bioregional intensives

In 2024 we will offer three in-person Bioregional Intensives for students in our Fundamentals of Community Herbalism program. These intensives are a chance to learn in the field in the Terra Sylva homelands around Asheville, North Carolina. On these days-long adventures, we will visit multiple sites in the area, meeting the plants who live there and the people who love and tend them. Field activities include plant walks, ecology lessons, practicing botany and plant identification skills, harvesting and making medicine, eating wild foods, and learning from knowledgeable guest teachers, as well as time for shared meals, laughter, and stories around the campfire.

DATES AND ACTIVITIES

I. May 10th - 13th: Spring Splendor

Tentative activities: Spring ephemerals plant walk and ecology lesson. Hands-on field botany. Plant identification using a hand lens and botanical key. Wild foods day: harvest and feast. Spring tonics: making medicine and medicinal foods. And more..

II. June 27th - July 1st: High Summer Sun Medicine

Tentative activities: Plant walks, harvest, and medicine making at a local farm. Aromatic medicine and hydrosol distillation. Solstice flower botany. Materia medica deep-dives: tasting and beyond. High mountain botany and ecology at Black Balsam Knob. And more..

III. September 26th - 30th: Roots, Seeds, and Shrooms

Tentative activities: Botany below ground. Harvesting, cleaning, and processing roots for medicine. Propagation by root division. Saving seeds. Medicinal syrups and honeys. Medicinal mushroom cultivation and mushroom walk. Making medicine with mushrooms. And more..

* The listed activities and field trip sites are subject to change.