Sept 12th        Herbalism for Beginners (Friday) $25

​This is a great class to start you on your journey of understanding herbalism at a deeper level- not just a cookie cutter list of herbs to memorize. This is a class about laying the foundation for understanding western herbalism and how to categorize herbs. In this class we will talk about how to choose herbs based on their energetics- cooling, warming, moistening, drying. We'll learn about many of the categories of herbs based on their properties and get a feel for some of the vocabulary you might come across in books. We will meet a few of our best allies and learn the basics of how to use them.

 

Sept 13th        Herbs for Brain Health (Saturday) $25

We will talk about different herbs that can help improve memory and support that very important organ, the brain.  We'll also talk about how they work!

 

Sept 14th        Incense Rolling Workshop with Jamie (Sunday) $45

Back by popular demand! Taught by Jamie of Black River Moon.

In this make & take class you’ll get your hands dirty working directly with a wide variety of aromatics, from common and locally growing herbs to imported resins that have been used for centuries, creating your very own unique blend that we will then roll into incense cones. 

No synthetics, no fragrance oils, no essential oils, just herbs, resins and water. 

Each participant will leave with about 20 cones to burn at home, as well as the basic foundation of incense making.

Class fee is $45, which includes the materials fee. 

 

Sept 17th        Herb Walk at Dauner Martin (Wednesday) $25

One of the best parts of learning about herbalism is finding all the wonderful herbal allies that grow in our region. Michigan is rich in herbs that are potential allies if you know how to identify and use them! 

For this class, we will meet at the southern entrance of Dauner-Martin Nature Preserve on Dauner Road. **Parking can be somewhat limited.  For those of you who would like to carpool, meet at the Hawthorn & Violet parking lot by 5:45 and we'll go as a group or two and make parking easier!

We will go on a one mile hike through wooded trails and meadow. Along the way, we will stop many times to point out and discuss medicinal plants growing in Michigan.  I plan to do three herbs walks over the course of the warm weather on this same trail so that we can see how the plants look in later summer. (May, July & September)

 It's always a good idea to wear good close toed walking shoes, and maybe even long pants, and to apply bug deterrent spray. We will still plan on going if it’s raining. Cancellation will only happen if weather is dangerous such as a thunderstorm with lightening is imminent. So if it looks like rain and you’d like to bring an umbrella, take that into account. 

A notebook and camera may also be useful, but there are some great notetaking apps for smartphones that are great for just this kind of thing if you're a quick typer. 

 

Sept 19th        Supporting Gut Health & How it Impacts Allergies, Autoimmune and Inflammation (Friday) $25

The root of all disease begins in the gut.  We'll talk about why gut health is so important for reducing your hay fever symptoms, you aches and pains, your mental health outlook, as well as the impact on autoimmune conditions.  

We'll focus on the importance of gut integrity, what weakens it, and how to strengthen it.  We'll look at the ways modern life is so disruptive to gut health and talk about strategies for countering this. Gut health goes way beyond just taking probiotics and we'll talk about what else can be done.

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Sept 20th        Herbal Medicine Making  (Saturday) $35

This class will be a demonstration of how to make your herbs into medicine, with many opportunities to get up and help with the medicine making if you like to be a little more hands on!. We will learn about how to make infusions, decoctions, tinctures, poultices, steams, salves, syrups and more.  This class tends to run about 2.5 hours- and may run slightly over that.

 

Sept 26th        Herbs for Coughs and Colds (Friday) $25

(Formerly known as Winter Wellness)

This class is one of the basics for knowing how to deal with seasonal illness, and if you ever get sick, or take care of people who get sick, you'll want to take this class.

We'll talk about how to use herbs when you or your family members get sick with acute viruses, as well as how to try to boost the immune system to prevent it to begin with.   What should we take for a dry cough?  What should we do about a wet sounding cough?  How about sniffles, and sneezes and fevers?  What helps a sore throat?  We'll cover how to choose which ones to work best depending on how someone is presenting.

