The following themes are integrated seasonally as described within the published events:
Please see the Events Calendar for current dates, availability and pricing. If you wish to book a private or bespoke event please email us.
Strewing Herbs
This is an illuminating and practical workshop where you will discover the tradition of strewing aromatic herbs to cleanse, purify and scent the home. From medieval times, herbs such as sage, tansy, violets, roses, mints, marjoram, hops lavender, juniper, rosemary, chamomile, “daisies of all sorts’’, cotton lavender, sweet woodruff and many more were mixed with rushes and ‘strewn’ to cover stone and earthen flooring. During this session you will explore how to apply some of these strewing herbs in a contemporary manner to provide natural uplifting botanical fragrance throughout the home.
Spring forage
This rejuvenating workshop explores the fresh spring herbs like nettle, Wild garlic, chickweed and hawthorn. They all have both fortifying properties and culinary uses. The restorative effects of specific herbs encourage our systems to release toxins that have built up over the sluggish winter months and their actions enable us to redress any imbalance in the body and restore homeostasis. Begin your spring cleanse with a boost of herbal tonics and brew recipes using essential knowledge of identifying and foraging herbs. Learn how to replenish vital minerals and vitamins using these plants, helping your body to move from the darkness of winter to the light and warmth of spring. Most of the chosen herbs have a history of use to invigorate the body for the endeavours and activities that we all enjoy with the arrival of the new season.
Infusion Blending
During this workshop we will explore various methods of blending and tasting ‘teas’ or infusions – both hot and cold. This workshop enables you to feel confident to cultivate, gather, store and prepare herbs for use in the home as tasty and colourful personal brews. You will learn how to prepare your own creations to enjoy for yourself and/or package as individual gifts to friends & family. We will also look at the properties of the herbs and at some herbal combinations to aid digestion and to enhance sleep. There will be discussion and experimentation with herb actions, flavours and aromas whilst mixing and measuring with seeds, leaves, berries and roots.
Cream & Ointment Making
These creams, balms and ointment making workshops are intensely practical ‘making’ sessions. Aimed at introducing many methods of preparing your own fresh creams and remedies using herbs such as chickweed, calendula, yarrow, plantain, marshmallow root, rose, lavender and even sea buckthorn to suit a vast array of applications. We will explore the preparation of herbal infusions and oils to use as cream making bases and you will be able to compile your own unique hand made recipes to take away and use at home. This workshop is aimed at beginners and aims to start you off on your own personal adventure armed with basic knowledge of the differing ways our skin is able to absorb these herbal preparations.
Herbroot Tinctures
A tincture is a concentrated liquid extract of an herb. ‘ Like good wine it is a living compound and takes time to mature’. This preparation enables us to preserve and store an herb for use in home remedies primarily as a medicinal compound for home use. It is a practical workshop and you will become confident to collect and use herb roots like dandelion, burdock, chicory and nettle. Using combinations of dried or freshly dug roots you will discover how to prepare and tincture root herbs for your own use in creams, tonics, infusions and syrups. The roots can be tinctured in various liquid solutions and we will discuss the use of alcohol, water and vinegar to produce unique blends to experiment with at home.
Protein Bars Using Nutraceutical Herbs
Discover ways of creating your own edible, nutritional, herbal powerhouse. This workshop enables you to experiment with combining herbs and nutrients in a natural protein bar or ball which is full of goodness. Gathering fresh herbs and combining with dried fruits, grains, nuts and seeds, you will learn about the many possible combinations of herb and plant nutraceuticals. Explore and perfect a recipe, then make unique protein bars to take home and enjoy.
Lipbalms
Using ethically sourced beeswax and natural herbs you will discover how to extract the active constituents of herbs to combine and create your own balm. Sustainable beeswax and plant oils have their own inherent goodness which makes them first choice ingredients for lip balms. These balms also become an essential ‘on the go’ natural remedy imparting both moisturising and protective skin properties. Using a selection of healing herbs such as calendula, plantain and yarrow, we will explore the methods of preparation to create your own balms to take home and enjoy.
Symbolism & Plantlore
Have you ever wondered about the Anglo Saxon 9 charm herbs or why Ivy was hung outside pubs to suggest a good vintner? Why children were passed through blackberry hoops to cure whooping cough and is there any scientific evidence to support rosemary’s reputation for remembrance. Or simply about the origins of kissing under the mistletoe and why are there so many Yew trees in graveyards. This practical workshop day is a starting point for untangling and making sense of some ancient traditions, so called ‘old wives’ tales’, herbal folklore and includes an exploration into the ‘doctrine of signatures’. Focusing on a select choice of familiar native herbs you will discover their attributes both practically and historically within folk tradition. Weave your own spell or chant to create a good luck remedy or personal amulet as a keepsake.
Chocolate Remedy
Chocolate is a happy herb. We all know that it’s an official mood enhancer, full of nutritional goodness which increases serotonin levels in the brain. This workshop explores ways of using chocolate as a healthy vehicle to enable us to enjoy consuming delicious edible combinations. Using dark chocolate we’ll be blending ingredients that can be foraged or grown such as berries, seeds and herbs like rosemary and lavender. The experimentation with chocolate is also aimed at setting you on a journey of exploring the potential of Cacao as a culinary base for making home use recipes for combining chocolate with tinctures and syrups.
Hydrosols & Floral Waters
This is a workshop for fragrance lovers and kitchen chemists. The preparation of floral waters is a magical and ancient process. The distillate is incomparable with the conventional ‘off the shelf’ rose or orange waters both in terms of depth of perfume and therapeutic energy. This practical indoor workshop makes use of kitchen equipment to create herbal distillates. Hydrosols have many useful applications such as externally as a skin tonic spray, for helping restore pH balance, and moisturise and tone the skin. Or as room sprays for refreshing, relaxing or cleansing. Internally for culinary use the hydrosols may be added in a multitude of ways. By the end of the workshop, you will be confident to continue experimenting at home.
Percolation & Alchemy
The percolation method presents us with another way of extracting the therapeutic energies from herbal plant matter. The process is fascinating, precise and quicker than the folk maceration method and this workshop enables discussion of the features of extraction in general and relevance to specific household herbs which we use most frequently. For this workshop, we will be looking at the practical process of percolation and how it is helpful for encouraging the synergy of herbal formulation. This session enables you to take away the basis for your own home percolation folk remedy.
