Holistic Herbal Medicine

See our other Permaculture workshops here.

Beginner-friendly and deep. Learn local herbal medicine making and the art of working with plants for health.

Herbal medicine is original medicine. While many traditional herbal systems are immensely sophisticated and can be studied for a lifetime, plant medicine is also accessible to everyone as a folk tradition that empowers each person to support the health of their own bodies, families, and communities.

Like learning to grow food and build shelter, learning our local and accessible herbal medicines can give us a deeper sense of personal security and connection to the land. When we can turn to the plants growing right outside our door to give physical and psychological ease, it grows our resilience and our relationship to earth.

This day-long herbal medicine workshop is meant to empower you to begin making and working with herbal medicines. We’ll taste plants, visit plants, plant plants, learn plants, and make simple medicines to bring home.

If you’ve dabbled in herbalism but haven’t yet learned about herbal energetics or our local plants, or if you feel overwhelmed by online information and intimidated by complex recipes and conflicting information, this workshop is for you! Total beginners are also fully welcome.

With the direct experience of how simple it can be to prepare these remedies and the knowledge of some of the best plants to begin with including many common local plants in the Piedmont, you’ll be taking the first steps on a long and ancient path towards health in harmony with the land.

Topics:

• The simplest ways to make effective herbal medicines at home
• Hands-on medicine making – come home with some to share!
• Learning some of our local (and abundant!) herbal medicines
• Growing some of the most helpful local herbal medicines in your garden
• Understanding medicinal properties from tastes and other sensory cues
• Demystifying “herbal energetics” – the heart of all holistic herbal systems
• Learning about our constitutions, part of why plants can effect us so differently
• Understanding why herbs may not have worked for you in the past
• Working with herbs for psychological (and spiritual) well being
• Herbal “first aid” and the simple everyday plants that can make life easier
• Medicinal properties of our local abundant “invasive” plants
• Cutting through influencer and wellness fads and dispelling bad advice
• Phytochemistry and how to feel safe experimenting with plants
• Non-rational ways of learning plants including dreaming and heart perception
• The tradition of plants as teachers, and ways of learning from plants
• …plus some wild, do-not-try-this-at-home herbal stories!

Venue and Workshop Details:

Our Saturday, May 23rd workshop will be held at Jubilee Healing Farm – a beautifully tended small farm located on 10 acres in Hillsborough, NC that supports volunteer and community-building activities and workshops for people seeking healing.

We’ll have the workshop part inside and part outside unless the weather disagrees!  Please wear comfortable clothing for the day. If it’s going to rain a little, bring rain gear.

We’ll likely do a little forest walking.  Good to wear compatible footwear.  If you’re concerned about ticks or other itchy expressions of the local ecology, please bring non-toxic insect deterrent.

In this workshop, you’ll be invited (…never required!) to try small amounts of herbal medicines to learn their tastes and properties, usually in the form of an alcohol-based tincture. Though we will choose plants and amounts meant to be safe for most bodies, please know your own sensitivities and err on the side of caution around any potential herb-drug interactions. We will not be offering any medical advice or prescribing anything. This is an educational experience.

What to Bring:

• Journal and pen
• Your own lunch and any snacks you need (kitchen available to heat up food)
• Water bottle

Also:

• Openness to different ways of seeing and living
• Kindness towards the plants, animals, soil, water, and other people here
• Inclusivity and welcoming spirit towards the people in the workshop
• Willingness to put your phones away and tune into your senses
• Curiosity about life and what each other and the land has to say

Sign-Up

This year, we’re offering sliding scale tickets at two different prices. Please only take a reduced price ticket if you are in significant financial need. Full-price tickets make it possible for us to continue this work. Thank you for your support.