2024 Calendar – Discovery and Empowerment
An Herbal Safari is an “in the field” exploration where the aim is to discover helpful plants growing in the wild. What’s great is that so many of these herbs, shrubs and trees can be found in your own backyard/neighborhood!
You’ve studied the books and videos. Now it’s time to get up close and personal with some of the green and woody plants that can provide helpful components to your wellness efforts. Over the centuries, cultures all over the world have used these as food and herbal medicines. Safari take-aways include hand-picked plant samples, written guides, a fresh herbal beverage and an herbal, hand-crafted delectable.
Remedy-Making classes are hands-on opportunities to learn how to prepare herbs. Activities range from making tinctures and infused oils, to mixing tea blends, to making salves and creams. You will be provided with organic, natural and wild-crafted ingredients, as well as glass bottles/jars and labels. Level 1 and Level 2 classes offered. Take-aways include your DIY projects, written guides, and a just-steeped herbal beverage and a hand-crafted herbal treat.
Download your free eBook for tips on how to prepare for your guided walk or class.
You can register multiple participants at checkout.
April 27: Wonderful Barks
We’ll walk across pastures and fence lines to identify and gather barks from alder, wild apple, aspen, white pine, prickly ash, and oak. I’ll demonstrate how to harvest bark without killing the tree. Our final activity will be sharing conversation and tea as we mix a pine needle infusion. 1:00-4:00PM.
May 12: Mother’s Day Class + Tea Time
Celebrate your Mom, favorite Aunt, lovely Grandma, special friend, or yourself with a hands-on herbal Remedy-Making class and tasty Tea Time. Ladies and Gentlemen welcome. Make a tincture, a bitters, mix a customized tea blend. Finish off with some tasty herbal treats and reviving beverage. 1:00-5:00PM. Space is limited.
May 25: Blossoms and Bitters
Ahh, Spring. It brings flowers, fast-growing shoots, and tender green leaves. What’s not to love?! During this Safari – and if the weather cooperatives – we’ll visit with blossoms, and look for the bitter herbs of spring (used for generations to pep up digestive systems after heavy winter meals). Wonder if cleavers will be out and about? 1:00-4:00PM
June 29: The Worts
Such a funny name – wort. It’s an old English term that means “plant.” This time ’round our Herbal Safari will feature the intensely yellow flowers of St. John’s Wort, as well as the green prickliness of Mother Wort. We’ll scour grassy areas (sometimes on our knees) in search of tiny Self-Heal’s purple flowers. We’ll likely come across a number of other helpful plants as well, such as mallow, lamb’s quarters, and purslane. We’ll also keep an eye out for boneset. 1:00-4:00PM
July 27: Remedy-Making Class Level 1
This hands-on class gives you opportunities to mix healthful teas, make vinegar or vodka tinctures, learn about helpful powders, and make infused oils. We will discuss holistic herbalism: how to tailor herb usage to support your constitution and conditions. You’ll begin to learn how to determine what’s right for you. 1:00-5:00PM
August 31: It’s the Berries
It’s the time of year when ripe berries seem to jump at you from every shrub and tree. Are they all safe to eat? Are they good for health as well as flavor? Well, little grasshopper, that’s what this Herbal Safari is all about. Our featured fruit will be something that’s called a berry, but isn’t. It’s the Hawthorn berry, or more accurately the “haw.” It looks like a small cherry, but it’s actually like a tiny apple. In fact, Hawthorn is in the rose family of plants (as is the apple), and its got lots of herbal and scientific research about how it supports heart and circulatory health. If the weather works in our favor, we’ll also look for prickly ash berries, as well as goldenrod and Joe Pye Weed ( aka Gravel Root). 1:00-4:00PM
October 12: Remedy-Making Class Level 2
We’ll use herbal tinctures, infused oils and beeswax to make healing salves, creams, and lip balms. We’ll also review ways to incorporate more healthful herbs into our daily beverages and foods. Tasty and fun! As Hippocrates is credited saying, “Make food your medicine and medicine your food!” 1:00-5:00PM
Additional events may be added. Call for private sessions, 651-238-8525.