PA Wild Med.com

10th Annual Wilderness Medicine

& Survival Skills Conference

September 16-18, 2016

Warning: This is an archived page from 2016.  We left this info for reference purposes.

Wild Med Kitchen: over 1,200 meals prepared and served in 48 hours in an outdoor setting!!

Pictured here is Kat Bowman (spouse of the insane guy who came up with this crazy Conference idea).  She is in charge of feeding everyone for this weekend.  By Sunday, everyone realizes she was the hardest working person who makes this event so amazing!!

Archived!!!   Meals

Another successful Pig Roast!!

Since this is our 10th anniversary we will have some surprises this year!!

We are planning for an "Exotic Meat Roast" for Saturday night in addition to a Roasting Pig.  For starters, we will have an Alligator Tail. You'll just have to wait and see what else we come up with!!

Meals: Free with registration (and they are REALLY good!!)

All meals from Friday dinner to Sunday lunch will be provided.

All six meals are prepared outdoors over an open fire.

Watch Kat and the Cook Crew work tirelessly all weekend keeping the cook fire going. Enjoy their cast iron and Dutch oven treats all weekend.

On Saturday there will be three separate fires ablaze: Pig Roast fire, Kat’s Cook fire, and the Campfire!

Saturday dinner will be a PIG ROAST! Enjoy watching the Pig Roasting process all day.

Ice Cream Social:  Saturday Evening!!  Make your own Ice Cream Sundae with numerous topping options!!

Vegetarian:
Vegetarian options are provided for each meal. Past examples include home-made Vegetable Soup (made from home-made vegetable stock), Quesadillas, etc. There will be a posted menu for each meal. There will be a “V” next to each vegetarian option.

Picky Eaters:
We try to provide a gourmet touch to our outdoor cooking, but are aware of those with simpler tastes. Each meal will have some additional options for our picky eaters. Examples include PB&J, fruit, muffins, etc.

Additional Dietary categories:
Due to the complexity of pulling off such a complicated event, we will only be providing the options mentioned above. There should be enough food variety to accommodate most situations. If your dietary restrictions are complicated, you may want to bring some of your own food.

This year we reached out to WellSpan to assist our growing Conference and to assist us (Kat) in pulling off this very complicated event.  We are very proud to announce a new member of our "Wild Med" family:

Rosie (Russ) Campisi, WellSpan's Corporate Executive Chef!!  When we tried to describe our event and it's vision to Russ, let's just say- his imagination started to go WILD!

Can you say: Gator fritters, ostrich, snapping turtle, Bison, and Gator & Crawfish Étouffée??

We asked him to add a gourmet survival and/or exotic flare to each of our meals this year!!

Here is his Bio:

Born in Agrigento Sicily, and have lived overseas in Germany and Montreal. 

Culinary degree from Pennsylvania College of Technology,  Penn State in 1998, Private Training in New England through The American Culinary Federation, Achieved Designation as a Certified Executive chef through The American Culinary Federation from 2001 through 2006, Certified by The American Culinary Federation in Culinary Nutrition in 2001.

Certificate in Health Care Leadership from Penn State in 1999

Employed by Wellspan for 24 years. Title: Corporate Executive Chef. He oversees the production of 4,000 meals per day in three counties. 

Background is in Hotels, Catering, Fine Dining, Country Clubs, Every Style of Restaurant and Healthcare Food and Nutrition Services.

Claims to Fame: Cooked for 3 presidents and 2 vice presidents.  Cooked for a $1,000 per plate fundraiser with Senator Jay Rockefeller in attendance. Cooked for an individual Knighted by the Queen of England. 

Cooked for the late Senator John Heinz last meal before his tragic plane crash.

Cooked for, then Sat down to dinner with Paul Newman. Cooked for Ray Charles, George Winston, Sidney Poitier, Liza Minelli and other assorted celebrities.

Married for 29 years with3 children