Discover the Bliss of the Asheville Area Herbal Medicine Schools, Classes and Workshops

See also
Medicinal Herb Sources
Permaculture
Green Products
Sustainable Energy
Alternative Housing
Green Building

Classes and Workshops in Growing and Harvesting Medicinal Herbs

Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine "... offers a 6-month Weekly Summer Program, meeting 2 days a week from May through October, and a Winter Weekend Program, which meets one weekend a month, November through May. Our newest program is the Advanced Clinical Program to continue the education begun in our basic programs, offered November through April. Workshops and plant walks are also offered throughout the year..."

Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine
"... We offer classes in the tradition of Roots Herbalism - the kind where your hands get dirty as you develop life-long relationships with plants. Our classroom is the outdoors - garden, forest, field, mountain, and stream. We hold no indoor classes except during inclement weather or insect challenges. Learning about the plants in person, where they grow, engages the senses as we smell, touch, see, and often taste our green allies. This intimate and holistic approach helps us to integrate all we learn about plants as food and medicine. Blending spirituality and the study of life, we honor the traditions of our elders as well as useful knowledge gained through scientific exploration. Reverence for the sacredness of all life is part of our guiding philosophy and inspiration. Our model of teaching involves experiential or hands-on learning. Rather than simply talking about a wild plant as food, we spend time together gathering wild edibles and preparing vital, delicious meals...."

North Carolina School of Holistic Herbalism
"... our hands-on weekend classes and labs are held at Soulflower Farm, thirty minutes from the small city of Asheville. Soulflower Farm is a model of sustainable living, with a handcrafted log cabin built from wood harvested on site, gravity fed spring water, solar power, and a large organic garden. This thirty-acre nature sanctuary has been free from any use of chemical pollutants for over twenty years. It is bordered by thirty more acres of preserved wilderness area. At Soulflower Farm, students learn beekeeping, apitherapy, organic gardening, and permaculture skills. We emphasize using common, local weeds, and harvest plants only where they are abundant, replenishing the source when appropriate. NCSHH’s weeknight classes are held at our holistic healing center in West Asheville. Just minutes from downtown, the center is home to our extensive herbal library, apothecary, a variety of practicing healers, and workshops throughout the year. We welcome you to call to arrange a visit."

Red Moon Herbs
"... Corinna’s mission is to empower people to trust the wisdom and the cycles of the plants, the earth, and their own bodies. In carrying on the Wise Woman tradition, she empowers students to develop personal relationships with a group of local herbal allies. Her hands-on, in-depth style of teaching makes it easy for students to incorporate the plants into their daily lives..."

Southern Appalachian School for Growing Medicinal Herbs
"... holds a series of workshops seasonally, 13 classes in all, at the Eagle Feather Farm.  These classes teach all aspects of organic farming in the woods with forest crops. This herbal growing school offers instructors who are experts in their fields, and an environment like no other.  At the completion of the course a Certificate of Merit is likewise awarded...."

Click on each of the dozens of categories to the left to uncover what makes the Asheville area so vital, so intriguing and so, well, UTTERLY BLISSFUL!

Wildcrafting with Ila

‘the woods and fields are
a table always spread,’
Thoreau ... (and Ila's favorite saying).

 

 

A Walk on the Wildside
"Stand in a pasture and inhale the fragrance — that’s what chickweed tastes like. Put some bite into summer by adding lemony purslane to fresh tomatoes and cucumbers; instead of radishes, toss a handful of peppery nasturtiums into a raw mix of chickweed, sorrel, dandelion, nettle and mustard.

"Sound radical? Part of the trend to voluntary simplicity, foraging or wildcrafting, the informed stalking of native plants, offers “wonderful flavors from the wild that can’t be bought,” says herbalist and folklorist, Ila Hatter, author of the cookbook, Roadside Rambles (published by Ironweed Productions). “You gain just by being out of doors walking, even if you don’t find ripe blackberries.”


"Wildcrafting’s a way for families to enjoy the natural world while developing survival skills. Sure there’s a learning curve, but it’s all part of the fun. Whether sifting through a marsh for fiddleheads, peering among spruce in search of morel mushrooms or just harvesting yarrow from the driveway, the thrill of the hunt is a big part of this novel experience in flavor and nutrition. Intense and unsubtle, wild edibles generally have a higher vitamin and mineral content than cultivated plants. And a diet based on plant foods appears to provide long-term health benefits. ..." From Ila's article A Walk on the Wildside. CLICK HERE to read the rest of the story.

"... Ila Hatter, a descendant of Pocahontas, was raised on natural remedies along with a love and respect for nature.  This led her into exploring the uses of native plants while living in the South from Texas to the Smoky Mountains, the Caribbean,  Spain, and Southern Appalachia.... Ila, known as THE LADY OF THE FOREST, is an interpretive naturalist, artist, wildcrafter, and gourmet cook with more than 25 years experience teaching the cultural heritage of native plants.  She is a staff instructor for the Univ. of Tenn.’s Smoky Mtn Field School, guest instructor for the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, the John C. Campbell Folk School (Brasstown, NC), The Mountain Retreat Center (Highlands, NC),  Snowbird Mtn Lodge (Robbinsville, NC), Charter Board Member of the Yellow Creek Botanical Institute; and Storyteller for Elderhostels in 3 states.... Ila Hatter’s mission is to tune people in to the many ways they can make Mother Nature’s pantry and medicine cabinet their own. Hatter does not forage the woods in the hope of making a profit.  “In my case, I’m not gathering things to sell but instead am using them for education – teaching people what these plants are, how to identify them, what the traditional uses are, what the potential market might be for them. I combine my knowledge of the flora with folklore, telling interesting stories that go with the botany of what I do.”  Her work is guided by a quote from writer Henry David Thoreau.  “Thoreau wrote that ‘the woods and fields are a table always spread,’. To me, that’s exactly what I do – that’s what I teach.”
Photos of medicinal herbs in Smokies
and Wildcrafting Message Board