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Backyard Medicinal Herbs: History, Folklore & Uses
This outdoor walk and talk is geared for groups living in more populated areas, investigating the useful plants that may be growing in neighborhood parks, along bike trails, on school grounds, or in and around institutions of all kinds (libraries, environmental centers, churches and other spiritual centers, etc).
Join Chris for plant-inspired fun and exploration. Plants are everywhere, whether you live in a wilderness, rural, suburban or urban setting. Indigenous people say that plants that grow near people do so because they are helpful to us, as foods, medicines, and more. Come listen to a few of these commonly (or uncommonly) known “weed stories,” sharing interesting facts and lore that have been handed down across the generations from cultures around the world. The walk and talk includes:
- Plant identification: emphasis on getting to know a few plants deeply, their history, ecology, scientific and folkloric uses as medicine, first-aid, food, and other uses.
- Language of Plants: an introduction to the subtle language that plants “speak” to us through their color, aroma, taste, habitat, constituents, life history, etc.
- Conscientious wildcrafting: understanding the “honor code” of nature and conversation when picking plants for medicine or food
Herb Walk: Wild Plants And Their Roles As Medicines And Foods
These outdoor walks and talks are always different, depending on the paths chosen as well as the time of year. Always fresh, always full of surprises, never disappointing. The walk and talk includes:
- Plant identification: emphasis on getting to know a few plants deeply, their history, ecology, scientific and folkloric uses as medicine, first-aid, food, and other uses.
- Language of Plants: an introduction to the subtle language that plants “speak” to us through their color, aroma, taste, habitat, constituents, life history, etc.
- Conscientious wildcrafting: understanding safety tips and the “honor code” of nature and conversation when picking plants for medicine or food
Ethical Wildcrafting
Plants are living, breathing creatures that have their own relationship with the planet and other species that inhabit it, including humans. They were not “put” here for us, but they do offer themselves to us for many indispensable uses. It is important that we treat our Green elders with respect as we take them for our needs. This experiential, hands-on, in-the-field workshop introduces participants to ways in which we can ethically and respectfully wildcraft (harvest in a plant’s natural habitat) herbs for food, medicine, and other uses. This workshop:
-Compares and contrasts the paradigms of Separation and Connection in relation to Plants and Nature;
-Introduces and explains principles and code of Ethical (Conscientious) Wildcrafting (a sustainable and respectful way to choose and gather plants);
-Engages participants hands on in wildcrafting medicinal and/or edible plants with intention and integrity;
-Explains how to wildcraft with the seasons and lunar cycles for maximum plant sustainability and medicinal potency;
-Demonstrates effective ways to process, dry and store plants (roots, bark, leaf, stem, flower, seed)
-Demonstrates cleaning and processing techniques of plants for conversion into herbal medicinal preparations.
-Introduces the Language of Plants, Doctrine of Signatures, and Organoleptics
Herb Gathering & The Lunar Calendar
This outdoor class investigates the relationship between the moon, its cycles, and the life and energetics of plants. When are herbs most potent? When is it best to sow, harvest, wildcraft and preserve plants for medicine and food? When is it best to prepare botanical remedies? Class includes plant identification and uses; cross-cultural history and folklore; introduction to the lunar calendar and how the moon, the seasons and the elements affect plant life and growth; and learning how to map an effective calendar for working with plants in the home, garden and wild. The workshop includes:
- Plant identification: emphasis on getting to a know a few plants deeply, their history, scientific, traditional and folkloric uses;
- Introduction to the Lunar Calendar: understanding the effects of the moon on plant life and energetics through its waxing-waning cycles and the seasons;
- Understanding Zodiacal language as it pertains to the plant world, including elemental signs and influences of earth, air, fire, water;
- Mapping an effective calendar for working with plants and making medicines in the home, garden, and wild
Opening to the Wisdom of the Plant World: An Indigenous Language of Plants
A three-class workshop series immersing participants in an in-depth experiential exploration of the Green Nation. Cultures throughout history and pre-history have “communicated” with plants by understanding the Green Nation’s language, by watching how other animals use them, by carefully observing where plants grow, studying plants’ physical characteristics, as well as deeper explorations involving plant personalities and direct communication with plants through meditation, trance, and dream work. Bring an open mind, an adventurous spirit, a journal if you are a writer, colored pencils if you are a drawer, a mini-recorder if you are a talker. Details of each class include:
Class 1: The Language of the Physical
We will first engage the One Language through our physical senses, learning how plants speak to us through their preferred habitats, form, color, taste and aroma. We will learn to identify plants, and to understand what they are telling us about their qualities and their uses as food or medicine. Participants will learn valuable exercises and tools for experiencing nature in a deeper way.
Class 2: The Language of Personality
With our heightened awareness from the physical study of plants, we will now connect with plants at a deeper level, not merely as unconscious life forms modern culture would have us believe they are, but instead encountering them as living, breathing personalities. We will learn about plant societies, plant tribes and sacred plant elders. This wiser understanding of the plant world will reveal how we can make and use medicines that work more profoundly on the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels – deepening the healing available to ourselves, our families and our communities.
Class 3: The Language of Connection
In this class, we enter fully into the realm of the Subtle, or Intuitive, Language. Indigenous cultures speak of the One Language shared by all life, elements, and energies. The One Language is present all around us and within us, but we have forgotten how to access it. This class investigates methods and tools – gifts each of us already possesses – that reconnect us with the One Language. Emphasis will be placed on direct “attuning” with the plants to which we are drawn, and we will learn how to approach these plants in respectful, intentional ways. Participants are asked to bring notebooks, pens, colored pencils, even musical instruments, for plants speak to us and through us in many ways.
Seasonal Habitat Herb and Nature Walks
These walks, which are also available as part of Clearpath School of Herbal Medicine's Ongoing Courses, are geared toward understanding plants in their natural environments, each one focusing on a different season, each one focusing on one or two particular ecosystems. More details below:
These seasonal habitat walks celebrate the natural wonder and beauty of western New England, and are a favorite of many who take Clearpath School of Herbal Medicine courses and classes. These walks are usually co-led by myself and Steve Linscott -- herbalist, naturalist, lifelong New England native, and a devout explorer and enthusiast of the outdoors. No matter how much we humans may have insulated ourselves from nature, we are still part of it, and our body, mind, heart and spirit crave to be in it. Walking in the woods, across a meadow, or along the edges of a bog, we are reminded of what really matters. The natural world speaks to our souls, to a deep longing in our blood and bones, and fills our hearts and minds with a renewed sense of wonder and peace. We remember how to “be,” how to slow down to the speed and rhythms of nature. It allows our senses to deepen, widen, and soften, and it invites us to both surrender to and engage with nature and the “wildness” that is still and always within us.
More than just plant identification, these mild-to-moderate hikes are filled with information about plants, animals, ecosystems, natural history, folklore, traditional stories and personal anecdotes, and an openness to whatever surprises may come our way. The walks also include sensory awareness skill development, time to share, and time to be quiet.
We keep things fresh by not adhering to a strict and set format, preferring to visit different ecosystems at different times of the year, and discovering and exploring new places. One year we may visit a bog in the spring, another time in the summer. We do, however, make it a point to visit hardwood forests in the autumn, so that we may be awed by one of New England's wonders – Fall Foliage. We also do not shun ecosystems that have been affected by or border humans. The greatest diversity is often found along “edges,” and though some of us may think that we have been separated from nature, nature herself knows otherwise. It is interesting and important to recognize and understand how nature reclaims land once used and abused by human impact.