About Edible Excursions
Born and raised on the seacoast of New Hampshire, Diana Burnell has been passionate about connecting people to nature, food and the outdoors for as long as she can remember. As a child, she would spend hours in her back woods, playing ‘Transcendentalists’ with her sister and mother (she was always Henry David Thoreau).
After receiving a master’s degree from Emerson College, Diana moved to Los Angeles to start a career in the entertainment industry as an audio engineer and sound designer. During her time in California, she began to notice how many fruit trees were planted around the city, loaded with delicious, healthy, fresh fruit. Yet, no one clammered to gather the tasty treats in a city full of hungry, low nutrition diets.
As she browsed her neighborhood farmer’s markets, she also realized how far removed she was from her food. She had never seen artichoke flowers, smelled fresh garlic fields or tasted radish seed pods until her baptism on the west coast. These observations had a significant impact on her. She was motivated to learn, reconnect and expand her knowledge.
In 2013, Diana moved back to the east coast and settled in Newton, MA. She knew that transitioning out of the entertainment industry would be a challenge, so to keep herself busy she bought her first foraging books – a tree identification book, along with Russ Cohen’s Wild Edible Plants I have Known…And Eaten. She. Was. Hooked. She joined every group, walk, or club that she could find.
In 2016, she started Edible Excursions Wild Foods, selling her foraged goods to restaurants from New Hampshire to New York. In 2017, she expanded the business by rolling out new products available for purchase online, including a wide variety of foraged mushroom salts, wild dehydrated mushrooms and mushroom powders.
Longing to share her passion with the masses, Diana launched Edible Excursions Foraging in 2019 and currently offers private classes, guided group walks, home/land owner surveys, wild picnics and lectures around New England.
