September 7th, 11am to 4pm
Spontaneous Celebrations, Jamaica Plain, MA
~ local market with herbal crafters, growers & educators ~ inspiring herbal talks ~ urban plant walks ~ outdoor yoga classes ~ community herb swap ~ FREE to attend! << RSVP Here >> |
Our Marketplace Vendors:
Muddy River Herbals
Blue Whale Apothecary Puff Herbal Smokes The Healing Rose Nourish Shakti Western MA Hemp Inc. Mayur Naturals Steeped In Grace Tea is the Way |
Down to Earth Holistic Wellness
Solar Noon Botanicals Sawmill Herb Farm Earth & Moon Wellness Second Sun Creatives Angel Tree Healing Arts Hieropice Finist Design Foster Farm |
Schedule of Mini-Classes:
INDOOR CLASSES
These classes take place on the first floor of Spontaneous Celebrations, just as you enter the building. Our team will help direct you when you arrive. 11am: Journey to Self Care with Joye Williams Join Joye of JoyefullyNatural herbal remedies in interactive discussion on what Self Care means to you, what your goals are, and what can often time be hindrances towards you reaching your goal. Come ready to share in an intimate discussion of support. And take with you tools, suggestions, ideas from the group that you can implement in creating your own Self Care routine, along with powerful herbs you can use daily that can help you along the way! 12pm: Ourstory in the Garden with Lolita Parker Jr. Inspired by the political forethought of State Representatives Mel King, Royal Bolling Jr., James Siegel, Bill Owens and Barney Frank’s 1974 Act “establishing an office of garden allotment, allowing residents of the Commonwealth to garden on vacant public land,” this class will offer a lively round of stories and anecdotes on community gardens. 1pm: Elderberry Sumac Syrup: Supreme Herbal Ally with Su Cousineau JP community herbalist Su Cousineau will share all you need to know about this potent, delicious and immune supporting syrup. Su's version also includes several immune supportive spices. Learn how to make the syrup, about the herbs and their medicinal actions and taste a small sample for yourself! Recipe and herb info handout included. 2pm: Navigating Personal Care Choices: Shopping, Sourcing and Self-Care with Caitlin Moakley Are you looking to clean up your personal care routine? Have you felt lost in a sea of unrecognizable ingredients? In this class, I will help you navigate the personal care market and give you some nuggets of knowledge to consider taking with you on your next shopping trip. Join me as I share my journey on the path of personal care as a natural products professional and as a passionate plant lady. We will learn how to best honor the earth and its offerings through our conscious and considerate choices as consumers, retailers and creators. 3pm: Herb Swap! Bring your extra dried herbs, tinctures, herbal products, and other medicine-making miscellany to share and swap with others. Don't forget to bring bags, bottles or other containers to bring home your new herbs in! |
OUTDOOR CLASSES
These classes will be located either in the park in front of the Stonybrook T-stop, or at the Herbstalk community garden located a short walk away. Volunteers will help direct you. *Please note that outdoor classes are weather dependent, and may be cancelled if there is inclement weather. Check with us at the front desk for the latest updates.* 11am: Clarity in the Body, Clarity in the Mind with Vicki Sargsyan Together we will practice yoga in a circle, followed by a relaxing tea for everyone to enjoy, while we learn a little bit about the plants we are imbibing. There will be a short meditation to get us centered and connected to our intuition. Sharing of thoughts that come up will be encouraged. Also, fun will be had. 12pm: These Gritty Earth Gifts: A Gratitude Circle with Maggie Haaland A circle under the linden trees as an opportunity to offer gratitude for the summer season as we transition into fall. We will gather and have time to share about how summer has been, what it has offered and what we are ready to leave behind moving into fall. We will do an earth based ritual with a plant in bloom, bringing in the late summer earth energy. Depending on the size of the group, everybody will leave with a hand stitched dream pillow made from goldenrod dyed linen. 1pm: Circling Together: Darkness to Hope with Steph Zabel We are living through challenging, tumultuous and unprecedented times. As our global consciousness expands so does our awareness of the collective wounds of the world, which can leave us feeling overwhelmed and powerless. In this circle we will feel into the darkness and trauma of these times. We will then tap into the medicine of plants, movement, meditation and — most importantly — community to envision a more hopeful future and a more harmonious way of being on this beloved planet. Come willing to share and ready to receive. 