This gathering includes:
• Workshops & Plant Walks
• Roundtable Discussion Groups
Workshops
Workshop Descriptions
Scroll down further to see the Workshops & Discussion Groups SCHEDULE
We are excited to announce the following workshops and more to come!
"Plant Propagation for Field and Forest"
Reisha Beck
Wayside Botanicals
In this workshop I will demonstrate the practice of plant propagation, from basic to advanced seed starting to layering, dividing and hardwood cuttings. These practices can be applied in our home gardens, farms and in the wild. As herbalists, growers and wild harvesters, it is our responsibility to be creating reciprocal relationships with the plants and ecosystems we depend on for our food, medicines and livelihoods. We will scatter seeds, layer shrubs and give back to the land during this workshop!
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"From Arnica to Yarrow"
Robin Baire
Horse of a Different Color
Discussion of some Methow medicinals, Arnica, Nettles, Mullein, Hawthorn and Yarrow
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"Hylde More - A story of Elder Mother"
Natasha Clarke
Mavenworks
Join Natasha with her unique storytelling of elder medicine, a foundational herb for supporting out immune systems. We will explore the wildcrafting, medicine making and uses of all things elder and how our interactions and relationship with plant medicine becomes integral in the healing path.
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"Weeds": Earth's gift to wildcrafters
Terri Wilde
Dandy Farm
Start here. Eat what is in abundance! Plant walk. Meeting together the plants growing here.
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"Edible and Medicinal Plant Walk"
Natalie Hammerquist
The Adiantum School of Plant Medicine
If you are into learning the practical, nitty gritty details of the plants, this is the workshop for you. Natalie will teach how to identify, harvest and use the plant we encounter on the walk. We will touch, taste, gaze, smell and bend all of the plants we encounter. This walk is a good entry point if you're new to wildcrafting!
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"Making Plant Essences With Plant Journeying"
Diana Law
Dianaverse Plant Mystery School
Journeying with plants is a way of meditating and connecting with the Spirit of the plants as well going within to connect with the self, with the Soul purpose of insight into oneself and the plants. Most indigenous peoples had or have sacred relationships with plants and we were all indigenous somewhere at some time, so this is an innate human quality. Plants, along with rocks and other natural beings are our elders. They were here long before we were and made the way, creating firm Earth for us to live on and air to breathe. We can learn much about coming into balance by observing plants. We will make a group mother essence and participants can make their own bottles to take home by bringing a small bottle filled halfway with brandy.
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"Intuitive Plant Meditation" Canceled
James Keskimaki Unable to attend
Ojas Naturals/ Grounded-Medicine
We will work intuitively with the plants- through plant meditations where we use our senses and intuition to meet and learn from them.
We will work with 2-3 different plants during the workshop. Each meditation will be about 20 minutes long, afterwards everyone will have a chance to journal about their experience. We will then have sharing circle. During these circles it is a chance for all of us to learn from each other, be vulnerable with ourselves, and create community. We then dive deeper, our diverse way of working includes everything from practical demonstrations, exploration of folklore, history and the multiple perspectives on plant medicine. We will touch on western herbalism, indigenous practices, ayurveda and more. By working in this way, we learn primarily through our own process, the wisdom of the plants and how we can work with them.This practice helps awaken an innate ability to listen to the language of plants.
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"Plant Walk, Sustainable Wildcrafting Practices" Canceled
James Jungwirth
Naturespirit Herbs LLC
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"Sitting With Dandelion"
Grace Spencer
Mother Song Medicine
We all know and love what this plant offers us on a physical level but how many have sat with this plant and listened to what it has to say or what it has to offer us on a soul level? In our time together we will talk about how to develop a practice of sitting with a plant. How to do so with respect and love. We will go out and sit with Dandelion and then come back together to discuss our experiences and what this plant shared with us. I will provide some art supplies to take with you on your sit but you can also bring your own if you like.
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"Flower Essences 101"
Kelly Hill
Sapphire Herbs & Alaskan Essences
This class is an intro to the concept of a flower essence. Like what’s the difference between flower sun tea and a flower essence, what is the process of making an essence, and how do essences differ than a tincture for example. After the intro we will wander through nature and part ways as we are drawn to the flower that calls us. Then we will sit with it, connect, listen, and take notes about what that flower wants to teach us. If time permits we can then gather and exchange our experiences.
