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Wild Skills: Nature’s Farmacy & Herbal First Aid Workshop 6/17-21

June 17, 2021 @ 12:00 am - June 21, 2021 @ 12:00 am

Wild Skills: Nature’s Farmacy & Herbal First Aid Workshop
June 17 – 21

A unique opportunity to revive the sustainable ways of our ancestors & to develop practical skills for a deeper relationship with the sustenance & healing that Nature provides

Welcome to our five-day hands-on Wild Skills Nature’s Farmacy & Herbal First Aid Workshop where we will practice ancestral & timeless Earth-based methods for finding & preparing wild foods & medicines, tending fire, & doing backwoods first-aid with a wilderness-trained EMT! Includes a Summer Solstice celebration.

Throughout this Herbal First Aid Workshop you will learn how to:

  • Identify plants
  • Practice ethical wildcrafting & harvesting
  • Prepare & cook wild foods over coals
  • Safely apply fire & knife handling skills
  • Use a bow-drill to start a fire
  • Preserve food
  • Make mullein torches & other useful items from plants
  • Practice wilderness first aid & build a first aid kit
  • Find your way in the woods both day & night
  • Make basic herbal medicines & body-care products

SCHEDULE

Below is a general outline of what we will cover. A detailed schedule and more information are provided when you register

  • Afternoon: set up camp or settle into lodging, orientation, tour of the farm, assignment to action groups, reviewing handouts, preparations for projects
  • Evening: community gathering & opening circle. Dinner on site (food truck with delicious local organic options)
  • After dinner presentation: Introduction to Ancestral Skills with our wilderness medicine & wild foods experts. Learn about the local ecosystem & what it can provide. Introduction to identifying & using plants for Earth-based foods & medicines & other household uses
  • Morning session: harvesting/wildcrafting trip to nearby wild areas. Where we go will be determined by the season/weather. Higher-elevation Aspen/Spruce forest likely. We’ll harvest foods, spices & medicines & talk about how to use them
  • Afternoon session: making medicines from our harvest. We’ll create a tallow salve with wild/weedy ingredients, a local plant-based shampoo, wild spice blends, and other useful products depending on the harvest
  • After dark: Dinner on site (food truck). Gather around the community stone firepit for some Rocky Mountain merry-making or relax under the stars in the aromatic hydrotherapy garden
  • Morning session: More wildcrafting & harvesting in the mountain forests & meadows with Briana Wiles & Katrina Blair. We’ll focus on harvesting foods & spices to use for the Wild Feast Saturday night & on practicing some wilderness medicine techniques in the woods with Lindsey Camphouse, experienced & wilderness trained EMT
  • Afternoon session: finishing up the field trip by 3pm & preparing the Wild Feast to cook both over the fire & in the kitchen for a truly memorable dinner
  • After dark: learn to start a fire without modern technology & how to tend fires safely in the Rockies. Gather around the community stone firepit for some Rocky Mountain merry-making or relax under the stars in the aromatic hydrotherapy garden
  • Morning session: Lindsey will lead us in using wilderness & herbal first-aid with mock-up scenarios & practice sessions
  • Afternoon session: make your botanical-based first aid kit with Lindsey & Katrina – you’ll learn the top 10 core medicines and how to use them
  • After dark: using ancestral skills, we’ll build & start our ceremonial Summer Solstice bonfire for a celebration of the Sun! Learn traditional songs & stories about the Sun, Moon & Stars & how we can honor them in our daily lives
  • Morning session: learn how to be respectful stewards of the land & how to practice regenerative harvesting & cultivation. We’ll cover practical, hands-on techniques for re-establishing right relationship with the Elements & the living beings that share the Earth
  • Afternoon: closing circle – pass the talking stick & share your aha’s, uh-oh’s, insights & creations. Sign up for continuing connections
  • We’ll finish in time for all to pack up & travel home – we’ll miss you & we hope to see you again soon!

