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2023 Workshops & Festival
Sat, Sep 30ErwinSep 30, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PMErwin, 945 Tilson Mountain Rd, Erwin, TN 37650, USAJoin professional herbalist Michelle Bouton for an outdoor plant ID walk and fall herbal tea tasting
Sun, Oct 15ErwinOct 15, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PMErwin, 945 Tilson Mountain Rd, Erwin, TN 37650, USAJoin professional herbalist Michelle Bouton for an outdoor plant ID walk and fall herbal tea tasting
Multiple DatesSat, Feb 17Clinchfield Senior CenterFeb 17, 2024, 9:00 AM – 3:00 PMClinchfield Senior Center, 220 Union St, Erwin, TN 37650, USAMedicinal herbs for specific body systems, including evidence-based protocols and traditional herbal approaches
PAST WORKSHOPS
If your organization is interested in sponsoring one of the following workshops,
please email Michelle@HERBalachia.com.
Community Herbal Medicine-Making
Join this pay-it-forward herbal medicine making event as we prepare healing gifts of Elderberry Syrup and Fire Cider!
These immune-boosting remedies will be distributed to members of our community in need.
Michelle Bouton of HERBalachia will share info about these traditional recipes and how the ingredients protect us from colds and flu.
Jo Wohlberg of Herbalists Without Borders will share the vision and values of HWO, including:
health and wellness are human rights, not privileges
volunteer efforts which focus primarily on natural and botanical health and wellness solutions
roles of traditional herbalists and healers in our society
These immune-boosting remedies will be distributed to members of our community in need.
Michelle Bouton of HERBalachia will share info about these traditional recipes and how the ingredients protect us from colds and flu.
Jo Wohlberg of Herbalists Without Borders will share the vision and values of HWO, including:
health and wellness are human rights, not privileges
volunteer efforts which focus primarily on natural and botanical health and wellness solutions
roles of traditional herbalists and healers in our society
Medicinal Mead-Making
The class is a demonstration on how to brew mead at home with basic equipment, which ultimately empowers even the novice to begin fermenting their own medicinal beverages.
The class includes discussion and hands-on components, giving the students a “feel” for fermentation. We will also sample previously made beverages that are not limited to mead, and potentially includes Kombucha, Kvass, and Kefir.
This event offers insight into the ancient practice of fermentation. Fermentation predates distillation by 2,000 years and was the primary way of concocting herbal plants (and their constituents) into bio-available medicines that have a lasting shelf-life.
A major focus of the class highlights the role of lacto-bacillus in digestive health and the over all function of the Gastro-Intestinal Tract. In addition to the role of fermentation on our health, we will discuss the role of plants in providing support for our health as well the importance of the honey bee, a major pollinator and contributor to the health of the natural world. As my good friend and teacher once joked with me, “It is as easy as making tea.”
INSTRUCTOR Thomas Cooper joins us from Boone, where he lives with his sweetie and son. His background includes a degree in Sustainable Agriculture as well as studies in primitive skills, foraging and wild-crafting plants, fermentation, and bird language.
The class includes discussion and hands-on components, giving the students a “feel” for fermentation. We will also sample previously made beverages that are not limited to mead, and potentially includes Kombucha, Kvass, and Kefir.
This event offers insight into the ancient practice of fermentation. Fermentation predates distillation by 2,000 years and was the primary way of concocting herbal plants (and their constituents) into bio-available medicines that have a lasting shelf-life.
A major focus of the class highlights the role of lacto-bacillus in digestive health and the over all function of the Gastro-Intestinal Tract. In addition to the role of fermentation on our health, we will discuss the role of plants in providing support for our health as well the importance of the honey bee, a major pollinator and contributor to the health of the natural world. As my good friend and teacher once joked with me, “It is as easy as making tea.”
INSTRUCTOR Thomas Cooper joins us from Boone, where he lives with his sweetie and son. His background includes a degree in Sustainable Agriculture as well as studies in primitive skills, foraging and wild-crafting plants, fermentation, and bird language.
Harvesting Medicinal Tree Barks
In this class, students will learn to properly identify medicinal trees and harvest their barks for medicine. We will also discuss the variety of herbal preparations that can be made with medicinal tree barks. We will discover our innate powers of observation, learn new skills (or refresh skills), and connect with like-minded community through the hands-on art and practice of working with medicinal tree barks.
