Roots of Vitality – Adaptogens & Mushrooms for Seasonal Wellness October 17-20, 2024
October 17 - October 20
Explore the Roots of Vitality through the powers of adaptogens & medicinal mushrooms. Learn how to use Fall tonics for immune empowerment & cellular vitality. With hands-on medicine making & medicinal soup crafting!
Welcome to our Roots of Vitality workshop where we step out of the hectic pace of modern life to nourish & immerse ourselves in the wonderful world of adaptogens & mushrooms for seasonal wellness.
Join Ben Levine-Nahar & Shane Schoolman to:
- Experience a Gynostemma (Jiaogulin, “People’s Ginseng”) tea ceremony
- Introduction & exploration of medicinal mycology
- Learn adaptogen & medicinal mushroom Materia Medica
- Practice medicine-making techniques for herbs & mushrooms, including the double extraction method for medicinal mushrooms
- Participate in “provings” to learn energetics & actions from the inside out
- Learn about sourcing, sustainability & cultivation of adaptogens (yes, you can grow Ashwagandha & other adaptogens in Colorado!)
- Understanding medicinal mushroom quality, cultivation, & how to find quality products
- Craft a bone broth, adaptogen & tonic mushroom autumn soup for deep nutrition & healing
- Build personal relationships with your herbal & fungal allies
- Create your own adaptogen blend, customized for your constitution & health challenges
- Explore the Vitalist approach to building & restoring health through cultivating Chi
SCHEDULE
Below is a general timeline of what we will cover. Because of the organic nature of medicine making, expect a little wiggle room!
- Afternoon: set up camp or settle into lodging, orientation, explore the farm, relax into being in the beautiful North Fork Valley of the Colorado Rockies … breathe our pure mountain air!
- 6 pm: community gathering & opening circle to meet your teachers, each other & the plants & animals who share these mountains. Potluck dinner (please label your dishes, e.g., vegan, with meat, for food intolerances, etc.).
- After-dinner presentation: Introduction to the Roots of Vitality – Building Health with Adaptogens & Mushrooms
- Friday sessions meet 10 am – 1 pm & 3 – 6 pm. Lunch & Siesta, 2 hours.
- Morning session:
- Gynostemma (Jiaogulin) tea ceremony
- Learn how adaptogens work their magic in our bodies
- Adaptogen Materia Medica, including traditional use & clinical studies
- Compare herbs & energetics through tastings / provings / organoleptics
- Lunch & Siesta: Enjoy a nutritious lunch featuring local organic foods (GF, DF, vegan & paleo options available). Then relax in Nature or catch up on some healing sleep.
- Afternoon session:
- How to choose dosages, forms, and formulations
- Sourcing and sustainability – where does good medicine come from?
- Start crafting an autumnal adaptogen & mushroom bone (or veggie) broth soup
- Community dinner options in town or make your own at the farm
- After dark: Gather around the community stone fire pit for some Rocky Mountain merry-making, or relax under the stars
- Saturday sessions meet 10 am – 1 pm & 3 – 6 pm. Lunch & Siesta, 2 hours.
- Morning session:
- Exploration of medicinal mycology with Shane Schoolman
- Overview of medicinal mushroom cultivation & methods
- Lunch & Siesta: Enjoy a nutritious lunch featuring local organic foods (GF, DF, vegan & paleo options available). Then relax in Nature or catch up on some healing sleep.
- Afternoon session:
- How to harvest and source high quality mushrooms & products
- Double extraction of Reishi mushroom demonstration
- Probiotic extraction using medicinal mushrooms demonstration
- Community dinner options in town or make your own at the farm
- After dark: Gather around the community stone fire pit, or relax under the stars
- Sunday session meets 10 am – 1 pm, followed by lunch & closing circle
- Morning:
- Finish extraction & medicine-making projects, bottling & labeling custom formulations
- Entheogen panel discussion with your teachers
- Q & A with Ben, Shane & Lisa
- Lunch: Enjoy a nutritious lunch featuring local organic foods (GF, DF, vegan & paleo options available)
- Closing Circle: Connect to share our experiences & give gratitude
- You are welcome to camp one more night at Elderberry’s
Lodging
Various indoor options are available at the farm or nearby (private or shared tiny house, hostel, studio apartment, etc.); because options change with the season, we’ll send info upon request – generally, they range from $60-$100/night. Free camping is included with your registration.
