Grandmother’s Secrets: rediscovering old herbal traditions
This day looks at some of the traditions and folklore associated with herbs and includes workshop sessions making pot pourri, herbal teas, and other seasonal herbal products. 

Herbal healing traditions and simple remedies
This day course looks at the traditional use of herbs in both East and West and how
these approaches can be applied to family healthcare. We shall make and taste simple remedies for home use, such as teas and syrups and the course also covers
suggestions for treating everyday ailments including common colds, coughs, and
digestive upsets.

Identifying, growing and using herbs
This course is designed for anyone who would like to gather plants from the hedgerow but has no idea what to pick. We will look in detail at identifying common plants – weather permitting with a herbal walk – harvesting, drying and storing herbs, and using them in simple remedies or cookery ingredients.

Leechbooks and wort cunning
This course is a development from the popular “Grandmother’s Secrets” days focusing this time on some of the traditional remedies and magical beliefs of our Saxon and Druid forebears and recreating some of the recipes used in ancient herbals.

Make your own herbal home remedies kit
An opportunity to make your own herbal home remedies kit with a mixture of creams,
oils, tinctures and syrups to combat everyday household ills. A busy practical day
which will give you at least four herbal products to take home as a basic herbal
remedies kit

Making herbal creams and ointments
This is a practical workshop day making focusing on herbal remedies for external use
including various creams, infused oils and ointments as well as production of simple
cosmetic products such as face creams, moisturisers shampoos and balms. At the end
of the day everyone will have a collection of at least four herbal products that they
have made to take away.

Planning for winter (half-day)
A short course focusing on seasonal remedies for the winter: herbal brews for coughs, colds and other ailments associated with cold weather. By lunch time you should have at least two seasonal brews to take home with you.

Planning your herb garden (half day)
This short course, early in the season, is designed as a general introduction to
choosing, growing and harvesting herbs at home. It will cover the types of herbs to
grow, which ones to gather from the wild, identification, drying and storage as well as
basic herb garden design and propagation with opportunities to gather and pot-up your own choice of cuttings.

Courses on both the above and the following topics can be arranged for special groups as required

Combating stress: herbs for relaxation and tension (half day inc. lunch)
A relaxed morning aimed at understanding how our inability to cope with stress can cause of many emotional and physical ills. The day looks at identifying and reducing
stress, relaxation techniques, and using tonic and relaxing herbs. It covers many of the topics included in my book “Making Time for Me” and ends with a relaxing lunch.

Cooking with herbs and healthy eating traditions
This day will help you get to some of the many herbs used in cooking and also includes discussion of healthy eating and food balancing traditions from both East and West. There will be a chance to try making various herbal preparations – and eat some of them at lunch!

Herbs for Women (half day)
A short course looking at various approaches to using herbs for treating women’s ailments drawn from both Eastern and Western healing traditions. The course includes a review of the properties of the more popular herbal remedies for gynaecological problems including black cohosh, sage, agnus-castus and dang gui.

Understanding traditional Chinese medicine  (half-day)
This half day course will help anyone who has visited an acupuncturist or Chinese practitioner to understand their treatment and the therapeutic approach used.  it will look at the traditional philosophy behind Chinese medicine and the sorts of herbal remedies used.

Timetable
Full day courses run from 10am to about 4pm and include lunch.
Half-day courses without lunch run from 10am to about 12.30pm and with lunch (Combating stress) from 10am to about 1.30pm.