Healing medicines outside your door

Not every ache, pain or ailment requires a trip to the pharmacy, granted you’re lucky enough to be living in Rappahannock County.

Local medicinal herbalist Teresa Boardwine is inviting county residents to join her in exploring the fields, mountains, stream beds and roadsides “as we forage and harvest our food and medicines.”

“This experience is for anyone who wants to learn about the powerful healing properties of plants, how to craft herbal medicines, how to use food as medicine, and how to identify and use the plants around us to support wellbeing,” she says. “No prior herbal knowledge, cooking skills or medical training is required.”

Participants are invited for all three days of medicinal camp or just one or two days. Either way, they will leave “empowered to support their health and the wellbeing of their families through the power of herbal medicine.”

Boardwine will also demonstrate methods to prepare medicinal herbal teas, elixirs, tinctures, oils and salves from the healing plants that are so bountiful here, as well as how to incorporate medicinal plants into your home garden and create your own home apothecary with your newly acquired medicine making skills.

The medicinal camp will be held August 17-19 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Green Comfort School of Herbal Medicine, 100 Rock Mills Road, Castleton. Visit www. greencomfortherbschool.com/ classes/herb-camp/