The Wheel of the Year is the story of the birth, growth, death, and rebirth of the Year. Together we will discuss simple ways to honor and connect to each Sabbat and how to live more fully with the rhythms of Nature. Come learn ways to infuse the magick of the Earth and Season into your life.

We will re-visit maiden, mother, matriarch/amazon, crone archtypes and see them from an energetic view. We will then have a greater understanding how our physiological transitions give rise to our psychedelic selves – women with roots , women with vision.

As we tend to our herbal gardens, the soil at our feet is teeming with life, microbes of all sorts. Similarly, the human body harbors up to ten times as many microbial cells as human cells. What are these microbes and what are they doing? What do they tell us about ourselves? From weight loss and cancer to chronic inflammation and even decision-making, these bugs are playing a major role. Let's take a look and see how we can foster a friendly family of bugs and approach wellness from a new perspective.

“Stay moist and juicy.” Saint Hildegard of Bingen

What do you have control of? What you put in your mouth, how much you move your body and your thoughts. Genetics (pathogenicity) “The only way to change your DNA is with good nutrition. In order to receive the white light of your potential you must eat well.” Says Jeff Bland. Herbs for building your own stem cells begins the journey to remaining vital and living to your joy-full potential. Nature takes the stem cells where they need to go.

We’ll consider the common experiences navigated during pregnancy through the lenses of the three trimesters and discussing relative safety of of herbs as pregnancy progresses. We’ll taste some herbal goodies/preparations to support our confidence. This class is suitable to students with all levels of experience.

Coming Soon!

In this remedy-making focused class, Maria will demonstrate three of her favorite calming and sleep support remedies: a tasty and effective relaxing Sleep Tea, potent homemade fresh plant Relaxing Tincture, Lemon Bliss Seltzer. She will also discuss the sealed simmered glycerite method, featuring holy basil and rose. Full recipes and attributes of each herbal ingredient will be shared and samples will be shared to taste. These herbs, recipes, and more are covered in ever greater detail in Maria's newly released book Herbal Remedies for Sleep. Maria will sign and sell her books after the talk.

We all know that feeling. The moment when it feels like you can't handle one more thing without snapping or breaking down. Thankfully we have the plants to turn to. In this class we will learn about three of my favorite herbs for emotional regulation-Milky Oats, Motherwort, and St Johns Wort. We will cover the healing properties of each plant and when and how to use each individually and in combination with each other.

Herbal medicine can help us nourish and heal the magical outer layer of ourselves that we call our skin. Our skin holds us in, and it creates the natural boundary that tells us where we are, as individuals, begin and end. Yet our skin is porous and highly sensitive to sensation, so our skin provides a portal to intimate connection with others. As time allows, we will explore some of the gifts that oats, calendula, plantain, St. John’s Wort, burdock, birch, red clover, dandelion and self-heal offer us for our skin care/self care.

I love to awaken others to this powerful tool for understanding ourselves and how we can harness our gifts and overcome our challenges while riding the rhythms and cycles f our neighbor celestial bodies.

coming soon!

Description TBA

Essential oils have a long and profound use for relieving anxiety and the stress associated with it.

In this workshop we will first answer the question: what is anxiety? Then we will take a look at Are Essential Oils Effective for Relieving Anxiety?

Essential oils have a long and profound use for relieving anxiety and the stress associated with it.

In this workshop we will first answer the question: what is anxiety, how does it manifest in the body? Then we will take a look at what botanically available chemical constituents are effective in helping us take control and resolve anxious reactions. We will discuss how these biochemicals uplift the spirit and soothe anxiety in the process.

Once we have that information at our fingertips we will talk about the essential oils richest in those chemical constituents plus some of the other associated biochemicals that team up and help. Safety is part of this conversation and we will touch on essential oil use with kids experiencing anxiety. Since we know that compliance is the key to healing we will put the whole picture together with blends and recipes using the knowledge we've gained to resolve anxiety and stress.

