offers an opportunity to get closer to nature while learning the wonders of natural healing. The program spans five months from Spring through Summer as we follow the bloom of wildflowers and native plants from the base of the Sierra foothills up into the mountains. Each weekend, we spend one day in the outside classroom at Oak Valley Herb Farm and the other day on a field trip exploring different eco-systems. Our plant field trips take us to two locations on the Bear River, and to the Yuba River, so there is always an opportunity to swim. The three-day camping trip in July is easy car camping next to a high Sierra lake. There will be canoes and kayaks for everyone’s use throughout the weekend. Some folks even like to paddle to the herb walk locations instead of walking. During the weekend, we will go on three very different herb walks, tell plant stories around the campfire, study the use of hydrotherapy with herbs, and build and enjoy a sweat lodge.

During the Apprenticeship Program you’ll make a complete first-aid kit from scratch. You will learn to use a botany key, but also how to ID plants by relying a few tricks that makes the process easier. Then, you will learn to choose the herbs that are most appropriate for a particular use. You will study how to create different and unique formulas that are based on each situation. Kathi will show you a variety of ways to approach both formulating and medicine making, and you decide which ones appeal to you. During the course, you will have an opportunity to use the products you make and report on your experience treating others with herbs.

The Apprenticeship Program presents an array of different types of botanical experiences. That way, you can focus on your favorites. There will be botany as it specifically relates to medicinal herbs. We will discuss the importance of herbariums and you will be shown how to prepare your own. Simple physiology comes into the course to explain how the medicines work on the body. You will have an opportunity to learn the principles of flower essence therapy and to make your own. The course also addresses plant energetics to look at how shamans and traditional medicine people around the world have approached healing. Kathi’s love for history and folklore will help emphasize many properties of the herbs you encounter in a fun way that will help you remember important facts. This will include the ethnobotany of the Native Americans, as well as the various settlers who introduced some of the wild plants we will see. And, you will meet a group of very interesting people.