Erik Steinkamp and Keri Joy Waxer eat dandelions. Steinkamp, the chef in their relationship, prepares the flowers like he does most vegetables that he buys from the store or farmers market.
Feeling a tad feral?
For more details about Feral Future, visit feralfuture.com or @yourferalfuture on Instagram. Discover Feral Foods on shelves in San Luis Obispo, Los Olivos, Solvang, Buellton, and other communities by using the website’s store locator.
First, he cuts the bottoms off, sticks them in cold water, and lets them rejuvenate outside in the sun. The process, he said, releases vegetables from their dormant states because before he got them, they’d likely been separated from their roots and refrigerated in the dark, almost hibernating.
“If you’re eating a living, vibrant, metabolizing thing, then you’re also going to be getting a lot more of the benefits and nutrition that that has,” Steinkamp said.
When it comes time to incorporate dandelions into his meals, the chef usually chops up the leaves and throws them into a pasta or chili dish during the last minutes of cooking. They almost disappear into the recipe, he described, while adding “a ton of nutrition and vitality.” He said dandelions are beneficial for detoxing, balance, and cleansing.
Though they are a superfood, many people view dandelions as pesky growths in their grass. But in Steinkamp’s mind, dandelions pop up because nature isn’t supposed to have monocrops.
“The fact that it’s treated like a weed, it shows how far humanity has gone from what really is important,” Steinkamp said.
Returning to nature and the traditional way of life is the idea that inspired Feral Future, the wellness company he started with Waxer, his fiancée. The concept has stuck with Steinkamp for a decade, but Feral Future just launched in May this year. The Solvang couple’s goal is to promote ancestral living, the concept of how humans lived way back when.
“The idea of becoming a feral human—essentially leaving the domesticated world and going back to our wild state of being close to the land—really connected with me,” Steinkamp said. “And then food was such a big part of it.”
The couple is serious about the philosophy of ‘you are what you eat.’ If a certain ingredient didn’t exist 100 years ago, they’re probably not interested in consuming it.
Waxer remembered hearing about Steinkamp’s thoughts on ancestral living during their early stages of dating. Individually, they were living similar lifestyles, but Feral Future brought them closer.
“His idea was so grand and so beautiful and really just touched every cell in my body,” Waxer said.
Feral Future was born out of their passion for natural living and elevated simplicity. Within it, the Feral Foods label produces salts, dry rubs, herb blends, and teas (with dried dandelion leaves, too). The products are available to buy online and in select stores on the Central Coast.
Their full-spectrum salt includes mineral profiles from Himalayan pink salt, lake salt, and sea salt. They added garlic and parsley for Feral Future’s garlic salt.
Perhaps the best-selling product the pair has released is maple mallows. The large, fluffy squares are naturally sweetened with maple syrup. Waxer calls them Steinkamp’s love letter to her.
“I was on the hunt for the perfect grass-fed marshmallow for the health and beauty benefit,” she said. “Everything I was finding fell short. Everything still had chemicals or synthetics.”
Steinkamp’s recipe includes grass-fed beef gelatin to support hair, skin, nails, and digestion. The ingredients are clean, without any corn syrup or refined sugar. Maple mallows are pretty much a “cult seller,” Waxer added.
The couple manufactures their foods at a local church in a shared commercial kitchen for businesses on the rise.
“Bringing back the artisanal, the handmade, is so important,” Waxer said. “We touch everything that we create. … We’re labeling it, we’re filling it, we’re packing it, shipping it, all of it, so we have complete quality control of everything, which is also very rare.”
While Steinkamp is the main recipe developer, Waxer’s skills come into play on the business side of Feral Future. She enjoys storytelling and conveying the energy of the products to her audience.
With almost 15 years of experience in the health and beauty industry, she knows that authenticity is important. They both practice what they preach.
“We launched with food, but it’s so much bigger than food,” Waxer said. “It’s truly a lifestyle, mission-based brand to really play a role in supporting humanity and realizing just how powerful we truly all are.”
They’ve already branched out from food products with a joint podcast on their website and an online course designed by Waxer that guides women to return to their bodies’ rhythms through the moon’s cycle.
Ultimately the pair’s mission is to start a broader platform, like an Amazon, they explained, meant for like-minded creators to promote their services and products. The feral future is all about unleashing humanity’s programming, Waxer said, and having the most extraordinary experience on Earth.
“It’s like our dharma. It’s much bigger than even Erik and I,” Waxer said. “We’re holding it, and we believe in it, and it’s what we move toward every single day.” ∆
Sun Staff Writer Madison White, from New Times’ sister paper, is fascinated by a feral future. Reach her at mwhite@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 18-25, 2025.