The Home Apothecary Series

Build your herbal apothecary one month at a time

Are you inspired by the idea that you could make safe, effective and relatively inexpensive herbal preparations from locally grown plants?

Do you enjoy crafting, gardening or cooking, and would you like to try your hand at creating beautiful herbal creations for a home apothecary or as gifts to friends and loved ones?

Can you imagine the joy of knowing how to confidently use herbs to soothe skin complaints, clear sinus congestion, reduce fevers, relieve nerve pain and tremors, promote digestion, manage minor aches and pains, aid sleep, counter stress, improve circulation, heal minor cuts and scrapes, relieve poison-ivy rash, support the immune system, and more?!

WHY WE WANT TO HELP YOU CREATE AN AT-HOME HERBAL APOTHECARY

We started with the same interests, dreams, questions and needs for natural, at-home answers to everyday imbalances that were untouched or complicated by over-the-counter medications.

AND NOW we go straight to our homemade medicines FIRST to restore balance to our bodies, and care for our friends and family!

The joy of serving ourselves and others with plant medicine is why we created The Home Apothecary Series - to share what we have learned from our plant-allies and herbal teachers, and empower our community to live with the herbs that grow in our region.

LEARN MORE about who we are

PRESENTING THE HOME APOTHECARY SERIES

An herbal medicine-making series integrated with self-care, natural home-making and nurturing community.

AN OVERVIEW

The Home Apothecary Series is an invitation to begin your plant knowledge journey, to confidently and safely create an at-home herbal apothecary from the plants and herbs that grow in our beautiful Shenandoah Valley. Designed to be accessible and an “at-your-own-pace” offering, these half-day workshops (one Saturday every 6 weeks or so), lead participants through all their senses to connect with living plants, to experience their medicine in different forms, and ethically create herbal remedies that nurture the individual and the interconnected ecology of our local green spaces.

Each workshop we will highlight one plant and dive in deep to its being, its stories, its characteristics, its medicine and its beauty. We also explore other plants in season on that day or plants that are in the same family or in community with the herb of the day. As a group, we learn one medicine-making method from start to finish, and each participant gets to go home with fully processed medicine for their home apothecary!

Weaving in self-care practices, walking and casual group discussions, this isn’t the typical lecture. At the CYANWOOD Natural Lifestyles Center, we have access to comfortable space with natural light, filtered water, and the option to spread out, with blankets, bolsters, cushions or chairs. We also encourage our participants to dress comfortably and bring whatever they need to make themselves at home.

- forest, field or garden walk (except in Winter months)

- space and time for journaling and sketching

- discussions on ethical, sustainable and seasonal plant harvesting

- group sharing, story-telling and community expansion

- tea and herb tastings, as well as topical product sampling

- humble, multi-perspective plant medicine lectures and histories

- hands-on herbal medicine-making (examples include: decoctions, tinctures, herbal sachets, infused vinegars, oils and honeys, wild-crafted poultices, medicinal soups, salves, antiseptic sprays, glycerites, ferments, flower essences, and more)

- suggestions for mindful sources of local herbs, foods and extraction ingredients, including oils, honeys, vinegars, alcohols and glycerines.

- lessons on conservation and protection of endangered herbs

- custom-crafted herbal remedy to take home in eco-friendly packaging

- opportunity for group discussions, questions, and concerns, including space for differing opinions and approaches

- access and opportunities to sample other herbs from the teacher’s stash

- opportunity to purchase home apothecary tools, equipment and ingredients at a 10% discount

- access to digital print lecture and plant-medicine materials

*a portion of registration fee is donated to the EJC Arboretum

WHAT EACH WORKSHOP INCLUDES:

WHAT DOES INVESTING IN HERBAL STUDIES AND A HOME APOTHECARY COST?

Each workshop in the series is probably worth more than $250 per person. However, we are committed to sharing this experience with as many members of our community as we reasonably can, so we offer each workshop for $95.

Any additional funds you can provide at the time of registration are welcome and will go first to help offset costs and pay our staff, and then to the development of the next workshop in the series.

WHEN & WHERE ARE THE WORKSHOPS HELD?

Most workshop mornings we will meet at a green space in Harrisonburg (often the EJC Arboretum) for the morning plant walk. And then we will regroup at the CYANWOOD Natural Lifestyles Center at 2704 Spotswood Trail, Suite B in Harrisonburg, and continue the workshop medicine lectures, demonstrations and discussions until 3:30, with a break for lunch.

Winter/Early Spring HAS workshops are hosted INSIDE (times vary based on content).

Below are the dates and themes of THE NEXT workshops in the Home Apothecary Series.

STAY TUNED FOR OUR SPRING CLASS LINEUP!

WHAT IF I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS?

We welcome and encourage inquisitive minds, and we will do our best to answer your questions. Feel free to give us a call at 540-425-0003 or email us at theblackberryherbarium@gmail.com