Wild Medicine Program
Registration Now Open!
"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.
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.
2025 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 2025: 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.
Thursday Session Dates
May 1, June 5, July 10, August 7, September 11, October 2
Saturday Session Dates
May 3, June 7, July 12, August 9, September 13, October 4
Program Location
Wild Spirit Homestead (home of Laura & Chris) between Dwight & Dorset, Ontario and Wild Muskoka Production Kitchen in Dwight, Ontario.
Program Cost
$775+HST; includes all class materials & handouts.