Friday: Board Ozark Folk Center bus for a Wild Herbal Field Trip to Devils Knob-Devils Backbone Natural Area & Sparkling River Farm. Guides include Theo Witsell--Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, Dr. Elena Garcia, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville with a team of herbalists, naturalists and gardeners. Register now. Bus seats limited. Hike available to two-day participants only.
Saturday: Medicinal Herb Symposium includes Helen Lowe Metzman, Director of the James A. Duke Green Farmacy Garden, Susan Belsinger, author and Honorary President, Herb Society of America and Bo Brown, author of Foraging the Ozarks. Registration open until Tuesday, April 28th, 8 a.m.
Schedule
Friday, May 1 Wild Herbal Field Trip
8:30 Administration Lobby-Check in with Online Registration Receipt
9:00 White Oak Auditorium—Orientation and Teacher Introductions
9:30 Board Bus for Sparkling River Farm
John Kushmaul and Elena Garcia Garden
Fred J. Gray’s Sparkling River Peppers Smokehouse
Noon Picnic lunch at Sparkling River Farm (Included in Registration Fee)
1:00-4:30 Devils Knob-Devils Backbone Natural Area Hike
Led by Theo Witsell—Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission
and a Team of Herbalists and Naturalists
5:00 Ozark Folk Center State Park
7:00-9:00 Concert—Ozark Highland Theater
Saturday, May 2 Medicinal Plant Symposium
8:30 Administration Lobby-Check in with Online Registration Receipt
9:00-10:00 Helen Lowe Metzman—The Green Farmacy Garden
10:00-10:15 Break
10:15-11:15 Susan Belsinger-- The Brambles: Sorting through the Thicket of Rubus Terminology and Using Rubus In the Apothecary: Herb of the Year 2020
11:15-12:00 Elena Garcia—Cultural Practices for Growing Rubus (Blackberry and Raspberry) in the Home Garden
12:00-1:30 Luncheon (included in workshop fee)
1:30-2:15 Bo Brown—The Invasivores are Coming! (Eat Your Weedies)
2:15-3:15 Helen Lowe Metzman—Tonic Herbs
3:15-4:15 Break
4:15-5:00 Tina Marie Wilcox—Living Soil
7:00-9:00 Concert—Ozark Highland Theater
About Our Teachers
Special Thanks to the Committee of 100 for the Ozark Folk Center for sponsoring Helen Lowe Metzman
Susan Belsinger lives an herbal life, whether she is gardening, foraging, herborizing, photographing, teaching, researching, writing or creating herbal recipes for the kitchen or apothecary—she is passionate about all things herbal. Referred to as a “flavor artist”, Susan delights in kitchen alchemy—the blending of harmonious foods, herbs, and spices—to create real, delicious food, as well as libations, that nourish our bodies and spirits and titillate our senses. She has been blogging regularly for Taunton Press’ www.vegetablegardener.com for the past eight years. Her latest publication Growing Your Own Herbs co-authored with Arthur O. Tucker—was released in Spring 2019 by Timber Press. Susan is Honorary President of the Herb Society of America for the 2018 to 2020 term. www.susanbelsinger.com
Bo Brown has worked throughout the US and Central America as an avian field biologist since 1985. His passion for plant knowledge was instilled by his native mentor Jim Fire Eagle, and was advanced by habitat vegetation inventories during decades of bird research work. This passion was further fueled by 28 years of study and teaching of ancestral wilderness survival skills, and a nine-year appointment as a naturalist for Missouri Department of Conservation. Bo is the founder and director of First Earth Wilderness School in the Missouri Ozarks, where he regularly leads courses on foraging and stone-age wilderness survival throughout the region. He currently leads foraging walks and primitive skills demonstrations at Dogwood Canyon Nature Park near Blue Eye, MO, and co-hosts the Bois D’ Arc Skills Camp & Knap-In, an annual primitive skills gathering near Greenfield, MO. Bo is also a professional musician with several area and nationally known groups, and has just authored a book for Falcon Outdoor Guides Foraging the Ozarks; the release date is July 1st 2020. For more info, see www.firstearth.org
Dr. Elena Garcia is the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Specialist for Fruit and Nuts and is one of the state coordinators for The Arkansas Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education – Professional Development Program (SARE-PDP). She is a Horticulture Professor at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. https://horticulture.uark.edu/people/faculty/uid/megarcia/name/Elena+Garcia/
Helen Lowe Metzman, Director of the Green Farmacy Garden. Helen has tended to and educated others about the medicinal plants of Jim Duke’s Green Farmacy Garden since 2006. She is taking a semi-sabbatical this year but still plans to continue working in the garden part-time and in the enthnobotanical medicinal plant field. In addition to her time spent in the garden, Helen worked part time for the Howard County Maryland Department of Recreation and Parks in the Natural Resources Division as a Natural Resource Specialist and an Environmental Educator. The study of natural history, botany, and art has been her lifelong passion, and she is able to integrate these passions in her work in the garden and for Howard County. Helen is a graduate of the University of Vermont and the Tai Sophia Institute’s Master of Science Program in Herbal Medicine. https://thegreenfarmacygarden.com/
Theo Witsell is Ecologist and Chief of Research for the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission (an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage). He has also worked as a contract botanist and ecologist for a number of federal agencies and private organizations including the USDA Forest Service, the National Park Service, the United States Department of Defense, The Nature Conservancy, NatureServe, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Austin Peay State University’s Southeastern Grasslands Initiative. He is co-editor of the recently published Atlas of the Vascular Plants of Arkansas, and is currently working on a number of research projects including an inventory of the plants and habitats of Benton and Washington counties and a project re-tracing and re-interpreting naturalist Thomas Nuttall’s 1819 trip through Arkansas and Oklahoma. He serves as a regional reviewer for the Flora of North America Project. He is a native Arkansan and an avid native plant gardener. https://www.naturalheritage.com/
Kathleen Connole, Deb Jolly and Phyllis Williams are invaluable members of the Heritage Herb Garden Team and the Herb Society of America—Ozark Unit. They immerse themselves in the pursuit of herbal knowledge, the mission of the Ozark Folk Center and Arkansas, the Natural State.
Tina Marie Wilcox is the head gardener and herbalist at the Ozark Folk Center State Park’s Heritage Herb Garden. She co-authored the reference book, the creative herbal home with Susan Belsinger. She serves on the board of the International Herb Association as chairman. In 2017 she was honored with the Nancy Putnam Howard Award for Excellence in Horticulture by the Herb Society of America. Tina's philosophy is based upon experiencing the joy of the process, perpetrating no harm and understanding life through play with plants and people.
