Registration now OPEN

Learn how to grow, use and transform a few common medicinal plants of North America over this introduction to herbal medicine course.  Taking place at both Loyola City Farm School Herbal Medicine Garden and the Concordia Greenhouse over the course of 6 months. Students will learn the basics of how to grow, harvest, preserve, transform and apply some common herbs such as Yarrow, Raspberry Leaf, Lemon Balm, Marshmallow, Lavender, St-Johns Wort, Comfrey and more. We will also learn how to make, salves, balms, tinctures, throat lozenges, syrups and suppositories to just name a few.

This course is designed for newcomers to the study of herbal medicine, as the classes are designed to start with the basics and build on that knowledge. If you already have spent a good deal of time learning about medicinal plants and have practiced transformations previously, then this school may not be ideal for you.  But if you are interested in learning the basics of herbal gardening and wanting to become more autonomous in transforming medicinal plants then this course will be a great stepping stone towards those goals.

The programme is divided into two main components – Education and Internship.

 

EDUCATION

Workshops

This series of workshops is designed to familiarize student with the main theories, concepts and practices of herbalism, diagnostics and body systems.  The workshops will be presented by a number of experienced herbalists, medicine makers, osteopaths, anatomy & body systems experts and  horticulturalists.  The goals of these workshops are to help add depth to the practical training provided in the internship.

 

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
LOCATION	DATE	TIME	TOPIC
Greenhouse / Downtown Campus	Saturday April 9	10am – 4pm	Intro to diagnostics, body systems, history & vocabulary of herbalism
Greenhouse / Downtown Campus	Saturday April 30th	10am – 4pm	Nervous + Immune system & the Brain
Loyola	Saturday May 28th	10am – 4pm	How to care for a Perennial Garden: Harvest & Preservation, Transformations 101
Loyola	Saturday June 11th	10am – 4pm	Respiratory & Voice/ Gastrointestinal
Loyola	Saturday July 2nd	10am – 4pm	Skin, Muscle & Bones
Loyola	Saturday August 13th	10am – 4pm	Mood & Mental health: self-care through transformations OR indigenous healing & appropriation (TBA)
Loyola	Saturday September 10th	10am – 4pm	Sexual Herbalism: long-term health & self-care

 

*Closing down the garden workshop to be held in October – date to be decided depending on weather. closing down the garden, winter needs, harvest and transform roots

 

INTERNSHIP

All students must fulfill a predetermined number (60) of internship hours plus and host a student-led workshop, open to the public.

Internship hours are made up of garden shifts and kitchen shifts. Hours spent in workshops do not count towards the total number of internship hours. The schedule will be made with you, and will not fluctuate, allowing you to plan vacation time and work around the garden. During your internship, you will work with other members of the school to manage the Loyola medicine garden.

Greenhouse & Kitchen Shifts

From May through September, when the snow melts and the soil unthaws, interns begin work at the Loyola perennial medicine garden in NDG. During weekly garden shifts students will work directly with the CFS coordinators on the upkeep of the garden, and as a compliment to the full workshop schedule, our staff will offer a series of “mini-workshops” in the garden.  During the mini-workshops we will focus in on some key technical skills, taking advantage of the smaller garden shift groups.  In addition, hours will be spent learning how to dry and transform herbs for specific functions.

Garden Shift – One 4 hour shift per week

Tuesdays	shift a	10am – 2 pm
	shift b	2pm – 6pm
Fridays	shift d	10am – 2 pm

 

 

APPLICATION:

COST: $ 335 (to be paid upon acceptance to the course) What does the cost cover? The fee covers the cost of the 7 workshops, reading materials, transformation supplies, as well as the training you will receive from the CFS coordinators.

BURSARIES: We are offering a bursary program for those who need financial assistance. We don’t want cost to be a limiting issue for interns, so are working to develop a sustainable model to help those who need support financially. For more information, please email cityfarmschool.media@gmail.com

To apply, all students must fill out the application form, (found here) and email a CV tocityfarmschool.media@gmail.com.  Applications will be accepted until February, after this we will review all applications and those we feel are best suited for the course will be notified of their acceptance no later than April 1st.  Only 15 students in total will be selected (we wish it could be more!).