2018 Gathering

Join us on Saturday, October 6th, 2018 for the 4th Annual Maine Herbalist Gathering, a day of community and classes honoring the wisdom of plants!

This year we will gather at Merryspring Nature Center located at 30 Conway Road in Camden, ME. Check out their website for directions and other info. Merryspring has one indoor classroom space, a gazebo, and we will have additional tent spaces to have classes under. It is open to the public and located right off Route One with ample trails to walk on as well as gardens to explore.

Each session offers a variety of 3 to 4 classes to choose from, please check out our schedule below and class descriptions here.

Schedule

8:15 – 8:50 am Arrival and parking

9 – 10 am – Opening Circle

10 – 10:50 am – Herbal Actions and Formulations for UTI/STI, Herbs for Natural Beauty, Responsible Wildcrafting: Rethinking Our Approach to Wild Spaces

11 – 11:50 am – Seaweed for Herbalists, Herbal Support for Trauma and PTSD, Anatomy, Energetics and Herbal Allies of the Lungs

12 – 12:50 pm – Lunch and Barter Circle

1 – 2:20 pm – Interactive Discussion with Sherri Mitchell – Decolonizing Our Relationship to the Land

2:30 – 3:20 pm – Supporting United Plant Savers – what we can do in Maine, Tongue Diagnosis Skills, Full Extract Cannabis Oil

3:30 – 4:20 pm – Walking with the Standing People, 10 Ways Herbalists Can Honor Wabanaki Sovereignty in Maine, Herbal Beer Making, Comfrey From Garden to Medicine Chest

4:30 – 5 pm – Gathering closing

*If you would like to participate in the lunchtime barter circle, please bring a blanket to share your wares. We will also have a a number of paid spaces available for people to sell their herbal products.

*Vendor information can be found here: https://maineherbalistgathering.wordpress.com/vendors/
After you have purchased your gathering admission ticket and following approval for of your application, we will send you a link to pay the tabling fee.

*Lodging
There is no camping onsite, but local camping can be found at Camden Hills State Park nearby. We encourage you to post on the event’s facebook wall to see if a fellow herbalist in the area may have camping and/or bedspace available to you.

Babies in arms and kids 10 and up welcome.

*For Tickets, Volunteering and Scholarship info check the Tickets page

What to Bring
– Comfortable clothing for being outdoors (might be warm or cold) and rain gear if necessary
– Camp or lawn chair
– Dishes for lunch: mug/cup, bowl, plate, and utensils
– Items for trade / barter or items to sell if you have vendor space (optional)
– Business cards and flyers (optional)

2018 Classes & Bios

Here is the lineup of classes, workshops, and teacher bios for the 2018 Maine Herbalist Gathering! Please check back throughout the summer for updates or watch our Facebook page.

This year we are honored to announce a special guest: Sherri Mitchell Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset, an Indigenous rights activist, spiritual teacher, transformational change maker, and author of the book Sacred Instructions. She is also the visionary behind “Healing the Wounds of Turtle Island,” a global healing ceremony that has brought people from all corners of the world to Maine for the past two years. Sherri will lead an interactive discussion about Decolonizing Our Relationship to the Land. We hope you will join us for the conversation.

Find tickets to the gathering here: 2018 MHG Tickets See you at the gathering!!!

Anatomy, Energetics and Herbal Allies of the Lungs with Jillian Twisla
Comfrey From Garden to Medicine chest with Brighid Doherty
Full Extract Cannabis Oil with Shanna Berry
Herbal Beer Making with Suzanne Stone
Herbs for Natural Beauty with Camille Rose Giglio
Herbal Support for Trauma and PTSD with Cathleen Miller
Responsible Wildcrafting: Rethinking Our Approach to Wild Spaces with Willow Romska Gibson
Seaweed for Herbalists with Micah Woodcock
Supporting United Plant Savers – what we can do in Maine with Karen Farrell
Tongue Diagnosis Skills with Melanie Rose Scofield
Herbal Actions and Formulations for UTI/STI with Mischa Schuler
10 Ways Herbalists Can Honor Wabanaki Sovereignty in Maine with Steve Byers
Plant Walk with Arthur Haines

Anatomy, Energetics and Herbal Allies of the Lungs

In this class we will overview anatomy and physiology of the lungs, energetics in the body and alignments to energetics of the Earth, and herbal allies with complimentary energetics for supporting lung health.

