Spring Folk Herbalism Series
with Radical Plant Folk
Join us for a 4 week practical folk herbalism series, connecting to the plants of Spring and making remedies for your home apothecary.
About the course:
Dates: Sunday March 22nd, Sunday March 29th, Sunday April 12th, Sunday April 19th, Sunday May 3rd
Time: 10-1pm
Green shoots push through dark damp earth, sweet sap flows through wooden bodies, buds break open in vernal ecstasy as blossoms paint the landscape Lilac purple and Hawthorn pink. Here amongst the earthly beings waking from winter’s slumber we welcome Spring.
Join us from between the Spring Equinox to Beltane for a 4 week folk herbalism series. Beginning with Birch and ending with Hawthorn, we will journey with the plants of spring, taste and sip on their shoots and young leaves and delve into their folklore and mystery. By paying attention to the changing elements and their shapeshifting energetics, we will craft seasonal folk remedies together that will support our wellbeing through this unfolding season. Alongside crafting a home apothecary together, we will delve deep into spring herbalism, vernal folk stories from around the world and weave our own spells, drawings and plant presses into a spring herbarium.
Sessions will be led by community herbal educator and Radical Plant Folk co-founder Mariam Mohamed.
Sessions will include getting to know and meeting different spring herbs in and around the garden, tea ceremonies, learning how to sustainably harvest and identify the plants, learning to make a range of spring remedies to take home, readings and space for discussion and sharing.
The course will take place outside at our community herb garden at School Farm, Dartington. We will spend a lot of time outdoors amongst the plants and the elements. We have basic outdoor sheltered spaces to keep us dry, including an outdoor kitchen/workshop space where we will be doing a lot of making and a sheltered fire area.
Topics include:
Spring energetics
Plant identification
Sustainable foraging and the honourable harvest
Practical medicine making: tea blends, infused vinegars, infused oils, flower essences, herbal bath blends, food as medicine
Traditional herbal practices
Intuitive and sensory plant connection practices
Spring plantlore
Plant dreamwork and journaling
Course Outline:
Below gives a brief idea of what we will delve into each week
note: this will be slightly edited for 2026 to add an extra week
Week One: Spring energetics / Birch Plant Mythos and tea ceremony/ Awakening from winter’s slumber/ Spring cleansing herbs
Observing patterns and elements in nature and how that corresponds to our internal bodies
Rising saps, birch as symbol for new beginnings
Birch tea ceremony and opening circle
Purification/cleansing folk medicine practices and making: herbal baths, spiritual baths, smoke medicine and incense, spring cleanses and rituals
Starting a herbarium
Plant walk
Week Two: Green Vitality/ Wild Weeds / Tending to our inner waters/ Tea medicine
Tending to our lymphatic system with spring herbs and traditional practices
Tea medicine: making nourishing mineral rich herbal infusions
Mystery plant tea ceremony
Crafting a spring tonic and herbal body oil
Week Three: Food as Medicine / Reawakening our digestive fire
Cooking with wild greens and incorporating bitters into our diets
Supporting our digestion with spring herbs
Exploring traditional spring kitchen recipes
Shared lunch
Week Four: Flowers, fire and desire, Hawthorn magic and the story of Beltane
Hawthorn flower tea ceremony and mythos
Beltane stories and plantlore
Introducing the rose plant family and their flowers
Story medicine and crafting a flower essence
Beltane closing circle
Cost and booking:
Cost (including all materials):
Sliding scale: £160-190
Pay it forward: £190 (for those on full time reasonably paid work or have reasonable savings, may own home or property, can afford luxuries and travelling. This ticket price will support those who cannot afford the standard price)
Standard: £160 (this price ticket is incredibly reasonable for 5 3 hour workshops, and below market price. We aim to make this as affordable as we can. We are not making any money from this course.)
A £50 deposit is required to secure your booking.
Payment plans are available so please get in touch.
1 bursary place is available for those unwaged/refugees and asylum seekers
The course fee is non-refundable.
Bookings will open early 2026 if you would like to be notified please add your name to the waitlist