From Soil to Society: Celebrating the Essential Connections Between All Living Things
 
PROGRAM DETAILS
 
  The Peaceful Gardener: A hands-on herbal medicine
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Instructor(s):

 Category: Ecology Dates: 7/17/2009-7/19/2009 Price: $300
Susun Weed
 
Brief Description:
Acclaimed herbalist, author, homesteader and organic gardener, Susun Weed will be making her first teaching visit to Nova Scotia to share her wisdom, knowledge and humour in a workshop that is guaranteed to change forever how you relate to plants.
Work Scholarship:
We offer a number of work scholarship positions for each of our sessions. Click here for more information.
 
Description:
The weekend opens with a meditation on Friday afternoon that will connect you deeply to the earth and plants. Our talking stick ceremony will help clarify goals and needs and attune us to the gifts of our “green allies” Over the next two days, we will learn to identify edible and medicinal plants, pick wild salads, make salves, tinctures and teas to heal and nourish, and learn how weeds serve to indicate soil conditions, heal gardens, and relate to other cultivated plants. With story, song and her encyclopedic knowledge of plant lore, Susun will delight us in the journey to becoming a Peaceful Gardener so that we may all count our green blessings.

Friday July 17, 2009

Registration begins at 11:00pm
1:00-2:00pm Lunch
2:00 Susun will lead us in an “earth attunement” allowing us to focus on our breathing and with our bare feet on the earth we will be guided through a meditation that allows us to become in tune with the earth and the plants.
2:30 Susun will introduce us to the earth talking stick ceremony which will continue to be used throughout the weekend as a tool for focusing and communication. We will then take the time for everyone present to identify their own goals and needs in terms of the workshop.
3:30 We will spend some time in the garden identifying and working with different plants. Susun will encourage each person to choose a “green ally”, a plant that they will continue to work with over time. We will then collect some weeds for a wild salad that will be served at supper.
4:30-6:00 Participants are free to enjoy the grounds, help in the garden or kitchen, walk in the woods, etc.
6:00-7:00 Supper is served, pre-registration required
8:30 bonfire

Saturday July 18, 2009

7:30-8:30 Breakfast served
8:30-9:45 “Avodah” period in which all participants are encouraged to participate in the life of the farm.
10:00 morning session includes working with our green allies and careful observation of plants in the garden.
1:00-2:00 Lunch
2:00-4:30 we will spend this afternoon with more specific plant assignments and then learn how herbal infusions are made and understand their healing powers.
6:00-7:00 Supper, pre-registration required

Sunday July 19, 2009

8:30 – 9:30 Breakfast served
10:00 morning session includes some time in the garden and then learning how to make vinegars and tinctures using fresh and dried plant material.
We will end with a closing ceremony at 12:30
1:00-2:00 Optional Lunch, pre-registration required
 
   
Instructor Bio(s):  
Susun Weed    
Susun S. Weed is the author of four highly-acclaimed books on herbs and women's health: Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year, Healing Wise, New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way and Breast Cancer? Breast Health! the Wise Woman Way. Ms. Weed lectures world-wide on women's health and herbal medicine. From her home in New York State's Catskill Mountains, she directs the activities of the Wise Woman Centre, acts as editor-in-chief of Ash Tree Publishing, personally oversees the work of 400 correspondence students, and trains herbal and shamanic apprentices. Susun has lived the simple life for nearly 40 years as an herbalist, goat-keeper, homesteader and feminist. She has been called "a true radical... deeply rooted" "a modern pioneer" and "one of the founding mothers of herbal medicine in the United States."