Being with Yarrow & Gong: Saturday July 8 from 9 to 12:30
Plants, Land, & Sound Connection!
9:00 to 3:30 on Saturday September 9th
rain date September 10th
A tea tasting, soundbath, plant walk and guided harvest at Broad Wing Farm.
**This day is only for current and previous students of Rooted Home Herbalism! We want to give you the chance to reconnect or connect more deeply to the land through sound and meditative time on the land!**
Join us for a September day in the garden to tune into the plants. We’ll open with a tea tasting and then embark on a long juicy plant walk to nooks on the farm that we don't always get to explore. In the afternoon, we'll enjoy an hour long sound bath by Jen and meditative plant sit. We'll have time for harvest and a closing ritual on the land.
You are welcome to BYO lunch for a picnic at the farm! & if the weather is right, to swim (at your own risk !).
A gongbath is a potent, mystical opportunity to deeply relax and reprieve. The subtle layers of sounds from the gong heighten your subconscious awareness which then activates the rest and digest mode of the nervous system and theta brainwaves, which is where cellular and DNA repair occur. Ultimately you experience a tremendous stress release, effortless peace, calm and many other possible benefits. This in tandem with a plant sit will nourish you deeply and profoundly from the inside out.
*Rooted Home Herbalism 2023 is Full!*
You may be hoping to step into the tapestry of this knowledge which once had no name because it was simply a part of a well-woven life. You may wish to know the plants in a familial way, understanding when and how to harvest and use them for delightful preparation but also for acute needs.
Perhaps you have already been deep in study for years but you want your learning to come to life, to be animated in a garden with bright and spicy flowers, bitter leaves and sweet roots, in the presence of others also walking this path because we are in love with a plant. Likely we are each in love with many and find something so dreamy, but also so solidly practical and supportive in reconnecting ourselves to the plants, their seasons, and their medicines.
If any of this rings true, then a very hearty welcome to you.
This class celebrates the plants that grow, bloom, fruit and root in the light half of the year.
Our exploration of the green world during this seven-month series will blend plenty of hands-on learning in field, forest, and garden. We will harvest and taste, mix up medicines and study with plants that are growing within and around our outdoor classroom.
This class is designed to be an intimate gathering of plants and people, led by guides who have been walking the plant path for years and have a lot to share.
- You love plants and want to gain fluency with the local flora, both the native species and the wild weedy ones.
- You are interested in taking steps to uncover and reclaim the herbal knowledge of your great-great grandmothers and grandfathers
- You are open to following your curiosity and engaging new skills as we learn directly from plants and go beyond what is found in books or lectures
- You seek a warm in-person community supporting each other in learning
- You want a foundation of information and experience from which you can draw for years.
- You wish to incorporate your love of herbs and wild plants into your kitchen, your daily life, and your care for yourself and your family
- You want to root into the wheel of the seasons; what an elder Pennsylvania Dutch healer called stepping into the hoop
Class Anatomy
- a tea-tasting to start your morning and tune your tastebuds to what the flavors of our herbs can tell us about their properties
- a plant walk where we meet a whole cast of garden-growing and wild plants, from delicate annual herbs to mighty-trunked trees and dip into the language of botany as needed
- a medicine-making session, including a demonstration and take-home recipes for your own experimentation
- a deep exploration of the energetics, actions, indications, harvesting methods, and preparations for two plants that are in their glory when we gather
- a plant-sit to allow our many other senses to learn from plants.
- simple seasonal ritual drawing on our own Celtic & Germanic traditions as an invitation for you to connect with your own lineage as you work with our plant ancestors
- a teaching introducing you to a foundational herbal tradition, set of concepts, or related field of study that will provide a richer framework in your herbalism (included will be vitalism, energetics, and mycology, among others).
- A binder with thorough handouts for each class meeting, including materia medicas on the featured plants of the month, recipes for each month, and deep dives into foundational herbal concepts that you can refer to for years.
- Your own herbal products to take home from our in-class recipe demonstrations, including a salve, a tincture, a flower essence, fire cider, and more.
- 42 hours of on-farm instruction time along with follow-ups to connect you to more resources and access to us to answer the questions that pop up for you along the way
- The invitation to harvest from our bountiful gardens and fields for your home apothecary. At each months’ class we will share what’s available for harvest, which could include holy basil, chamomile, and lemongrass in the summer and roots of dandelion, and elecampane in the fall.