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"Wild Crafted Misos"
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"Restoring and tending public trust landscapes for regenerative harvest"
Paul Cereghino
Ecosystem Guild & NOAA Restoration Center
In Washington State, federal and state governments have spent billions of dollars acquiring and restoring severely degraded pubic trust landscapes around wetlands and rivers, with no long-term plan for stewardship. These behaviors don't restore our cultural relationship to place, and represent an industrial approach to restoration. The inevitable failure of stewardship, in the absence of a culture of stewardship, creates a window of opportunity to exchange land tenure for stewardship that is deeply rooted in knowledge of place. However we largely lack the cultural and social infrastructure to incorporate a deeper land stewardship into our industrial system, except through private ownership (AKA fee simple acquisition). How do we construct systems by which skilled wildland tenders can develop tenure in public and private landscapes, while serving the public trust, both harvesting for private purposes, and tending for the public to advance ecological restoration? This is a strategy session around ongoing projects to practically transform restoration practice, and to develop specific pathways to action. I am looking for your wisdom and help. While all are welcome, this pertains specifically to people with an interest in restoration design and wildland tending in the Salish Sea lowlands, particularly in the Whidbey Basin and South Sound.
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"Worms Eat My Garbage". Canceled
Emily Apple Wilkins
Earthbound Compost
Composting home food waste with Red Wiggler Worms!
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Workshops & Discussion Groups SCHEDULE
Presenters & Workshop Titles
Workshop descriptions can be found here.
May 17th version
* Expect there to be a few changes at the time of the actual event.
* New workshops and discussion groups will be added.
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FRIDAY, May 26
Workshop Period A: 1:30 - 3:00
- Reisha Beck. Plant propagation for field and forest.
- Natalie Hammerquist. Edible and medicinal plant walk.
Roundtable Discussions A: 3:20 – 4:40
- Legalities, permits
- Edible wild plants
Whole Group Discussion 7:00 – 8:00 pm
- Ethical, sustainable wildcrafting.
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SATURDAY, May 27
Workshop Period B: 9:30 - 11:00
- Paul Cereghino. Restoring and tending public trust landscapes for regenerative harvest.
- Ashley Kehl. Wildcrafting tools.
- Grace Spencer. Sitting with dandelion.
- Gabe Garms, Wild crafted misos.
- Leslie Lekos. Wildcrafting for essential oils material andessential oil distillation demo
Roundtable Discussions B: 11:20 – 12:30
- Ecosystem restoration and wildcrafting.
- Processing & drying.
Workshop Period C: 2:00 3:30
- Natasha Clarke. Hylde More - A story of Elder Mother
- Terri Wilde. "Weeds". Earth's gift to wildcrafters. Start here. Eat what is in abundance!
- Kelly Hill. Flower Essences 101
- Gabe Garms & Reisha Beck. Plant Walk.
Roundtable Discussions C: 3:50 – 5:00
- Seaweed
- Marketing
- Fibers & dyes
Whole Group Discussion 7:00 – 8:00 pm
- Learning from, and collaborating with, Indigenous people.
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SUNDAY, May 28
Workshop Period D: 9:30 - 11:00
- Michael Pilarski. Eastside wildcrafted roots: lomatium, redroot, balsamroot, etc.
- Robin Baire. From Arnica to Yarrow.
- Diana Law. Making plant essences with plant journeying.
- George Wooten. Plant walk
Roundtable Discussions D: 11:20 – 12:30
- Plant Spirit Medicine
- Certifications
- Tools & equipment
- Basketry
- Crafts
Workshop Period E: 2:00 3:30
- Sam Israel. Fire and Forests.
- Benjamin Pixie, Wildcrafting with the bees.
Presenter Bios
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Robin Baire
HORSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOR
Robin has been practicing herbalism in the Methow Valley for 35years and sees clients at the North Glover Healing Center. She is a graduate of the National College of Phytotherapy in New Mexico, and the creator of "the Herbalist Minute" on KTRT.
