From Field to Forest and More: Natural Foods For Health with Jill Nussinow

Week of June 13, 2026

Putting More Plants on Your Plate: What is “Plant-Based Eating”?
Of course, you are here at the Ranch, eating a lot of plants. How do you carry this over to eating at home? And why does it matter? What special nutrients do plants provide? We can learn a lot from science and examining the diets of herbivorous animals; how they get strong and stay healthy. Which plants matter and how do you eat more of them? You will leave with a plan for eating in a more “plant-based” manner.

How Gut Health Leads to Better Health and Improved Cognitive Function
What does one need to eat to have a healthy “microbiome” which encompasses more than just your gut or GI tract. You will learn more about the connection between your gut and your brain, and how this affects your sleep and wellbeing. With growing concerns about brain health, we must consider that you cannot separate the brain from the body. The goal then, is overall health, which often begins in the “gut”. Remember the rock song that stated: “Feed Your Head?” Learn about the foods that do this.

Mushrooms for Food, Mood, Nutrition and More
There are so many species of fungi (mushrooms); a number are edible, some are medicinal and others are poisonous. You will learn about the nutritional composition of a variety of mushrooms, how to cook them, how they are cultivated, how and where they grow, and more. Mushrooms feed the gut and are part of the gut-brain connection. Jill has been foraging for mushrooms for twenty years and speaking at SOMA Wild Mushroom camp for more than 10 years. This fascinating topic is fun and “magic”.

Food As Medicine: Harnessing the Power of Your Food Choices
If food is medicine, can it truly replace pharmaceutical medications? Jill will take you on a tour of current dietary trends, discussing what works and what doesn’t work, and why a plan needs to be individualized. She will review label reading, choosing the “best for you” foods, behavior change and more, in this lively lighthearted look at a serious subject. You will learn tips and tricks on how to fuel your body in the most positive way.

 

Jill Nussinow, MS, RDN
While Jill Nussinow is a Registered Dietitian who has taught whole food plant-based, vegan cooking for forty years and has taught many nutrition and culinary classes to students at Santa Rosa Junior College where she taught for 30 years, her life has been so much more.  She has written four award winning plant-based cookbooks and has followed and lived her passion for eating well and teaching.

She has created spare time to forage for plants and fungi all year where she lives in Southern Mendocino County and in Sonoma County. She is a sought-after speaker for Sonoma County Wild Mushroom camp, held each January in Occidental, California.

For the past five years she has been deeply involved in the world of breathwork, teaching many students, on Zoom and in-person at The Sea Ranch. She teaches people the benefit of being in a state of “rest and digest” when cooking, and more importantly while eating.

You can see what she does at her website https://www.theveggiequeen.com although it will be morphing into http://www.BreathWiseHealth.com where she hopes to help more people Breathe Better, Eat Better, Feel Better and Live Better.