Wild Skills: Nature’s Farmacy & Herbal First Aid Workshop
June 17 – 21

The Details…

BIPOC: One full scholarship available, please email us for details

Covid Adaptations

Depending on conditions, workshops will be limited to the allowed number of participants & will be held in covered but open outdoor structures &/or outside with social distancing; we follow appropriate sanitation & masking practices

Lodging

Various indoor options available at the farm or nearby (private or shared tiny house, hostel, AirBnB, studio apartment, etc.). Because options change with the season, we’ll send info upon request; generally, they range from $50-$100/night

Registration

$599 includes all workshop activities & supplies, platform or meadow camping (with use of bathhouse), mid-day organic feasts (vegan, paleo, & food intolerance savvy) & evening festivities

Refund Policy

  • Cancel one week or more before the workshop: full refund minus a $99 cancellation fee
  • Cancel less than a week before the workshop: registration transferable to another workshop, minus a $99 cancellation fee

Your teachers have more than 60 years of collective experience in these arts and are excited to share their knowledge!

Katrina Blair

Katrina Blair began studying wild plants in her teens when she camped out alone for a summer to embrace a wild foods diet.  She later wrote “The Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants of the San Juan Mountains” for her senior project at Colorado College.  Katrina also completed a MA at John F Kennedy University in Orinda, CA in Holistic Health Education.  She then founded the non-profit Turtle Lake Refuge in 1998, whose mission is to celebrate the connection between personal health & wild lands. Turtle Lake Refuge includes a wild local living foods café, sustainable education center & community farm.  Katrina teaches permaculture & wild edible and medicinal classes locally & globally.  She is author of several books including Local Wild Life – Turtle Lake Refuge’s Recipes for Living Deep & The Wild Wisdom of Weeds: 13 Essential Plants for Human Survival.

 You can see her website at Turtlelakerefuge.org

Lindsey Camphouse

Lindsey is a certified EMT/ herbalist; whose dedication is facilitating connections between nature and communities. Creating plant-to-human interactions through workshops on gardening, herbal medicine making, emergency first aid skills and ethical seed foraging helps to grow intuitively healing relationships. Being the founder of PlantShine, she also provides coaching and consultations on working with herbs in everyday life. Growing up on a farm in Montana, Lindsey fell in love with nature and had endless adventures. Eventually, she went to Green Path Herb School in Missoula Montana to study herbalism. There she realized her passion for melding herbal first aid and western emergency medicine. She also works seasonally as a fireline emergency medical technician (EMT) on wildland fires in the NorthWest. Lindsey recently moved to Grand Junction Colorado with her pup, Salix. They are thrilled to be soaking up the sunshine, exploring/ hiking new places, enjoying the river and meeting stellar people and plants along the way.

Briana Wiles

Briana Wiles is an author, herbalist & enthusiastic teacher of wild skills & herbal medicine.  She has published two bioregional books, ‘Mountain States Foraging’ & ‘Mountain States Medicinal Plants’. Briana lives her passion for wildcrafting local medicine & foraging for wild edibles around the Gunnison Valley of Colorado over the past 12 years. This valley is blessed with an abundance of natural healing plants right outside our doorsteps. Her shops in Crested Butte & Gunnison, the Rooted Apothecaries, offer a variety of homemade organic & wildcrafted body care products & herbal remedies. Briana was raised in Michigan, but has been rooted in Colorado since 2006, where she raises her two children with her husband & business partner, Brian. You can follow them on Instagram, TikTok & Facebook, or visit the website at rooted-apothecary.com for handmade products, current classes, and blog posts.

REGISTER NOW

This 5-day workshop is $599

Wild Skills Registration Form
Please choose a pricing option:
Lodging Choices: *
Meals: Organic, local foods …Please specify: *
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Details

Start:
June 17, 2021 @ 12:00 am
End:
June 21, 2021 @ 12:00 am

Venue

Elderberry’s Farm
1978 Harding Road
Paonia, CO 81428 United States
Phone:
720-722-4372 text please

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