2pm: Creating Your Own Urban Herb Garden with Jenny Hauf Whether your space consists of a large backyard or a single windowsill, this workshop will help you envision and begin planning for the garden of your dreams. We'll discuss various growing methods and techniques that work well for small areas, such as the use of vertical space and the beauty of container gardens. You'll also learn about some of the best plants for tiny, or even indoor, gardens, such as aloe, tulsi, and gotu kola. This workshop will be taught at one of the original Herbstalk Community Garden plots so you'll be able to get up close and personal with some of our favorite herbal allies. See you there! 3pm: Autumn Self Care Yoga with Clair Moore As the seasons change, we too, start to experience a transition within ourselves. Turn inward into yourself and the season with this all-levels outdoor yoga flow. Celebrate change and growth. All bodies welcome! |
Learn More About Our Speakers:
Su Cousineau
Taproot Healing Class: Elderberry Sumac Syrup Su is a shiatsu practitioner, herbalist, and educator with nearly 20 years experience, first with shiatsu and then more recently with herbal practices. She is a long time Jamaica Plain resident, community gardener and medicine maker. She helps her clients to stay healthy, relieve pain and chronic discomfort, learn practical healing skills and foster self awareness. With roots as a children’s arts educator of 12 years, Su still loves teaching about shiatsu and herbs in the larger community. |
Maggie Haaland
Class: These Gritty Earth Gifts: A Gratitude Circle Maggie is an natural dyer, herbalist, and river swimmer living in Western Massachusetts. She has studied with Jade Alicandro Mace, Steph Zabel, and Bryonie Wise and is grateful to have been a member of the Herbstalk garden team, as well as a current volunteer at Sawmill Herb Farm in Florence. She believes deeply in the power of beauty, connection, sisterhood, and vulnerability as catalysts for healing in ourselves, and in turn our world. When not making herbal potions or gardening, you can probably find her reading a Mary Oliver poem. |
Jenny Hauf
Muddy River Herbals Class: Creating Your Own Urban Herb Garden Since 2006 Jenny has been devoting her life to plants. Her education in sustainable agriculture has taken her from the picket fences of Virginia to the sandhill crane's mating grounds in northern Wisconsin; from the sheep and goat pastures of Italy's Piemonte to the technicolor fields of County Cork. Before starting Muddy River Herbals, Jenny created and curated the medicinal herb collection at Allandale Farm, introducing homegrown medicinal plants to the people of Boston. When she's not elbow-deep in herbs you can find her writing, landscaping, or doing something—anything—with wool. |
Caitlin Moakley
Soil & Spirit Class: Navigating Personal Care Choices Caitlin Moakley is a plant medicine advocate, floral and fungal foodie and champion of conscious ingredients in personal care. Caitlin is the heart and mind behind Soil and Spirit, an independent consultancy focusing on collaborating and creating with small businesses in the natural products industry and cannabis and psychedelic communities. She is also a core team member of environmental feminist group, Cosmic Sister. When Caitlin isn't thinking outside of the box with her clients, she's orchestrating quite the cacophony in the kitchen with her weapon of choice: the S-Blade or browsing through her many books in her home resource library. Caitlin is thrilled to be teaching at Harvest Fest this year, and can't wait to learn with you! |
Clair Moore
Plants & Provisions Class: Autumn Self Care Yoga Clair is a California transplant who remembers that her first experiences with plants were the bundles of kelp she played with as a child on the beach, and subsequently tried to drag home, to her parents' dismay. She is now a clinical herbalist and yoga instructor in the Boston area. She created Plants and Provisions to fuse healthy food, herbs, and movement to empower her clients to take charge of their own health. She holds private herbal wellness sessions, teaches yoga all around the city, and teaches pharmacy students how to work with herbs and pharmaceuticals safely. In her spare time, you can find her practicing yoga, and wandering through the forest with her pup, Ice-T. |
Lolita Parker Jr.