Polyvagal theory emphasizes the role of the vagus nerve in regulating the body's autonomic functions. Increasing awareness of the autonomic nervous system states supports increased emotional regulation, connection to others, and resilience. This workshop will present an overview of the principles of polyvagal theory, somatic patterns, and practical embodied strategies toward nervous system regulation.

Nervous system states describe the body's inherent and brilliant adaptive survival responses. Like a fingerprint, each nervous system is unique and informed by life experiences and reactions to them, creating the individual's story. Maintaining flexibility and an internal balance is essential to navigating life challenges with clarity. Understanding the nervous system and discovering tools that help increase regulation can support physiological symptoms, emotional health, and greater overall well-being.

It's true that a spoonful of sugar, well in our case honey, helps the medicine go down. Herbal syrups are an easy and delicious way to begin stocking your herbal medicine cabinet. In this workshop you will learn the basics of herbal syrup making and we will make an immune building anti-viral syrup, a nourishing nervine syrup, and a blood building iron rich syrup. We'll discuss the medicinal properties of the herbs we're using and explore how to begin creating your own syrup recipes.

Coming soon!

The study of Ayurveda is vast and profound. Yet, understanding and incorporating even some of the key practices and teachings into our lives can make a strong impact on our health and well being. Learning about the energetics of herbs through an Ayurvedic lens can also help us understand herbal medicine more fully. Join Nancy as she introduces some of the simple and practical key teachings and practices of Ayurveda including some of the most revered Ayurvedic herbs.

This class will focus on various diagnostic facial indications created while living in a human body. Knowing what the body has to say, we can learn how to prevent illness. Our hours together will consist of both lecture and hands on learning with ample opportunity for questions to understand what your body is saying to you. Each participant will have their face read with comments shared. Please arrive make up and nail polish free!

What beings, plants, elements have given their bodies so that you can live? Say thank you to those that give their lives so we can live a good life. How do we return the gift and create ceremony as we harvest.

Take care of your gift.

It is not you.

You are the vascular system delivering sustenance.

There are hundreds of ways you can give your gift.

Don’t let that exploraton sidetrack you.

Take care of your gift.

Know it. Love it. Cherish it

as you would a grandchild, a grandmother, a garden.

The roots of you provide the nutrients.

There will never be another exactly like your gift.

A gift is free. It is given without expectation of reward.

It must be received to be a gift, not hidden away gathering dust,

slowly changing shape and character,

it’s nature obliterated by the waiting to be given.

Is your care of your gift respectful?

Will you give it to those that honor a gift?

Perhaps, yet to dwell on this diminishes the gift.

Take care of your gift.

There will never be another exactly like yours.

Starting an at home garden can seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be! In this class we will discuss the meaning of permaculture / holistic gardening and how to incorporate some of these practices on a small scale.

The second half of class will be spent walking around Misty Meadows to see some of the practices put in place to work towards a ‘closed-loop system’. We will see examples and discuss lasagna gardening, rain barrels, hugelkultures, how to use your existing landscape, and more! (If time and/or space permits a hands-on demonstration will be included).

Learn how to make two different recipes of traditional pierogi. Participants will make potato and cheese as well as cabbage pierogi both with an herbal flare. Come prepared to work with your hands, get a little messy, and a couple pierogi. The recipes include dairy, gluten, and are not vegan. No alternatives will be offered at this time.

Coming Soon!

The sacred traditions of herb-craft have been passed down through generations as a means of healing and wellness. They have also been used as spiritual offerings to deity as well as being used by Witches, Shamans, Seers, and Oracles for millennia. Within this workshop you will learn the magickal aspects of this ancient art, be able to enhance your spiritual practice through working with our herbal allies. Learn to choose, blend and empower herbs for your magickal use. It will be a guide to making sachets, charm bags, talismans and incense.