Herbal Medicine offers a cornucopia of phytochemicals, known as ‘constituents’ that we consume to better our health and outlook on life. As herbalists we chase these constituents through the seasons like riding Nature’s Wave. As the seasons change and the days become shorter and the nights cooler we begin to look inward. At this time of the year, many perennial plants begin to draw their energy and constituents inwards and down towards their roots. We begin to dig more roots, harvests nuts and fruits, and we have another opportunity to harvest medicinal barks.
Please dress in layers and proper footwear for outdoor exploring, including rain gear. A harvesting basket or pack and sharp knife would be useful. Plan to bring lunch or snacks if you plan to attend the afternoon Mead-Making class as well.
Instructor Thomas Cooper joins us from Boone, where he lives with his sweetie and son. His background includes a degree in Sustainable Agriculture as well as studies in primitive skills, foraging and wild-crafting plants, fermentation, and bird language.
Herbal Medicine offers a cornucopia of phytochemicals, known as ‘constituents’ that we consume to better our health and outlook on life. As herbalists we chase these constituents through the seasons like riding Nature’s Wave. As the seasons change and the days become shorter and the nights cooler we begin to look inward. At this time of the year, many perennial plants begin to draw their energy and constituents inwards and down towards their roots. We begin to dig more roots, harvests nuts and fruits, and we have another opportunity to harvest medicinal barks.
Please dress in layers and proper footwear for outdoor exploring, including rain gear. A harvesting basket or pack and sharp knife would be useful. Plan to bring lunch or snacks if you plan to attend the afternoon Mead-Making class as well.
Instructor Thomas Cooper joins us from Boone, where he lives with his sweetie and son. His background includes a degree in Sustainable Agriculture as well as studies in primitive skills, foraging and wild-crafting plants, fermentation, and bird language.
Herbal Tea Blends for Winter
Ready to sip, sniff, and create?
Specific herbal blends can help keep us healthy through the challenges each season of the year presents. This class will explore the best selection of herbs for women’s daily tonics as we head into cooler months. Michelle will introduce us to various herbs and discuss why you would choose particular ones according to your own constitution and needs.
After sampling a few tea blends, each person will create a custom tea blends to take home and enjoy.
Specific herbal blends can help keep us healthy through the challenges each season of the year presents. This class will explore the best selection of herbs for women’s daily tonics as we head into cooler months. Michelle will introduce us to various herbs and discuss why you would choose particular ones according to your own constitution and needs.
After sampling a few tea blends, each person will create a custom tea blends to take home and enjoy.
Bamboo Tea Party and Class
Join us for a Bamboo intensive class with “Bamboo Bill” Howes, who has been studying bamboo cultivation, foods, and crafts for many years.
Class includes:
*Short tour of growing varieties
*Bamboo Tea Party, including pickled bamboo shoots and bamboo leaf tea
*How to make bamboo charcoal
*Discuss varieties for food, fencing, craft, etc
*Make and take home a Bamboo Bird Whistle
Class includes:
*Short tour of growing varieties
*Bamboo Tea Party, including pickled bamboo shoots and bamboo leaf tea
*How to make bamboo charcoal
*Discuss varieties for food, fencing, craft, etc
*Make and take home a Bamboo Bird Whistle
Fine-Tune Your Salves for Market
Beloved Native American instructor, Cindi Quay, shares her traditional teachings and years of experience in herbal products business, Cindi’s Sacred Garden. We will dive deeper into making salves for topical application, fine-tuning issues we may have encountered along the way.
Class includes:
• which plant allies work together to address skin issues
• therapeutic strategies: warming, cooling, circulating…
• salve recipes: base oil selection, infusions methods
• hands-on salve making demonstration
• troubleshooting/ advanced tips: bring your questions!
Everyone will leave with a freshly made jar of salve as well as ample handouts of selected plants and salve recipes.
