Welcome
to My
Haven of Herbal Learning...
Upcoming Classes:
Medicine of Place:
A 10 Week Intro to Herbalism Course
Rooted in the Bay Area
~ 60 hour course ~
When:
Mondays 10-5pm, April 1 - June 3, 2024
Where:
Moving throughout various East Bay parks, community gardens, urban farms, botanical gardens and other green spaces
in Berkeley and Oakland, CA
Huchiun, unceded Lisjan Ohlone territory
Cost:
3 Tier Sliding Scale - $750, $950, $1150
*As a thank you for making the lowest tier accessible, people who pay $1150 get a complimentary botanical bodywork session with me and a package of custom herbal formulations I make tailored just to their needs
About the Class:
This class welcomes the beginner herbalist and those who have been self teaching, taking classes here and there, or tinkering away with herbs in their kitchen and are now ready to take a deeper dive. This is an all in person class taking a hands-on and bioregional herbalism approach. Let's listen to the plants themselves and learn the medicine of place.
To begin our journey together, we will make an offering to the land and give acknowledgement to the First Nations people, the Lisjan Ohlone, who still live here and actively tend these lands and the many medicinal plants that grow. We will be discussing what it means to live on unceded indigenous land and how we can honor, protect, and love it well as community herbalists rooted to place.
Throughout the course, we will learn what grows around the Bay Area in abundance. We will ask, what grows in our own backyards, local community gardens, urban farms, neighborhood parks, and green spaces? And how can we develop deep relationships with these plants and become the people who tend to them and make medicines with them to share with our communities? As herbalism gains popularity, and the industry imports so many plants from far away lands, many of which can and do grow locally, how can we return to a place based, deeply rooted, and more sustainable approach. Wildcrafting and foraging have also become big trends, but are these practices sustainable in a highly impacted urban area? Part of lovingly walking on this land is protecting wild spaces for future generations, so we will focus on how we can grow our own medicines and tend them in community. We will develop relationships with growers of plant medicine locally and learn to become those growers ourselves, translating the slow food approach to slow medicine.
To illuminate this, our classroom will be a variety of community gardens, urban farms, backyards, parks, and botanical gardens which will provide a taster of the many greenspaces we can get involved in. And of course, this will allow the plants and ecosystems to speak for themselves and be our greatest teachers.
We will also learn about each body system and the plants with affinities to each. Within that, we will discover practical ways of using plants to support common health imbalances addressing body, mind, and spirit. We will also learn a variety of medicine making preparations including: tinctures, teas, infused oils, salves, liniments, glycerites, vinegar extracts, syrups and more. By the end you will have a foundation to start growing your own home apothecary with confidence and begin the process of becoming a community herbalist and plant whisper rooted to place.
Let the forest and garden be our classroom and the plants our wisest teachers!
Reach out if you have any questions at
To learn more about local Indigenous women-led rematriation efforts on Lisjan Ohlone land visit
https://sogoreate-landtrust.org/
Sogorea Te’ Land Trust is an urban Indigenous women-led land trust that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people.
And join me in paying Shuumi tax here!
Herbal Heart Medicine:
Making Remedies of Hawthorn & Rose
When:
Saturday, May 18th 11-1pm
Where:
Berkeley Rose Garden
1200 Euclid Avenue Berkeley, CA 94708
Cost:
Low Income: $35
Standard: $50
Pay-It-Forward: $75
Class Description:
In May the hawthorn trees blossom and the roses become thick and luscious. Both of these plants are powerful heart medicines and protectors of love. Come learn about some of the many ways to celebrate and support the physical, emotional, and spiritual heart. We will be making flower essences and heart elixirs to take home. Come with an open heart and be ready to have your senses dazzled in the garden of roses!
Womb Sovereignty:
Fertility Awareness & Herbal Contraception
When:
Sunday, June 2nd 2-4pm
Where:
UC Gill Tract Community Farm
1050 San Pablo Ave. Albany, CA 94706
Cost:
Sliding Scale: $15-35
No one turned away for lack of funds
Class Description:
Womb bearers have been in tune with their fertility cycles since time immemorial. It is innate to animal nature and is our birthright to intimately know. This ancestral wisdom has been taken from us to keep us detached from knowing our bodies, being empowered, and honoring the deep portals of life and death that we are. Come learn the basics of fertility awareness method and learn how to recognize when you are in your fertile window versus when you are not. We will also meet a variety of plant allies in our toolkit to create a well supported natural path to avoiding pregnancy.
Weekly Herbal Learning Circles
at UC Gill Tract Community Farm
When:
Every Sunday, 2-4pm
Where:
UC Gill Tract Community Farm
1050 San Pablo Ave.
Albany, CA 94706
Who:
Open to all ages
Cost:
Suggested Donation $15-60
*No one turned away for lack of funds
About:
Come learn about herbal medicine in a hands-on and communal way at the farm from a collective of community herbalists of diverse backgrounds and perspectives. Topics vary each week and with the seasons. We may be doing a seasonal plant walk, making an infused oil or salve, processing herbs growing at the farm, talking about how to use herbs to support common health imbalances, ancestral herbalism, or something else! If you are interested in participating and would like to stay in the loop about classes reach out to me at
and join my mailing list!
