Classes and Apprenticeships
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​Apprenticeships
A new apprenticeship spanning 8 months is being offered beginning in April 2018. See below for details and contact Margi for more information and to register.
 
Classes
Taught in the kitchen, in the garden and fields, or at the Hawthorn Center in Bristol, VT, classes cover a range of topics. Margi is open to teaching on subjects of specific interest to small groups of 5 or more people. Contact her to make arrangements.
 
Wwoofing
We are a host farm in the Wwoofing-USA network (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms) https://wwoofusa.org.  Become a member of Wwoofing USA to access this program to exchange your labor in return for gardening and medicine preparation, room and board. 

Upcoming classes:
Spring Mountain Herbs 2018 Apprenticeship
From Garden to Remedy: A Comprehensive Foundational Course on How to Integrate Herbs into a Healthy, Wholesome Lifestyle

Spanning 8 months, from April to November, classes will meet two days/month plus an additional half-day community project for a total of 100 hours. If possible, we will try to accommodate participants' schedules. Classes are tentatively scheduled on Saturdays, See schedule below.
$950 for 100 hours.
Work-study may be available according to need.
 
Goal: Students will be able to grow their own herbs, make their own remedies, and learn how to address common health concerns. They will be prepared to enter an advanced herbal curriculum.
 
I. Yin Session (One Saturday each month)
9am-5pm (7 instructional hours each day, 56 hours total)
Format: lecture, discussion, student presentations, outdoor activities, and experiential awareness processes designed to deepen connection to the medicinal plants, to self and to others.
     A. Traditional and Scientific Knowledge
     Students will be introduced to both the traditional and scientific understanding of herbs, including basic botany, anatomy and physiology,          matching herbal energetics to individual constitutions, herbal safety, and selected materia medica. Each month will usually highlight a different system of the body, common imbalances within that system, and gentle but effective herbal remedies. Topics will include:
            April      Foundations of Herbalism; Nutritive Tonics
            May      Digestion and Elimination; Blood Sugar
            June    Stress and Energy;  Relaxation, Mood and Sleep
            July      Detoxification; Skin and Connective Tissue
            Aug      The Immune and Respiratory Systems  
            Sept.    The Cardiovascular System;  Memory and Cognition 
            Oct.      The Reproductive System; Longevity and Aging Gracefully
            Nov.      Managing Pain; The Thyroid. 
     B. Plant Spirit Medicine
     The instructor will guide students in awareness practices that are grounded in direct experience, to increase their intuitive understanding of the plants and to develop their own innate wisdom. 
 
II. Yang Session; The Practicum (Another Saturday each month)
10am – 4pm (5 hours each day; total 44 hours)
     A. The Apothecary Garden: The garden at Spring Mountain Herbs contains over 50 herbs from the Ayurvedic, Chinese, Native American and Western herbal traditions. Topics will include: planning an herb garden, propagating herbs, creating and maintaining garden beds, organic and biodynamic practices in the garden, harvesting, wild-crafting, drying, and processing herbs.
     B.  Medicine Making: Herbs as food, infusions and super-infusions, decoctions and soups, tinctures (both folk and more precise ethanol solutions), double extracts, cordials; vinegars, glycerites, capsules, oils, salves and honeys. Participants will take home many remedies.
     C. Community Project
Date and project to be announced. For example, we may plant native elderberry bushes in Starksboro so that wild herbs are increasingly available to the public.

 Schedule (There may be some flexibility with dates. The dates listed are Saturdays.)
            April 28     Foundations; Nutritive Tonics
            May 12     Digestion and Elimination; Blood Sugar    May 27 Herbal Practicum
            June 2      Herbal Practicum;   June 24 Stress and Energy; Relaxation, Mood and Sleep
            July 14     Herbal Practicum;   July 21 Detoxification; Skin and Connective Tissue
            Aug.18     Herbal Practicum;     August 28 The Immune and Respiratory Systems
            Sept. 8     Herbal Practicum;     Sept 15   The Cardiovascular System; Memory and Cognition;                              Sept. 29 Herbal Practicum       
            Oct. 6       Herbal Practicum;     Oct 20 Reproductive Vitality; Longevity and Aging Gracefully
            Nov. 3      Herbal Practicum;     Nov. 10 Managing Pain; The Thyroid. 
Community service day to be announced.

Recommended Books
Richo Cech, Making Plant Medicine, Horizon Herbs, 2000
Maria Noel Groves, Body into Balance: An Herbal Guide to Holistic Self-Care, Storey Publishing, 2016
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Milkweed Editions, 2013
Deb Soule, How to Move Like a Gardener: Planting and Preparing Medicines from Plants, Willow Press, 2013
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Location: Spring Mountain Herbs, 4428 Ireland Rd., Starksboro, VT 05487
Pre-registration is required. Contact Margi: margigregory@gmail.com; 413 320-1920.