Do you want to take the power of healing into your own hands?  Are you skeptical of conventional Western medicine and pharmaceutical drugs?  Do you want to learn to recognize and work with plant allies?  Are you drawn to wildcrafting, but feel intimidated?  This is the herbalist class for you!  It will empower you to identify and utilize plants — both wild and cultivated — for healing and vitality.

Join our inspired and experienced team of herbalists, artisans, and ethnobotanists for this 4-day intensive.  You will leave with a basket full of homemade medicines (made by you!), plus the knowledge of how to make more — from plants growing all around you.

What to expect in this herbalist class:

We will cover all aspects of wildcrafting herbal medicines, from a basic botany class, to plant identification, and the ethics and safety of harvesting.  At the beautiful, lush Wild Abundance campus, we will explore both wild and cultivated medicinal herbs and wild edibles.  Guided by experienced and talented herbalist instructors, you will learn to make multiple medicines to fill your apothecary. Knowledgeable teachers will walk you through how to make herbal preparations so you can feel confident making your own after the class.  Throughout the long weekend, we will make and enjoy tasty herbal treats.

You will learn:

Plant Identification – How to get to know wild plants, even if you’ve never met them before, plus how to ID common medicinals and how NOT to confuse them with poisonous plants

Ethical Wildcrafting Practices – How to harvest responsibly, maintaining healthy wild plant populations

Growing and Propagating Medicinal Herbs at Home – How to start and maintain your own herb garden

You will make and actually get to take home:

Herbal Salves: Topical medicine for skin healing

Tinctures: Powerful internal plant concentrates

Flower Essences: Energetic medicines from our floral friends

Herbal Liqueurs and Cordials: Fun and tasty healing drinks

Cough Syrups: Soothing natural alternatives to get you through cold season

Oxymels: Tasty herbal tonics made with vinegar and honey

Integrating Herbalism and Wildcrafting into our Lives

Our students will leave feeling not only empowered to wildcraft medicinal herbs themselves, but also inspired and motivated to incorporate these plant allies into their lives.  It’s one thing to know how to identify wild plants or to understand how to turn leaves into an herbal preparation.  We want to take a step beyond this.  Our team of instructors — plant lovers who have been wildcrafting for years — actually use these herbs on a regular basis.  Throughout this herbalist class they will share with you how they make time to get out into the woods to wildcraft, guidance for growing herbs even if you don’t have a garden, recipes for herbal delights that can be consumed daily and aren’t just for acute conditions, and much more.  We are excited about plants (can you tell?), and we can’t wait to share our excitement with you.

During the class we will make several of these “everyday” herbal goodies and enjoy them together, such as:

Infusions:  Easy, tasty teas made from leaves and flowers steeped in hot water

Decoctions: Rich, flavorful teas made from leaves, barks, roots and berries, slow-simmered to perfection (think spiced chai, yum!)

Pestos: Delicious and power-packed dips and spreads that carry healing properties and are usually crowd-pleasers at dinner parties, even for kids!  Explore the world of herbs beyond basil, and you will be pleasantly surprised

Wildcrafted “Weed” Salad:  A colorful and flavorful alternative to plain old lettuce that is higher in nutrients and healing properties.