About Jillian
Jillian Twisla is an herbalist, health educator, gardener and mother. She has a background in clinical herbalism, permaculture and plant mysticism. She studied naturopathy and traditional herbalism at Southern Cross University in Australia and has been lucky to learn from many incredible American herbalists as well. Jillian lives close to the Earth with her family in Hope, Maine, where she offers classes and occasional consultations.

Comfrey: From Garden to Medicine Chest

Brighid will draw a clear picture of Comfrey’s ability to heal our bodies and our gardens. She will discuss Comfrey in folklore, permaculture, science and healthcare. Comfrey’s chemical constituents will be explained, including the poisonous pyrrolizidine alkaloids and the healing allantoin. What is the safe way to ingest comfrey? How do we use it externally to heal? How is comfrey harvested and prepared? How is it used in the garden? Let’s delve into the world of this often, misunderstood plant and connect with Comfrey.

About Brigid
Brighid Doherty is an herbalist of the Wise Woman Tradition. She resides in Deer Isle, a bridged island in Downeast Maine. Brighid is a passionate herbal health educator and a professional gardener. She is the founder of Solidago School of Herbal Wisdom and co founder of the Dandelion Herbal Collective, both located in Deer Isle. Brighid began her connection with herbs while playing in her mother’s gardens as a child, their scents and beauty attracting her curiosity. For the past two decades, Brighid has worked with medicinal plants in a variety of ways; as a student and a teacher, a gardener and a forager, a medicine maker and health consultant. She received a BA focused in Organic Agriculture and Herbal Medicine from Evergreen State College. She worked on an organic medicinal herb and Lavender farm in WA and on an organic vegetable farm in NH. She managed The Herbal Path, a natural pharmacy in NH. She has had many wonderful herbalist mentors including Susun Weed, Rosemary Gladstar, Juliet Blankespoor, Deb Soule and KP Khalsa. She leads and teaches a variety of workshops on the beautiful rock bound coast of Maine, including medicinal plant walks, herbal spas, hands-on medicine making, and herbal retreats. Brighid inspires self-reliant health care by teaching people how to bring herbal medicine into their lives and how to relate to the plants in their kitchens, gardens and the wild.

Full Extract Cannabis Oil

Learn how to make potent, pure essential oil of cannabis safely at home, using grain alcohol and a tabletop distiller. Understand the difference between CBD oil, Rick Simpson Oil, FECO, and other cannabis-based medicines and how they’re being used to treat a wide variety of conditions. A demonstration of equipment and process will be provided.

About Shana

Herbalist and farmer Shana Barry has been growing cannabis for almost a decade, has been a Maine medical marijuana caregiver since 2011, and began making cannabis oil four years ago. Shana is passionate about growing and working with herbs of all types and loves to share what she’s learned about the remarkable cannabis plant. Shana also creates whimsical art and is a member of a hospice choir. Her herbal products and art can be found at https://www.etsy.com/shop/DreamwoodGardens and her chants and songs are available at https://soundcloud.com/avani-rava

Herbs for Natural Beauty

Many people don’t realize that what foods we nourish our skin with are just as important, if not more so, than the foods we put in our bodies. I’m on a mission to share this information! Our skin absorbs up to 7 times the amount that our digestive system does, so it’s vital to our health that we feed our skin with healthy not-rancid oils, herbs, and clean water. Learn about making natural beauty products in this class.

About Camille

Camille Rose Giglio has a passion for igniting change in peoples lives globally. She was raised in an alternative household focused on healthy eating, spirituality, and unconventional schooling. Drawing from her creative upbringing, Camille enjoys crafting up just about anything from herbal salves, scarves, hats, jewelry, or busting out new websites for fun.

She resides on an off grid property in Midcoast Maine with her partner Frank, and children Wilder and Sunny. She draws inspiration from being in nature, playing with her boys, taste testing delightful creations from her hubby, doing yoga, and playing music with her band. Visit threelilymama.com for more.

Herbal Support for Trauma and PTSD

For many trauma survivors, the effects of events in the past linger for years, creating challenges that limit peoples’ vitality and capacity for joy. As we come to understand intergenerational trauma and the ways that we are impacted by events that happened to our ancestors, healing trauma becomes an even more important tool in helping people to live their lives with an embodied, connected experience of being.

In this workshop, we will discuss how trauma impacts the nervous system, and explore how we can support healing through the use of plants, flower essences, meditative awareness exercises, and physical activities that encourage connection to the body.

About Cathleen

Cathleen Miller is a community herbalist and educator based in Scarborough, Maine. Cathleen has been a meditation practitioner for over ten years, and incorporates mindfulness into her practice as an herbalist and teacher. She is passionate about healing trauma, helping people to reconnect with the land, and writing.

