Learn how to identify, harvest, prepare, and use plants for healing in this medicinal herbs course

Young black female student smiles while holding up roots she's harvested to make a tincture with at the Wildcrafted Apothecary Medicinal Herbs course at Wild Abundance

Do you want to take the power of healing into your own hands?

Do you want to learn to recognize and work with plant allies?

Are you drawn to wildcrafting, but feel intimidated?

If so, this wildcrafting and herbal medicine making course is for you! You’ll feel empowered  to identify and utilize plants—both wild and cultivated—for healing and vitality.

Join our inspired and experienced team of herbalists, artisans, and ethnobotanists for this four day intensive medicinal herbs course. You’ll leave with a basket full of homemade medicines (made by you!). Plus, you’ll gain the knowledge of how to make more—from plants growing all around you.

What our students say

What to expect in this wildcrafting and medicinal herbs course:

Learn how to stock your own herbal apothecary with handmade and wildcrafted medicines.

Starting with a wild plants walk, we’ll learn traditional uses of medicinal herbs, and how to make decoctions, infusions, herbal honeys, cordials, tinctures, oxymels, salves, and more.

We’ll cover plant identification, and the ethics and safety of harvesting, along with medicinal herb cultivation and wild foods cookery.

Women in an herbal medicine making class practice plant identification on a nature walk with an herbalist instructor

At the beautiful, lush Wild Abundance Sanford Way campus, we’ll explore both wild and cultivated medicinal herbs and wild edibles. Experienced and talented herbalist instructors will guide you in learning to make multiple medicines to fill your apothecary. When these knowledgeable teachers walk you through how to make herbal preparations, you’ll feel confident making your own after the class. Throughout the long weekend of wildcrafting, we’ll make and enjoy tasty herbal treats.

Instructor Rebecca Beyer shows students how to make tinctures, oxymels, and salves using foraged medicinal herbs at a wildcrafted apothecary class at Wild Abundance

Delight in wildcrafting with the delicious, healing gifts given by the plants.

This herbalist course covers:

Plant Identification

How to get to know wild plants, even if you’ve never met them before, plus how to ID common medicinals and how NOT to confuse them with poisonous plants.

Ethical Wildcrafting Practices

How to harvest responsibly, maintaining healthy wild plant populations through wild tending.

Instructor Rebecca Beyer's hands holding out a leaf to show students how to identify the plant for foraging purposes

Growing and Propagating Medicinal Herbs at Home

How to start and maintain your own herb garden.

Wild Foods Preparation and Cooking

How to confidently forage and cook wild foods, turning them into delicious meals.

Wild salad made during wildcrafting and medicine making course

The fields and forest become your pharmacy and market when you learn wildcrafting and herbal medicine making.

Stock your apothecary with these handmade goodies:

Herbal Salves

Topical medicine for skin healing

Herbal Tinctures

Concentrated, shelf-stable plant extracts

Herbal Liqueurs and Cordials

Fun and scrumptious healing drinks

Oxymels

Tasty herbal tonics made with vinegar and honey

Salves created during a wildcrafting and medicine making class

This medicinal herbs course helps you integrate plants into your life

Our students leave not only feeling equipped to wildcraft medicinal herbs themselves, but also inspired and motivated to incorporate these plant allies into their lives. It’s one thing to study the information side of herbalism, to know how to identify wild plants, or to understand how to turn leaves into an herbal preparation; we take a step beyond this. 

Our team of instructors—plant lovers who have been wildcrafting for years—actually have relationships with these herbs and use them on a regular basis. 

Throughout this medicinal herbs course they will share with you wider reflections like: how they make time to get out into the woods to wildcraft; guidance for growing herbs even if you don’t have a garden; recipes for herbal delights that can be consumed daily and aren’t just for acute conditions; and much more.

young woman preparing foraged wild medicinal plants for herbal medicine making at the wildcrafted apothecary class

We’re excited about plants (can you tell?), and we can’t wait to share our excitement with you.

During this wildcrafting class, we’ll forage wild foods and make these delicious, nutritious, and medicinal herbal goodies to enjoy together:

Infusions

Easy, tasty teas made from leaves and flowers steeped in hot water

Decoctions

Rich, flavorful teas made from leaves, barks, roots and berries, slow-simmered to perfection (think spiced chai, yum!)

Wildcrafted “Weed” Salad

A colorful and flavorful alternative to plain old lettuce that is higher in nutrients and healing properties

Traditional wild plant delicacies

Cooked dishes based on traditional preparations of the wild plants of these ancient mountains

a student smiles holding a jar of tincture she's prepared using medicinal herbs foraged and processed during a wildcrafted apothecary course at wild abundance