United Neighbors of Lower Roxbury Class: Ourstory in the Garden Oral Historian, Photographer and Garden Activist As caretaker of the Bessie Barnes and United Neighbors of Lower Roxbury Community Gardens Lolita may be the only person you'll meet who originally moved to Boston from Los Angeles for the weather. |
Victoria Sargsyan
Class: Clarity in the Body, Clarity in the Mind Vicki has studied traditional Western herbalism and Ayurvedic practices for several years, deepening her knowledge of the plant world with herbal teachers such as Brittany Wood Nickerson, Heather Irvine and Steph Zabel. She also works as the Assistant Manager + Bulk Herbs Lead at Cambridge Naturals, where she helps connect people with herbs every day. Vicki's mission in teaching is to be a voice for the plants, and to share their healing with as many people as possible. She wants to inspire her students in creating their own herbal experiences, and to have fun while doing it! |
Joye Williams
Joyefully Natural Class: Journey to Self Care Joye is the founder of JoyfullyNatural, a self-owned, self-funded company that was originally created out of her own need for healing. Joye oversees how the herbs in her products are grown, works with trusted resources that are committed to ethical practices, and is dedicated to building a relationship with each of her clients. Joye creates a bridge of connection to Nature through the everyday products that we use, be it beauty, bath, essentials, or home remedies. |
Steph Zabel
Flowerfolk Herbs Class: Circling Together: Darkness to Hope Steph is an herbalist, gardener, teacher, student and mother. She is the founder and organizer of Herbstalk and is devoted to creating joyful community gatherings that connect people with each other and with the natural world. She envisions Herbstalk as a catalyst of change, healing and collaboration on both individual and collective levels, and it has been her honor to co-create these events over the past decade. |
Food Options at the Event:
Snack, drink and lunch options can be found a short walk away at the nearby City Feed & Supply located at 66 Boylston St.
Snack, drink and lunch options can be found a short walk away at the nearby City Feed & Supply located at 66 Boylston St.
Accessibility & Parking Details:
Spontaneous Celebrations is located in a residential neighborhood. There is no public parking at the venue, but there is street parking in the surrounding areas. The Stonybrook T stop is a very short walk away.
There is wheelchair access to the first floor of the venue through a side door (located on the left-hand side of the building.) The first floor will be where our mini-classes are located.
There is an elevator to the second floor, where the marketplace will be held. Handicap parking spots near the building can be reserved with advance notice -- please email us at: info@herbstalk.org.
As always, we will have volunteers on hand to help anyone who needs additional assistance -- please inquire at the front desk as you enter!
Spontaneous Celebrations is located in a residential neighborhood. There is no public parking at the venue, but there is street parking in the surrounding areas. The Stonybrook T stop is a very short walk away.
There is wheelchair access to the first floor of the venue through a side door (located on the left-hand side of the building.) The first floor will be where our mini-classes are located.
There is an elevator to the second floor, where the marketplace will be held. Handicap parking spots near the building can be reserved with advance notice -- please email us at: info@herbstalk.org.
As always, we will have volunteers on hand to help anyone who needs additional assistance -- please inquire at the front desk as you enter!
Raising Funds for Amazon Watch:
At our upcoming Harvest Festival we will be collecting donations for Amazon Watch, an organization that protects the rainforest by supporting indigenous peoples and by partnering with environmental organizations in campaigns for the preservation of the Amazon's ecological systems.
In the wake of the unprecedented fires burning in Brazil, Amazon Watch is working around the clock to respond, expand their advocacy work on behalf of indigenous allies, and redirect funds to provide direct support for indigenous communities fighting to defend their rights and territories. We will be collecting donations for Amazon Watch at the Harvest Festival, or you can go directly to their website to offer your support. |