Greetings!
December is a quiet month for herbalists. We like to climb under the quilts with a hot cup of tea and hibernate after a busy harvest season! The landscape has turned white overnight, nary a green leaf to be found anymore.
Not a whole lot of classes being offered this time of year, although the Twin Cities has its fair share of winter offerings. Coulee Region Herbal Institute does not offer any classes in the month of December but will resume its indoor classes at the People’s Food Co-op on the third Sunday in January.
CRHI held it’s annual meeting in November and fleshed out a full line-up of classes, herbwalks and events for 2008. The calendar will be available when the winter issue of our quarterly newsletter is mailed out. I’ll send it out on an e-mail and will also be posting it permanently on our soon-coming website. Minutes of the meeting were sent out to all members and are available for viewing to anyone who wishes to see them. E-mail me at if you would like to see a copy of the minutes.
The Winter 2007/2008 issue of our newsletter is in the works, to be sent out just before the holidays (knock on wood!) This will be the last issue that is mailed out en masse. After the new year,hard copy versions of the newsletter will only be mailed to members. An online copy will be available for viewing on the soon-coming website, along with an archive of past newsletters. If you would like to continue to receive the mailing, you can send a membership donation to Coulee Region Herbal Institute.
Submissions for the winter newsletter are due by December 10. Please consider sending a recipe, article, book review, poem or anything else herb-related that might be of interest to our readers.
Meanwhile, here’s a link to a radio show called “Herbal Highways” that might be of interest to you on these cozy winter evenings. There are a lot of great programs in the archives that you can browse.
http://kpfa.org/archives/index.php?show=15
Another incredible educational resource that I just recently discovered is located here. HerbMentor at LearningHerbs.com is chock full of information, recipes, how-to’s and community conversation featuring herbalists from all over the country. Enjoy! It’s easy to get lost on this site!
White Blessings,
Rose Barlow, CRHI director
www.prodigalgardens.info
Madison Area:
Mystical Medicine
- A Conservatory Exhibit
Olbrich Botanical Gardens
September 6, 2007 – January 5, 2008
Some rainforest plants can work on the brain in seemingly mystical ways, such as creating zombies and hallucinations, as well as providing actual medical cures. Native medicine people, or shamans, hold the knowledge of the medicinal properties of plants, which is important information as the fragile native cultures and biodiversity of rainforests are threatened. Rainforests currently provide sources for one-fourth of today’s medicines. The Mystical Medicine exhibit in the tropical Bolz Conservatory will explore the traditional native uses and beliefs surrounding these psychoactive plants that affect the brain and mental processes through the work of several famous ethnobotanists.
An ethnobotanist studies plants used by native people for uses such as anesthesia, painkillers, psychiatric medicines, or ritual and spiritual healing. They hope to learn about indigenous people, improve western medicine, and potentially conserve land and resources for the future.
The Bolz Conservatory is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Admission is $1 for the general public, and free for Olbrich Botanical Society members. Admission is free on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon. Children ages 5 and under are always free. For more information, call 608-246-4550. Visit Olbrich’s website at www.olbrich.org
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CONTACT: Sharon Cybart, Manager of Marketing & Public Relations
608-246-4716
TWIN CITIES AREA:
North Country Herbalist Guild
Next Meeting: December 5
Winter Health with Lise Wolff, Board of Director Elections and Silent Auction (Bidding and Pre-view Begin at 6:00PM)
We are asking for donations for our Silent Auction, with proceeds going to benefit the North Country Herbalist Guild, a not-for-profit organization serving the greater Twin Cities Area and the Upper Midwest. Click here to download information about the auction and the Auction Donation Form.
Meetings are held the first Wednesday of each month (though there is no meeting inJanuary). We meet from 7:00 - 9:00 PM. Come early, from 6:30 - 7:00 for socializing, tea and snacks.
The Guild also presents an annual weekend conference on a wide variety of herbalism-related subjects.