This class is crafted to introduce holistic protocols and alternative approaches, addressing a range of common pregnancy concerns, from morning sickness to preeclampsia. Drawing from herbal wisdom rooted in indigenous and traditional birth practices, participants will gain knowledge that goes beyond conventional approaches. This session caters to a diverse audience, including healthcare providers, birth workers, expectant parents and herbalists of varying experience levels. One of our main objectives is to broaden the support professionals can offer to their clients by expanding their knowledge of herbal applications in maternal care and empowering expectant mothers and their supporters with information and tools. The workshop not only imparts information but offers self-care routines aimed at nurturing overall well-being during both pregnancy and the postpartum period.

Forgetfulness, foggy thinking, brain fatigue, and mood changes are disconcerting symptoms that many of us experience, but we seldom know the best options for treatment and prevention. These symptoms can happen to anyone and indicate that our brains need more support. Taking a proactive approach to healthy brain function is the best way to prevent more serious neurological issues as we age. By learning how to self-evaluate you can choose the best herbs to “feed” the brain for optimal function and eliminate lifestyle factors that undermine brain health. This class is designed to help you lay the foundations of a personalized natural brain care program that will boost confidence in your overall health and happiness.

My class is intended to teach participants the basics of how to select appropriate cultivars of cannabis, to grow and harvest their own, to make medicine including tincture, oil/butter, flower essence, salves and edibles. I emphasize the importance of testing your products and how to dose each in the most effective manner. I will have samples of edibles in class and to take away, but all will be non-psychoactive for legal purposes. I will also have samples of flower essence, tincture and salve for all who are interested. Come and learn from my successes and failures with this powerful and important ally so that you can add it to your medicinal toolbox!

In these challenging times, there is a growing need for trauma-literate caregivers to support the health of our communities and offer tools to ease personal and collective grief as a pathway to healing. Join us for an in-depth look at strategies to address trauma and grief, both personal and collective, and build your toolkit for addressing trauma and grief from an herbalist’s perspective. In this intensive, we will lend focus to theoretical frameworks of holistic approaches to trauma-informed care, learn a comprehensive Materia Medica of plant allies with specific applications for trauma and grief, explored through the context of trauma stewardship and trauma-informed herbalism. This is an intermediate level workshop - students should have a working knowledge of herbalism, basic medicine making, and terminology.

Join Helen on a different kind of plant walk. One which will bring awareness to the plants who show up in our backyards, exploring the medicinal gifts as well as the spirit medicine they share with us all as well.

Feeling frazzled? Afraid? Out of sorts? Confused? Come and learn how to create more space in that heart of yours and learn to challenge your reptilian brain!

We’ll be diving into the physiology of the reptilian, old mammalian and “higher” brains within us. Based on thirty years of scientific studies and research, you can expect to leave the lecture with an understanding of the evolutionary benefits , and drawbacks to operating from each brain level, along with techniques for engaging the “angel lobes” of the higher brain through most importantly, the heart. We will touch on techniques for moving away from or reacting out of the reptilian brain. We will discuss other methods for engaging our heart coherence space, and why it is so important to access this space as often as we can! Right. Now.

And of course, herbs to help!

When crafting effective herbal formulas, it's important to go below the surface. In this class we'll cover multiple topics: understanding who you're formulating for, how to choose the best plants and extraction mediums, and how plants work together to get the job done.

Description TBA

Sleep is foundational to optimal health and wellbeing. In this class, Maria will cover a few of the most important tips to get a good quality night sleep and three core materia medica for sleep: chamomile, lemon balm, and passionflower, with some pros and cons about valerian. We’ll discuss each herb’s attributes, pitfalls, dosing, formulation, and growing tips. These topics are covered in ever greater detail in Maria's newly released book Herbal Remedies for Sleep. Maria will sign and sell her books after the talk.

Bitters are extraordinary plants that have many facets to their healing abilities. These most common weeds are often overlooked for more exotic treatments, yet they are relaxing, clearing, cleansing, building and enlivening. Traditional peoples use these cooling remedies for many conditions with heat or inflammation as every region has it’s favorite bitters. We ill travel along the bitter index from Arctium lappa (sweet) to the Artemesias and Gentiana and discuss appropriate clinical applications for each.