This class will guide you in:
• plant suggestions for this year’s garden
• products to create for loved ones to enjoy
• raising the quality of your herbal-product business
Herbal Medicine offers a cornucopia of phytochemicals, known as ‘constituents’ that we consume to better our health and outlook on life. As herbalists we chase these constituents through the seasons like riding Nature’s Wave. As the seasons change and the days become shorter and the nights cooler we begin to look inward. At this time of the year, many perennial plants begin to draw their energy and constituents inwards and down towards their roots. We begin to dig more roots, harvests nuts and fruits, and we have another opportunity to harvest medicinal barks.
Please dress in layers and proper footwear for outdoor exploring, including rain gear. A harvesting basket or pack and sharp knife would be useful. Plan to bring lunch or snacks if you plan to attend the afternoon Mead-Making class as well.
Instructor Thomas Cooper joins us from Boone, where he lives with his sweetie and son. His background includes a degree in Sustainable Agriculture as well as studies in primitive skills, foraging and wild-crafting plants, fermentation, and bird language.
Class includes:
• which plant allies work together to address skin issues
• therapeutic strategies: warming, cooling, circulating…
• salve recipes: base oil selection, infusions methods
• hands-on salve making demonstration
• troubleshooting/ advanced tips: bring your questions!
Everyone will leave with a freshly made jar of salve as well as ample handouts of selected plants and salve recipes.
This class will guide you in:
• plant suggestions for this year’s garden
• products to create for loved ones to enjoy
• raising the quality of your herbal-product business
Herbal Medicine offers a cornucopia of phytochemicals, known as ‘constituents’ that we consume to better our health and outlook on life. As herbalists we chase these constituents through the seasons like riding Nature’s Wave. As the seasons change and the days become shorter and the nights cooler we begin to look inward. At this time of the year, many perennial plants begin to draw their energy and constituents inwards and down towards their roots. We begin to dig more roots, harvests nuts and fruits, and we have another opportunity to harvest medicinal barks.
Please dress in layers and proper footwear for outdoor exploring, including rain gear. A harvesting basket or pack and sharp knife would be useful. Plan to bring lunch or snacks if you plan to attend the afternoon Mead-Making class as well.
Instructor Thomas Cooper joins us from Boone, where he lives with his sweetie and son. His background includes a degree in Sustainable Agriculture as well as studies in primitive skills, foraging and wild-crafting plants, fermentation, and bird language.
Skin-loving Topical Herbs
Garden growing and skin glowing?
Come be introduced to plants growing wild and in our gardens that can be made into products to heal, protect regenerate, and make our skin more comfortable. This class will set you up for many years of self-care, gift-making for loved ones, and value-added market products.
Cindi will present:
• materia medica of herbs that support skin
• herb combinations that create synergy
• therapeutic strategies for different skin conditions
• working with itching, redness, dryness…
• different mediums of application (oil, salve, lotion, mist)
We will sniff and sample several skin care products made locally.
Handouts will be provided including herb spotlights and basic recipes. This class will lead us into the afternoon Fine-Tuning Salves for Market class!
Instructor: Cindi Quay, native American herbalist and owner of Cindi’s Sacred Garden herbal products.
Come be introduced to plants growing wild and in our gardens that can be made into products to heal, protect regenerate, and make our skin more comfortable. This class will set you up for many years of self-care, gift-making for loved ones, and value-added market products.
Cindi will present:
• materia medica of herbs that support skin
• herb combinations that create synergy
• therapeutic strategies for different skin conditions
• working with itching, redness, dryness…
• different mediums of application (oil, salve, lotion, mist)
We will sniff and sample several skin care products made locally.
Handouts will be provided including herb spotlights and basic recipes. This class will lead us into the afternoon Fine-Tuning Salves for Market class!
Instructor: Cindi Quay, native American herbalist and owner of Cindi’s Sacred Garden herbal products.
Appalachian Spring Tonics
The Appalachian mountain folk carried many traditions around spring herbal tonics. We will discuss the reasons and health benefits from our ancestor’s times and how it can be applied to modern challenges to health and lifestyle.
Class will include:
*guideline for identifying several medicinal spring herbs
*health benefits and safety precautions of these plants
*harvesting these herbs together
*make and enjoy a green tonic drink in class
*handout of different recipes to try at home
Bring a drinking vessel with you and a child like since of wonder!
HERBalachia insructor Amanda River Fern Bryant is a massage therapist and herbalist in Johnson City.