We will discuss herbs, foods, supplements and other tools to do this.  We will also discuss what herbs and foods will help us recover wellness if we do fall ill this winter, including addressing specific symptoms.  

 

Sept 27th        Einkorn Sourdough Workshop  (Saturday) $60

Einkorn is an heirloom variety of wheat, and it is very low in gluten, so working with it is quite different than working with other wheat flours you might be used to working with. It doesn't have the same elasticity, which makes it a little trickier to work with, but it makes up for it in gentleness on the gut, higher protein levels and a flavor that makes you think all other wheat flavor is more akin to cardboard.

In this class, you'll make a loaf of einkorn sourdough bread, that you will bring home, let rise, and bake. We will provide you with the ingredients you need, a starter to bring home so you can keep it going, a round banneton basket for rising, a razor for slashing the dough, and a dough scraper.

You do need a couple items of your own however. To class, be sure and bring a medium sized mixing bowl- you will use this to rest the dough between stretch and folds and in which to bring your dough home. You'll also need some sort of cutting board or tray to provide you with a work surface that is not the plastic table we'll be using. At home, you'll need a Dutch oven with a lid that is oven safe up to 500 degrees.

This is the first time we're teaching this class, so you'll be our test class!

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Oct 3rd        Elderberry Syrup Workshop  (Friday) $35

Most of us know how amazing elderberry syrup is to combat the first signs of viral infection or exposure.  However, commercially made stuff in the stores is not only expensive, it leaves something to be desired in the taste department (with the exception of our small batch syrup of course!) 

I'll show you how easily elderberry syrup can be made at home and how delicious it can be. We'll make a batch while I'm teaching and bottle it up so everyone can bring one home.

You'll also learn about the mechanisms by which elderberry is thought to work in the body, and learn about some other herbs that are helpful allies to add to your syrup.

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Oct 4th        Tarot 101 with Heather  (Saturday) $45

In this workshop (formerly known as “Tuning in with Tarot), we will be learning the basics of tarot cards and how to read/work with them, as well as how to tune in to our own personal style(s) of awareness and how we receive energies and information.

This is great for newbie’s and beginners that want to grow their knowledge and confidence in the world of Tarot and Oracle cards.

We’ll be working specifically with the “LightSeer’s Tarot” deck, which is included in the cost of the class. If you’ve always wanted to learn how Tarot works, or even if you are just plain curious about them, we’d love to have you join us!

 

Oct 10th        Herbs for Women’s Health (Friday) $25

This is a class to become more familiar with herbs that are beneficial for many areas specific to women's health in the different phases of our lives.  We'll talk about herbs that are useful for menstration issues including cramps and PMS, fertility, libido, pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, menopause and more.

 

Oct 11th        B Vitamins, Genetics, MTHFR & Beyond (Saturday) $25

A lot of the focus in this class will be on the B vitamins - we'll go through them all, what they do, as well genes that impact the ability to use certain forms of the vitamins. 

We'll be doing a deep dive on MTHFR, the gene that impacts the ability to use folic acid. So many of us have some form of the variant, and I want to help flesh out what that means, and also how to show you how to find your own genetic variations if you've ever done ancestry.com or 23andme.  

We'll also look at some of the lesser known genetic variations that can help you know which foods can be helpful to emphasize and also to help pick the best forms of vitamins  for your genotype.

 

Oct 12th        Introduction to Parasitology (Sunday) $25

We will talk about some of the myriad of parasites that can affect people right here in Michigan and more importantly, what to DO about them! We'll go over herbs that are effective, when parasite cleanses should be done, and other strategies.

 

Oct 17th        Herbs for Aches & Pains (Friday) $25

There are lots of herbal allies that are helpful to know about for different types of pains, and we'll tease those apart to help you come up with the best strategies for different circumstances. 

What herbs are might be helpful for a headache? Which ones for nerve pain?  Which ones for toothaches?  Arthritis? Menstrual cramps? What is the type of pain? We're not talking of course about a silver bullet for intense chronic pain, but some herbs with which it is useful to become familiar.

