As the Salmonberry School Herbalist, Lily is in the classroom with 3-10 year olds sharing Folk Herbalism medicine and magic. We drink a lot of tea! We honor the seasons and we give offerings to the wild. We are all so blessed by this earth.
The Four Foraging Agreements:
1) Ask permission of the plants and give gratitude. Use your voice, heart, mind to ask the plants if they are willing to be harvested. Listen for your intuition to give you the answer. Then offer a song, a tear, rose petals, ash, heartfelt gratitude to the being for sharing their life with you.
2) Stay 100ft from roads. Cars create pollution, and the plants who live on the side of the road are busy cleansing the pollution from themselves and the earth. We respect their work, and do not want to interfere with the process or bring the process into our medicine.
3) Only harvest 10 percent. We are not the only beings who need the plants. Pollinators, insects, birds, animals, amphibians, and other humans all rely on the plants medicine and habitat, and we want to share with them.
4) Always ask an adult first. Some plants are poisonous, and look very similar to plants that are healing. Making sure an adult has helped to identify the plants being harvested keeps us all safe.
Native Medicinal Seed Balls
De Danaan Folk Herbalism Lesson Plans
Supplies List:
Clay
Seeds (Plantain, Dock, Wild Carrot, Yarrow, St. John’s Wort)
Soil
Parchment paper
Dried Rose Petals
For 3-6 year olds, this project was spread out over multiple days. One day, we harvested the seeds from the garden and wild. Another, we separated the seeds from their dried mother plants. And another, we prepared the clay balls. For the 7-10 year olds, this was all accomplished in one day’s project time.
Opening:
Dearest Beloved Plants,
Thank you for being here with us.
We are honored to learn from you.
And so it is.
CLAP!
1). Lay out parchment paper for each child’s work space, so the clay does not get stuck to the table.
2). Kids scatter rose petals on the parchment paper.
3). Kids flatten one clay ball at a time on top of the rose petals.
4). Kids place soil in the center of the flattened clay.
5). Kids sprinkle seeds on top of the soil.
6). Kids enclose the soil and seeds in the clay.
7). Leave the clay balls to dry (about a week), the rose smell will fill your home/classroom!
8). Give your seed balls to the earth as an offering! This seed blend will appreciate a sunny location. It could be a favorite place, or a disturbed earth location to help re-populate with beloved native medicinal plants! The clay will melt back into the earth as the rain falls on the ball, and the seeds cozy within the soil will germinate in the spring.
Closing:
Rose Petal Tea Ceremony
Steep rose petals in boiling water for 10 minutes.
Use both smell and taste to experience the medicine of rose: antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, high in vitamin C, calming and healing to the heart and gut.
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