Spring is here and there is an abundance of wild edibles beginning to sprout in Western North Carolina.
Be sure to catch Appalachian School of Holistic Herbalism’s (ASHH) upcoming April 3rd, 2010 Wild Edibles Identification Class with Robin Allison. Class starts at 11am at the school, located at 2 Westwood Place in Asheville, and ends at 3pm. Cost is $30-45 (Sliding Scale).
Students will learn the basic skills necessary to properly identify locally abundant medicinal herbs, explore methods using field guides, discuss plant families, and profile a handful of locally growing medicinals. The first hour will be spent indoors doing a basic primer on botany, learning basic botanical terms, identifying all the parts of a plant, and discussing family, genus, and species concepts. Most of the rest of the class will be spent outside working on field ID skills.
Students should also get a good idea of what edibles to look out for as spring unfolds. “Two really exciting things coming out right now are the Trout Lilies, which are edible, and the Spring Beauties, which are edible. Both of those are ephemerals so they’ll only be around for a few weeks in the spring and then they’ll die back. Ramps are coming out right now too,” said Allison.
Class instructor Robin Allison began studying herbals under the late Frank Cook in 2003: “Since that time it became a passion of mine to meet my neighbors (the plants around us) and get in touch with these other beings that are all around us that have a lot to share with us. I’ve been primarily self-taught for the last seven years now. I’ve also attended a couple of herbal medicine schools.”
In the following Youtube video, Allison talks about some of the wild edibles that can be found growing around ASHH, which is where the April 3rd class will be taking place.
Below: Henbit Deadnettle (left) & Purple Deadnettle (right)
A member of the mustard family (below)
Clover (below), has stipules which is an identifying characteristic of its pea family.
For those interested in getting a head start on class, Allison recommends reading Elpel’s Botany in a Day. For more information call (828) 350-1221 or email:Info@HerbsHeal.com
A complete listing of upcoming ASHH classes and events can be found on the calendar.
Tags: appalachian school of holistic herbalism, robin allison, wild edibles
April 3, 2010 at 12:02 am |
Way to go Robin! Life in the modern age… Wild ancient arts meet with current media technology
Thanks and praise to thee, marc