Intro to Homegrown Herbal Medicine: Spring Herbs Workshop Series

Come spend four 2-hour evening sessions (8 hours total) with local community herbalist, small-scale herb-grower, and permaculturalist Anika Gatzke as we dive deep and learn about herbs we can grow, harvest, and forage in the spring time, as well as how to use them, and a variety of other herbal medicine related topics.

Throughout this workshop series we will develop understanding of herbs through first-hand experiences and knowledge sharing, learning mostly through means of intuitive blind tea tastings, facilitated group discussion, and detailed herbal monographs. Each week we will also touch on different topics of herbal medicine relevant to the herbs we cover, with conversation inspired by the interests of workshop participants. As an end to our time together we will make our own herbal tea blends to take home and we may even get to go out and visit some herbs growing on a short nature walk at some point (weather and participant interest depending).

*This is designed to be a WORKSHOP SERIES taking place between 6-8pm on 4 consecutive Thursday nights: May 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th. Please read whole event page before buying tickets to understand the structure of this workshop series and to make sure this is the workshop for you.*

*Only whole series tickets are available (no single night).*

What you get in the whole series:

Facilitated blind tea tastings (2-4 per evening) that allow you to connect to your body and gain first-hand experience as you build relationships with specific herbs (details about what blind tea tastings are is below under "things to know before signing up for this workshop"). These are followed by group discussion of what we experienced during the tea tasting, handing out of herbal monographs, and then learning and talking about the herb in an open group discussion, often accompanied by fresh plant samples for observation.

10 detailed herbal monographs (detailed info packages about specific herbs) created by Anika from multiple herbal information sources and her personal experience, coming included with info regarding:

- Traditional Medicinal Uses, Dosages, and Safety Cautions/Contraindications

- History & Folklore

- Growing & Processing Information

- Resources

- Preparation Ideas & Recipes

- And More!

Your own herbal tea blend formulated and made by you in class for you to take home.

Informative resource documents about a variety of herbal medicine topics including growing, processing, storing herbs, and making different herbal preparations.

Access to resource recommendations (books, websites) and ability to scroll through some of Anika's herbal library to check out some different books before you go out and buy.

A chance to connect and share experiences with other budding and hobby herbalists :)

*Things to know before signing up for this workshop*:

- This workshop has been designed as a series. Each event will not be a general overview of many different herbs, but will be more focused on facilitating deeper understanding, conversation, and personal experiences with a few specific herbs each time, and over the course of the four nights we will have been able to talk about many different herbs. It's designed to be a more lengthened learning compared to a one-off workshop.

- BLIND TEA TASTINGS are a focal point and key element in gaining personal experience with the herbs in this workshop series, and for that reason it is highly recommended that you only sign up if you would like to participate in this. This workshop series may not be for you if you are pregnant or allergic to many plants or you for other reasons do not feel comfortable trying many different herbs in this way. Intuitive blind tea tasting is trying tea made from an herb without knowing what the herb is at first to be able to experience consciously how herbs interact with your mind and body without having preconceived notions of the plant. After the blind tea-tasting exercises we will learn what the herb is and dive into learning and discussing about it.

- Each workshop may take place inside or outside or a bit of both! So come prepared for the weather!

- There are a few limited PWYC (pay-what-you-can) tickets for anyone who may not have a lot of extra money right now but would really like to come.

- If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to Anika at her email gatzkeanika@gmail.com or instagram @herbsmusicpeace.

About Anika:

Anika was born and raised in the Okanagan, and grew up on her parents' fruit and vegetable farm in Oyama (Lake Country). Anika's parents are both (at least) 3rd generation farmers, which makes Anika a 4th generation farmer as soon as she herself accepts that she is indeed a farmer.

Anika acquired from a young age her parents' love and pride of growing and providing local, healthy food and farm-to-table food products to her community, as well as a passion for environmental care/sustainability, homesteading practices, community engagement, and specifically facilitating people being able to understand & make personal connections to the natural world.

As Anika grew older, this passion for growing food and environmentalism translated into interests in nutrition and plant studies, which led her to take many workshops and eventually a 2-week course in Peru revolved around "Plant-Based Medicine & Nutrition" in 2019, which is when her interest in herbal medicine took off.

Inspired by that program, Anika completed a 4 month "Community Herbalist Certificate" program in Victoria, BC with Pacific Rim College in late 2019, and with the confidence that program helped her acquire, began hobby growing 30+ different plants with medicinal uses in a small section of her parents farm in 2020, as well as using her knowledge from school to start gaining experience making a variety of herbal preparations, and began sharing her experiences with friends, family, her local community, and online on her instagram @herbsmusicpeace.

As the years progressed she started yielding larger harvests and began selling and providing her local community with her herbs and herbal preparations.

In 2022 Anika returned to Pacific Rim College in Victoria to complete a 9 month "Diploma of Permaculture Design and Resilient Ecosystems" which left her with even more confidence and inspiration, on top of all of the skills and knowledge she was introduced to during the program revolving around various permacultural practices including sustainable and resilient agriculture, natural energy & waste systems, ecological biology, botany, site surveying and resilient land design, natural building, homesteading/resiliency skills, and social permaculture.

Anika is now back in the Okanagan, having recently completed a "Certificate in Holistic Nutrition" with Pacific Rim College Online, as well as in-person courses with Okanagan College revolved around leadership, fitness, and food studies. She has sights set this year on pouring love into her small-scale herb garden, and providing community offerings to help people to feel empowered and gain confidence on their journey to connect back to the land and themselves. This workshop series focused on herbal medicine is such one of those things she hopes will allow people to do that.