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Reisha Beck
WAYSIDE BOTANICALS
Reisha Beck is a mother, herbalist and Ethnobotanist. She is deeply committed to creating positive change through permaculture and connection with the Earth. She owns and operates Wayside Botanicals, a permaculture based medicinal herb farm, which supplies fresh and dried botanicals to tincture making companies and apothecaries across the USA. Reisha is also the lead herbal instructor at Ravens Roots Naturalist School. Her love of nature has taken her down a path of healing by connecting with the natural world and cultivating deep relationships with the plants she harvests and grows. -
Terri Wilde
DANDY FARM
Terri Wilde has been exploring right relationship for humans with the rest of our kin for decades. She loves foraging and growing food and medicine. She is part of a permaculture community in the upper Skagit Valley.
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Natalie Hammerquist
THE ADIANTUM SCHOOL OF PLANT MEDICINE
Natalie Hammerquist offers field classes and programs on our local edible and medicinal plants. She is a practical teacher, taking great joy in connecting others to the land and the plants with an emphasis on stewardship. She owns and operates The Adiantum School of Plant Medicine in Seattle, WA, and recently complete a book entitled "A Visual Guide to Medicinal Plants of the Pacific Northwest."
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Natasha Clarke
MAVENWORKS
Natasha is a clinical herbalist, educator and co-founder of the Green Gathering herbal festival. She loves teaching locally and at gatherings including the Good Medicine Confluence, Northwest Herb fair, Northwest Herb Symposium amongst others. Home for now is in transition as she and her husband get ready to move to wilderness in Swale Canyon, Klickitat WA.
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Diana Law
DIANAVERSE PLANT MYSTERY SCHOOL
Diana has both a strong gardening and wildcrafting background. She teaches classes about plants: gardening, herbalism, plant spirit medicine and plant crafts. She has been learning and teaching plant spirit medicine in the PNW for the last 10 years.
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Grace Spencer
MOTHERSONG HERBS
Grace has been farming organically in Wenatchee Washington for the last 15 years. About 5 years ago, she began to feel a deeper pull towards building relationships with the plants, rather than just going through the motions of growing and harvesting. In 2019, she began an apprenticeship with teacher Joyce Netishen in Olympia and has been learning to communicate and understand the deeper medicine that the plant world has to offer us. She now continues to grow beautiful food.but also has begun her practice as an Elemental Plant Practitioner bringing the magic and spiritual medicine of plants to people.
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Leslie Lekos
Wildroot Botanicals
Leslie Lekos is the founder and director of Wildroot Botanicals herbal school and product line. She’s been teaching herbal medicine courses since 2009 and began marketing products in 2004. She is known in her region for distilling hydrosols and is sought nationally to teach at conferences and for herbal consultations. Her medicines have reached folks locally and internationally.
In addition to herbal work, she’s supported parents as a doula, childbirth educator and prenatal yoga instructor for almost 20 years. She is co-author of the book, Yoga for Pregnancy and is a certified Iyengar Yoga teacher. Most importantly she is the mother of two sons.
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Michael Pilarski "Skeeter"
Is a life-long student of plants and earth repair. His farming career started in 2nd grade and his organic farming career began in 1972 at age 25. Michael founded Friends of the Trees Society in 1978 and took his first permaculture design course in 1982. Since 1988 he has taught 36 permaculture design courses in the US and abroad. His specialties include earth repair, agriculture, seed collecting, nursery sales, tree planting, fruit picking, permaculture, agroforestry, forestry, ethnobotany, medicinal herb growing, hoeing and wildcrafting. He has hands-on experience with over 1000 species of plants. He is a prolific gathering organizer and likes group singing.
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Kelly Hill
SAPPHIRE HERBS & ALASKAN ESSENCES
Oh man the journey that’s led me here... It started with organic/biodynamic agriculture in Eugene OR. Followed by farming in Homer Alaska for 7 years. Then the world of growing medicinal plants opened up a whole new aspect of growing and I started Sapphire Herbs. I specialize in collecting native seed from the wilderness. But my full time job is making essences at Alaskan Essences, for over 4 years now. Basically I’m a plant person.
