Workshop by Annika Sellik: ‘Herbs – Sustainable Collecting and Practical Use’

Bases on collecting and working with herbs as natural healing resources in a sustainable way through practice.

Herbs have been engaged in my life since childhood – through this practical workshop I would like to share my knowledge and experience on finding, collecting, preserving and using herbs in a sustainable way on how we could use them as medicine and for food.
We put the focus on how we could use the herbs in a way that it would be sustainable for nature – how picking herbs would not damage the natural balance too much; how to re-cycle materials for preserving the herbs etc.
The workshop takes place during waxing moon period – the time when the healing potential of plants is high. We start the one-day workshop by walks from Jääaja Keskus (Ice Age Centre), along the shores of Saadjärv lake, looking, observing and collecting herbs. During small brakes we talk about on how to find and collect the plants so that it is not exhausting to nature; and we discuss the plants we have collected – their healing benefits and folklore/ beliefs around them.

During the lunch brake we make simple meal outside by using some of the collected plants – discussing the various possibilities for combining a nutritious meal. After the lunch we talk more specifically about how to preserve the herbs and on how to use dried, preserved herbs; which combinations of herbs are effective, about contraindications etc. Participants will receive digital material on herbs we have been collecting – covering the specifics of healing qualities and the range of use.

We kindly ask the workshop participants to dress according to the weather and to be prepared for longer walks in nature.

Duration: 4 h
Participants (amount): max. 15
Age restriction: no age restriction. The workshop is recommended from age 15, but if someone under age 15 has a keen interest in herbs they are more than welcome.
Language: ENG + translation into EST
Meeting point: at the Ice Age Centre foyer

This event is part of the international art and science initiative ‘Look into my Ice’.
‘Look into my Ice’ is a romantic initiative to enhance our emotions towards the coldest entity on Earth: Ice. The transeuropean project is part of the official program of the European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024 and offers new ways to approach the disastrous speed of the disappearance of polar and glacial ice as a result of the human made climate crisis.