Summer Solstice Walkabout at Taft Gardens
Best Bet
Outdoors/Nature/Recreation
Taft Gardens & Nature Preserve
**Events may have been canceled or postponed. Please contact the venue to confirm the event.
Date & Time
Sat, Jun 24 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Address (map)
2160 Baldwin Rd., Ojai CA 93023
Venue (website)
Taft Gardens & Nature Preserve
Join Ojai author-naturalist Lanny Kaufer for a Summer Solstice Walkabout at Taft Gardens and Nature Preserve on Saturday, June 24, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon.
“Walkabout” is an Australian term for a temporary return to traditional Aboriginal life, taken especially between periods of work or residence in modern society and usually involving a period of travel through the bush. That is what Kaufer has planned for the participants in observance of the summer solstice. They will take a break from modern life for 3 hours to experience Nature as their ancestors did, although for a much shorter time than the traditional Australian journey and as a group instead of solo.
The walkabout will begin in the Australian section of the Gardens and make its way through the wild plant communities in the Nature Preserve to the Four Directions Circle on a mesa with a 360-degree view. There the group will greet the Summer Solstice Sun and the four directions as they reconnect with their own aboriginal origins.
As he does on his monthly Natural History walks at the Taft Ranch, Kaufer will lead the group in identifying and discussing useful plants and observing birds and animal signs in the context of the local ecology. His intention is to create a space for people to connect with the natural world by learning the language of Nature.
A project of the nonprofit Conservation Endowment Fund, Taft Gardens and Nature Preserve was described for years as one of Ojai’s best-kept secrets. Not anymore! This botanical gem was featured last year in an L. A. Times article on “The 16 Most Beautiful and Inviting Public Gardens in Southern California” and recently included in the RedBook Magazine list of “The 12 Most Beautiful Botanical Gardens in the United States.”
ABOUT LANNY KAUFER
Lanny Kaufer has been leading herb walks and nature hikes, as well as foraging and medicinal plant workshops, since 1976, focusing on ethnobotany, the academic term for the human uses of plants. He is the author of Medicinal Herbs of California, published by Falcon Guides in December of 2021 and now in its third printing. Kaufer is the founder and director of the Ojai Herbal Symposium, returning the weekend of November 11-12, 2023.
The cost of the event is $45, of which $10 will go to the Conservation Endowment Fund, stewards of the land. To register for the event, please visit TaftGardens.org or email taftgardensvisitors@gmail.com.