Class will include:
*guideline for identifying several medicinal spring herbs
*health benefits and safety precautions of these plants
*harvesting these herbs together
*make and enjoy a green tonic drink in class
*handout of different recipes to try at home
Bring a drinking vessel with you and a child like since of wonder!
HERBalachia insructor Amanda River Fern Bryant is a massage therapist and herbalist in Johnson City.
Medicinal Mushrooms & Shiitake Log Inoculation
medicinal use including shiitake, oyster, turkeytail, reishi, chaga, maitake, hoof conk, woodear, and lion’s mane. All of these can be found wild or cultivated locally.
Mushroom teas will be available to sample, then we head outside for the hands-on project of learning to inoculate logs with mushrooms spores. Please wear work clothes and gloves for this outdoor project class.
Tickets are $40, includes one 4′ inoculated shiitake log, which should bear several times per year for about 4-5 years.
Mushroom teas will be available to sample, then we head outside for the hands-on project of learning to inoculate logs with mushrooms spores. Please wear work clothes and gloves for this outdoor project class.
Tickets are $40, includes one 4′ inoculated shiitake log, which should bear several times per year for about 4-5 years.
Herbs for Pain & Advanced Salves
Fine-tune your Pain-Relieving Salves!
Beloved Native American instructor, Cindi Quay, returns to TN to share from her traditional teachings and years of experience in herbal products business, Cindi’s Sacred Garden. We will dive deeper into teachings of salves for topical application, fine-tuning issues we may have encountered along the way.
Class includes:
• study of selected of Native pain relief herbs
• which plant allies work together to address pain
• therapeutic strategies: warming, cooling, circulating…
• salve recipes: base oil selection, infusions methods
• hands-on salve making demonstration
• troubleshooting/ advanced tips: bring your questions!
Everyone will leave with a freshly made jar of salve as well as ample handouts of selected plants and salve recipes.
This class will guide you in:
• plant suggestions for this year’s garden
• products to create for loved ones to enjoy
• raising the quality of your herbal-product business
Beloved Native American instructor, Cindi Quay, returns to TN to share from her traditional teachings and years of experience in herbal products business, Cindi’s Sacred Garden. We will dive deeper into teachings of salves for topical application, fine-tuning issues we may have encountered along the way.
Class includes:
• study of selected of Native pain relief herbs
• which plant allies work together to address pain
• therapeutic strategies: warming, cooling, circulating…
• salve recipes: base oil selection, infusions methods
• hands-on salve making demonstration
• troubleshooting/ advanced tips: bring your questions!
Everyone will leave with a freshly made jar of salve as well as ample handouts of selected plants and salve recipes.
This class will guide you in:
• plant suggestions for this year’s garden
• products to create for loved ones to enjoy
• raising the quality of your herbal-product business
Herbal Syrups: A Tasty Medicine
Syrups, a fun and yummy way to make and enjoy herbal medicine, are a great benefit to those with small children or persons choosing to avoid alcohol tinctures.
CLASS will cover:
Benefits and challenges of using sugar as a preservative
Basic syrup recipe that can be applied to various herbal formulas
Specific herbs to choose from in customizing a personal formula
Making 2 syrups in class
TAKE-HOME includes:
Iron syrup- A blood builder and strengthener, which helps one to feel more grounded, embodied, and empowered. This is a great formula for women and those with anemia.
Adaptogen syrup- A balancing formula, helping the body to deal with physical and emotional stress gracefully. It strengthens and energizes us for our modern busy lifestyles.
***Please bring two 4 oz bottles and an open heart to the medicine of the earth!***
HERBalachia insructor Amanda River Fern Bryant is a licensed massage therapist and herbalist.
CLASS will cover:
Benefits and challenges of using sugar as a preservative
Basic syrup recipe that can be applied to various herbal formulas
Specific herbs to choose from in customizing a personal formula
Making 2 syrups in class
TAKE-HOME includes:
Iron syrup- A blood builder and strengthener, which helps one to feel more grounded, embodied, and empowered. This is a great formula for women and those with anemia.
Adaptogen syrup- A balancing formula, helping the body to deal with physical and emotional stress gracefully. It strengthens and energizes us for our modern busy lifestyles.