Willowbark, feverfew, raspberry leaf, cramp bark, wood betony, St Johns Wort,.  You have to know where they are most effectively applied, and that's exactly where we'll go in this class.

 

Oct 18th        Herbalism for Beginners  (Saturday) $25

This is a great class to start you on your journey of understanding herbalism at a deeper level- not just cookie cutter list of herbs to memorize. 

This is a class about laying the foundation for understanding western herbalism and how to categorize herbs and how to use them.  In this class we will talk about how to choose herbs based on their energetics- cooling, warming, moistening, drying.  We'll learn about many of the categories of herbs based on their properties and get a feel for some of the vocabulary you might come across in books.  We will meet a few of our best allies and learn the basics of how to use them.

 

Oct 25th        Tarot 201 with Heather (Saturday) $45

This workshop is for folks who have a comfortable wisdom of general Tarot and Oracle card meanings. If you enjoy learning new and cool ways to work with the cards, please do join us! 

Some of the things we’ll be learning:

Creating our own spreads 

Creating focused intention spaces

Infusing our drinking water

We will also be talking about how astrology, runes, and other elements can bring even more clarity and awareness into our readings. 

For this workshop, we will be working with the “Water Crystal Oracle” deck, by Dr. Masaru Emoto, which is included in the class fee. Please feel free to bring 2-3 of your favorite crystals and if you have a special deck that you enjoy working with, bring that too!

 

Nov 1st        Medicinal Mushrooms (Saturday) $25

Here we'll learn about the qualities of various medicinal mushrooms, how they can be used, how to identify them, where they grow, and their constituents and how best to extract them.  We'll also talk about the differences between commercially available products.  Some of the mushrooms we'll cover include reishi, chaga, cordyceps, lions mane, turkey tail and lots more.

 

Nov 2nd        Spice Rack Herbalism (Sunday) $25

Sage, turmeric, garlic, thyme, basil, rosemary, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla.  You may already have some of the world's most  lovely and fragrant herbs right in your kitchen! But did you know you can use them medicinally as well?

 Learn about which of these powerhouses to reach for next time you have a stomachache, can't sleep, have a cold, or are have aches and pains. Learn which of these herbs are useful for some of the chronic health conditions many people experience.

Learning how to apply our culinary herbs to our health needs is a game changer for many!  There sometimes more likely to be something we have on hand when we need it.  You might not have mullein in your kitchen cupboard in January, but you probably have sage!  

 

Nov 8th        Supporting Gut Health & How it Impacts Allergies, Autoimmune and Inflammation (Saturday) $25

The root of all disease begins in the gut.  We'll talk about why gut health is so important for reducing your hay fever symptoms, you aches and pains, your mental health outlook, as well as the impact on autoimmune conditions.  

We'll focus on the importance of gut integrity, what weakens it, and how to strengthen it.  We'll look at the ways modern life is so disruptive to gut health and talk about strategies for countering this. Gut health goes way beyond just taking probiotics and we'll talk about what else can be done.

 

Nov 15th        B Vitamins, Genetics, MTHFR & Beyond (Saturday) $25

A lot of the focus in this class will be on the B vitamins - we'll go through them all, what they do, as well genes that impact the ability to use certain forms of the vitamins. 

We'll be doing a deep dive on MTHFR, the gene that impacts the ability to use folic acid. So many of us have some form of the variant, and I want to help flesh out what that means, and also how to show you how to find your own genetic variations if you've ever done ancestry.com or 23andme.  

We'll also look at some of the lesser known genetic variations that can help you know which foods can be helpful to emphasize and also to help pick the best forms of vitamins  for your genotype.

 

Nov 22nd        Herbs for Stress & Anxiety (Saturday) $25

Timed just before the holidays for a reason!

You may have heard about herbs like St. Johns wort for depression and Chamomile for soothing stressed nerves, but let me take you a little deeper into the world of herbs we can use to  help balance our energy patterns, that will help alleviate stress, fatigue and other emotional states.  We will look at several different adaptogenic and nervine herbs and discuss the types  of imbalances they best address.