What makes a good workshop?

Everyone will have their own ideas what contributes to an enjoyable workshop run for adults. I’ve been holding them now since 1998 and many things have changed since the first few years. Mine are held in two very different locations, my kitchen in the Midlands and my Sanctuary in the Cotswolds. 

During the coldest months we spend time using the hob and the contents of my herbal larder to create syrups, cordials, oils and salves whilst considering what we might need to fight winter ailments or bring our bodies back into balance using tonics or bitters to aid the digestive system.

During the remainder of the year the learning happens mostly outside looking at plants, identifying them, sowing, growing and harvesting. We take fresh plant matter to make teas, vinegars, tinctures, honeys or elixirs using the simpler method. Thanks to a slow cooker there is usually the opportunity to make a double infused oil from whatever is abundant at the time.

When I first started offering workshops there were closely defined titles and I wore myself out doing most of the talking, trying to share as much herbal knowledge as I could in a short time. What I discovered was that whatever the subject advertised, participants would ask questions about something else, often leading everyone off down a different path for the majority of the allotted time. This worried me until I discussed it with other experienced facilitators and decided to radically change how I approached the whole experience.

Adults learn best through sharing experiences in small groups. This is not to decry the “chalk and talk” methods, which are superb at delivering large amounts of information to large numbers of people when delivered by skilled educators but whilst such information may well be retained and understood, the individual may not have the confidence to put what they have learned into practice.

Understanding is most easily assimilated when all the five senses can be employed. If people can see, touch, smell and taste a herb in its many forms they will remember more. If they can do something themselves rather than rely on others they will both understand the process and have confidence to do it again in their own environment.

It helps if you have a group of mixed experience so newcomers can benefit from someone who has either been before and feels comfortable in the environment or who knows basic procedures and can share expertise. As a facilitator, I try to assign tasks and explain the overall aims for the workshop early on in the proceedings so people can start doing something, feeling engaged and useful.

The aim of each workshop is to make one or more herbal items for participants to take home with them. During the activities there will be conversations about the purpose of these items, why it is being made in this form rather than another, who you would make it for, how you apply it, what other ways you could do the same thing and which herbs you might combine or interchange to achieve a similar result.

There will be stories about herbs and herbal products. There may be feedback about items made in previous workshops. Have they been strained if they were taken home to infuse? What dosage to use? Were they effective? What else could have achieved the same or a similar effect? For example, last month someone asked to make a muscle relaxing salve for his partner. We combined St John’s wort and agrimony oils with beeswax and everyone took home a sample. It had proved extremely effective for two different types of muscular cramps. When asked if there was anything else that could be used we talked about using a chamomile fomentation introducing a new word, process and concept into the conversation.

As workshop facilitator, I am there for three main purposes, to discover what each participant would like to achieve during the workshop, to support them in carrying out the tasks and answering questions to the best of my ability and to ensure they return home having experienced and learned something new.

When I had access to a photocopier, I would provide paper handouts for everyone. This isn’t possible anymore, so I  may provide one paper copy on the day and either email it to everyone afterwards or, occasionally beforehand. Participants are encouraged to bring notebooks and write notes during the workshop.

In the winter, we finish with a shared lunch where everyone can chat and share experiences. At the Sanctuary we finish later, but I always try to end the experience by asking people to identify and share one new thing they have learned discovered. Yesterday there were a group of three who played with vervain tea as well as making their tonic wine to take home.

“When I came here,” said one, “I was really worried. It’s all gone away and I feel perfectly calm.”

“It tasted like chocolate,” commented another of a tannin-rich bitter vervain tincture made from a twelve month infusion. “I’m sitting here happily away with the fairies.”

Two very new apprentices arrived late for their first workshop after a long journey. They admitted to feeling somewhat overwhelmed by all the ingredients on the table in front of them.

“I spent a while just looking at everything and seeing what I was drawn to. After that it was easy and I realised I could do this! It was so exciting.”

I try to make my workshops financially accessible to everyone, which is why I ask for donations rather than set a price. Participants bring their own alcohol, vinegar or honey and I provide home-grown herbs in different forms. Empty jam jars and bottles are shared. No-one goes home empty handed.

Here are some of the points I have found to help provide a happy experience for everyone.

