Hi Plant People,
I hope everyone is well and enjoyed the wintry mix that descended on town. I personally love that the slightest bit of snow shuts the city down. I love hunkering down with a good book, a lap kitty or two and extra blankets. Doing art projects with the kiddos. Resting and eating the stash of garden potatoes in the garage. And I love that winter is the time for dreaming and scheming. Thinking about emerging spring blooms in the mountain, digging in the garden and fun projects to take on come spring.
One of those dreams is coming to life at the Medicine Garden. While I will still offer plant starts come April, a collaboration with the wonderful Sue Ellen Lewanick to create an Herbal CSA, or as we are calling it CSH – Community Supported Herbalism, is moving forward. We know that using fresh plants almost always makes better medicine and we want to provide that to our community. Similar to a vegetable CSA, each month you will gather your share, which includes 4 fresh plants, one medicinal preparation all ready to go, a 2-hour class to get the creative juices flowing and our inspiring newsletter. Plants will be organically grown at the pick-up site and at Sue Ellen’s farm in Oregon City. A few medicinal natives will be sustainably wildcrafted to round out our medicinary. Email gardeningformedicine@yahoo.com if you’d like to learn more.
My other work is with the fabulous Missy Rohs at the Arctos School of Herbal and Botanical Studies. We have a new website this year that is mostly complete, and Missy has put together a longer Herbal Immersion course this year for folks who really want to sink into the work. This class is a total of 240 hours and will have guest teachers, basic first aid, a camping trip, gardening and so much more! Other classes include a camping trip to the Siskiyous, Botanizing in the Gorge, gardening classes and more. Classes are filling so let us know if you’d like to sign up!
Sincerely,
Gradey Proctor
Medicine Garden
For Gradey's essential reading list, click here.