For each herb, we will provide in-depth materia medica with monograph, ethnobotany, history and photochemistry. Individual Topics include:

• THYME AND SAGE with Maggie O’Halloran 
  Thyme and Sage aren’t just among the most popular culinary herbs today — they also have a long history of use as medicinal herbs and even as spiritual protectors. In this class, we will get to know these two well-known spices for their medicinal benefit and learn recipes to employ their healing powers in our daily lives.
• CAYENNE AND CITRUS with Maggie O’Halloran 
  Cayenne is a popular spice with historical use for skin and cardiovascular support. Not only does it heat up your mouth, but herbalists and alchemists have written books on all of the other benefits of Cayenne. Lemons, limes, oranges all add a refreshing burst of sweet refreshment to our beverages and culinary delights. Let’s take a look at how these can combine to provide a healthful tasty beverage!
• ONION with Emily Ruff 
  Onions are a common staple in our diets, but they add so much more than flavor to dishes. Whether it’s cardiac benefits, immune support, or for use in first aid, onions bring a myriad of medicinal qualities to our lives. In this class, we’ll explore those benefits and learn creative ways to prepare onion for use in your family’s health.
• GINGER with Christina Lynch 
  Ginger, a tropical rhizome rich in similar virtues for keeping pathogens at bay, also brings some spice to our food and our medicine.
• PARSLEY with Emily Ruff 
  Parsley is a popular herb often used in cooking. Parsley is not just a decoration on our plate, but it is an impressive herb that offers numerous health benefits, internally and externally. In this class, we will explore the disease-fighting qualities of parsley, and learn how to prepare culinary, medicinal, and topical applications to harness its power.
• BASIL AND FRIENDS with Maggie O’Halloran 
  Join us as we explore the historical uses of Tulsi or Holy Basil and how you can utilize it in your kitchen. Long revered for its many health benefits, this adaptogen is a culinary star as well. Pesto is a fun way to incorporate the tasty benefits of culinary basil we associate with this versatile sauce as well as the nervous system support of Holy Basil.
• GARLIC with Shay DeGrandis 
  With a storied history of repelling vampires and cooties, Garlic is a kitchen medicine you’ll want to have on hand for first aid situations.
• ROSEMARY with Wilnise Francois 
  Rosemary, the herb of remembrance, has a documented history in scientific literature supporting our memory, focus, and cognitive function. Not only is this tasty herb an ally to our mental prowess, and tasty addition to many culinary recipes, but it also finds favor in topical formulas for skin and hair. In this class, we’ll delight in the sensory aromas that Rosemary gifts while learning recipes to keep our bellies and our bodies happy.

$197.00Add to cart

Your Instructors:

Emily Ruff, Founder, is a community herbalist who has practiced the art and science of plant healing for over a decade. Her studies have taken her around three continents where she has studied under healers of many traditions. Her background in gardening and botany came in childhood while wandering the wilderness and digging in the sandy soils of Florida with her grandfather, a tobacco farmer turned urban gardener, and her father, a botany and astronomy professor. Her journey into herbalism continued through apprenticeships in Guatemala under the tutelage of local healers on the southern coast of Lake Atitlan, in the mountains of Vermont at the feet of Rosemary Gladstar, and in the Central Florida apothecary Leaves & Roots with herbalists Carolyn Whitford and George D’Arcy. Emily’s academic studies include Ethnobotany, Philosophy, and Women’s Studies at the University of Central Florida and Curanderismo with the University of New Mexico. She is a Bach Flower Registered Practitioner.

Emily’s dedication to preserving bioregional medicinal plant traditions and ecosystems led her to become active in the organization United Plant Savers. Inspired by a need for greater connection among her regional community, she founded the Florida Herbal Conference event in 2012, an event that continues to sell out annually. In past years, she served multiple terms as president of the Herb Society of Central Florida and as co-founder of Homegrown Local Food Cooperative. Most recently, in response to the tragic shooting at Pulse Nightclub, Emily founded the Orlando Grief Care Project. From the community relationships cultivated through the national response to this tragedy, Emily formed the Herbal Action Network to continue weaving the web of compassionate herbalism into community engagement. Emily is an instructor in the Herbal Academy Advanced Herbal Training Course. Sharing her time between Florida and Vermont, she currently serves as director of the Sage Mountain Botanical Sanctuary.

Emily’s classes have been described as “heart-filled,” “enriching,” and “empowering,” creating a bridge between the teachings of our ancestors and the technologies of our modern world. Emily can be found in joy cooking, practicing yoga, writing, photographing flora, creating music with family and friends, and digging her fingers in the dirt. The plants continue to be her greatest teachers.

See Emily’s classes at this link.

Maggie O’Halloran, Executive Director, is an herbalist and educator in Central Florida. She comes from a large family where chaos was the norm. She always found peace outside watching things grow or climbing magnolia trees. She learned in her mother’s kitchen that the things you put in your mouth impact your mind and your body.