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Gabe Garms
RAVEN'S ROOTS NATURALIST SCHOOL
Co-Founder and instructor at Raven's Roots Naturalist School and Co-owner of a permaculture plant nursery called 7 Layers Nursery. Gabe has been teaching permaculture, wilderness survival, fermentation and ethnobotany in Western Washington for over a decade.
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Paul Cereghino
ECOSYSTEM GUILD & NOAA RESTORATION CENTER
Paul Cereghino is a federal restoration ecologist and professional troublemaker with 35 years of work in ecosystem stewardship and restoration in the Salish Sea. He is currently operates from within the Restoration Industry supporting state and federal funding systems, quantifying ecosystem services, and providing technical assistance to local teams advancing restoration of fisheries, amid global ecological collapse. He lives in cohousing in Olympia, Washington, tending and foraging in the Schneider Creek ravine.
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George Wooten
LOCAL METHOW BOTANIST
Hoping to become a geologist, I switched to medicinal chemistry and botany then pharmacognosy, and now I am engaged in music.
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Benjamin Pixie
SPIRIT OF THE HIVE / PIXIE MEAD/ SKALITUDE
Benjamin Pixie has been crafting with the wild since he was 15. He became a mead maker at 20, a beekeeper at 25, and a distiller at 30. He co founded the skalitude pollinator sanctuary and began okanogan county's first licensed distillery- spirit of the hive. He believes honey bees have great lessons to teach us of how to live in reciprocity, giving back to all we wildcraft from.
Cancellations - Unfortunately these presenters are no longer able to join us at this gathering. We wish them well!
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James Keskimaki
GROUNDED MEDICINE & OJAS NATURALS
James began his formal herbal studies in 1999 at the California School of Herbal Studies and at the California Ayurvedic School in Nevada City in 2005. In 2016 he studied extensively with Scott Kloos focusing on plant spirit medicine and holding a safe container. He continually renews his dedication to plant spirit medicine and is working closely with the Secoya, a small indigenous group in the northwestern region of the Ecuadorian Amazon. James loves to help people connect with the plants through their own intuition, focusing oncreating a safe container to let go, express and learn from each other.
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James Keskimaki has canceled due to illness. He writes: "I was really looking forward to meeting you, connecting with other fellow herb people and participating in the gathering. Hopefully next time."
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James Jungwirth
NATURE SPIRIT HERBS
James Jungwirth has been harvesting edible and medicinal wild seaweeds, herbs and fungi for more than 30 years. James is also a health care practitioner specializing in herbs and nutrition.
As a professional educator, James has been teaching classes about seaweeds, medicinal wild plants, herbalism, constitutional physiology, thyroid and adrenal function, nutrition, and digestive health for more than 30 years.
In 1990 James and his wife Kari started their family business, Naturespirit Herbs. They harvest almost everything they sell, and offer a complete line of wildcrafted seaweeds, seaweed products, wildcrafted herbs and fungi, and herbal extracts and formulas.-
James Jungwirth has canceled due to him and his wife (partner in the business) both got covid. As a result they couldn’t get their regular work done and couldn’t work with any employees, so they are way behind on their work schedule. James might still be able to attend, but it is too much in doubt to promise that he will be there.
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Emily Apple Wilkins
EARTHBOUND COMPOST
Happiest when I have my hands in the soil, a dirty garden girl am I. A life-long lover of trees, plants, and all types of gardens, especially those that work in balance with nature. It is a pleasure to share my passion for worms and how working in concert with nature creates the best garden results for all living things.
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Lindsay Huettman
LADY BOTANICA • WILDERNESS AWARENESS SCHOOL
I have been learning about and from plants of the PNW since 1999. My first degree is in Ethnobotany Stewardship Education (2006) and I have been teaching wild plant classes since 2008 for Wilderness Awareness School and for many educational institutions through my business Lady Botanica. My passion for plants has led me in many directions as an arborists/horticulturalist, landscaper, permaculturalist, organic farmer and gardener, wild plant forager, medicine maker and plant technologist, survival skills instructor, plant biology/chemistry dork, forest intuitive, paleobotany enthusiast and aspiring plant elder.
Plant Dorks • Wilderness Awareness School
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CANCELED due to moving