Meeting Place
Bethany Lutheran Church [map]
2511 East Franklin Ave
Minneapolis, MN
Enter on the 25th Avenue side of the building and go down the stairs to the basement.
http://www.nchg.org/
North Country Herbalist Guild
Case Study Group (Ongoing)
This group is open to all herbalists. You do not need to be a professional herbalist with paying clients to attend the group, but you do need to have some background in herbal studies and be actively working with people using herbs. At the group we will:
· Bring our cases, get feedback and ideas for clients or people you are working on
· Practice our diagnostic skills, especially tongue and pulse and facial indications
· Possibly work on another for clinical practice.
Newcomers are welcome--don't be shy. And as always, experienced practitioners are welcome to come and share their knowledge and experience.
Location: 2812 - 30th Ave S, Minneapolis
Contact Erin Piorier for additional questions: 651-290-7622,
2007 Native American Programs in Fall
With Yako Tahnahga
Times vary with the class
MN Landscape Arboretum
Native American Winter Medicine: Teas
Saturday, December, 8, 2007
1 – 3 p.m.
Fee: $30 member, $40 nonmember, includes all materials
Snyder Classroom 1
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Instructor: Yako Tahnahga is a Native American herbalist, traditional storyteller, life journey guide, and owner of In the Hands of the Ancestors in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
For more information: Please contact the Adult Education Department at (952) 443-1422, FAX (952) 443-2521, or e-mail
Herbal Healing through the Seasons of a Woman’s Life
A Unique Series of Classes With Herbalists Lise Wolff, AHG and Erin Piorier
Winter is a time when plants die back to the ground and life is concentrated below the surface. We humans also feel the call to retreat inward. Join us this winter as we explore the deep inner workings of the female body. In this practical and fun class we will look at the rhythms of the female system and the many herbs used to soothe and heal women’s health concerns throughout the stages of our lives.
The class will cover many topics including cycles and the role of hormones in health and disease. We will address menstrual issues including fibroids, cysts, endometriosis, PMS and painful periods. We will explore herbs for the childbearing years including pregnancy tonics, herbs for common pregnancy discomforts and labor, as wells as herbs for postpartum and breastfeeding. We will look at perimenopause and menopause symptoms including hot flashes, night sweats, dryness, flooding and more. We will also address broad health concerns for women including bone and breast health.
Participants will sample many herbal preparations and learn how to effectively employ these gentle yet powerful healing agents for themselves, their mothers and daughters or in their healing practices.
$200
7-9:30 pm
Thursday evenings
January 10th, January 24th
February 7th, February 21nd
March 6th, March 20nd
April 3th
Make up class: April 17th. Note that this class will only take place if one of the originally
scheduled classes is cancelled by Lise and Erin
.
Feel free to call Lise (612) 819-9946 or Erin (6120508-0584 with any further questions.
About Your Instructors:
Lise Wolff
Lise Wolff has studied herbalism for seventeen years, with herbalists from Susun Weed to Matthew Wood with whom she apprenticed in 1995. She is a professional member of The American Herbalist Guild and is currently pursuing her MSc in Scotland. An active practitioner, Lise supplies her apothecary primarily with herbs she gathers and prepares. She maintains a private practice in South Minneapolis and is available for private consultations. For the past twelve years she has taught beginning and advanced herb classes in the midwest based on actual case histories. Lise’s primary focus is on the most prolific plants available commonly called weeds, that insistently volunteer their nutrition and healing powers everywhere we walk.
Erin Piorier
Erin Piorier has studied herbalism for over eight years. She has studied with Minnesota’s most prominent herbalists and has completed studies with Sage Mountain and the East West School of Herbology. Erin received her clinical training through an eighteen month apprenticeship. Erin is available for private consultation and provides her clients with handmade wildcrafted herbal products. She is committed to safe, collaborative, respectful natural health care that treats the whole person. Erin works extensively with women during the childbearing years and children. Erin is also a homebirthing mother of two children and a doula/labor assistant
Intermediate Herbalism Class • Winter, 2008
Matthew Wood
M.Sc. (herbal medicine) registered herbalist (AHG)
Sunnyfield Herb Farm • 2491 Copeland Road • Maple Plain, Mn. 55359 • 763 972 7225 •
Sunday afternoons, 1-5 pm; two classes a month (weather-permitting):
January 26, February10, 24, March 2, 9, April 6, 27, May 4, 25, June 22.
