October 18 – 20, 2024
with Darcy Williamson
$435
limited to 10 participants
FULL–email [email protected] to be placed on the waitlist.
For nearly 30 years From the Forest’s motto has been “It’s Not What You Seek That Counts, It’s What You Find.” The botanical diversity of forests, meadows and sagebrush steppes never fails to offer surprises. One may be seeking Usnea and return with a bag filled with Lion’s Mane mushroom instead. A harvester may be hunting Pipsissewa but come upon a water-soaked log shimmering with Wood Ear mushrooms.
Let us not enter the wild places this autumn with expectations. Let us discover, instead. On Saturday I will lead our small group on a day’s excursion to explore and ponder whatever is found. I will answer questions, tell my stories, and we, as a group, will decide if we want to harvest what had been found, or continue along our way. By day’s end we will return to Mavens’ Haven with the trove of found treasures we had decided to keep.
Sunday, let the fun begin! From what we have harvested, we will make tinctures, salves, shrubs, teas and/or pickled delicacies…I will have supplies on hand to cover any or all!
Itinerary
Arrive on Friday any time after 2:00 P.M. Mountain Standard Time. Settle into your accommodation and enjoy the ambiance of the garden and grounds. If the weather permits, a mixed grill with salads and sides will be served in the Garden Pergola at 5:30 P.M. Otherwise, the meal will be served in Mavens’ Haven’s kitchen.
Saturday morning coffee and tea will be available by 8:00 A.M. in the main kitchen, followed by breakfast at 9:00. A sandwich bar will be set up by 9:30 for participants to pack their sack lunch. We will leave for our adventure at 10:00 P.M. and return around 5:00 A.M. Dinner will be served around 6:00 P.M. The sauna will be hot and ready by 7:00 P.M.
Sunday morning coffee and tea will be available by 8:00 A.M. in the main kitchen, followed by breakfast at 9:00. We will begin cleaning and sorting our harvest and have a group discussion on how we want to process each. We will take a break for lunch, which will be a self-serve set up on kitchen island. The rest of the afternoon will be spent finishing our projects. There will be plenty of treasures to take home with you. We will end our day and say our good-byes at 4:30 P.M.
Attendees have the option to spend Sunday night at the reduced rate of $50 per accommodation. You will receive a follow-up email containing PDF files of the plants discovered and discussed during our Saturday exploration.
Autumn It’s Not What You Seek Registration
Name:
Phone:
Accommodation first choice:
Second choice:
Dietary requests and restrictions:
Questions and general requests:
Mail a $100 non-refundable deposit to Darcy Williamson, POB 4190 McCall, ID 83638 or use Paypal with [email protected]. The remaining fee is due a week prior to the event. This will be nonrefundable or may be transferred to another person for this event only.
Darcy Williamson has taught classes on regional medicinal plants for over fifty years. She is the owner of From the Forest Idaho, has authored over thirty books, and taught 130 apprentices throughout her career. Presentations have included a three-day, hands-on seminar for BSU Osher Lifelong Learning on Boise’s native and invasive medicinal plant species; Sawtooth Botanical Gardens Wind River Medicinal Plants field trip and workshop; presenter at Alberta Herb Gathering at Pigeon Lake, Edmonton, Canada as well as at the Kootenay Herb Conference in Creston, B.C.; and taught regional medicinal plants at Little Priest Tribal College of the Winnebago Tribe in Nebraska.
She has also presented at Sun City Senior Wellness Program, Hilton Head, South Carolina; Urban Wellness utilizing Regional Plants at St. Charles Education and Therapeutic Center, Long Island, New York; Women’s Wellness Conference and St. Lukes Hospital Employee Wellness Program, St. Louis, Missouri; Hanford Nuclear Site, Washington, Employee Wellness Program “Herbal Support for Thyroid and other Organs Affected by Radiation Contamination”; Idaho Association of Naturopathic Convention, including “The Importance of Constituents and Their Proper Applications in Herbal Formulations” in Pocatello, Idaho; presentation to the faculty at Smith College, Northampton, MA. “Medicinal Plants of Northampton;” speaker at Shoshoni/Bannock Medicine Gathering at Lava Hot Springs.
During her career as an herbalist Darcy organized and conducted a 10-day Botanical Bicycling Tour of South Connemara, Ireland, as well as conducted two 5-day medicinal plant trips to the Peruvian Amazon, “The Rocky Mountains Meets the Amazon Jungle,” staying with students at the remote Yakumama Lodge.
During her career Darcy has been featured in numerous magazines, appeared in several television interviews, and spoken on numerous radio programs.