            Set a subject area and programme for the day

Be clear in your mind what your teaching objectives/outcomes are for the workshop

Know the subject area thoroughly before you try to share it with others

Have any handouts prepared and available but don’t give them out until needed

Deal with housekeeping issues and introductions at the beginning

Discover from each participant what their best hopes for the workshop are

Try to tailor the needs of each participant to what happens in the workshop

Be aware of what each participant is doing so you can step in if necessary

Be available to answer questions and queries

Make sure the workshop has a definite ending session

Make sure everyone takes something tangible away with them

Get everyone to help clear up before they leave

Holding workshops can be very tiring and sometimes can be very hard work. My philosophy is that the people who need to be there will attend. My biggest pleasure is to watch the people who arrived with the cares of the world on their shoulders begin to laugh and share stories. They leave with smiles, hugs and a desire to return.

Looking back and looking forward

January is always a two-faced month. It’s hard to do otherwise, given the nature of the god, Janus, from whom the month takes its name. There are two schools of thought when it comes to looking back. One philosophy teaches that you cannot move forward effectively without learning the lessons of the past, whilst the other recommends moving forwards and releasing what is left behind lest you carry it on your shoulders for eternity. Both ways of thinking have their merits and, like everything in life, a balanced approach to both of them should support an onward journey.

For me, 2013 felt as if my life had been put on hold because of my mother’s continuing deterioration. For the first six months she had two hospital admissions, each time becoming more debilitated. Then in July she suffered another ischaemic episode and became bedridden. Thankfully there have been carers brought in to manage her physical care four times a day which my father has to pay for. I provide the majority of their food so they can continue with a diet they enjoy and we visit at least once a fortnight to enable my father to leave the premises if he wishes.

This has meant there has been no time to physically tend the Sanctuary since my time at the farm is taken up with cooking, feeding, washing clothes and sitting with my mother. The workshops have continued once a month and they have been my only opportunity to spend time with my herbs. The 2013 apprentices all started off with great enthusiasm in January but had all disappeared to lead their own lives by the end of June, apart from one, who is a continuing joy to have around. Their lack of physical commitment to the Sanctuary was a great disappointment and as a result none of the herb beds were properly weeded or managed and the field plants have begun to take back the land wrestled from them over the past years.

It’s not all been doom and gloom. New people have emerged and given their time to help cut down trees and overhanging branches. Although the festival in September was poorly attended, new friendships were forged and those who came were deeply moved by the experience and are looking forward to this coming year. For me, the most positive issue to emerge from the festival was the request from a local beekeeper to keep her new hives at the Sanctuary something I have been trying to achieve for ten years!

So, what new things happened during 2013?

Flower essence

I was asked to write an article for Herb Geek on favourite summer recipes and as a result, I created two new cordials, rose and mint, which have been very popular at family celebrations and social gatherings and there are still bottles in my freezer. This inspired me to create further hot winter cordials using the surfeit of cooking apples on my garden tree – spiced apple and apple and rosehip, which were both a great success.

Some of you will be aware of my writing exploits. I belong both to my local Solihull Writers’ Workshop, which has a set annual programme and to the Pub Club sub-group where we read and critique newly emerging novels. Writing is an emotional task, full of peaks and valleys. Sometimes the dark times are hard to break through when the creative spark is missing.

One of our members was going through a bad patch when I read about the properties of peppermint flower essence which has a specific relationship with improving stuck mental creativity. This was in early September when most of my mints were flowering. It seemed the ideal time to make the essence which was subsequently given to group members as Christmas gifts.

Herbal Ally

My ally this year was Agrimony but I was very lax in getting to know this plant properly. I did move all the plants in my home garden into a designated bed and made my first double infused oil from their aerial parts at the end of summer. Although the plant appears to have no identifiable scent, the oil had a significant fragrance which really surprised me. Matthew Wood uses goldenseal and agrimony together for pain due to tightness, so I extrapolated his use to create a salve for constricting muscles by joining the agrimony oil with St John’s wort. I am waiting to hear how the recipient got on with her remedy.

I also used agrimony tincture as part of a personal tonic to try and clear up some bowel issues associated with stress. Things did improve but I should really have tried the plant alone rather than mixing it with other nervines. It’s hard to make your own medicines and take them when you’re suffering with overwhelming stress!