Registration
$399 includes all workshop activities & supplies, platform or meadow camping (with use of bathhouse), mid-day organic feast (vegan, paleo, & food intolerance savvy) & evening festivities.
Refund Policy
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Cancel one week or more before the workshop: full refund minus a $99 cancellation fee
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Cancel less than a week before the workshop: No refund, but your registration is transferable to another workshop of equal value.
Your teachers have many years of collective experience in these arts and are excited to share their knowledge!
Ben LeVine Nahar
Ben LeVine Nahar is the Chief Herbalist & Co-Founder at Rasa, an adaptogenic coffee alternative company, where he formulates products and manages sourcing, sustainability, quality control, and herbal education. Before launching Rasa, Ben was responsible for sourcing over 10 million pounds of botanicals a year, from all over the world, as an herb buyer for Celestial Seasonings.
In 2016, Ben enrolled at the Colorado School of Clinical Herbalism, where studying Vitalist herbalism and nutrition inspired his love of medicinal plants and plant people. After graduation, Ben began teaching a series of classes on the international herb industry, as well as a class on adaptogens and medicinal mushrooms at CSCH. He also holds an MSc in Clinical Herbalism from Maryland University of Integrative Health, where he focused on the science and traditions of adaptogenic herbs.
Shane Schoolman
Co-Founder and CEO, Mycolove Farm
Shane received his degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from CU Boulder and has been researching many aspects of mycology since 2016. Cultivating organic potent medicine, creating high quality therapeutic extracts, educating, and mycoremediation are all a passion of his that he wants to share with budding mycologists.
Mycolove Farm specializes in the highest quality fruiting body, triple extracted functional mushroom products created from their own locally grown organic mushrooms. MyCOLove Farm’s Mission is To Heal Through Biodiversity. MyCOLove is a vertically integrated mushroom company, from “Farm to Bottle” we do everything in-house, allowing us to maintain high quality and standards throughout.
Lisa Ganora
Founder of the Colorado School of Clinical Herbalism & Director of Elderberry’s, Lisa has presented workshops & taught classes at numerous schools & conferences for more than 30 years. She began studying herbs in the Wise Woman Tradition back in 1986 & fell profoundly in love with medicinal plants & Earth-based healing. After practicing wildcrafting & medicine making with traditional herbalists from New England to the Southern Appalachians, she began creating herbal products & traveled the festival circuit with an herb booth & as a workshop presenter. In 1997 Lisa decided to study botany, chemistry, & health sciences at the University of North Carolina, Asheville, & graduated with highest honors & several awards in chemistry & biology. She is the author of Herbal Constituents, 2nd Ed., a popular textbook on phytochemistry for herbalists & practitioners. Lisa teaches online courses at HerbalConstituents.com.
Kat Martello
Kat Martello is the lead apprentice & co-creator at Elderberry’s. Working in the herbal supplements business motivated her to earn her B.S. in the Herbal Sciences program at Bastyr University. At Bastyr, Kat was the botanical lab steward, a medicinal herb gardener, & did HPLC research on Cannabis terpenes. Working in herbal apothecaries, she integrated FDA compliance, formulated herbal medicines, & compounded naturopathic prescriptions. While employed in an analytical lab, Kat wrote standard operating procedures & certificates of analysis, processed cannabis samples as a lab technician, & did business-to-business promotions. She is also a Licensed Massage Therapist, has abundant hands-on experience in microcurrent & photobiomodulation therapy, & is certified as a nursing assistant.
Kat brings many talents to Elderberry’s including gardening, developing the botanical lab & hydrotherapy garden, making medicine & mead, illustrating processes, organizing & teaching workshops & online classes, & developing media for herbal education. A native New Orleanian, she was raised with an appreciation for arts & culture, & channels that into creating illustrations, clinical murals, theater backdrops, live music paintings, & more. Kat values integrity, symbiosis of humans with the planet, combining scientific rigor with herbal tradition, & uplifting her community through all means possible. Outside of work, she enjoys hiking, djembe drumming, dancing, astronomy, martial arts, traveling, practicing wilderness self-sufficiency, & laughing.