On the move again,

I’ll be back in Canada for the month of August slinging saps, serving up workshops and distilling some local essential oils.

Anyone who has been waiting to buy fresh Pine and Spruce sap or a preservative free Frankincense rejuvenative creme, now is the time..

Fresh Pine and Spruce saps are back in the shop!

Specifics for musculoskeletal and respiratory issues, these saps make excellent bases for muscle and joint rubs and chest rubs for congestion, coughs and colds. They are a secret ingredient in moustache waxes and a true Northern medicinal. I am taking pre-orders now and will be harvesting and shipping out of Ontario during the month of August.

Fresh Spruce and Pine saps, or oleoresins make incomparable “broad spectrum” and whole ingredients for both cough and chest, and muscle and joint salves, cremes and liniments. They bring all the therapeutic properties of the oleoresins in their natural proportions to our preparations.

We have come to equate essential oils with the healing properties of all plants, but in the case of oleoresins such as these, the whole oleoresin has much more to offer us than the distilled essential oils. For recipes and methods for using oleoresins in your creams, salves tinctures and ointments you can browse through some Recipes here.  For the more adventurous qualified health care providers, Naturopaths and Herbalists, once dissolved in olive or vegetable oil, they are easy to digest and assimilate. Much easier on the body than taking the essential oils internally, which I know some people are doing.

The Teaching Gardens

have been in excellent hands this season with my absence. A wonderful group of talented and industrious volunteers have taken the gardens up a notch this year. They have a great lineup of workshops for the community. If you are in Southern Ontario make sure to check out the FB page. They have been kind enough to slot me in for a few workshops in the Apothecary’s Garden while I’m in town.

Green Gnosis

10:00 AM, Sunday 16 of August we will meet in the Apothecary’s Garden and head to the woods for “Green Gnosis”, an introduction to Intuitive and Shamanic Herbalism.  We will look at how we connect, commune and communicate, personally, deeply and directly with nature and Her citizens to develop new, mutually beneficial relationships, and learn what only they can teach us.

Communicating wth plants, or plant spirits, is a time honoured tradition in many cultures and an innate ability we all share. While it deepens our connection to the land and planet, it can also provide us direct understanding and knowledge beyond books and second-hand information, nourish our spirit and take our craft to new levels.

While in the woods we will look at tools, talents, and traditions, dos and don’t dos, and likely share some interesting experiences of how nature found ways to communicate with us when we weren’t listening. We will also talk about local plants, medicine and food, building an authentic local herbal tradition through a dialogue with nature and how that might look.- $25.00-$5.00 on a sliding scale. (The term Green Gnosis is borrowed from friends Catamara Rosarium and Marcus McCoy and their brilliant brainchild, the “Viridis Genii Symposium-Plant Magic, Mysticism and Medicine, taking place at the end of July. Viridis Genii means intelligence or spirit of the green. If you are in the Oregon area don’t miss it!)

 Plant Alchemy & Astrodynamics

In the Afternoon session at 2:00 PM, we will focus more on the left brain. With an introduction to Plant Alchemy and what I like to call “Astrodynamics”, this workshop will look at the relationship between astrology and “medicinal” herbs, fundamentals of Medical astrology, planetary rulerships, the Doctrine of Signatures, traditional Plant Alchemy, Spagyrics, working with the Sun and Moon, and other herbal traditions. All in all we will look at methods to  take our herbal preparations to new levels of quality and efficacy. There will be a cauldron, or at least a pot, but definitely something timely brewing that will embody and focus the concepts I will present. For a link to the workshops-https://www.facebook.com/events/491151661041163/

 All this followed by a communal potluck @ 4:30!  The cost of the workshop is $25.00-$5.00, on a sliding scale. 

 Still crazy

Thursday 20th of August I will host a distillation workshop and demonstration. There are certain things we are not allowed to distill in Ontario, so I will not talk about them, but stills are quite versatile if you know what I mean. I will show you how to build your own still and how to produce the best quality essential oils, hydrosols and other distillates.  We will cover different still designs, materials, condensers and other equipment one can use, and address safety, environmental considerations, sources for parts, recipes, growing, buying or wildcrafting plants for distillation, fermentation and distillation, distillation and alchemy, Spagyrics, Astrology and more. This workshop will be in the Apothecary’s Garden at the Teaching Gardens @ 2:00 PM. Cost is $25.00-$5.00 on a sliding scale. 

Please visit theTeaching Garden’s Facebook page to join   .https://www.facebook.com/events/878203972226920/