Ashwagandha

Ashwagandha was the subject of my last blog post but is included here because I have been able to undertake several new plant products this year, notably a ground root honey, a root tincture and a cordial with nettle and rose.

Ashwagandha cherries are used as bitters. It makes sense for a plant which is renowned for its stress relieving properties to act upon the digestive system.  For other parts of the plant to also be bitter is not surprising. This was born out by the extreme bitterness of a tea made from stems. I may try making this again using less plant matter and see how much of a difference it makes.

Educational activities

Although there has been no income this year from herb-related articles, I have delivered two talks to new organisations. The first was Finstall and Coughton Hackett WI where the members enjoyed making and tasting hawthorn-related products as part of their Hedgerow Herbs talk. The second was just before Christmas when I talked about Herbs and Honey to the Solihull Beekeepers Association. The latter request came a discussion at my stall at the Solihull Go Green Faire in June (fairly disastrous in terms of general public interest since there were very few visitors!) which was situated opposite the Beekeepers’ exhibition. Again, members sampled infused honeys, herbal tea, oxymel and elixirs and several asked for the handout to be emailed to them later.

I also started a new part-time activity teaching singing to four and five year-olds in a nearby infant school. For three hours every Tuesday during term time we sing nursery rhymes and play circle games (60 nursery children in 4x 15min blocks) and sing seasonal songs and folk songs and practice rhythm (90 reception children in 3x 30 minute blocks).

Elixir

My elixirs are often unique productions because the herbs infused together always change. At the beginning of the year Chris suffered with a dreadful cough and the sage and thyme elixir was the only medicine which seemed to help. The original elixir was made in 2010 and the bottle was almost empty so by the end of October, it was time to create a new one from the remaining healthy gardenplants before the frost came. The new elixir comprised purple sage, lemon and flat-leafed thyme, marshmallow leaves and a few hyssop strands. Thankfully it has not been road tested yet but I hope it will be as effective as the last one.

International Mentorship Scheme

For several years I’ve been a member of the Down to Earth Forum where I’m known as a herbwife. Most of the members live in the southern hemisphere so could never become full apprentices. It seemed sensible to offer a long distance mentorship scheme to encourage people to learn more about herbs, especially those growing in their locality. There are currently twenty-one people from Europe, US, South America and Australia sharing their herbal experiences.

Family members

Our daughter, Kathryn, became engaged on Christmas Day 2012 so there has been great excitement choosing a wedding venue and her dress. The date is set for 6 May 2014 and our grandson, James, will be a pageboy.

James had a new brother on 7 November, Thomas Daniel. He slept through the entire home birth while Chris and I were hidden away in the upstairs bedroom until everything was cleared away and we could emerge for a cup of tea and cuddles. Their mother, Laura, is amazing and Thomas has gained over three pounds in his first seven weeks. He’s a very long, strong, happy baby.

Looking forward to 2014

Apprenticeship

Eight new women have joined the apprenticeship to make nine in total. Three have already been workshop attenders and understand the challenges of the Sanctuary. Several are making commitments to travel long distances to attend events and I hope it all works out for them. I am looking forward to watching them grow and develop.

Herb Festival

This year’s Celebrating Herb Festival has been brought forward to the last weekend of August. We are hoping this date change will enable more people to attend. For the first time we are offering a special creative writing intensive on the Friday afternoon where authors and poets can showcase their creations during the evening’s Open Mic session. The workshop will be led by the wonderful Charlie Jordan.

Herbal Ally

My ally for this coming year is ashwagandha. It amazes me how much there is to learn about this plant so I want to spend time increasing my knowledge and understanding.

Books

Henriette Kress very kindly sent me a copy of her Practical Herbs 2 Book which I am intending to read and review here shortly. I also received “Every day herbs in spiritual life” by  Michael J Caduto as a Christmas present so I’m looking forward to reading this and adding to my energetic and ritual knowledge. Then, of course, there is “The Herbwife’s Apprentice” which I started writing early last year and came to a complete halt about March. I fully intend to start it up again and have the first draft ready for the festival with frameworks for Years 2 and 3.

Workshops and workdays

We’re looking forward to welcoming both new friends and old to our monthly workshops held here in Solihull and at the Sanctuary in the Cotswolds. No matter what else happens in the world around us there will always be herbs to guide and support us.

