CONNECTING WITH
THE LIVING LAND
a journey of:
community + kinship
herbalism + gardening
body + spirit
service + healing
community + kinship
herbalism + gardening
body + spirit
service + healing
Description:
We invite you to join us on a journey into the plant world. Throughout our seven months together we will deepen our relationship with the forests, fields, and gardens of New England by learning their rhythms and remembering how we fit into them. Our time will be spent among the soil, where we will learn how to work with wild plants and tend to the earth by sowing, planting, weeding, and harvesting. We will honor the plants we work with by transforming them into medicine and handicraft.
Our spirits--and the spirit of nature--will be acknowledged in each gathering through practices of meditation, journaling, reflection, and offerings of gratitude to the land. We will discover that as we share our hearts with the plants and one another we will recover our sense of kinship, belonging, and interconnectedness to all of life. Together we will remember our deep connection to plant medicine, to one another, and to the Earth that sustains us all.
Our gatherings, which will take place on one Sunday a month from April through October, will each feature medicine making, a spiritual practice (such as meditation), and a gardening activity. We will often participate in other activities as well, such as plant walks throughout Muddy River Herbals and The Bradley Estate (where Muddy River Herbals is located). Each gathering will revolve around a specific theme that corresponds to a plant guardian which will serve as a guide in that month’s work. Our garden work will be centered on ecologically sound methods, with a special emphasis on permaculture and the importance of native plants.
Our days together will be spent outdoors: rain, snow, wind, or shine.
We invite you to join us on a journey into the plant world. Throughout our seven months together we will deepen our relationship with the forests, fields, and gardens of New England by learning their rhythms and remembering how we fit into them. Our time will be spent among the soil, where we will learn how to work with wild plants and tend to the earth by sowing, planting, weeding, and harvesting. We will honor the plants we work with by transforming them into medicine and handicraft.
Our spirits--and the spirit of nature--will be acknowledged in each gathering through practices of meditation, journaling, reflection, and offerings of gratitude to the land. We will discover that as we share our hearts with the plants and one another we will recover our sense of kinship, belonging, and interconnectedness to all of life. Together we will remember our deep connection to plant medicine, to one another, and to the Earth that sustains us all.
Our gatherings, which will take place on one Sunday a month from April through October, will each feature medicine making, a spiritual practice (such as meditation), and a gardening activity. We will often participate in other activities as well, such as plant walks throughout Muddy River Herbals and The Bradley Estate (where Muddy River Herbals is located). Each gathering will revolve around a specific theme that corresponds to a plant guardian which will serve as a guide in that month’s work. Our garden work will be centered on ecologically sound methods, with a special emphasis on permaculture and the importance of native plants.
Our days together will be spent outdoors: rain, snow, wind, or shine.
Monthly Themes:
APRIL The Babe: Tenacity Nutritive Basics & Wild Edibles MAY The Maiden: Inner Strength Digestion & Liver Love JUNE The Maiden: Inner Light Sun & Skin JULY The Mother: Love & Fertility Flowers & Summer Abundance AUGUST The Mother: Protection Immunity & Resilience SEPTEMBER The Crone: Generosity Sacred Scents & the Nervous System OCTOBER The Crone: Returning to the Earth Tree Remedies & Reflection |
Facilitated By:
Jenny Hauf
Jenny Hauf was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on a steady diet of L.M. Montgomery, homesteading stories, and the wild shades of green found in her father's and grandparents' gardens.
Since 2006 she has been devoting her life to plants, with an education in sustainable agriculture that has taken her from the picket fences of Virginia to the sandhill crane's mating grounds in northern Wisconsin; from the sheep and goat pastures of Italy's Piemonte to the technicolor fields of County Cork; from a French herb farm with a view of Mont Blanc to an apple paradise in the back roads of central Maine.
In 2015 she created Muddy River Herbals, an herb farm devoted to bringing a wealth of herbs, biodiversity, and community to the Boston area. She is also a writer, garden designer, landscaper, and educator who has taught workshops about herbs at the Harvard Medical School and other locations throughout eastern Massachusetts.
