Bioregional Teas: Blending Tastes from the Garden and the Wild
May 15 2011 20:11
US/Alaska
Offered: May 15, 2011, 10am - 4pm
Location: Commonweal Garden
Instructor: Kyra Epstein
Do you enjoy a steaming cup of herbal tea—and the connection it gives you to the healing and fragrant plant world? Learn to identify local plants and herbs that make nutritious and delicious tea, connect deeply with the plants that your body needs, and to learn techniques for combining plants in tea for the best effect.
The class will include a foraging hike in and around Commonweal Garden. Using Stephen Buhner’s method in the direct perception of nature—and Kyra's own experience assembling plant communities for Gaia Tea blends—participants will learn to find out what they need to know about plants by looking within themselves. We’ll spend time learning how to listen deeply and allow the healing of plants to sink into our bodies and spirits. On our hike, we will find and collect plants to make a Community Medicine Tea, and gather our own custom blend to take take home as well.
You’ll take home a new way of working with plants, new knowledge of plants that grow here in Marin County, new plant friends and allies that you can continue to work with moving forward, as well as a custom tea blend that you can enjoy at home. You will never look at plants the same way again!
Wear closed and sturdy shoes for foraging and hiking the ridge, and bring warm layers, water, notebook, pen, clippers, and a bio-degradable offering (cornmeal, tobacco, etc). And be prepared to be spoiled - after you experience a foraged custom tea blend, you may never fully enjoy a "tea-bag" cup of tea again!
Course Fees
Class size is limited - register early!
Class fee: $95 per person (includes all materials)
$85 per person if you bring a friend (and register together)
Instructor: Kyra Epstein
For 20 years, Kyra Epstein has focused on sustainable living as a writer, journalist, and teacher. She is owner of Gaia Tea, offering artisan herbal teas featuring native and common plants in the bio-region, sold in stores around the Bay Area including Whole Foods (Novato), the Cowgirl Creamery (Point Reyes Station), and Gathering Thyme (San Anselmo).
Kyra loves helping others find the deep roots, healing, community, and magic that she has found in her sacred journey with plants. In 2008, Kyra completed a 9-month apprenticeship with herbalist, author and plant healer Stephen Harrod Buhner in the mountains of southwest New Mexico. She brings Stephen’s sacred plant medicine protocol to her work, her life, and this class to enrich the experience.
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