植物学と本草学: 野生植物採集入門!

Welcome to Wildcrafting! My name is Heather, I am an herbalist and I will be your guide on this learning journey! 

In this class we will learn how to identify plants, when and how to harvest them ethically and safely, and how people have used plants for food, health, and wellness! Along the way, you’ll have the chance to learn how to make fun recipes and crafts! Nature is full of wonderful gifts.  Gifts of food and healing that are all around us.  Now let’s get outside and start learning!

📚 OUTLINE & COURSE BOOK
This course comes with a beautiful, full-color PDF course book! The course-book includes ALL the information covered in class as well as many more plant monographs and recipes for you to explore, a total of 207 pages of content!

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1:
🌿What are wild plants?
🌿What is wildcrafting?
🌿How to harvest wild plants sustainably
🌿Be safe!
🌿Botany: The steps to plant identification
🌿Using a dichotomous key
🌿 Week 1 Plant ID Challenge!

Week 2:
🌸Review the Week 1 Plant Identification Challenge
🌸Ways wild plants have been used for food and  wellness: Food, Teas & Decoctions, Tinctures & Glycerites, Infused Oils, Infused Vinegars, Syrups & Oxymels, Salves, Poultices
🌸Supplies for foraging and wildcrafting

Week 3:
🌱Plant Morphology: Parts of a Leaf
🌱Leaf Shapes, Margins, Arrangements & Compound leaves
🌱Plant Study: Chickweed 
🌱Recipes
🌱Week 3 Plant Challenge!

Week 4: 
🌼Plant Morphology: Parts of a Flower
🌼Pollination & Pollinators
🌼What is a composite flower?
🌼Plant study: Violet 
🌼Recipes 
🌼Week 4 Plant Challenge!

Week 5:
🥕Plant Morphology: Parts of a Root
🥕Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Roots
🥕Plant Study: Dandelion
🥕Recipes
🥕Week 5 Plant Challenge and wrap up!


OUTSIDE OF CLASS BONUS MATERIALS:

🌿Additional plant monographs and recipes (leaf, flower, and root allies) are provided in the course book to give students additional plants to search for in case they are unable to find the plant we cover in depth in that week's class and to allow them to continue learning through the seasons!
🌿The course book also includes printable Plant Morphology cut and paste exercises and word searches to help solidify concepts
🌿Certificate of Achievement - each Budding Herbalist will receive a printable certificate for completing the course

*Note: The plants covered in this course may change depending on seasonal availability!

**ATTENTION PARENTS!  The information in this class is for educational purposes only. The instructor of this course disclaims any liability in connection with the use of this information.  While all of the plants we are covering in this course are considered mild and safe for children, touching and ingesting wild plants is inherently risky. Plants can easily be mistaken and every individual will vary in their physiological response to a plant that is touched or consumed. Please do not attempt self-treatment of a medical problem without consulting a qualified health practitioner.

***SAFETY INFO: An important part of this class is learning how to safely identify wild plants. We will be working with common, safe, easy-to-identify species, such as common dandelion and chickweed. We will discuss toxic look-a-likes where relevant. We will focus on learning to identify with our own eyes and senses, which includes understanding plant morphology and how to use tools like field guides and dichotomous keys. We will also talk about some of the new plant identification apps, their use and their drawbacks.  Safety is a top priority and students are instructed to always have a parent's permission before touching/picking or wildcrafting with wild plants. There will be resources for websites and field guides on plant identification.