This is our basic class on the organ systems, tissue states, and appropriate remedies. It is based on the concept of matching medicinal plants to specific tissue states (excitation, tension, atrophy, relaxation, stagnation, depression) or energetics (hot, cold, damp, dry, hypertension, hypotension), organ affinities, and specific indications, so that herbal work can be more exact for each client. Matthew Wood has been practicing for over twenty five years, is the author of four books on herbalism, and an internationally known teacher and author.
Cost: $250. Down Payment, $50 to hold a spot. Class limited to 14.
Sunday afternoons, 1-5, has been selected, as in past classes, in order to address the needs of rural students traveling several hours to the Minneapolis area. We are 30 minutes west of Minneapolis. Take highway 12 four miles past Maple Plain, turn south (left) on Copeland Road (look for Motzko Drilling sign on right), go one mile, look for log cabin on right side of road.
Sheboygan Area:
Moonwise Herbs:
Simple Living Series
2008 Traditional Food and Herbs Program
New session
Wednesday evenings 6:00-9:00pm
January 9th,16th, 23rd, 30th and February 6th and 13th, 2008
$125-175 sliding scale
This 3 week series will offer participants the opportunity to learn and enhance a variety of time honored skills. Whether you are new to these skills or have been exploring them in depth you will discover tips and techniques that will inspire your creativity in these traditional arts. We will make cheese, fermented foods and beverages, herbal soap and handcrafted herbal wares. You will learn to cook with herbs as well as wild and whole foods and make soap for your own use. Participants will leave with a notebook of recipes, cultures for making cheese and fermented foods at home as well as herbal soap that we craft together. There will be lots of samples for inspiration and fun!! Click here to find out more!
This program is open to men and women!
Herbal Gift Making December 5, 2007 (6-9pm)
Make a variety of herbal crafts for yourself as well as holiday gifts. We will make bath salts, lip balms, body spritzers and more!! For more information see moonwiseherbs.com or call 920-457-9290
http://www.moonwiseherbs.com/sheboygancalender.htm
Duluth area:
GIVING GROUND
2007 Herbal Weekend Retreat/Workshop Schedule
Giving Ground is open year round. Guests can stay for as long as they wish. Each day will include time for instruction, meditation and relaxation. Giving Ground's accommodations are heated for year round comfort. Reservations are important as Giving Ground limits its overnight student/guests to no more than four at one time.
Please feel free to call us at 1-888-276-1336 if these specific scheduling times and workshops don't work for you. We can often arrange other combinations of weekdays or weekends to accommodate individual needs. You can also let us know what topic focus interests you.
December 1-3, 2006: Friday afternoon - Sunday afternoon
Tree Resins and Holiday Gift-Making
We'll explore some lovely ways to "take" herbal medicine, and our study will range from tree resins gathered here along our herbal trails, to a frankincense and myrrh hand and body lotion we'll make up and tie with gold braid. We'll talk of the ancient trade routes for those two precious medicinal tree resins from Africa. There will be bottles, jars, fabric, ribbon - everything you'll need here to complete some unique herbal presents for the winter holidays. Finnish sauna bath, all meals, cottage beds made up, heat and lights on.
www.givingground.com
EAU CLAIRE
Center for Healing Arts
Herb & Eco-School
w/Gigi Stafne
Master Herbalism Students...apply for January 2008 sessions!
New and re-entry students.
Email applications:
Center for Healing Arts Herb & Eco School
new resource to consider...
The Essential Wild Food Survival Guide
by Linda Runyon
$21.95
Wild food stories, recipes fornaturalists &survivalists
upcoming winter conference...
Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference
February 21-23, 2008 La Crosse, WI
www.mosesorganic.org
support United Plant Savers this holiday season...
Our state Botanical Sanctuary in Chippewa County, Wisconsin
and national United Plant Savers, both working & caring for "At-Risk" plants since 1990.
With your help we will continue to steward the healing herbs!
You may donate, join or renew...
www.unitedplantsavers.org
See homepage "Donate to UpS" or "Join UpS"
In Wisconsin...email or call:
715.967.2300
other ways to help...
Join our volunteer team that activates in the spring...
email: or