Participants will use all of their senses to draw comparisons between the Ozarks and the southern Pacific Islands while having fun learning about different plants, customs, geological formations, and historical events of the Land Down Under. Lunches, included in the ticket fee, will be favorite foods with Australasian flavors and recipes. Given that Europeans, particularly the English, colonized these islands, many of the herbs in modern usage are native to the Mediterranean and are familiar to us. Herbal folks in the U.S. use essential oils from Australasia. We share common foods, like barbeque, meat pies, sweet potatoes, rice and sorghum. Our population is enriched by the plant wisdom of Native Peoples as are Australians and New Zealanders. The herb trade between our regions is vigorous. Read on and please join us in this exploration. The Heritage Herb Garden at the Ozark Folk Center is where plants and people connect.
Tickets for the Lavish Herbal Feast, Thursday, October 5 are sold separately and are available here: https://ozarkfolkcenter.ticketleap.com/the-lavish-herbal-feast-and-garden-reception-2023-featuring-aus/.
The Schedule
Friday, October 6, 2023
White Oak Auditorium inside the Visitors Center
9 a.m. Welcome—Tina Marie Wilcox
9:10-10:30 The Geology, Geography, Biomes, and Original Peoples of Australia and New Zealand —Kathleen Connole
10:30-10:45 Break
10:45-12:00 Bush Medicine: Traditional Aboriginal Medicine of Australia and the Torres Strait Islanders—Gayle Engels
12:00-1:00 Down Under-Style lunch at the Skillet Restaurant (included in ticket fee)
Fish & Chips
Southland Cheese Roll & Chips (Vegetarian option)
Cabbage & Apple Slaw
Lamingtons (traditional cake with chocolate & coconut)
Iced Tea or Coffee
1-2:00 p.m. Foods, Cooking Terms & Customs from Down Under—Susan Belsinger
2:00-3:00 Visit the Heritage Herb Garden and Artisans in the Craft Village
3-3:30 Tea
3:30-5:00 Essential Oils & Revenge of the Microbes—Dorene Peterson (A video presentation shared by the American College of Healthcare Sciences.)
Saturday, October 7, 2023
White Oak Auditorium inside the Visitors Center
9 a.m. Welcome—Tina Marie Wilcox
9:10-10:30 The Plant Explorers of Australia and New Zealand—Kathleen Connole
10:30-11 Break
11:30-12:30 Traditional & Favorite Recipes from Australia & New Zeland
—Susan Belsinger
12:30-1:30 Down Under-Style lunch at the Skillet Restaurant (included in ticket fee)
Burger Down Under-Style with all of the Fixins
Field Roast Veggie Burger Down Under-Style with all of the Fixins (Vegetarian option)
Sweet Potato Fries with Aioli
Anzac Biscuits (a favorite cookie with oats & coconut)
Iced Tea or Coffee
1:30-2:30 Rongoā from En to Zed: Traditional Māori Medicine—Gayle Engels
2:30-3 p.m. Break
3-4:00 p.m. Autumn Gardening Back Home in the Ozarks—Tina Marie Wilcox
4:00 Fond Farewell Fare—The Herb Garden Committee of the Committee of 100
About Our Teachers
Susan Belsinger lives an herbal life—she teaches, lectures, and writes about herbs, gardening and cooking—is a food writer, editor and photographer who has authored and edited over 25 books and hundreds of articles. She is celebrating her most recent book, The Perfect Bite: Focus on Flavor.
Susan is a member of the International Herb Association, the Herb Society of America and was Honorary President of the HSA for the 2018 to 2020 term. Check out her video series Gathering and Preserving the Herbal Bounty for HSA’s online education: https://www.herbsociety.org/portal-log-in-page/on-line-education.html
Susan delights in learning, whether it is about a person, place, plant, thing, or each new herb of the year: doing research, growing the specimens, botanizing, taking photos, creating recipes, sharing her findings and celebrating the plants.
www.susanbelsinger.com
https://www.instagram.com/cookinwithherbs/
https://www.facebook.com/susan.belsinger
https://www.facebook.com/CreativeHerbalHome
Kathleen Connole joined the Ozark Folk Center’s Heritage Herb Garden team in 2006. Before moving to Arkansas’ Buffalo River Country in 2005, Kathleen earned a degree in Plant Science from the University of Missouri-Columbia and worked at Powell Gardens and Farrand Farms in Kansas City, Missouri.
Kathleen researches the natural history of the Heritage Herb Garden’s diverse herbal collection. She composes interpretive signage for the Garden to tell the stories of these plants.
The Plant Explorers has been the topic of her Herb Harvest Fall Festival presentations, beginning in 2014 with the British Isles. The continuing theme of this event is connecting plants from all over the world to the Ozarks.
Kathleen served as chair and is an active member of the Herb Society of America Ozark Unit, headquartered at the Ozark Folk Center State Park. She currently is secretary for the International Herb Association Board. She was editor of the IHA’s Viola, Herb of the Year™ 2022, Ginger, Herb of the Year™ 2023 and is currently working on Yarrow, Herb of the Year 2024.
Gayle Engels is the Special Projects Director for the American Botanical Council (ABC) where she has worked since 1995. She oversees and guides the development of ABC’s website and content management system (CMS), directs ABC’s HerbMedPro database, coordinates HerbDay nationally, and writes content for ABC’s website, including its free ecards, Healthy Ingredients profiles, and Adopt-an-Herb pages. Gayle wrote more than 50 Herb Profiles for HerbalGram over 13 years and currently edits and formats Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program articles for publication on ABC’s website.
Gayle has a degree in secondary education and manages the Education Department and the 25+ themed gardens on ABC’s 2.5 acre Case Mill homestead. Gayle gives presentations for educational groups and plant-oriented organizations, including demonstrations, study groups, lectures, and tours of ABC’s gardens. She just completed three years as the Botany and Horticulture chair for the Herb Society of America and is thrilled to have received its inaugural Madalene Hill Award for Excellence in Herbal Education.
Gayle’s primary goals in life are to enjoy living it while learning as much as she can about all sorts of things and sharing that knowledge with as many people as possible.
Dorene Petersen BA, DIP.NT, DIP.ACU, RH (AHG) is a New Zealand-trained Naturopath and aromatherapy, herbalism, and holistic wellness expert with decades of experience. Dorene grew up in New Zealand loving plants, cooking from scratch, and learning to make herbal medicines. She founded the American College of Healthcare Sciences (ACHS) in 1978. During that time, she authored twenty textbooks, amongst many other things, and continues to write. Her most immense joy is celebrating successful ACHS students and graduates and sharing wellness tips. She is now retired as the Founding President of the College. Contact Dorene at [email protected].
Tina Marie Wilcox has been the head gardener and herbalist at the Ozark Folk Center State Park’s Heritage Herb Garden in Mountain View, Arkansas since 1984. She cultivates the gardens, coordinates annual herb events and facilitates the production of herb seeds and plants for the park. She co-authored the reference book, the creative herbal home with Susan Belsinger.
Professional Memberships include the International Herb Association, a professional herb trade organization that established the Herb of the Year™ program, and the Herb Society of America--Ozark Unit, headquartered at the Ozark Folk Center.
Tina's philosophy is based upon experiencing the joy of the process, perpetrating no harm and understanding life through play with plants and people.
