Living With Herbs 2025 Course Starts January 26th 2025 - Registration is open! Join us for a year of herbal immersion and plant medicine!

We have been running this Living with Herbs Course for over 20 years now! And each iteration has developed the coursework more and more! This is a chronological learning experience where I share what I do with my herbs throughout the entire season - Propagating, seed-starting, growing, harvesting, storing, cooking, making healing teas, tinctures, salves, and much more!

This herbal course and experience at Midsummer Farm is distinct in that each class day is special and timely - with direct contact with the plants and their energies. There are no classrooms here - only workshop areas, tables-in-garden environments, and lots and lots of herbally energized plants!

This is an all-inclusive sensory experience as well as a journey of the interplay of old/ancestral and current/science knowledge ...

The plants play a major role in the course and act as allies, medicines, supporters, therapies, and more...

 

By participating in this year long course, working with the herbs as an herbalist would, throughout the seasons, doing what needs to be done to grow, to harvest, and to process the herbs - it is a new experience in herbs, bringing book and classroom knowledge to brilliant light! I love teaching this course - its informal and personalized style - and just being able to share how herbs can be integrated- so inspirationally - and so effectually - into everyday life!

Our Living with Herbs Year-Long Immersive Experience - An Herbal Year at Midsummer Farm~

The focus of this course is Living with Herbs - familiarizing yourself with using them and growing them and integrating them into your daily life. Classes will be intensive - Covering a wide range of herbs and usages.

This is a great course for someone who wants to make the most of a current herb garden, for someone who wants to take his/her herb garden to the next level, or for someone who is starting from scratch and wants to build the ultimate herb garden.

There is a growing demand and need for organically-grown herbs - and Herb Farm is a smart business idea. This course can help give you an idea of what types of herbs are in demand in what markets as well as how difficult or easy various herbs are to grow. We'll be discussing the environmental and cultural needs of literally hundreds of herbs.

I know many people who have an instinctual drive to collect herb plants for an herb garden, but then just don't make the most out of the herbs' presence in their lives - this course addresses that - providing lots of inspiration, information and experience. This course is also great for someone who doesn't have a herb garden, but who wants to use herbs regularly.

One of my goals for this course is for each participant to gain a solid foundation in herbalism and the energetics of plants. You'll experience my herbal year as well as get introductions to other local herbalists' styles, other plant related modalities, and you'll get a selection of awesome books and my handouts that will provide a strong start to an herbal reference library. And this course can act as a pre-requisite for our Herbal Guild Membership!

Fee Includes some of my favorite Herbalism Books as well as lots of supplies, herbs, and herbal products!

Classes will take place at Midsummer Farm in Warwick NY (156 East Ridge Road, Warwick, NY 10990) and will move about the farm during the course of each session from the greenhouse to the workshop to the garden beds.

My vision for this course is to provide big-picture inspiration and experience in plants, various botanial medicines, and styles of herbaliam. We will also be joined by some fabulous and inspirational Guest Teachers in our Living with Herbs Course! We are so excited to be expanding and enlightening the experience! 

The books will be a solid jumping off point for creating an effective and trustworthy Herbal Reference Library of your own.

Course Size

Is limited so as to provide as much hands-on experience as possible. You will be able to directly apply what we cover in the sessions in your own garden and apothecary as we will be working directly in sync with the growing season.

Upon completion, I would like to see each participant create a herb journal with notes, drawings, and schedules for harvesting, planting, favorite pairings - basically a personalized 'material media' that applies to your own interests, health, and family.

If you don't have space for an herb garden: As long as you love using herbs in your daily life, you will still get a lot from the course. It is certainly beneficial to know an herb - actually meet it -  in its growing environment as you use it. Course covers not only growing and harvesting, but using herbs everyday in the household to nourish, heal, and inspire.

Areas to Be Covered:

Growing Herbs

  • Seed starting and propagation
  • Designing the garden areas and your backyard's herbal culture
  • Companion planting / and combining herb and vegetable gardening / Herb neighborhoods
  • Growing with essential oil content and medicinal quality in mind
  • Biodynamic principles
  • Permaculture and farmscaping
  • The colonial dooryard garden and exploring other traditional and creative herb garden structures
  • Pairing herbs, harvest-time, planting style, use, etc.
  • En masse plantings for using herbs in bulk or selling herbs
  • Annual, Biennial, and Perennial methods
  • Forest and Shade plantings
  • Natives
  • Container Gardening
  • Greenhouse or conservatory herbs
  • Deepening our connections with plants
  • Pollinators, beneficial insects, native insect habitats
  • Techniques for weeding, planting, spacing, watering, soil development and maintenance, composting, animal partnerships, protecting the garden
  • Selling herbs and micro-farming herb businesses

Once you've taken this course, you be more than able to design, plant and harvest from a wonderful personalized herb garden.

Using Herbs

  • In different formats in cooking
  • Dried, powdered, simple syrups, fresh as flavor base as well as a bright addition to end of recipes
  • Making herb centered dishes - pestos, green sauces, etc
  • Baking, desserts, herbal sorbets
  • Salads, salad dressings, vinegars
  • Succi (Herb Juices) 
  • Beverages
  • Harvesting and preparing with cooking in mind
  • Storing 
  • The health benefits of eating superfoods

Cooking with herbs and preparing seasonal food in your herb garden is particularly poignant and fulfilling.

Medicinal Uses:

  • Types of medicinal herbs - categories and families
  • Study of 100's of herbs from Agrimony to Yarrow
  • Harvesting time varies for each herb and varies for what you need to use it for
  • Drying / tincturing
  • Salves and Lip balms
  • Ointments
  • Teas- nourishing and healing
  • Simple syrups
  • Pets and farm animals
  • Sanctuary tonic allies

This will be organized by season for harvesting specific herbs.

This course took over 5 years to structure and plan, and I  am so excited that the course has taken off and is so popular!

It feels so great being able to spend time focusing on herbs and working with a group of people who also love herbs! Let me know if you're interested in participating!

Dates for our 2025 Living with Herbs Course:

Sundays, 10 am - 3pm

Day 1 - JANUARY 26TH 2025
Day 2 - FEBRUARY 23RD 2025
Day 3 - MARCH 16TH 2025
Day 4 - APRIL 6TH 2025
Day 5 - JUNE 8TH 2025
Day 6 - JULY 6TH 2025
Day 7 - AUGUST 17TH 2025
Day 8 - SEPTEMBER 7TH 2025
Day 9 - OCTOBER 12TH 2025
Day 10 - NOVEMBER 2ND 2025
Day 11 - NOVEMBER 23RD 2025
Day 12 - DECEMBER 7TH 2025

An Herbal Community

Not only do you gain a solid understanding and plan for using herbs in supporting the health and well-being of your household, but you also become a part of our Midsummer Farm Herbal Community.

Herbal Students are invited to various gatherings and events... And they get to shop our plant sales early! Over the years, we are becoming an ever-evolving and developing supportive and fun group of local and passionate herbalists.

Registration in Advance Is Required for this Im mersive Experience in Herbs and Plant Medicine!

Please register by clicking here!

Cost is $995.00

Includes 12 full-day intensive classes, books, herbs, lots of supplies, and lots of great herbal products that we will be making during the class days!