Ashwagandha: working with a tropical plant in the UK

Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) is a universally loved herb, native of India. One of the twenty-one true adaptogens, it holds an important place in Ayurvedic medicine. Although generally known as a herb to combat stress, it has a myriad of uses ranging from behavioural problems to balancing respiratory, immune and genitourinary systems.

As a Western Herbwife, I try not to use herbs I can’t grow myself. Ashwagandha intrigued me but I was loathe to be dependent on imported plant material. I wanted to grow my own and in 2009 I was fortunate to be gifted two seedlings which grew and produced the familiar scarlet cherries. The seeds produced a further crop the following year but temperatures were not sufficient for the plants to flower and ripen seed.

Luckily I had given a seedling to one of my apprentices who had grown the plant to maturity in her greenhouse. She gave me three cherries which in turn produced sixty healthy plants. These third generation plants flourished over the summer producing a respectable root harvest and cherry crop for further sowing.

Although used to hot and humid growing conditions in India, Ashwagandha is a truly amazing plant, able to adapt to our cooler climate as an annual. You watch her spring to life from a tiny seed then grow to green maturity in four short months, enabling a root harvest after the first frost. Her lantern-like fruit pods hide the growing cherries and it is not until those lanterns turn from green to dry, transparent brown you notice her vibrant fruits. More months pass as those fruits dry and you can carefully peel off the scarlet covering to reveal white seeds; seeds which can be planted to begin the circle once again.

This past summer was very hot for the first time for several years. I was hoping for a good ashwagandha crop but the delay in Spring planting and the heavy rain in September and October meant my plants at the Sanctuary were nowhere near as large as in other years with small root systems. I left four plants to grow in a large pot on my patio at home and although they grew to normal size with reasonable roots, they had great difficulty ripening fruit.

November and December have been virtually frost free but it did not seem sensible to leave the four plants any longer as they did not appear to appreciate being overwintered in previous years, either dying or having stunted root systems. It felt very strange harvesting a tropical plant in December but it did mean we were able to experience the whole plant during yesterday’s workshop.

The newly harvested plants were carefully scrubbed and the pungent aroma from the roots noted. I wanted to make an infused honey, so I ground the roots in my machine and duly covered them with local honey. The root odour was even more intense after grinding, reminding one new apprentice of chocolate with a bitter after-smell. I am taking the honey to a talk I am giving on Tuesday evening to my local Beekeepers Association about herbs and honey.

The rest of the roots from the Sanctuary November harvest were also scrubbed free of any remaining soil. Half were chopped by hand and tinctured with vodka and the rest was left to dry in a paper bag in my hot cupboard.

It seemed a shame to waste the stems, so we tried making a decoction. I think we used too much plant material and simmered it for too long as it was extremely bitter to the point of being undrinkable even though we had added some dried rose petals and honey to the mix.

This morning I sat and removed all the cherries from the ashwagandha branches I removed over a week ago. The pile of mature, scarlet cherries was disappointingly small but will be enough to gift to others who wish to try growing this plant.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do with green cherries but eventually decided to experiment with a tincture. My inspiration comes from Henriette Kress. She wrote about using dried Echinacea seedheads in place of the more usual roots as she felt the concentration of active ingredients would be similar in both parts of the plant. I have read that Ashwagandha cherries are used as a bitter in India so I shall be very interested to see what similarities the green cherry tincture has with the root tincture.

Even after five years of growing Ashwagandha, I still feel as if I am only scratching the surface when it comes to really knowing and understanding this plant. I’m looking forward to many more years of mutual learning.

Six more days to apply for the Springfield Sanctuary Apprenticeship

If you haven't contacted me yet to apply for the 2014 apprenticeship there are now just six days to apply. The criteria and outcomes can be found on the appropriate page on this blog and the list of next year's workshop and work days are also up.

You may wish to note that the 2014 Festival is happening at the end of August and not the second weekend in September.

Any questions, contact me asap.

Guest Mentee Post: Mother of Herbs Part 1

Maddie is one of the Australian members of the Kitchenherbwife Mentorship Scheme. This is her first post about her 2013/4 Herbal Ally, Mother of Herbs. Thank you, Maddie, for sharing your experiences with us. 

