If you have been reading my blog for anytime at all or know me personally then you know that I am uber frugal. Creating a DIY high school herbalism course seemed very fitting since Princess wants to earn high school credits and I felt like this might be my last chance to learn with her intensely. I have been wanting to learn more about herbs, herbalism, herbal medicine, plant identification and just general natural health concepts for over 4 years. I decided this year it was time to dust off the books, print off the pdf’s bought or free ebooks and start studying.
I do not have a set structure or course outline in mind but I do want to learn the following things:
- herb and native plant identification
- properties of herbs
- external preparations: infused oils, salves, balms, ointments, creams, scrubs, and lip balms
- internal preparations: decoctions, shrubs, kombucha, tea, gummies, cough drops, fermentation
- foraging and wild crafting
- herb gardening
So far I have had lots of fun Googling free herbalism courses, free herb books, etc. I have an email I use for educational freebies so I have all of the “registrations” from these freebies sent to one place. I created a table in Google docs to track hours of YouTube Videos, courses as well as hands-on activities.
The first week went very well and came with a few surprises. We discovered that we had Elder growing at our house which meant picking and processing Elderberries which we turned into juice, dehydrating some for syrup (once we buy some raw honey) and saving seeds to plant and sell next Spring!
My youngest son has also found that some dandelions are in bloom again! Not quite as big as earlier in the year but blooming none the less.
We will be studying the herbs and plants that grow on our property first unless we know a plant is almost done growing for the year and we need to forage some for upcoming projects. The plants that we know we can forage and pick right from our yard are: Burdock, Chives, Dandelion, Wild Violet, Plantain, Evening Primrose, Catnip, Mint, Dill, Basil, Purslane and Sage. We planted the Dill, Basil and Sage along with Lavender, Stevia and Rosemary but the last three haven’t done so well.
I will be sharing all that we find and learn through the following posts:
DIY Herbalism Course Supply List
DIY Herbalism Course Freebies
DIY Herbalism Course YouTube Channels
DIY Herbalism Course Podcast List
DIY Herbalsim Course Recipes
What are your favorite native or medicinal plants? Would you like to join us in our DIY Herbalism Course? Please leave a comment with valid email and we will get back with you with more details.
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Tracy Criswell says
I just came across your post. My eighth grader daughter is interested in the same things that you listed above regarding herbalism. If you could share books, resources, websites, etc., with us, this would help us figure out a unit study for her.
Thank you so much.
Sincerely,
Tracy
terra says
would love more info on this! Thank you:)
Thaleia says
Tracy, I am working on getting the DIY Herbalism posts published. Please let me know if there’s anything specific you need or if you have come across any really cool resources.