An Immersion in Kinship

 

Processing herbs for medicine in the Plant and Place Immersion

What an incredible season we've had with the Plant and Place Immersion! We've explored botany, taxonomy, plant ID, medicine-making, materia medica and the human constitution. We've honed our sit spots and found new ones too. We've barefoot walked, contributed to a medicine wheel garden, and discovered goldenrod galls and broad-winged hawks. We've cultivated relationships with neglected gardens and the deer that visit them, appreciated monarchs and gigantic grasshoppers and eastern amber wings, and invited bunnies to snooze in our chamomile beds. We've discovered human connection too, and the spirit-medicine that comes from being part of community that shares a love for the natural world. Apparently, I've been so immersed I haven't posted here on the blog in months. 

We're now just one weekend away from our last in-person weekend session. I've got all the feels. But lucky for me, participants will gather once more in November for our Autumn Plant Walk. We've walked a plant-ti-full path together. I'd love to share with you some snapshots from our journey in the Plant and Place Immersion. 

Exploring the Milford Experimental Forest

Black Birch tea to close a forest bath

During our first weekend, we introduced ourselves and became better acquainted, with each other and the forest, through a forest bathing session. The 1,400- acre Milford Experimental Forest provided the perfect place to begin our path together. We discovered hideaways in big ol' trees, reveled in the soundscape of birdsong, creaking trees, and faraway cars, and sipped fragrant black birch tea. We shared our stories. 

Gathering organoleptic knowledge about the plants by using our senses 

Journaling our impressions

Participants took slow time with the plants, getting to know them through their senses. Sensory, or organoleptic, knowledge can provide insight into a plant's energetic qualities and how a plant may influence our bodies. Slow time also provides an opportunity to get to know the plants as individuals, to cultivate relationship. Participants journaled their impressions and monographed plants as we met them, creating their own materia medica. Herbal monographs are a way to document how to work with the plants as medicine. A materia medica is a catalogue of herbal monographs and a lifelong resource for health and well-being.

Learning botanical terms

Keying out plants for accurate plant identification

We dove into botany. Participants learned how to describe the morphology of a plant and what parts of plants make them most distinct. In the field, we put Newcomb's Wildflower Guide to use, learning how to use a botanical key. Keys provide insight into what makes each plant unique and ensures accurate identification. Confident ID is essential when harvesting plants for food and medicine.

Enjoying wild food together

Nettle compound butter topped adorned with violet

We enjoyed wild food! Together we prepared a stinging nettle compound butter, using nettle harvested from the garden. We slathered that green buttery goodness on hunks of baguette, while also sampling garlic mustard pesto, chickweed flowers and violet leaves, and Japanese knotweed pickles. 

Making herbal infused oil

Straining herbs

Prepping yarrow for tincture

Breaking up Yarrow to be made into tincture

We spent two weekends preparing a variety of medicines. Participants learned how to prepare teas, tinctures, infused oils and salves, and infused vinegars. The herbs that we used were wild harvested from the meadows at Wagon Wheel Preserve and from my home garden. These are essential preparations in the herbalist's apothecary. Those remedies that the students took home will surely serve them well throughout the year.

Scott, Lakota Pipe Carrier

 

Paulie and Erin of Blue Herons Farm and Native Nursery

Contributing to the Community Medicine Wheel Garden

Throughout these weekends, guest teachers joined us. My partner Scott, a Lakota Pipe Carrier, shared indigenous philosophy and led us in a pipe ceremony. Erin Shroll and Paulie Cardillo of Blue Herons Farm and Native Nursery welcomed us to contribute to the Medicine Wheel Community Garden. We dug our hands in the dirt, planting starts and arranged stones. One participant contributed an exquisite hand-painted stone. Paulie also led us in braiding freshly harvested sweetgrass.

Bryanna with her work of art for the garden

During our fourth weekend, we wandered out. Naturalist Emily Woodmansee of Bluestone Village guided us in the questioning, expanding our senses, and mapping birdsong. Barefoot Ken inspired us to kick off our shoes and explore pond, forest, and creek, proving that barefoot really is just more fun!

Naturalist Emily Woodmansee sharing methods for nature connection

Having fun sans shoes with Barefoot Ken

Throughout our time together we've met countless plants together and individually. In circle we've shared poignant plant interactions, silly stories, and mindful musings. Participants taught each other, through researching the plants that they met and through their insights from connection with the natural world. Every one of us has been teacher and student at once, including myself. I have been honored to be their guide and fortunate to be part of their plant path. Now we have finished our twice monthly Zoom sessions and have just one in-person weekend left!

In the field

We'll spend our last two days exploring trees and mushrooms. Participants will learn how to better see and name the trees and work with them for medicine. We'll discover how trees and fungi are intricately connected, methods for safely working with wild mushrooms as food and medicine. We'll connect with the land and each other and share resources for further learning. Mostly, I'll just revel in these soulful plant passionate people and dream about the ways in which their kinship with plants and place may continue to unfold.

If you'd like to immerse yourself in the green world, work with the plants as food and medicine, and remember that you, too, are wild and all the living beings your kin, drop me a line. It's not too early to sign-up for the Plant and Place Immersion 2026. Registration will officially open in late autumn/early winter, and I may fine tune some points between now and then, but the flow will remain the same. See the 2025 Immersion here: Immersion. The plants await . . .