- Treats and surprises! As the generous green world grows, blossoms and fruits around us, we get inspired to create and play, making all sorts of herbal treats to add sweetness and spice to our time together. Last year we had chamomile and hibiscus popsicles in June, a blueberry-rose cordial and rose-hip jelly in July, and reishi-chocolate truffles in August. We gifted motherwort plants, had spontaneous lunch-time swims in the pond, and decided to have a day of root-digging together in the fall after class was over.
ingredients for Blueberry Rose Cordial and Elderflowers and other Solstice blooms on their way to becoming cordial
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Equinox to Equinox
Our classes will be held from 9:00 to 4:00 one Saturday per month. Normally, we hold our first and last class very close to the spring and fall equinoxes. This season, we're staring and ending a month later because Annie is expecting a new baby just before Spring Equinox and will be needing some healing mom & baby time.
Mark these dates on your calendar when you sign up: April 15 May 20 June 17 July 15 August 19 September 16 October 21 We are planning to hold class 100% outside, though we do have a greenhouse to retreat into if needed. Bitter cold, heavy rains or high threat of thunderstorms may reschedule class. We will plan to reschedule for the following Sunday or the following Saturday, depending on the weather forecast and everyone’s availability. |
the Land
Annie & her husband own and operate Broad Wing Farm on this land as renters, an endeavor which includes an intensively managed acre of organically grown vegetables, herbs, as well as a flock of sheep, chickens, a farm dog and some new kitten mousers-in-training. We are devoted to building remineralized and living soil in our gardens and letting wildness flourish where we can.
Our classroom here is under the shade of a linden tree, planted by that same dear friend. Our monthly classes will include the ever-changing presence of the plants and the land, the dry stalks and new sprouts of early Spring and the jungly profusion of flowers and vines of Summer. Our students have told us that the land is as much a being in our class as anyone else and they feel a relationship with it after coming back in so many seasons and harvesting, sitting, and listening.
about your guides
We met about 5 years ago at a birth class when we were both 8 months pregnant. We soon found out we were both plant people and dove into rich conversations that have not ceased. Now we have 5-year-olds (turning 6!) who know how to pick Plantain for boo-boo's, can identify Violet leaves, and ask for Rose elixir when they’re upset.

My journey with herbalism started in 2012 when I studied with Juliet Blankespoor at the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine in Asheville, NC. For the past 9+ years I have continued to connect with plants through lots of exploration, self-study, herb cultivation, attending conferences, wildcrafting/foraging, and working as a community herbalist at Humboldt Herbals in Eureka, CA. As a humble student of the healing arts, I am continually finding new avenues of study and expansion for health and wellness in addition to herbal medicine. In addition to being a mama of 2 little ones, I am a postpartum care provider and a PA certified massage therapist, specializing in prenatal and postpartum bodywork. It is my hope that I can help inspire others to forge deep connections with the Earth, and cultivate a sense of bewilderment about the plants and our achingly beautiful dance together.

I've always been passionate about plants and I've lived this love as a vegetable farmer since I was a teenager. For me, just as essential as tending food crops is slipping off into the woods to forage wild salads and herbs for teas. In 2010 I took a life-changing Homestead Herbalism course with Susan Hess. The day we learned about comfrey, I badly sprained my ankle on a friend's farm, giving me the perfect opportunity to make a comfrey poultice and practice what I'd been learning. It worked, and added to the many powerful experiences I've had in the presence of plants. In 2012 I moved to Virginia to study with Kat Maier in Sacred Plant Traditions' Clinical Herbalism program. My partner and I started Broad Wing Farm in 2014, growing nutrient-dense food with organic practices for our community. Welcoming people onto the land and into our garden to meet and taste plants nourishes me on a deep level.
Reserve Your Space for Rooted Home Herbalism
Rooted Home Herbalism: Pay in Full
Sold out
Join our class for this season!
Class includes seven Saturdays of in-person instruction throughout the light half of the year, a binder of herbal reference materials, materials for recipe-making, medicine plants to harvest and so much more.
Chose our Full Price or, if you have the capacity, our Full Price Plus to give us more funds to offer for our scholarships this year!
Rooted Home Herbalism: Pay Deposit
Sold out
Join our class for this season!
Make this deposit to hold your space.
