Local Wild Edible Plants & Backcountry Herbal Medicine

Join Kim & Chris Chisholm for a wonderful class together. Meet in Room 223 and prepare to head outside for a plant walk in addition to the following itinerary:

15 Minutes: Making Herbal Remedies – We will spend the first several minutes of class preparing an herbal salve. While the herbs are infusing in heated organic olive oil, you’ll learn about honorable harvesting methods, and we’ll discuss how to make decoctions, infusions, tinctures, essences and other kinds of home-made medicine.

30 Minutes: Plant Walk – We will walk the area around our class location and identify wild edible and medicinal plants by family. If harvesting rules permit, we’ll bring some back to use later in class. Please remember to dress for the weather!

45 Minutes: Top 10 Local Wild Edible Food Plants – It can be challenging to find wild edibles that are available during the winter, or anytime in the backcountry, but spring is at hand, so depending on class location, we hope to find some of these plants near-by, and take one of our Top 10 Wild Edible Food Plants inside to sample as part of a nourishing dish. We’ll bring something along in case local rules deter us from harvesting.

45 Minutes: Wolf College Tenets of Herbal Medicine and the Top 15 Wild Medicinal Plants of the Backcountry – This class isn’t about theory; we’re only going to introduce wild native plants that have been proven to heal. Check out our blog entry on our Top 15 Proven Medicinal Plants for more information.

15 Minutes: Finishing Our Herbal Remedy – We’ll put the finishing touches on our salve by straining it and melting beeswax into the infused oil. We’ll finish with a quick note about allergies and how to use and store your salve.

Cost: $15.00; Additional Friends/Family Members $10.00 each. Email ([masked]) Chris & Kim any time with any questions, call (http://wolfcamp.com/about/register/apply.html) them to register with a credit card, or go to http://www.meetup.com/Wolf-Journey-Programs-in-Snohomish-and-King-Counties/events/78046472/ to rsvp there and pay via PayPal. You can also take home a salve for an additional $1 donation, and we will also have recommended field guides and other items available for sale.

Finally, please note that we can only scrape the surface during a 2-3 hour class, so if you would like to learn to a more advanced level and have time to really practice your skills, please enroll in our April 6th Workshop: Wild Foods Foraging & Herbal Medicine Making in Olympia; our April 13th Workshop: Seaweeds, Shellfish & Shore Plants of the Salish Sea; or our Summer Expedition: Wild Ethnobotany & Herbalism Training (http://wolfcamp.com/conservation-college-expeditions/ethnobotany-and-herbalism-medicine.html)