***Please bring two 4 oz bottles and an open heart to the medicine of the earth!***
HERBalachia insructor Amanda River Fern Bryant is a licensed massage therapist and herbalist.
Herbs: Winter to Spring, Enhancing Creativity
After a long winter hibernation, our spring energy begins to rise and become active again! Learn which herbs smooth this transition and help you bloom big this spring!
Class focus:
*Understanding our inner energy shift in Spring
*Herbs for Winter-Spring transition
*Discuss therapeutic strategies for common spring health issues (immunity, allergies, headache)
*Have fun tasting and sampling a variety of herbal products such as teas, syrups, salves
Instructors:
Michelle Bouton, HERBalachia director
Victorian Hanson, HERBalachia embassador and yoga instructor
Class focus:
*Understanding our inner energy shift in Spring
*Herbs for Winter-Spring transition
*Discuss therapeutic strategies for common spring health issues (immunity, allergies, headache)
*Have fun tasting and sampling a variety of herbal products such as teas, syrups, salves
Instructors:
Michelle Bouton, HERBalachia director
Victorian Hanson, HERBalachia embassador and yoga instructor
November Plant ID Walk
How do we identify plants in late autumn?
Join botanist Abby Artemisia on Buffalo Mountain to learn about plants growing all around us. We will hone in on plant ID skills for late autumn, discuss historical and medicinal uses, and learn the edibles.
If you have an interest in herbalism, wilderness survival, or wild foods, this is the class for you!
Abby is an herbalist and botanist and is an instructor for HERBalachia school.
Join botanist Abby Artemisia on Buffalo Mountain to learn about plants growing all around us. We will hone in on plant ID skills for late autumn, discuss historical and medicinal uses, and learn the edibles.
If you have an interest in herbalism, wilderness survival, or wild foods, this is the class for you!
Abby is an herbalist and botanist and is an instructor for HERBalachia school.
Forage and Feast: October Nuts and Bounty
Join forest frolicker Taylor Malone to harvest pecans, chestnuts, bitternut hickory, sunchokes, black oak acorns, persimmons and other possible wild edibles. We welcome what nature offers, and October’s bounty in East TN can be quite tasty.
Workshop includes:
Foraging (small jaunt) to harvest
Class time learning about pecan diseases, how to tell if nuts are good or bad, how to crack and press pecans for oil, using Nut Wizard tools, Q&A time
Tasting our bountiful snacks we have procured
Taylor is a local specialist in wild foraging, JC urban Food Forest organizer, and project developer for Build It Up East Tennessee.
Having cultivated gardens and worked on a farm full-time, he’s also very interested in urban farming initiatives.
Workshop includes:
Foraging (small jaunt) to harvest
Class time learning about pecan diseases, how to tell if nuts are good or bad, how to crack and press pecans for oil, using Nut Wizard tools, Q&A time
Tasting our bountiful snacks we have procured
Taylor is a local specialist in wild foraging, JC urban Food Forest organizer, and project developer for Build It Up East Tennessee.
Having cultivated gardens and worked on a farm full-time, he’s also very interested in urban farming initiatives.
Kombucha & Fire Cider Tonics
Join local herbalists, Lesley Setchim and Camille Cody in a beneficial hands-on make and take workshop introducing you to two popular and easy to make at home drinks, Kombucha and Fire Cider.
Learn how they promote healthy digestion, boost immunity and metabolism, and warm your inner fire. They will share their understanding of the history and culture of these ancient drinks, the nutritional values, uses, methods, and different varieties that you can choose to create.
You will be supplied:
– a written guide to take home that will walk you through the steps of completing and sustaining your batches of these powerfully healthy drinks
– A SCOBY and starter liquid to start your own Kombucha batch at home
– A created batch of Fire Cider to continue at home
** Please bring two additional quart mason jars with lids, a journal, and writing tool.
Learn how they promote healthy digestion, boost immunity and metabolism, and warm your inner fire. They will share their understanding of the history and culture of these ancient drinks, the nutritional values, uses, methods, and different varieties that you can choose to create.