Learn about the global, traditional practice of vaginal steaming, a gentle and non-invasive healing practice that brings together the magic of herbs and warm steam for womb wellness and connection. Learn about the historical and present day cultural implications, the benefits, contraindications, and highlight a selection of herbs utilized for a variety of pelvic steaming applications.

Herbal First Aid for Farmers

Self-care is something I have always struggled with and when seeking inspiration for my final project for the Level 1 apprenticeship program at Misty Meadows, I came to realize I was not the only one who struggles with this. It seemed in my herbal community that while we were more than happy to put work into helping and healing those around us, it was a different story when it came to ourselves. Taking small steps to care for ourselves every day allows us to be there fully when it’s time to help someone else. This thought led me to creating a first aid kit that made daily farming life a little easier.

We will discuss what it takes to create a well-rounded first aid kit. My full first aid kit contains 10 items which I have adjusted and added to as time went on, but we will discuss some of my long-lasting favorites including: herbal band-aids and ACV hydration infusions.

Explore the wooded trails at Misty Meadows with our Harvest Manager Jessica Daigle as she teaches you about the mushrooms we harvest!

A visual, oral, and hands-on mini-apprenticeship with this extraordinary teacher who has studied with the Cherokee for almost 40 years. Discover the first level of Cherokee medicine—that of the household healer. Learn what every Cherokee knows: when you get sick, you go home.

Have you always wanted to learn how to make soap? In this class you will learn basic soap making and how to make a simple herb and sea salt exfoliating spa bar. Participants will each leave with a sample soap created prior to class from the same recipe demonstrated.

How Catherine went from an environmentalist midwife to the founder of a major herbal remedy company. She'll share lessons she learned along the way about creating an herb company and her unique style and approach to crafting herbal remedies.

When we see the body as an energetic vessel that holds our experiences as a form of wisdom, we find that after a traumatic experience we often need to find a path back to wholeness and safety. Calling in the medicine of the plants that are supportive in this process can be an essential part of rebuilding resiliency and a sense of home within yourself. We'll cover some of my favorite herbs and how to craft a routine to reweave and support the path of healing within yourself.

Beginning with an overview of the menstrual cycle, explore the connection between the hypothalamus, the pituitary and ovaries are impacted by the circulatory, lymphatic and hepatic function. From there observe what might be felt in the physical body and which plants would be supportive to the tissue states. We’ll discuss the energetics of hot/cold/moist/dry and primarily speak about Western Herbs.

Coming Soon!

In recent years, much has been discovered about the structure and function of the gut, not just as an organ of digestion and absorption but also as a barrier against the passage of pathogens and endotoxins. A healthy gut, with its tight junctions intact, effectively prevents the passage of macromolecules into the bloodstream. Any impairment in the modulation of the intestinal barrier can readily result in pathological increase in permeability of the intestinal mucosa, or leaky gut syndrome. An increase in intestinal permeability (IP) leads to increased absorption of intestinally derived endotoxins, antigens, inflammatory mediators and, in some cases, bacteria.

These agents can cause local and systemic reactions associated with a broad range of acute and chronic diseases. Increased IP is typically observed in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) but it is also seen in various conditions initially related to gut disorders, including inflammatory response syndrome, allergies, asthma and even autism. Infections, dysbiosis, stress and food intolerance represent major influences on the integrity of intestinal barrier and should therefore be key targets for therapy.

Research indicates that nutrients, plant compounds such as glutamine, glutathione, quercetin, licorice and cinnamon, as well as dietary factors may help to support intestinal mucosal health and promote normal healthy intestinal integrity. In this infographic we focus on this research and its relevance to the safe treatment of increased IP and impaired gastrointestinal function.

This Intensive will look and the structure and function of the gastrointestinal system and then look at specific herbal indications to help soothe, treat and cure this common health issue.

