Register for our 2020 Home Apothecary Program
Registration for our 2020 Home Apothecary Program is now open! https://2020herbalism.eventbrite.com
This 9-month herbal medicine program is a hands-on introduction to herbalism. Participants will tend a garden together, explore the basic concepts of herbalism, and make herbal preparations to bring home and to share with the Common Good community. The home apothecary program offers a unique opportunity to learn about using herbs while working directly with the plants and developing connection to the land and ecosystem we call home.
Mondays: Community herbalism theory and materia medica (lecture format)
Community herbalism refers to using easily-accessible plants within networks of friends, families, and other community groups. We will develop an understanding of community herbalism in the context of our cultures, histories, and personal relationships to plants. Topics include materia medica (how to use a wide variety of specific herbs); support for different body systems (immune, digestive, nervous, circulatory, endocrine, first aid); herbal energetics, actions, and organ affinities; and constitutional types. Classes will focus on plants that grow naturally in the DC area or can easily be cultivated by the beginning gardener. Each participant is encouraged to develop a relationship with a specific plant of their choosing through the 9 months of the program, and we will end with a plant-based ceremony to celebrate the relationships we have formed.
Saturdays: Gardening and apothecary (hands-on format)
Saturdays will consist of hands-on experience tending a garden, harvesting, processing, and preparing herbs that we grow together. We will start seeds, plant perennials, tend the garden through the seasons, harvest a variety of different herbs, save seeds, and learn about readying the garden for winter. We'll also cover common weeds, basic botany, and explore ways to deepen our connections to the plants and ecosystems around us. With the herbs harvested from the garden, we will prepare a variety of dried herbs, tinctures, vinegars, teas, salves, and syrups together. Students will take home some of each of the herbs we prepare in class, building up a home apothecary over the growing season. Some of the prepared herbs will be shared with Common Good's community programs. Each student will be asked to commit to visiting the garden an additional two times during the season to do things like harvest plants, check on herbs that are drying, water, and other tasks as decided by the participants and instructor. Students may come during any of the times that the farm is open for volunteer sessions.
In order to make this program more accessible we are offering an option to take Saturday classes only or Monday classes only. Students are STRONGLY encouraged to participate in both-- materials from each class will build on the other, and the information from both sessions will be presented as an entire class. While some information will be reinforced in both classes, general topics presented in Saturday classes won't be repeated in Monday sessions, and vice versa.
The details:
Classes will meet at Common Good City Farm. Classes will be outside on the farm, rain or shine (there is a pavilion on-site for shelter). In case of inclement weather or for specific sessions noted below, the class may be moved to St. George's Church or the Josephine Butler Parks Center and students will be notified by the instructor. Class will be held on the following dates:
Saturdays, 10 am - 1pm (hands-on gardening and apothecary)
March 14
April 18
May 30
June 27
August 1
September 12
October 3
November 7
Mondays, 6 - 9 pm (lecture format)
March 30: Class will meet inside at St. George's Church or Josephine Butler Parks Center
May 4
June 15
July 20
August 31
September 21
October 19: Class will meet inside at St. George's Church or Josephine Butler Parks Center
November 16: Class will meet inside at St. George's Church or Josephine Butler Parks Center
The Teacher:
Holly Poole-Kavana of Little Red Bird Botanicals practices as a clinical herbalist, grower, and medicine-maker in Washington DC, where her passion is connecting people to local plants. She holds a BS in botany from Cornell University from 2000 and began her herbal studies at the Pacific School of Herbal Medicine in 2005. She apprenticed with herbalist 7song, and completed the Clinic II mentorship program at Sacred Plant Traditions before starting a clinical practice in 2011. Her business, Little Red Bird Botanicals, has also offered an herbal CSA since 2010. Holly also works as a midwife's assistant in the DC metro area.