I have chosen ‘Mother of Herbs’ as my herb ally – but I really believe I had no say in the matter. She chose me – ‘cos she knew we needed her! Several other herbs took my interest including Gotu Kola, Passionflower, and Purslane - and Herb Robert (which I’m presently looking for). I’ve planted Purslane seeds in a pot, which germinated within 4 days. These, and some self-seeded, young Passionfruit plants growing wild, courtesy of the birds, will be looked at in depth, later on. 

In the meantime I’m taking photos of their growth. But for some unknown reason my pull was towards ‘The Mother’.   All through the long, hot, dry weather we’ve been having, ‘Mother of Herbs’ just keeps on keeping on. Don’t know how it got into my garden, really.  I can’t remember planting it, but it grows so profusely here in our sub-tropical climate that I’m forever thinning it out as it tends to suffocate the other plants around it. So easily grown, it just takes root here wherever it hits the ground. We also had it growing in our other home many years ago, but didn’t use it back then. These days it’s a regular in our kitchen – in Italian dishes, tomato based meals, seasonings , pesto & whatever I think might be improved by its addition, but otherwise,  til now  have never taken much notice of it – Big Mistake!

Officially known as Plectranthus amboinicus, from the Family: Lamiaceae (mints/aromatics), and also was known as Coleus amboinicus  (syn), and tends to grow in a similar sprawly nature.) However it has the thick, fleshy, and  hairy/velvety leaves of a succulent, on thick stalks and clear sap. The leaves are almost heart-shaped with scalloped, serrated edges; the main vein from the stem is a darkish  pink for about two-thirds of its length (but sometimes the leaf is all green, depending, it seems on how much shade its in, though the stems still seem to keep the pinkish tone.) 

The tiny flowers form along the length of spikes up to 45cm long. Mine are light purple, but I believe there are also white and pink flowering ones too.  The herb is very aromatic and I liken it to the smell of the dried mixed herbs that was once found in every housewife’s cupboard, if not still is. It is known by many common names – Five Seasons Herb, One in Five Herb, All-Herb, Queen of Herbs, Puerto Rican Oregano, Spanish Sage, Spanish Thyme, Chinese Three in One, Broad Leafed Thyme, 10 Herbs in One – and perhaps many more. 

There seems to be some dispute about where it originated, and at the rate it grows here I can understand why. Its considered a valuable Folk/Traditional Herb in Northern Africa, India, the Caribbean, South America, and sub-tropical Asia,  who all seem to lay claim to its origin, as it favours the hotter climates, where its culinary use was for flavouring and to mask the strong flavours of goat, fish etc. I’m thinking that ‘strong’ could be a nice way of meaning  ‘off’ as it has anti-bacterial properties – much the same as Europeans used their selection of herbs to flavour rancid meats before  refrigeration  eg. France.   

As well as a culinary herb, it’s also an important medicinal herb as well as a decorative plant, especially the variegated leaf variety which I only recently discovered existed.  Both leaf types have the same properties. While both primarily favour the warmer climates, they can be grown in cold climates with a bit of TLC and if brought inside during the cooler months.

In studying this herb for the past few weeks, I’ve noticed that it acts differently depending on its position in the garden. Compare the colour of the leaves – the dark green with the pink main vein in the top picture where it is growing in almost complete shade, to the second pic - the same plant growing with a geranium in full sun, and in much drier conditions under a presently bare Frangipani tree. Here the leaves are much lighter (tending to almost lime in colour) and are curved upwards in a cupping mode (perhaps, I’m thinking, to capture and hold any moisture/dew or whatever?) and the serrated edges of the plant are pink, but not the main vein.   

Actually the pic doesn’t do it justice – the pink edges are much brighter in colour than the pic shows making it a very attractive looking plant. And to think I never noticed this before. Perhaps later on in the mentorship, I may try to draw this plant highlighting the pink edges – but I’m guessing any attempt at this might need to be loosely called abstract. Such is my skill at artwork. 

 

It wasn’t until I started researching this plant for the Mentorship that I became aware of just how symbolic the common name is to its all-encompassing nature – though perhaps I’m reading far too much into it as more than likely the name was coined for its likeness to so many herbs. It could be co-incidence I guess … or not.  But from my point of view she well deserves the title ‘Mother’.

Reference:

‘How Can I Use Herbs in My Daily Life’ Isabell Shipard.

Various miscellaneous sources.