A second installment of $404.00 is due by the start of class on April 15th. The third installment of $404.00 is due by June 1st to continue class.
Class includes seven Saturdays of in-person instruction throughout the light half of the year, a binder of herbal reference materials, and materials for recipe-making.
Rooted Home Herbalism: Pay Second & Third Installment Here
After your initial deposit, a second installment of $404 is due by the start of class April 15th. The third installment of $404 is due by June 1st to continue class.
Class includes seven Saturdays of in-person instruction throughout the light half of the year, a binder of herbal reference materials, and materials for recipe-making.
If you are 100% excited about this course, but these payment options do not work for you, please reach out to us! We are willing to be creative. Write to Annie + Shannon at rootedhomeherbalism@gmail.com.
We can offer a full refund up to March 15th. After that point, we are unable to refund you since we will be preparing materials for your class experience.
Other Class Details
Though we have a lot to teach about plants and their preparations, none of what we share is meant to or able to diagnose or treat. We do not offer medical advice and we are not doctors. We encourage you to consult your own wise discernment about what is right for you, as well as your doctor or other health care professionals if needed.
In 2021, we donated 10% of our payments for class to SHARE Herbs, a group of Black and NBPOC (non-black people of color) herbal medicine makers and plant workers crafting and distributing herbal care kits to Black people in Philly. We also brought them a bundle of herbs from our garden for use in their herb kits.
In 2022 we donated 5% of our payments for class to SHARE Herbs and 7% to students who needed scholarship assistance to attend class. Though we have no formal scholarship program we encourage you to reach out if you feel called to be part of our class but cannot afford it.
Testimonials
[I knew] that having in person classes would be the most beneficial since I am still very new to herbalism. Reading information is one thing but to be more hands on and being able to participate in live demonstrations really helps to reinforce the new information. The classes were everything I thought they would be and more. I learned so much over the 7 months and I will continue to build on the foundation that Annie and Shannon set. Annie and Shannon’s passion and knowledge for all the topics we covered shined through and it made the rest of us more open and receptive to this journey together as a group, in and outside the program.
~ Lindsey Heckman |
It is not an overstatement to say that this class fundamentally changed the way I relate to plants and life and the world around me. This class taught me that plants are our teachers, ancestors, healers, companions and beyond; they have intelligence and the same life force that is within each human and all other living things. Class was a monthly haven for me - being on the farm itself was magic, and the container you two created provided both practical knowledge and deep spiritual grounding. I feel better equipped for healing myself and my community, and feel like I have tools to respond to the inevitable and ongoing crisis of our times.
What I learned in this course also cracked me open to my own ancestral healing journey and was a companion to me as I explored my heritage in Ireland. I believe that connecting to the plant world holds one of the keys to our journey to wholeness as humans... ~Ash Hagerty |

What a great class! I’m so happy to be re-tuning to plant spirit medicine and practice. A part of me has been missing and I feel whole-r. I can tell all the preparations and sweet details that went into our experience. Honoring both you and Shannon for sharing your combined wealth of knowledge and lived practice. Brava!
~ Hillery Woods Siatkowski LMT
http://www.hillerywoodswellness.com/
Taking a part in the Rooted Home Herbalism course with Shannon and Annie over the Summer of 2021 has been profound, healing and opening for me on so many levels, and has helped me to reorganize many aspects of my daily life. Transformational is just one word that comes to mind when reflecting on my experience in class.
During my time spent on the farm, I was truly able to slow down, listen, and become open to the teachings of these talented teachers and from the plants themselves. Annie and Shannon are not only skilled at the art & science of herbalism, but they hold a true understanding and gift for opening the doorways for students to craft their own experience and cultivate relationships with the plants. This course has empowered me in my herbal studies and has helped me to believe in my own intuition, knowledge and ability to trust the plants and make medicines that can help me and my family. This is a truly rooted experience, with hands on demonstrations, plant walks, meditations, storytelling and ancestral connection - something that continues to impact my decision making in all aspects of life. This course is perfect for those who are just starting to walk the plant path or those who have been walking this path for some time; there is medicine here for everyone. I would not hesitate to take this class again and again, as a new leaf, teaching or insight could unfurl in any moment within the container of magic, presence and openness that Annie and Shannon create together. ~Danielle Harley Crow |
And keep up with what we're doing at rootedhomeherbalism on instagram.