Renée B. Allen, CSW ~ Renée Allen is the Founder and Director of the Wine Institute of New England, a wine education and epicurean entertainment business. She is a Certified Specialist of Wine and a member of the Society of Wine Educators. As part of providing wine education, Renee has the opportunity to work closely with many local chefs and is especially excited about the events she does involving local wines and local, sustainable foods. She is an authority on Connecticut wine and specializes in organic, biodynamic and sustainably farmed wines from around the world. Renee is also a contributing wine writer for Connecticut Magazine. The idea for Wine and Weeds came to her one day while nibbling on a wineberry in the middle of the forest. www.wineinstituteofnewengland.com

George Motel III, Winemaker, Sunset Meadow Vineyards ~ George Motel crafts award-winning and highly palatable wines at the Motel family’s scenic winery overlooking the Litchfield Hills in Goshen, Connecticut. SMV won Best Family Winery in 2010, awarded by Yankee Magazine’s Travel Guide to New England, and recently won first prize in 3 categories in the CT Specialty Food Association’s Products Award Competition, including 2013 Wine Product of the Year. www.sunsetmeadowvineyards.com

“Wildman” Steve Brill, Forager ~ "Wildman" Steve Brill is America's go-to guy for foraging and a self-taught naturalist, environmental educator, author and artist. He's led thousands of foraging tours since 1982, working with the public, school classes, day camps, museums, parks departments, nature centers, libraries, garden clubs, organic farms, scouts and more, and also leads birthday party tours.

He designed and maintains his website, Foraging with the "Wildman," http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com, and has writtenIdentifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not-So-Wild) Places, (Harper-Collins Publisher, 1994),The Wild Vegan Cookbook (Harvard-Common Press, 2001), and Shoots and Greens of Early Spring in Northeastern North America (self-published, 2008). He created WildEdibles, a master foraging app for iOS and Android devices. He stars in the DVD, "Wild Edible Basics," and his next book, Foraging with Kids, will be available in 2012.

He's appeared countless times in major electronic and print media, but he's still best known for having been arrested and handcuffed by undercover park rangers for eating a dandelion in Central Park in 1986. The media ate it up and embarrassed officials negotiated with the naturalist, dropped the charges, and hired him to lead the same foraging tours for which they arrested him. He worked for the city for 4 years before resuming freelance work.