Wild Medicine Program
A Guided Jouney Into Practical Plant Medicine & Foraging
"Plants are also integral to reweaving the connection between land and people. A place becomes a home when it sustains you, when it feeds you in body as well as spirit. To recreate a home, the plants must also return."
~ Robin Wall Kimmerer
Course Details
Wild Medicine is an in-person, community-based learning journey to connect with the natural world and learn about how to incorporate medicinal herbs, wild plants and mushrooms into our daily lives.
Laura's approach to learning and teaching about the natural world is kin-centered and based on building relationship with the natural world over viewing them as "resources". Her hope is to create a learning environment that encourages participants to feel welcome sharing from their own personal and cultural backgrounds and feel safe being who they are, regardless of background and identity.
- Hands-on plant and mushroom identification skills and resources
- Habitat identification and ecology
- Sustainable and safe foraging and building reciprocal relationships
- Making and using safe and effective herbal medicines
- Building the basics of a home herbal apothecary
- Permaculture principals in practice and homestead living inspiration
- Nature connection practices
Students will learn to make infused vinegars, tinctures, oils, salves, and turn these into a variety of first aid and healthful herbal tonics.
We will also prepare and eat a number of wild foods in class and students will be given to the opportunity to harvest from the land and gardens to expand their learning at home.
The programs is a mix of hands-on learning through herbal crafting, time on the land with plant walks and herbal medicine foundations talks.
Wild Medicine is a program that takes place outdoors and in nature. Classes take place at our wilderness homestead just outside of Dwight with one session taking place at the Wild Muskoka Wild Foods Lab in Dwight.
Our time is spent in our outdoor classroom, homestead gardens and in the forest and wetlands. Though we are outdoors we have basic amenities to keep people protected from the elements and comfortable.
Registration Now Open
2026 Sessions
This year's Wild Medicine Program will take place as a six session course from May through October. During the program we will build skills and knowledge to work with plants in a meaningful and practical way in our daily lives. We will follow the the gardens and forest and their inhabitants through the seasons on a beautiful property on the edge of Algonquin Park. The course involves hands-on skills development while making several herbal preparations through out the program.
There will be two cohorts running in 2026: one group with class days on Thursdays and one group on Saturdays. Class hours are 10:00am–4:30pm. The class will be limited to 12 students.
This program takes place mostly outdoors in all weather and conditions (severe weather like tornado warnings excepted). Bugs are a part of nature in the Muskoka summers. Please come to class dressed appropriately for the weather, with long sleeves and pants for bugs, and proper footwear for hiking off-trail through rugged woods. This program is not suitable for those with mobility issues.
Thursday Session Dates
May 7, June 11, July 9, August 6, September 10, October 1
Saturday Session Dates
May 9, June 13, July 11, August 8, September 12, October 3
Program Location
Wild Spirit Homestead (home of Laura & Chris) between Dwight & Dorset, Ontario and Wild Muskoka Production Kitchen in Dwight, Ontario.
Program Cost
$850+HST; includes all class materials & handouts.
Payment plans available
Learn while earning your tuition
Work Trade Program
We are looking for a few amazing folks who want to earn their full or part tuition to the Wild Medicine Program through 25 or 50 hours of work exchange. This work will be related to sustainable living on our permaculture homestead, foraging and/or helping with making products for our growing wild foods business. These will be amazing learning opportunities in themselves.
There are a few partial scholarships available for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Person of Colour) and low-waged Muskoka residents. Email Laura at wildmuskoka@gmail.com with a self introduction to apply.
Student Feedback
"I am sad to see our six-month journey come to an end, but so thankful for everything that Laura has shared over the last three seasons. Laura, thank you for showing me new ways to connect with the natural world and for sharing your knowledge about how to promote health and wellness through incorporating wild plants and traditional herbal medicines back into our modern lives.I am grateful for the "seeds" that you have planted in me to cultivate a deeper relationship with plants and their healing properties. Connecting with nature has taken on a new meaning for me and I truly feel that this is just the beginning of a beautiful journey."
~ Monica Gagne, 2018 Wild Medicine Program Student
Ethics, Values & Code of Conduct
We strive to create a safe and welcoming space for people of all experience levels, genders, nationalities and spiritual/religious backgrounds. To us, interacting with and tending the wild is a sacred relationship with the land. We also believe strongly in Indigenous sovereignty and rights here on Turtle Island.
To maintain this safe and welcoming environment we keep politics out of programs. We recognize politics are important and part of the world, but these classes are about connection with the land, ourselves, each other and skill development.
We ask that all participants be open-minded and non-judgemental towards other participants and agree to the following values:
- Respect for ALL other participants regardless of their religion, gender, nationality or political orientation.
- Being good stewards and caretakers of the earth and forest and holding reverence for the other species and kin we share this planet with.
If you have any questions about these values, please email me before registering to discuss them.
If you disagree or have issues with these values, this class is probably NOT the right class for you.