Steph Zabel
Steph Zabel spent her childhood in the South, and her early adult years in Spain, Mexico, and the U.K. until she was finally called to the Boston area. She has a deep love for the shifting seasons of this part of the world, its wild & urban landscapes, its proximity to the sea, and its connections to her ancestral homeland of Ireland.
Nearly a decade ago Steph created Herbstalk, a joyful community-based herbal gathering, which brings together crafters, teachers and students from across the region. She is also a graduate of the CommonWealth Center for Herbal Medicine and holds a MSc in ethnobotany. She worked for many years in the botanical collections at the Harvard University Herbarium.
Steph is a mother, gardener, herbalist, keeper of chickens, facilitator of community and student of the wisdom traditions. Her work is to help others remember the beauty and knowingness of their own hearts, and their inherent connections to both Earth & Spirit.
Jenny Hauf
Jenny Hauf was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on a steady diet of L.M. Montgomery, homesteading stories, and the wild shades of green found in her father's and grandparents' gardens.
Since 2006 she has been devoting her life to plants, with an education in sustainable agriculture that has taken her from the picket fences of Virginia to the sandhill crane's mating grounds in northern Wisconsin; from the sheep and goat pastures of Italy's Piemonte to the technicolor fields of County Cork; from a French herb farm with a view of Mont Blanc to an apple paradise in the back roads of central Maine.
In 2015 she created Muddy River Herbals, an herb farm devoted to bringing a wealth of herbs, biodiversity, and community to the Boston area. She is also a writer, garden designer, landscaper, and educator who has taught workshops about herbs at the Harvard Medical School and other locations throughout eastern Massachusetts.
Steph Zabel
Steph Zabel spent her childhood in the South, and her early adult years in Spain, Mexico, and the U.K. until she was finally called to the Boston area. She has a deep love for the shifting seasons of this part of the world, its wild & urban landscapes, its proximity to the sea, and its connections to her ancestral homeland of Ireland.
Nearly a decade ago Steph created Herbstalk, a joyful community-based herbal gathering, which brings together crafters, teachers and students from across the region. She is also a graduate of the CommonWealth Center for Herbal Medicine and holds a MSc in ethnobotany. She worked for many years in the botanical collections at the Harvard University Herbarium.
Steph is a mother, gardener, herbalist, keeper of chickens, facilitator of community and student of the wisdom traditions. Her work is to help others remember the beauty and knowingness of their own hearts, and their inherent connections to both Earth & Spirit.
Testimonials:
This course with you feels like it's ignited a true fire and has made me so much more confident in my herbal practice. I just adore you and your spirit and I wanted to acknowledge that and you. This has been the perfect blend of education, woo, friendship, and leadership. It's really been a gift.
- K.H., 2019 student
I am very grateful for this incredible herbal journey with all the amazing women of this group. I will always keep in my heart the circles of love, learning and discovery that we shared every month. You taught us to connect with mother earth in a very special way. I will treasure it for the rest of my life. Thank you so much, Steph!
- A.C., 2019 student
Thank you for all the wonderful, thoughtful, inspiring classes this year. I feel that I learned so much on many different planes. I felt sad leaving the class and all the memories attached to it -- going through the cool spring, a hot summer, and finally to fall. What a privilege and pleasure!
- M.A., 2019 student
This course with you feels like it's ignited a true fire and has made me so much more confident in my herbal practice. I just adore you and your spirit and I wanted to acknowledge that and you. This has been the perfect blend of education, woo, friendship, and leadership. It's really been a gift.
- K.H., 2019 student
I am very grateful for this incredible herbal journey with all the amazing women of this group. I will always keep in my heart the circles of love, learning and discovery that we shared every month. You taught us to connect with mother earth in a very special way. I will treasure it for the rest of my life. Thank you so much, Steph!
- A.C., 2019 student
Thank you for all the wonderful, thoughtful, inspiring classes this year. I feel that I learned so much on many different planes. I felt sad leaving the class and all the memories attached to it -- going through the cool spring, a hot summer, and finally to fall. What a privilege and pleasure!
- M.A., 2019 student