Herbalism
There was a photo in an album on my Grandparents’ coffee table in their living room when I was little. A black and white photo that was beginning to fade around the edges. In that photo an old Woman, my maternal great Grandmother was looking back at the photographer and smiling a warm, carefree smile. In her hand she carried a small basket.
I didn’t make the connection till much later in life, when I learned more about her, that she was going wildcrafting in the woods.
My Grandfather told me that their kitchen was always full of bundles of drying herbs.
He told me how they were taught to distrust her knowledge of plants and healing, to treat her like a quack. All a part of the AMA’s attack on eclectic healers in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.
I remember him chuckling to himself, “everything comes full circle. The plants she used to harvest are all part of the health craze these days.”
I have always spoken with plants.
Started when I was little, with Dandelions, Poke weed, Wild Cherry resin, and spending hours up in a weeping willow tree when life itself didn’t seem so sweet.
I started gathering plants when I was living down in the Southwest in the early 1990’s: Chaparral; Red Root; Juniper Berries; and Bearberry (Uva Ursi.)
In 2000 a friend who had travelled out to Eugene, Oregon called me up and told me that an Herbalist out there was offering a course in Celtic Herbalism.
Now, I’m largely a Celtic Mutt.
Meaning I have a disproportionate percentage of Scottish, Welsh, and Irish ancestry running amok in my blood, muttering poetry in the midst of the remaining German, French, and English.
I spent close to a year studying the plants and their energies with Gina McGarry at her Brighid’s Academy of the Healing Arts.
Gina McGarry is the Granddaughter of the village herbalist in Kildare, Ireland, and she taught us about the ways our Celtic ancestors worked with the planets, and the Sidhe (faerie folk) in the harvesting of medicine.
She taught us to speak to the plants in Gaelic.
To communicate with them and to ask them for permission to work with their medicine.
To bring them a gift: some honey; a copper coin; a song, to build a relationship.
This form of relational, ancestral based herbalism is how I work with the plants.
I offer herbal consultations and will be offering workshops in wildcrafting, plant identification, and herbal medicine making in the coming year.
Starting January 1st, 2023
A Year in Plants
A Year in Plants is an online course you can take month by month, or for an entire year, that will help you deepen your relationship with Plants, Plant medicine, and the natural world.
The classes, plant walks, and medicine making tutorials will all be available in the form of video presentations each month.
Written material will be presented for each workshop to help you reference what you will learn.
Every month you will get a 20 minute video chat with me so you can keep track of questions that will arise from the classes.
One of the most interesting features of this course, once things start growing in the Spring here in Minnesota, will be a monthly trip to three different locations to follow the different Woodland, Wetland, and Prairie plants as they go from shoots, to leaves, to flowers, and eventually, fruits and seeds.
As well as a monthly video blog of “what’s going on in the garden.”
About fifteen years ago we started transforming our front yard from lawn into a Pollinator garden full of plants native to our bio-region.
2023 Curriculum -
January -
*Introduction to Herbalism - How to engage the five senses to open the sixth sense. Plant flavors/colors/plant signatures.
*Plant actions; learn how Plants are grouped into categories (alteratives/diaphoretics/carminatives/etc…) depending on their actions in the body. Learn the language used by Herbalists to refer to Plants and their medicinal actions.
*Begin Simple: working with intention to begin your journey to find your simple. A plant simple is a singular plant that resonates with you, an herbal ally that is particularly attuned to your current overall health needs.
*Herbs for Winter Health - learn to work with Plants to strengthen the immune system, support the lungs and improve overall health during the winter months.
*The Land - A land acknowledgment, and a presentation of Treaty Rights and being in Right Relation.
February -
*Herbs of St. Brighid’s Day/Lammas/Lughnasadh
*Plants of the Heart and Love - learn about herbs that are good for the heart, the cardio-vascular system, and the spirit.
*Herbal Astrology - how to work with the Moon, Planets, and Constellations to better commune with the Plants and their medicines. Plant astrology from a Celtic Cultural Perspective.
*Herbs for the Bodies many systems/An Overview - learn about herbs good for each of the major systems of the body. Herbs for the Respiratory System, the Cardiovascular System, the Nervous System, the Digestive System, the Urinary System, the Integumentary System.
March -
*Spring Cleanse - herbs of the Liver and Gallbladder, and some good herbal support for a Spring Cleanse.
*Planning and Planting the herb garden. Design a space that reflects how different Plants work with different body systems and their corresponding cardinal directions.
*Herbs of the Spring Equinox
*Making Digestive Bitters - many cultures use digestive bitters to improve digestion and as an extension, overall health. Learn how to make a digestive bitter tincture.
*Herbs for Children - will focus on herbs that are helpful in maintaining Children’s health.
April -
*Making the Spring Tonic - an Apple Cider Vinegar based tonic that can include many of the spring bitters and ephemerals.
*Virtual Spring Plant Walk - a video plant walk to meet the early spring ephemerals of the woodlands, wetlands, and Prairie.
*Making Nettle Pesto
*Cooking with the wild Plants - learn to cook with fiddle head ferns, hosta shoots, and other wildcrafted and foraged foods.
May -
*Herbs of Bealtaine
*Herbs for Reproductive Health - Herbs for Women, Herbs for Men, Herbs for People that help regulate the hormones and endocrine system in the body.
*Virtual Spring Plant Walk
*Herbs for Headaches
*Herbs for Allergies
June -
*Making herbal oils - how to harvest, and prepare herbal oil that can later form the base of herbal salves, and creams.
*Virtual Plant Walks
*Herbs of the Summer Solstice
July -
*Making herbal salves - learn how to make an herbal salve. Gain insight into why you work with different medicinal oils, and essential oils to effect the body in different ways.
*Making an Herbal First Aid Kit -
*Virtual Plant Walk -
August -
*Virtual Plant Walk -
September -
*Making Elderberry Syrup
*Virtual Plant Walks
*Herbs of the Fall Equinox
October -
*Making an Herbal Lung Support Syrup
*Virtual Plant Walks
November
*Making Fire Cider
December
*Herbs of the Winter Solstice
*Reflections on a Year in Plants
*Zoom gathering for participants in a Year in Plants
There will be refunds offered in the case of emergencies, family loss, and or/failure to deliver on the content presented in this curriculum.