Plant Medicine Summit
Foraging for Health A seasonal approach to edible and medicinal plants
Food is medicine and medicine is food, depending on how it's used. We get what we need when we need it. In the spring are the greens, which provide vitamins and are cleansing. During the hottest and driest time of the year we get the sweetest and juiciest fruits to provide us with fluids for hydration and sugars for energy. In the fall and into the winter are the roots, providing starches and nuts, high in calories, fats, and proteins for sustenance through the winter.
In This Session:
- The plants growing around us are not just weeds. Each in its own way, its own time, provides us with food and medicine that can sustain us and help us to maintain good health. Plants are seasonal and follow cycles. We get what we need when we need it.
- Develop an awareness of the wild plants growing in our yards and gardens and allow them to grow naturally rather than cutting them down, mowing, or using herbicides to remove them. They are low maintenance and can benefit everyone, including wildlife.
- Encourage wild plants to grow by giving them space to grow, planting them, reseeding when possible, and replant the crowns when gathering roots. Take only what you need, leave some for the birds, some to reseed, and some for the next group of foragers.
Vickie Shufer, MS
Vickie Shufer is an herbalist and forager with a Master’s Degree in Therapeutic Herbalism from Maryland University of Integrative Health. She has more than 35 years experience working with edible and medicinal plants and teaches classes on their uses. She is a frequent speaker and presenter at herbal conferences and other public events. She has also taught survival skills to numerous groups, including going on a tour to more than 20 Virginia state parks.
She was the editor and publisher of The Wild Foods Forum newsletter from 1994-2014 and is the author of The Everything Guide to Foraging, published by Adams Media, 2011, now sold out but available from Amazon. Vickie is also the editor, compiler and publisher of Herb-A-Day and Herbistatins by Dr. James Duke. Vickie has studied with Dr. Duke since the early 90’s and has traveled with him to Peru to the Amazon, the Andes, and Costa Rica and has led plant walks in his Green Farmacy Garden in Fulton, MD. She has also published a number of small nature books and is the co-author and publisher of a series of Wild River Guides with Lillie Gilbert. Her article on yaupon holly was published by the American Botanical Council in HerbalGram magazine in 2016 (Volume 109).
Vickie is the owner of Wild Woods Farm, LLC, a 16-acre native nursery in northeastern North Carolina where she grows and sells forest botanicals. She has developed a line of products that she sells, including yaupon tea, a beverage made from the leaves of yaupon holly, a native plant in the U.S. with caffeine in the leaves. She also produces tinctures, salves and other products made from botanicals grown and harvested from the Wild Woods Farm.