Responsible Wildcrafting: Rethinking Our Approach to Wild Spaces

In this class we will explore the impacts that wildcrafting has on our ecosystems, and how we can transition from over-harvesting to tending wild spaces with reciprocity. We’ll touch on Maine’s historical forest ecosystems, endangered plants, wild tending, and cultivation of medicinal plants.

About Willow

Willow Romska Gibson is an energetic clinical herbalist, founder of Sacred Seed Herbals, and graduate of Blue Otter School of Herbal Medicine. She has roots in northern Nevada where she gained a background in herbalism, permaculture and plant based cooking. She is passionate about exploring new ways to respectfully tend wild spaces by moving away from the colonizer mindset and toward reciprocity. Willow lives near Belfast where she and her husband are transforming their farm into an herbal sanctuary. www.sacredseedherbals.com

Seaweed for Herbalists

Explore the intersection of medicinal and culinary uses of sea vegetables with the herbalist in mind. Learn about their traditional and modern uses, biology and best harvest practices, and meet 8 of the most abundant and commonly collected seaweeds in the North Atlantic. In addition to their outstanding nutritional profile, seaweeds are specifically indicated for thyroid support, protection from radiation, chelation of heavy metals, the treatment and prevention of cancer, and internal and external viral infections.

About Micah

Micah Woodcock is the owner/operator of Atlantic Holdfast Seaweed Company, a small business working to sustainably hand-harvest sea vegetables in Penobscot Bay since 2010. Their harvesting operation is based on a remote island 7 miles off of Stonington, where the strong currents, active surf, and full exposure to the force of the open ocean have allowed these seaweeds to thrive for millennia.

Reading the Tongue

What is your tongue saying about your health? Tongue reading is an ancient assessment skill that has been used for thousands of years in India and China. Since then it has influenced many traditions of healing around the world, including our own Eclectic physicians of the 1800-1900’s. In this class, Melanie will discuss how to read your own tongue- colors, textures, markings, tone…etc. This is a wonderful skill to develop, which allows one to make the best health decisions based on each body’s constitutional needs. Bring a mirror and and journal!

About Melanie

Melanie Rose Scofield is the director of the Earthwalk School of Herbal Traditions in Rockport, and has been a practicing herbalist since 2007. She earned her first two certificates through the Boston School of Herbal Studies, where she ended up teaching as core faculty for 8 years. Melanie has dedicated the last 20 years of her life to healing with plant medicine and spiritual growth. She feels blessed to be able to pass down the wisdom of her teachers thru the Earthwalk School’s apprenticeship programs. earthwalkherbalschool.com

10 Ways Herbalists Can Honor Wabanaki Sovereignty in Maine

This class will educate herbalists on the Native American history of the Wabanaki, and create space for reflection on how we can honor the sovereignty of the Wabanaki Confederacy in Maine. Discussion will include current issues affecting Wabanaki sovereignty today and recognize the many ways we can collectively acknowledge patterns of colonizer mentality in ourselves and work towards a deeper level of healing in ourselves, our communities, and in relationship to the land.

About Steve

Steve Byers is a Clinical Herbalist based in Belfast, ME. He runs the Herbal Medicine Clinic which offers integrative health consultations and carries over 150 herbs in bulk tea and tincture. Steve offers workshops on herbal medicine, food sensitivities, and nutrition and has been working to support local indigenous rights by educating colonizer society about Native American history in Maine and leading workshops on decolonization and Wabanaki sovereignty.

Supporting United Plant Savers – What we can do in Maine

Come to learn about the Rare and Endangered plants we can grow in Maine and their significance in Medicine and the Maine flora.

Gather to learn what we can do as a community to support the missions, goals and aims of United Plant Savers.

About Karen

Prompted by health concerns in her family, Karen Farrell began studying natural foods and medicines at age 12. In her formative years – She studied traditional herbalism with Gladys Hadju and spent 6 years studying traditional home birth midwifery and women’s health, both academically and in practice – including volunteer Midwifery journeys to Indonesia and Haiti.

Karen has worked the last 20 years in the Natural Products Industry, starting as a working member in a co-op, to working in an independent health food store to Whole Foods Market and the last 16 years in leadership in the sales & brokerage community.

Karen is now the National Director of Brand Management for Nutrition and Body Care at Presence Marketing, where she oversees her team and the go-to market strategies for brands including Burt’s Bees, Andalou Naturals, Kiss My Face, Ancient Nutrition, Navitas Naturals and many more well-known natural and organic brands.