Many women today are faced with challenging questions about their cardiovascular health. The medicalization of our hearts is taking away our confidence in our ability to sustain our own health. This class looks at the myths of hypertension and high cholesterol. We will talk about cholesterol as our primary antioxidant for dealing with stress and look at the deep reaches stress plays in our world today.

Cultivate a deeper awareness of Flower Essences and how to use them to support your emotional well-being, find balance, and create calm in your daily life.

We will meet and discuss 5 plants that can be found in our area and used in healing and magick. Together, we will experience these plants and grow in relationship with them so that we can call on them in our healing and magical practices.

Looking back, I will share what I would have done had I known the importance of doing what I told others to do! We will touch on:

Meditation

Breathing tricks

Movement

Water

Schedules

Do bring your own offerings to share!

The path of the Herbalist in a clinical session is full of twists and turns. Find out how to approach each step with skill and intention. This course will cover best practices as well as clinical gems garnered from years of practice. For the intermediate or advanced herbalist.

Coming soon!

An informative and magical plant walk through the Misty Meadows Gardens and all of our favorite plant allies. Meet Mullein, pet some Sweet Annie, and taste the Agastache amongst the buzzing bees with our very own Harvest Manager!

Catherine founded the Herbiculture Project, a non-profit venture that focuses on the effective and sustainable growth of medicinal plants. She will share how we can protect native plants while also tapping into the power of these medicinal herbs to impact the environment, farmers, the herbal products industry and anyone who uses herbs in their daily life.

The overuse of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture has led to a crisis of antibiotic-resistant infectious diseases. Antibiotics are also radical remedies with side effects. Fortunately there are a variety of teas, tinctures topical salves and foods that can be used to prevent illness through strengthening our immune systems. There are also antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral herbs that can be used safely and effectively to help heal us when illness is already present. John Herbalist Robin Rose Bennett to learn how herbal allies from astragalus to zingiber (ginger) can help us regain and maintain our health.

Light has a powerful healing impact on many aspects of our biology. Since it is translated into electrical and hormonal signals in our brain and body, light can actually change the genes that the cells of your body express, altering the trajectory of how we handle disease. This is not a mystery. There are more than a hundred years of quality science emphasizing the use of light, and the use of particular wavelengths in order to modulate the activity of cells in the brain and body. Learn how to use light to reduce pain and inflammation, improve vision and sleep, regulate sex hormones, and boost mood and energy.

Do you make your own herbal products? Are you dreaming of sharing your passion, herbal products, and knowledge with the community? Join Helen Ward to learn about the first steps of creating your own local, herbal business and what it looks like to share your passion in your own community. We will discuss how to assess your community needs, what plants are local (and possibly invasive) which are there to assist in healing your community, how to market your business, local farmers markets, creative ways to educate and share during these unprecedented times! We will also explore any obstacles which you may feel are hindering you or your business.

Helen advocates that we should have an herbalist on each corner, sharing wisdom and supporting the local community with herbal medicine.

Coming soon!

Culinary herbs and spices have a rich history and have been used for thousands of years to enhance the flavor and health value of our food. They bring zest to our meals, but also help build health and cure imbalances. Come spice up your life with Nancy as she shares historical tidbits, recipes, samples, and research concerning the medicinal qualities of common spices and how best to use them in food and for first aid.

Each of us has a life story that brought us the gift of relating to plants, trees, forests, and the elements. It is our gift. Embracing these gifts is deepening our self-knowledge and embracing the children and wise ones that live inside of us.

This class is about remembering and deepening our love of self and all creation. We can create or expand a spiritual practice that we can return to each day and will strengthen our ability to love ourselves and all life.

Join me on a walk through the beautiful gardens of Misty Meadows! We will meet plants that thrive in the heat of New England's summer. Learn the best time to plant and harvest, along with some tips and tricks to keep your plants thriving. This walk will feature some of Misty Meadow’s staffs favorite herbs on the farm!