshop held near Asheville. Held last year at a family farm about eight miles east of Asheville, the gathering aims to teach people methods to explore traditional ways of living. Skills taught include primitive pottery, bow-making, outdoor survival skills, medicinal and edible plant walks and blacksmithing, to name a few. Fahey has been to similar gatherings in Georgia and elsewhere. There is a strong emphasis on foraging at the gatherings, and really, anything is game, so to speak. If someone picks up road kill on the way to the gathering, the carcass may be incorporated into the skinning and processing at fur classes, or it may be made into stew. “The road kill meals are a little bit impromptu, as you might imagine,” she says with a chuckle. “Road kill is just another dimension in foraging.”   

At the Firefly Gathering, there’s plenty of other fodder for foraging. Take bugs, for example. During Firefly nature walks, teachers often point out, gather and prepare insects, some of which contain beneficial fats and proteins. According to Fahey, they’re quite delicious. “They taste really creamy,” she says of most of the bugs she’s eaten. “They taste like what they’ve been eating.” Hickory nut and chestnut grubs have a nutty flavor, she explains, and the wax moth larvae in honeycombs are especially good. Ants, on the other hand, have a somewhat lemony flavor, and eating hard-shell bugs like grasshoppers can feel like munching on popcorn. 

When you eat something living, there’s also the wiggle factor. When eating live grubs, which Fahey describes as “quite docile,” the first time is “like crossing a threshold because it just moves around in your mouth a little bit. I have time to think, ‘I’m eating a living thing’ and then ‘squish!’ It’s gone. It’s a pretty direct transfer of energy.”   

For the squeamish, it’s important to note that the Firefly Gathering, occurring this year from July 9-12, offers more than primitive food-gathering skills. Visitors may learn many things like candlemaking, canning and how to raise a child without diapers. To learn more about the Firefly Gathering, visit www.fireflygathering.org.