How are rising temperatures, extended periods of drought, erratic seasonal transitions, and other factors of the Earth's changing climate impacting wild plant communities and the ecosystems in which they/we live, and how as wildcrafters will we adapt our harvesting practices to reflect this new reality?

As we bear witness to the increasingly evident human-caused planetary crises spurred on by techno-industrial civilization, is it enough to simply alter the way we assess and plan for the long-term health and vitality of ecosystems from which we may potentially harvest wild plants, or might we simultaneously practice wildcrafting as a way of transforming the fundamental ways we relate to wild nature and the community of all life?

There is so much to learn in herbalism from our rich historical past but creating new and innovative ways to use herbs is fun and exciting. In this workshop, Dr. Glen Nagel will discuss bringing innovations from the world of modern gastronomy to herbalism. We will discuss and demonstrate the use of the pressurized whipper using N2O and CO2 to make foams, fluffs, and whips. We will explore using different bases such as gums, seaweed gels, egg whites, and fats. Let’s have fun with laughing gas in a new safe way!

Herbal foams are incredibly light and fluffy, give an amazing new taste and texture to common medicinal plants. We will explore this new field by talking about theory and then develop and practice making some fluffs, using a variety of herbal mucilages like marshmallow, seaweeds, egg whites, garbanzo water, and others. Foams are Fun: Light, mostly air, high flavor, many uses, made with laughing gas (N20) so they are naturally fun!

Viscum Album (Mistletoe) is one of the most studied botanicals for cancer application in the world. There are over 100 studies published at this time including several phase 3 studies as well as a phase two trial on John Hopkins School of medicine. Hellebores Niger is well known in botanical medicine and homeopathy and clinical research in Europe is increasing for uses in cancer, rheumatologic and other chronic inflammatory conditions.

In this presentation we will look at the history, biochemistry, physiology and clinical applications of these two plants as well as the applied pharmacy of these preparations. We will also explore how these plants are applied according to principals of herbology, naturopathy, anthroposophic and modern medicine.