Frequently Asked Questions about this Medicinal Herbs Course

Does this herbalist course include a certification?
This herbalist course will give you the skills to harvest and prepare wild and cultivated plants to stock your own herbal apothecary. You’ll learn many of the foundational skills every herbalist needs, and you can carry those with you. We do not offer a certification, and in reality, there is no official certification for herbalists in the US at this time. You can learn much more about herbal certifications in this detailed article from our friends at the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine: The Truth About Herbalist Certification.
Is making your own herbal medicine safe?
The medicines you’ll learn to make in this medicinal herbs course are safe to use and share with most people. Your instructors will alert you of any contraindications (situations where a given herb or medicine might not be advised), and will also guide you to make safe choices in your future medicine making endeavors. When you take care to understand herbal properties and contraindications, and use the techniques you’ll be taught during this class, herbal medicines from your home apothecary can be safe to use and share.
How do you study herbs?
In many ways, studying herbs is just like studying anything else; you gather the body of knowledge that has been cultivated by many generations of herbalists before you. However, in some ways, studying herbs is different. This is because medicinal herbs are living beings, and because different people with different backgrounds and experiences have different ideas about how to use herbs. This medicinal herbs course is a great place to begin or to deepen your study of herbs, because it involves sharing information, as well as lots of hands-on relating with the herbs themselves.
What is foraging?
Foraging for food means traversing and exploring the physical world in search of plants (or fungi) that provide sustenance. According to behavioral ecology theory, foraging affects an animal’s fitness because it plays an important role in an animal’s ability to survive and reproduce. It’s true that we humans seem to be able to survive and reproduce without foraging for food in uncultivated places. Still, we believe this ancient practice has a positive impact on physical, mental and emotional fitness!
What is wildcrafting?
Wildcrafting is similar to foraging, but usually refers to the gathering of medicinal plants or fungi, rather than food plants or fungi. To wildcraft herbs, we traverse wild places and identify and harvest healing allies. We do this with care not to disturb wild populations.

Instructors

Rebecca Beyer

Rebecca Beyer (she/her) is an Appalachian folk herbalist, huntress, and wild food forager dedicated to living simply on the Earth. She has taught and presented at universities, conferences and gatherings over the last nine years with the hope of showing people that living a seasonal life grounded in connection with the Old Ways is possible. ...
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Brandon Ruiz

Brandon Ruiz

Brandon Ruiz (he/him) is a Community Herbalist and Urban Farmer based in Charlotte, NC. His farming project Yucayeke Farms focuses on providing equal and affordable access to herbal medicine and culturally-relevant foods to his community. He specializes in medicines of his native Puerto Rico, throughout the Caribbean and Appalachia.
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Tyson Sampson

Tyson Sampson

Tyson Sampson (they/them/he/him) is an Eastern Band Cherokee Indian (ᎠᏳᏫᏯ ᎨᏯᏔᎯᎤᏁᏉᎳᏗᏍᎩ). Tyson has been educating about harvesting and processing regional flora for 21 years. “As a kid I always thought we gathered food from the woods because we were poor. As an adult I realized we went to the forest because it brought joy to ...
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Kearsley Tate Schweller

Kearsley Tate Schweller

Kearsley (she/her) is the bioregional Chef, folk herbalist, & artist cooking up local flavors in Kearsley’s Kitchen. She shares her seasonally inspired meals and musings in the form of pop-up dinners, private catering, wildcrafted herbal elixirs, & seasonal cookbooks that detail her favorite recipes, herbal remedies, and rituals for connecting with each season. In 2018 ...
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This class is held just outside of Asheville, NC, at the Wild Abundance Sanford Way Campus

Wild Abundance’s original home campus is on Sanford Way in Barnardsville, NC. It boasts many gorgeous and functional features,  like a leaf-shaped organic permaculture garden, a food forest, a hand built log cabin, an open-air classroom topped with solar panels, and a stunning wattle and daub outdoor kitchen.

Please note: our campuses are all unconventional, with rustic amenities and uneven ground. Read more about Planning your trip and about our campuses. It takes about 25 minutes to get here from Asheville.

Accommodations and Facilities

You’ve got several options of where to stay during your class. Some students camp, some locals commute, and others choose to rent accommodations with more creature comforts.

Onsite camping (with your own bedding and rainproof tent or hammock) is available for free to all students (including locals) during class. Campers have access to a lovely outdoor kitchen equipped with a stove, hot and cold running water, plus pots and pans, knives and cutting boards, bowls, plates, and utensils, along with an outdoor shower (with hot and cold running water) and outhouse. If you’d rather rent a place, there are many available. We’ll share a curated list of nearby options once you’ve registered. 

Costs of Different Accommodations

So you can better plan your trip to come learn with us, here’s some info on accommodations we offer, or that we link to in the student handbook you’ll receive upon registration. 

  • Camping with your own gear: free
  • On-campus enclosed or open-air options through AirBnB : $30-$65/night + fees
  • Hyper-local off-campus single rentals: $40-$2000/night + fees
  • Hyper-local off-campus couples rentals: $20-100/person/night + fees
  • Hyper-local off-campus group rentals: $25-$86/person/night + fees

Getting a place with a group of fellow students is a great way to make connections and reduce costs! We share contact info for each class so you can get in touch and make plans together. Everyone has a chance to keep their info private if they choose. 

Transportation Info and Costs

Our campus is about 25 minutes north of Asheville, 40 minutes from the Asheville Regional Airport, and 2.5 hours from the Charlotte International Airport. You’ll get detailed directions of how to get here upon registration. 

You won’t need a car during your class. There’s a chance you may want to run an errand or go out to dinner with fellow students, and if this happens, it’s highly likely that another student with a car will be happy to give you a lift.

Public transportation doesn’t serve our rural area, but we’ll share contact info for local folks who offer airport and grocery shuttle runs for $50-$80 each way upon registration. If you’d rather rent a car, those run anywhere from $45-$200/day. Just like with lodging, teaming up with a group of fellow students to share a car rental can help build connections and reduce costs. 

Pricing for Wildcrafting and Medicine Making Intensive

Regular Pricing: $850 – $1,700

Please pay what you can afford.  The median price is suggested to help cover the full cost of hosting this class. Please select the low end of the sliding scale if you are low income. If your household income is over $115,000/year, please select the maximum fee. Please place yourself in this range where you deem appropriate, based on your income.

Course Date:

  • May 8-11, 2025