Karen lives with her husband & two sons on 80 acres in the Maine Woods, which she’s repopulating with endangered native medicinal plants – and is currently continuing her herbal studies at David Winston’s Center for Herbal Studies.

Herbal Actions and Formulations for UTI/STI

Urinary Tract Infections and Sexually Transmitted Infections can be disruptive and uncomfortable. We’ll explore herbal actions and herbal formulations for both acute and chronic UTI, as well as Human Papillomavirus (HPV).

About Mischa

Mischa Schuler is an herbal practitioner and medicine maker offering herbal consultations in Portland, Maine in her private practice Wild Carrot Herbs. She has a zest for Life and a playful, caring attitude, which she brings to her practice. She specializes in anxiety support, as well as women’s thyroid and reproductive health and children’s digestive, respiratory and skin health. Her herbal studies have been through apprenticeship with Deb Soule of Avena Botanicals, in Rockport, Maine and clinically at the Tai Sophia Insitute in Laurel, Maryland where she earned a Master of Science degree in Herbal Medicine during a three year course of clinical study. Mischa offers herbal apprenticeship programs and classes locally. Her herbal apothecary on State Street is stocked with powders, tinctures and teas, which she formulates specifically to individual needs with the intention of healing the vitality of underlying tissues so that acute and chronic conditions resolve without recurrence. Her greatest teachers are the plants and she feels tremendous gratitude that she is able to share their gifts through teaching, gardening, and in consultation with extraordinary people.

Walking with the Standing People

This outdoor walk will explore the local area to locate wild plants and discuss various aspects of these beings that pertain to food and medicine. Identification, nutritional information, and medicinal actions will be highlighted, along with eco-conscientious methods of interacting with the plants that we gather. Historical use, lore, and names will be included where appropriate.

About Arthur

Arthur Haines, author of A New Path and Ancestral Plants, has been teaching in the field of human health and human ecology for over 20 years. As a research botanist for the New England Wildflower Society, he recently completed a comprehensive flora of the New England region entitled Flora Novae Anglicae and has authored over twenty publications in peer-reviewed journals and books, including naming species of plants new to science. He runs the Delta Institute of Natural History and his popular classes focus primarily on foraging, herbal medicine, and ancestral lifeways. His foraging books and series of YouTube videos has inspired thousands of people interested in wild edible and medicinal plants. Arthur currently resides at Wilder Waters Community in Maine with his wife and child.

Herbal Beer Making

Come journey through the story of fermented herbal brews including touching on who were the beer brewers traditionally in different cultures, beer making processes, yeast harvesting, honey, medicinal herbs used & their qualities, stories of protected family recipes & how hops, not as common before, came to be seen as “necessary” for brewing. We talk of the beer making process & view the supplies needed to begin brewing herbal beer. There will be a chance to taste some herbal brew varieties.

About Suzanne

Herbalist Suzanne Stone resides along the Hedge, on coast of Maine, growing, building relation & creating with herbs, along with teaching herbal medicine courses, under the name of Moon of Hyldemoer Herbals. Along with learning from the plants in the field & forest, in her own gardens & as Head Gardener/Educator of the New Day School, Portland, OR, she has been fortunate to study at the Elderberry School of Botanical Medicine, with Gail Faith Edwards of Blessed Maine Farm, & with Sajah Popham of the School of Evolutionary Herbalism, among other herbalists. As a part of sharing her passion for the green world with others, she has been dedicated, for the past decade, to brewing & developing delicious, medicinal, thought-provoking, & sacred herbal ales in the tradition of cunning folk throughout the ages. Visions of offering these medicinal fermentations are in the works.

Miso Vegetable Soup…local Go-En Miso, fall vegetables from local farms (hearty and vegan/gluten-free)
Creamy Vegetable Bisque… Local Jersey Cream, Winter Squash, Sweet Carrots, Local Shiitake
Sourdough Bread …Wood Fired Oven Baked…Herb Infused Butters
Cornbread….Made with Local Heirloom Corn…Gluten-Free and Vegan…Served with Homemade Vegan Butter
Fall Greens Salad…Crisp Bitter and Sweet Lettuces, Saltwort, Baby Beet Greens, Edible Flowers… Variety of Dressings made with Herb Infused Vinegars
Marinated Kale and Seaweed Salad….Lemon and Maine Sea Salt
Herbal Teas

Afternoon Snacks

Salted Maple Cookies…All Local Ingredients
Oat and Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies…Vegan and Gluten-Free…Local Oats
Herbal Teas