School Sprouts from Wanderings Among Wild Plants
Heather Houskeeper launches the School of Plant and Place Connection in Milford
Heather Houskeeper has hiked thousands of miles, many of them alone. She engaged with wherever she was by studying the plants she encountered, having been schooled in herbal medicine . Once she knew a plant’s identity—and only then, she emphasizes— she might eat it or use it to heal an ailment. She camped peacefully near bears, her food slung in a tree. But she and her blues musician mate Scott Weis once found themselves standing on a picnic table playing a cacaphonous concert with pots and pans, as a panther circled their dinner during their 1100 mile Florida Trail venture.
However, recently, Houskeeper decided that there’s no place like home, in Milford, for honing a relationship with plants and teaching about them, which she has been doing in her books, plant workshops and seminars near and far. So this month she launches the School of Plant and Place Connection with a three-day course, the Plant and Place Connection Series on May 20, July 8 and August 19. The course will make use of her land off Schocopee Rd. and Milford Experimental Forest, with permission from Nancy and Peter Pinchot, descendant of Gifford Pinchot, Pennsylvania governor and conservation pioneer.
During time apart, experiential homework assignments will guide independent learning.
“Participants will cultivate connection through forest bathing and botanical journaling, learn basic botany and plant identification, and learn in-depth how to craft select plants into food and herbal remedies,” Houskeeper said
What prompted Houskeeper to begin this now? She noticed ailments among people she met in her travels that she felt could be healed with herbal knowledge and nature, and she encountered curiosity.
“People want to know what our ancestors knew, how to work with plants for food and medicine to improve their health, and how to connect with nature to reduce stress and feel a sense of belonging in the place they live,” she said.
In the future she envisions a five-month “immersion” course that includes, among other elements, botany, cultivation of plants for herbal medicine and medicinal mushrooms.
Link to this spring's series: Classes (schoolofplantandplaceconnection.com)
Herbal Medicine School - School of Plant and Place Connection