Saturday, 9 April 2011
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
New course for April - A practical introduction to herbal medicine
Violet harvest 2010,and now they are flowering again
Saturday April 2, 2-4pm and Tuesday evenings 5-26 April 7-9pm, in Lewes, Sussex
The aim of this course is to enable you to feel confident to harvest, make and use herbal medicines for your self, your family and friends. Led by Haskel Adamson a practicing medical herbalist based in Lewes.
"Traditional herbal medicine connects us to with the healing power of the divine through plants that grow around us."
In five sessions we will explore many local plants, each session will combine practical skills in medicine preparation with the theoretical background of herbal medicine.
A booklet will be provided at the first session with information about the topics of all of the sessions
The five sessions will include
1 Herbal identification and harvesting
In this first session we will be out in the field, learning the botanical basics to ensure safe collection of medicinal plants.
We will learn the appropriate time to harvest different parts of plants
Where to harvest plants
How to identify plants with the use of a plant finder
2 Herbal infusions and decoctions April 5, 7-9pm
We taste test a range of herbs
Water extracts of herbs, when to use
Why and to use teas, decoctions or deep decoctions
3 tinctures/ liqueurs April 12, 7-9pm
Tinctures are the preferred form of dispensing herbal medicines for
Western herbalists. Find out why!
We will go through all the stages of producing a tincture from freshly harvested plants. We will learn about concentrations, alcohol strengths, and doses.
4 Infused oils, and topical preparations
Moving onto topical herbal medicine, we will make a few infused oils from freshly harvested plants. These can be used directly on the skin, or in the bath, and will be the basis for our next session on making ointments and creams.
5 Ointments and cream making
Using local beeswax and our infused oils we will make an ointment, the simplest solid skin preparation we can make. Then we will learn a much more complicated procedure of getting oil to mix with water to create light and nourishing creams.
Price £75 (concessions £50) and includes samples of products made, and info sheets on all the sessions