Earth Island Medicinal Herb Garden Workshop

Join author-herbalist Lanny Kaufer and professional herbalist Carol Wade in Ojai on Saturday, June 10, at her Earth Island Medicinal Herb Garden for a 6-hour, early summer outdoor workshop to appreciate this amazing garden and gain hands-on experience of the many ways plant medicine lends itself to whole body/mind health.

In addition to founding and maintaining the Garden, in 2016 Carol founded the Ojai School of Herbal Studies, an 18-month herbal studies program that utilizes the garden, hands on medicine making, and an in-depth education in how to use herbs safely and effectively, including terminology, plant chemistry, anatomy and physiology, an extensive materia medica, and actual herb cultivation. This workshop will be a sample of what her students experience.

You will spend the morning exploring this East End Ojai jewel with Wade and Kaufer as your guides. You’ll enjoy the beautiful vistas as you learn about how to grow and care for some of the many native and non-native herbal allies that live in the Garden.  You’ll gather a few that are just right for the season and prepare a sun tea under Carol’s direction. The group will also learn the properties of plants that will be used in the afternoon hands-on processing part of the workshop. After lunch (not included) you will make an herbal sunscreen and an insect repellant to take home.

A number of plants in the Garden can be found in Kaufer’s book, Medicinal Herbs of California. More details about the day’s schedule will be described in a confirmation email sent to registrants.

Dreamed up long ago and finally made a reality in 2012, the Earth Island Medicinal Herb Garden has taken years of intense work by Carol and her students to become the gorgeous landmark it is today. Since ground was first broken in 2012, the garden has truly blossomed, becoming a must-see stop for visitors and a place of respite and renewal for locals.

With breathtaking views of the valley’s encompassing mountains, the garden was conceived as a showpiece, educational tool, and medicinal resource in one. Designed in the shape of a nautilus shell, the 11 main beds in the garden represent the major body systems, and each is planted with specimen herbs from around the world specially suited to supporting and healing those systems. Above the nautilus is a sunburst row of production beds, with plants for future harvest and use in tinctures, salves, oils and other preparations.

ABOUT CAROL WADE:

Carol Wade has been practicing as an herbalist and nutritional counselor for over 25 years and is a Registered Herbalist with the American Herbalists Guild. She studied health education and nutritional counseling at the Gary Null Health and Nutrition Program in New York, and she is a graduate of the Herbal Therapeutics Study Program and the Herbal Therapeutics Graduate Clinical Program of the Herbalist Therapeutics Research Foundation, founded and directed by herbalist and ethnobotanist David Winston.

Her garden, the Earth Island Medicinal Herb Garden in Ojai, California, serves as a hub for several medicinal herb-oriented ventures that bring the idea of using medicinal herbs in daily living as a viable and logical choice to the community at large.

In 2016 Carol founded the Ojai School of Herbal Studies, an 18-month herbal studies program that utilizes the garden, hands on medicine making, and an in-depth education in how to use herbs safely and effectively, including terminology, plant chemistry, anatomy and physiology, an extensive materia medica, and actual herb cultivation.

ABOUT LANNY KAUFER:

Lanny Kaufer has been leading Herb Walks in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties since 1976, educating hundreds of locals and visitors on the flora of the area with a focus on herbs that can be used for food and medicine. As an herbal educator, Lanny also leads workshops and presentations throughout the Ojai-Ventura-Santa Barbara area on the edible and medicinal uses of California plants. He holds a degree in Biology from UC Santa Cruz and is the author of Medicinal Herbs of California: A Field Guide to Common Healing Plants (Falcon Guides, 2021).

Register at HerbWalks.com or email register@herbwalks.com.