You will be supplied:
– a written guide to take home that will walk you through the steps of completing and sustaining your batches of these powerfully healthy drinks
– A SCOBY and starter liquid to start your own Kombucha batch at home
– A created batch of Fire Cider to continue at home
** Please bring two additional quart mason jars with lids, a journal, and writing tool.
Plant Identity Walk & Preparing Medicinal Oils and Salves
Join Abby Artemisia, HERBalachia faculty member, in a two-part class along the beautiful Nolichucky River
PLANT ID WALK:
This hands-on class starts out with a gentle stroll introducing you to native plants in our Appalachian region. We will discuss the medicinal value of the plants along with the parts used in medicine making, ethical harvesting, and identification tips. Please bring a journal for notes, comfortable walking shoes, water, and rain gear.
CREATE MAKE-AND-TAKE SALVE:
Start your own herbal medicine cabinet with this hands-on aspect of our workshop. Abby will teach you about the ingredients and methods for making herbal oils and salves and their various uses. There’s a lot more than you might think, from culinary or therapeutic, to cosmetic. These could make a great homemade gift, too. You will go home with a salve you helped create and empowered with the knowledge to make your own salves with an understanding of local plants and their medicinal uses along with a detailed handout with instructions and recipes. Please bring a container to place your salve in.
* Learn local plants and their medicinal uses
* Learn to make herbal salves and oils for healing scrapes, bites, and burns
* Learn which work best for tension, pain, dryness, and swelling
Workshop includes:
Foraging (small jaunt) to harvest
Class time learning about pecan diseases, how to tell if nuts are good or bad, how to crack and press pecans for oil, using Nut Wizard tools, Q&A time
Tasting our bountiful snacks we have procured
Taylor is a local specialist in wild foraging, JC urban Food Forest organizer, and project developer for Build It Up East Tennessee.
Having cultivated gardens and worked on a farm full-time, he’s also very interested in urban farming initiatives.
PLANT ID WALK:
This hands-on class starts out with a gentle stroll introducing you to native plants in our Appalachian region. We will discuss the medicinal value of the plants along with the parts used in medicine making, ethical harvesting, and identification tips. Please bring a journal for notes, comfortable walking shoes, water, and rain gear.
CREATE MAKE-AND-TAKE SALVE:
Start your own herbal medicine cabinet with this hands-on aspect of our workshop. Abby will teach you about the ingredients and methods for making herbal oils and salves and their various uses. There’s a lot more than you might think, from culinary or therapeutic, to cosmetic. These could make a great homemade gift, too. You will go home with a salve you helped create and empowered with the knowledge to make your own salves with an understanding of local plants and their medicinal uses along with a detailed handout with instructions and recipes. Please bring a container to place your salve in.
* Learn local plants and their medicinal uses
* Learn to make herbal salves and oils for healing scrapes, bites, and burns
* Learn which work best for tension, pain, dryness, and swelling
Workshop includes:
Foraging (small jaunt) to harvest
Class time learning about pecan diseases, how to tell if nuts are good or bad, how to crack and press pecans for oil, using Nut Wizard tools, Q&A time
Tasting our bountiful snacks we have procured
Taylor is a local specialist in wild foraging, JC urban Food Forest organizer, and project developer for Build It Up East Tennessee.
Having cultivated gardens and worked on a farm full-time, he’s also very interested in urban farming initiatives.
Medicinal Mushrooms and Shiitake Log Inoculation
Rodney Webb, local mushroom grower, will present mushrooms for medicinal use including shiitake, oyster, turkeytail, reishi, chaga, maitake, hoof conk, woodear, and lion’s mane.
All of these can be found wild or cultivated locally. Mushroom teas will be available to sample, then we head outside for the hands-on project of learning to inoculate logs with mushrooms spores.
Consider work clothes and gloves for this outdoor project class.
Class fee of $45 includes one approximately 4′ log inoculated with shiitake spore, which should bear several times per year for about 4-5 years. More logs may be available for purchase at $10 each by ordering ahead.
All of these can be found wild or cultivated locally. Mushroom teas will be available to sample, then we head outside for the hands-on project of learning to inoculate logs with mushrooms spores.
Consider work clothes and gloves for this outdoor project class.
Class fee of $45 includes one approximately 4′ log inoculated with shiitake spore, which should bear several times per year for about 4-5 years. More logs may be available for purchase at $10 each by ordering ahead.
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