In the early 90’s she first found her own inspiration to view health from a holistic perspective while working as a teacher assistant at a mental health hospital for children. From that experience, she decided that there had to be a better way to help kids beyond medicating them to a zombie state with pharmaceuticals. She started college studying education and psychology ultimately received a bachelor’s degree in Human Development and Masters in Educational Leadership.

In 1999 she took her love of plants to Oakland, California where she worked with inner-city elementary students and teachers, learning and teaching about violence prevention and anger management through physical education and body awareness with Playworks. She explored working with food, exercise, breathing, and communication skills. She continued to study plants and their medicine by sharing with friends.

In 2006 she moved to Florida to find a slower pace in life. Though her love of teaching hasn’t waned, she took the opportunity to focus on deepening her plant knowledge in a more intentional way with Emily Ruff and The Florida School of Holistic Living. Since then she has found inspiration from teachers like Rosemary Gladstar and David Winston. She continues her passion for helping people find peace by sharing her knowledge with whomever will listen. She enjoys working with friends, family, and strangers seeking a more holistic way to be healthy.

These days she can be found hiking on trails, tending her garden, creating something good for you in her kitchen, teaching in her community about plant medicine, and learning from her six-year-old herbalist and his friends.

Shay DeGrandis is an artist, community herbalist, writer, death midwife, accidental comedian, and well-meaning but amateur therapist working in the Orlando area. She is a recent graduate of the Florida School of Holistic Living Community Herbalist Program and received her BFA from Florida International University (via New World School of the Arts), her MFA from the University of Maryland, College Park, and went on the study Art History at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She loves to spend her time in her garden, chatting with the plants.

Christina Lynch is a growing community herbalist who desires to share her knowledge and passions with those around her. She is a first-generation American, with her lineage deriving from Barbados. Taking great desire to reconnect to the earth, continuing the spiritual and physical connections with the earth as her ancestors once did, her intent is to assist others in starting or continuing their journeys in becoming one with themselves.
She is currently the Vice President of Accounting & Finance for The Gabor Agency in Tallahassee, Florida. She has her Master’s degree in Human Resources and Employment Relations from Penn State University, and her bachelor degrees in Accounting, Finance and Human Resource Management from Florida State University. She has 13 years of professional experience in corporate accounting, human resource management, risk management, business plan development and strategic planning. She has also assisted numerous small businesses improve administrative operations, develop and maintain bookkeeping practices, and provide training support through her consulting firm, Trydent Consulting, and the Small Business Development Center. Christina is an avid tea lover, recovering foodie and cultural explorer.

Wilnise Francois is a Haitian-American Licensed Nurse and Herbalist that has worked in the allopathic modality of healing for over a decade. Working alongside physicians and caretakers alike facilitating wellness to those across the life span. Her role as an herbalist expanded with the personal need and integration of herbal medicines from her coveted traditional Haitian practices and studies in Western herbalism. As an herbalist, she is working to revolutionize the cultural affinity of our plant friends through our relationships with the earth and stars. Her aim is to integrate the very love our herbs show us and implement that essence into our daily lives; creating a lifestyle of health and wellness.

CEUs
You will receive the CEUs you applied and paid for upon the satisfactory completion of the class and all assignments. Once the requirements have been met, we will input your CEUs in CE Broker.

From: $100.00 / monthRead more

Visit this link to learn more about signing up for the Family Herbalist Program which follows Roots, or visit this link to learn more about joining both Roots of Herbalism and the Family Herbalist program in a discounted bundle to save $100.

Through this course, you will:

~ Discover your relationship to plants and the environment, and its impact on your personal health

~ Explore the theory, philosophy, and history of ecological herbalism and ethnobotany

~ Understand the role of the nervous system and emotional, mental, and spiritual health in our physical well-being

~ Learn techniques to integrate herbal wellness into a daily lifestyle practice

~ Discuss important foundational nutritional principles to nourish your body’s own healing capacity

~ Learn the botanical classification, parts used, and prominent medicinal uses of over 20 herbs from Native American and Western Materia Medica, to begin building your knowledge of herbs

~ Explore how to make your own herbal preparations to apply your herbal knowledge through practical application, including tisanes, tinctures, infused oils, and topical applications

~ Learn how to integrate these ancient teachings into our modern-day world

Roots of Herbalism is intended as a comprehensive introduction to the art of herbal healing for those who wish to help themselves and their families achieve radiant well-being through natural health.

It is a practical course well-suited for laypeople and health professionals alike.  Both those with no herbal experience, and those with years of self-study and practice, will gain insight from this program.

The course seeks to marry ancient traditions with the scientific context of our modern world. Our goal is to reclaim our herbal heritage and empower students to apply these teachings for optimum well-being in balance with today’s society. We focus our study on plants that are common in the Native North American and Western European traditions, which grow commonly in the wild or can be easily cultivated.

This correspondence course includes a two-part full-length DVD, course booklet, herbal samples, course textbook, Rosemary Gladstar’s Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health, and assignment feedback.  Tuition is $260, and a two-part payment plan is available (digital materials including Basics of Herbal Medicine Making and access to Roots Roundtable are sent with your initial payment, and your physical course materials are mailed upon receipt of your second payment one month later). Course materials are shipped within seven days of purchase via USPS to any address in the continental United States; you will receive a separate invoice for shipping costs if this package is mailed to any territory or country outside this region. Students registering outside of the United States are mailed herbal plant samples dependent upon customs regulations for your country.

