Blue Ridge Herb Lore Gathering
2017 Instructor Bios
Christina DiEno
Christina is a licensed midwife, herbalist, and homeopath who practiced and taught midwifery in St. Augustine, FL, and St. Mary, Jamaica, for over 20 years. She has over 35 years of experience exploring traditional healing modalities and has trained over 80 midwives as a preceptor for the Florida School of Traditional Midwifery in Gainesville, the Seattle School of Midwifery in Washington, the State of Alaska Direct Entry Midwife Program, the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Oregon, the National Midwifery Institute in Vermont, the Birthwise Midwifery School in Maine, and the Arkansas Midwifery School. Christina presently lives in Floyd, VA, and runs an international homeopathic and herbal practice.
Workshop: Family Healing and Creating a Natural Medicine Chest: Applying Traditional Natural, Herbal and Homeopathic Healing Modalities to Common Family Health Issues—Explore and create resources for natural healing remedies for common family health issues and learn practical suggestions for stocking the pantry, garden, and medicine chest.
Adam Fisher
Adam is a program coordinator for the Appalachian Herb Growers Consortium for the Blue Ridge Center for Chinese Medicine in Floyd, VA, and he is the owner of Burgeoning Farm. Adam has an associate’s degree in sustainable agriculture and has been farming for over eight years. He is one of the first wild mushroom pickers approved by the VA Department of Agriculture and is a member of the New River Valley Mushroom Club and the North American Mycology Association. Adam picks and sells mushrooms to chefs and directly to consumers.
Workshop: Foraging and Cultivation of Mushrooms for Medicine and Food—Learn how to identify mushrooms, forage for them during specific times of the year, and cultivate them for home needs.
Lara Miller
Lara has been practicing herbal healing and body care for over 17 years. As a mother of seven, Lara has striven to raise her family as healthily as possible through natural body care and nutrition. She practices wild crafting, growing her own herbs, making her own body care products, creating toxic free cleaning supplies, energy healing, and creating herbal healing mediums. She operates her business Copper Dog and Company from her home in Floyd, VA.
Workshop: Kicking the Chemical: How to Make Home Cleaning Products and Personal Body Products That Are Safe and Really Work!—Learn to make your own household cleaners using simple ingredients and pick up recipes and firsthand knowledge of how to clean your body using toxic free methods focusing on skin care.
Naomi Crews
Naomi is a program coordinator for the Appalachian Herb Growers Consortium at the Blue Ridge Center for Chinese Medicine in Floyd County, VA. A plant enthusiast since childhood, she loves all aspects of the botanical world and is particularly drawn to developing relationships with the native plants of our region. She has a degree in environmental studies and is a Botany Specialist and Apothecary Consultant for Mountain Song Herbals Apothecary and Tea Shop in Floyd.
Workshop: Cultivating the Herbal Home Garden and Finding Herbs in the Wild—Along with the many health benefits herbs offer, the cultivation of herbs at home and the hunt for herbs in nature both offer a deep sense of satisfaction. Learn useful skills of home cultivation and harvesting in the wild.
Sam Steffans
Sam is a midwife, herbalist, and co-founder of Mountain Song Herbals in Floyd County, VA. She began making herbal formulas and growing medicinal herbs for other community members after being inspired by her Appalachian herbalist mentor. Sam and her husband founded Mountain Song Herbals to promote a holistic approach to community wellness through traditional herbal healing, plant based remedies, and preventive health education. Mountain Song Herbals is a Friend (Quaker) owned company,which also means they do their best as a business to work in the spirit of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality and stewardship.
Workshop: Herbal Infusions in the Home: Exploring Tinctures, Infused Oils, and Body Balms—The art of making herbal tinctures, infused oils, and body balms is a time-honored tradition in the Appalachian herbalism of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Delve into the cultivated and wildcrafted plants commonly found on the farm and in the backyard and learn several methods of extracting fat soluble and alcohol soluble herbal constituents. Both maceration and percolation methods for tinctures along with cold and hot infusion processes of making oils will be covered.
Phyllis Light
A fourth generation herbalist and healer, Phyllis has studied and worked with herbs, foods and other healing techniques for over 30 years. Her studies in traditional southern and Appalachian folk medicine began in the deep woods of North Alabama with lessons from her grandmother and father, whose herbal and healing knowledge had its roots in their Creek/Cherokee heritage. Phyllis’ studies continued as an apprentice with the late Tommie Bass, a nationally renowned folk herbalist from Sand Rock, Alabama, as well as with other herbal elders throughout the Appalachians and the Deep South.
Keynote Address: Appalachian Herbal Traditions—Traditional southern and Appalachian folk medicine is the most widely acknowledged regional folk medicine in the United States and the only system to develop in this country, other than Native American medicine. Its early development can be traced to influences from Greek or Galenic (humoral) medicine, which prevailed in Europe at the time of settlement of this country; Native American plant use and knowledge; and folk traditions of Africa and the British Isles. From these diverse cultures, a unique constitutional system emerged that is unique to the southern United States. In her keynote address Phyllis will offer a wonderful introduction into this world of regional folk medicine. Sharing healing stories from the Appalachian herbal tradition, she will talk about the southern Blood Types (bitter/salty and sweet/sour); the four elements (fire/water and air/earth); and the blood qualities of high/low blood, thick/thin, fast/slow, and good/bad.
Workshop: Traditional Appalachian Plant Properties and Uses—Join Phyllis as she discusses several of her favorite Appalachian herbs—including American ginseng, black walnut, blue vervain, goldenseal, sumac, poke, skullcap, passionflower, and Solomon’s seal—and their traditional uses. The workshop will also touch on some unique applications of tree medicines based on Native American uses (dogwood, magnolia, redbud) and the role of naturalized European plants—such as mullein, chickweed, cleavers, calendula, dandelion, plantain, and other yard weeds—in traditional Appalachian folk medicine.