This course offers 12 Continuing Education Units for Acupuncturists, Massage Therapists, Dietitians, Nutritionists, Nurses and Midwives for licensed practitioners through the State of Florida for an additional $15 processing fee.*

*Please note, an assessment is located at the end of our course booklet. To receive Continuing Education Credits, this assessment must be completed and turned in via email or mail.

Students have access to digital materials for one calendar year upon enrolling in the course; physical materials are yours for a lifetime.

Discover your relationship to herbs through hands-on learning
centered in the earth and your personal journey along the plant path

This expanded course package combines a wealth of tools and resources
for establishing a solid foundation as an herbalist.

The Roots of Herbalism Home Study Course includes:

• Full-length Roots Home Study instructional video
• Samples of over 20 herbs covered in class, to gain sensory knowledge and work with these plants in your own kitchen
• Roots Home Study coursebook featuring foundational teachings, herbal exercises and medicine making instructions
• Rosemary Gladstar’s classic text, Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health
• Basics of Herbal Medicine Making, our five-part video course
• Materia Medica video classes for all herbs covered in the course
• A seasonal subscription to Roots Roundtable, our signature student community and resource hub featuring monthly live online gatherings and Q&A plus customized video and ebook resources plus student discounts each month. Each season’s Roots Roundtable runs from October through April.
• Plus 12 Continuing Education Units available to Massage Therapists, Nurses, Dietitians, Midwives, and Acupuncture physicians (for an additional fee)

All these resources for just $297, or two payments of $165

$297.00Select options

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Scroll down to learn about each of the four components in this robust Roots of Herbalism package.

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Roots of Herbalism
Home Study Curriculum Includes:

• Full-Length Instructional Video

• 20+ Herbs to Sample at home

•  Our signature Roots of Herbalism Home Study Coursebook

•  Rosemary Gladstar’s classic text, Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health

 

 

 

PLUS: Enjoy our Basics of Herbal Medicine Making 5-part video series

• Tea Blending and Formulation
• Vinegars and Oxymels
• Syrups
• Tinctures
• Steams and Chest Packs

Making herbal medicines in our home kitchen is empowering, economical, and just plain fun. Learn hands-on how to create many of the most widely used herbal medicines. Recipes and handouts will be provided to complement the webinars. The Basics of Herbal Medicine Making Series is a new online video series and is a perfect companion to the Roots of Herbalism Home Study course, giving you the opportunity to roll up your sleeves and make herbal medicines under the expert guidance of Emily, Shannon and Maggie.

This series is offered on its own for $50 tuition, and included for free as part of our introductory Roots of Herbalism Home Study package

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Meet our Plant Friends during Materia Medica Classes

(Also known as Plant Profiles)

Our friends in the garden –
Whether it’s a new friend or one you’ve known for a while, it’s always nice to revisit friends and give special attention to create a deeper more meaningful relationship.

What is it to develop a relationship with a plant?
Beyond the introduction of scientific names and common names, plants like people deserve some one-on-one time to really get to know them. You’ll learn attributes like appearance, taste, smell, touch, where it’s from, where it lives, what’s its character is like, energetics, medicinal benefits, and its history with humans.
These plant profiles are articulated both through a written, blog format as well as a short video class. They include the herbs that you will receive in your physically mailed package to support your hands-on learning.

Receive our entire catalog of Materia Medica classes and articles with your Roots of Herbalism Home Study Enrollment

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Join us for our monthly live, online sessions of fun and friendship with fellow
herbalists, plus teaching from our Community Herbalist students.

The Roots Roundtable Subscription includes:

• Monthly virtual class from October through April
• Discounts from herbal companies
• Curated collection of videos, PDFs and e-books
• And More!!

 

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The comprehensive
Roots of Herbalism Home Study
package includes:

Roots Home Study | $260 value
Basics of Herbal Medicine Making | $50 value
Materia Medica | $60 value
Roots Roundtable Season | $75 value
All components a $445+ value
All this for only $297
Pay $297 in full or make 2 payments of $165
$15 additional fee for CEU credits

REGISTER ABOVE FOR FULL PAYMENT, OR USE PAYMENT PLAN OPTION.

Here’s what some of our Roots graduates have said…

This series was originally hosted live in April 2020 with herbalists Emily Ruff, Maggie O’Halloran, and Debbie Krause, and has been recorded by request to share with students interested in building resilient health for themselves, families, and clients.

Learn more about Our Teachers at this link.

Making herbal medicines in our home kitchen is empowering, economical, and just plain fun. Whether you’ve been an herbalist for years or are just beginning to study healing plants, join us for a week-long webinar series where you will learn hands-on how to create many of the most widely used herbal medicines. Recipes and handouts are provided to compliment the webinars.

Tuition is whatever you can afford. You will name your own price at checkout, even if that price is zero. CEUs are available for an additional $15 processing fee.

See Our Teachers for more information about course instructors.