Native educator and herbalist, Judy BlueHorse Skelton, shares traditional uses of native plants for food, medicine, craft and ceremony to nourish, heal, and regenerate personal, family and community well-being.

With TLC Farm and Tryon Creek Forest as our classroom, we’ll explore the gifts each season offers and learn how to integrate ancient knowledge and contemporary nutritional/lifestyle research into our daily lives. This is the third in a four-part seasonal series, but each class is also a stand-alone experience.

Drawing from the Medicine Wheel and indigenous gathering cycles and calendars, participants will develop a seasonal living plan that resonates with the rhythms of our region.

This seasonal workshop will focus on the coming of Spring, including:
Plant walks to identify and meet our Plant relations;
Medicine-making activities focused on spring tonic greens, including nettles & chickweed; and
Permaculture approaches to herbal gardening.

Sliding scale, $30 -$50, for the 3-hour workshop, with a $10 deposit..  Herbal tea will be served, and bring your own snack/lunch as needed. To register please email workshops@tryonfarm.org or call (503)245-3847.

TLC Farm is excited to host nationally-renowned permaculture expert, Toby Hemenway, for three one day workshops this summer.

Each class runs from 10 am- 5 pm. Classes are $75 each, or $200 for the series. Pre-registration is required - for workshop details and registration information – visit www.tryonfarm.org, email workshops@tryonfarm.org or call 503-245-3847

*Getting Starting in Permaculture* June 7

Join us in an all-day workshop covering the basics of permaculture. You'll learn how nature can teach us how to design sustainable gardens, homes, and communities. Topics will include permaculture principles, design methods, examples of permaculture sites, and how to use nature's patterns in sustainable design. Participants will explore permaculture design through lecture, discussion, images, and hands-on exercises.

*Building Perfect Garden Soil* July 19

This full-day workshop will begin by showing exactly what makes up a perfect garden soil for growing sturdy, healthy plants that lets gardeners avoid pest and disease problems. We'll look at the key players in fertile gardens: the marvelous creatures that build our soil, and we'll learn how to keep them happy and abundant. We'll also see how to make great compost, and cover many other techniques for soil building, such as sheet mulch, compost teas, cover crops, and more.

*Designing a Food Forest* August 2

Food forests are life-filled places that not only provide food for people, but habitat for wildlife, carbon sequestering, biodiversity, natural soil building, beauty and tranquility, and a host of other benefits. This workshop will cover the basics of designing, planting, and maintaining a many-layered woodland garden of fruit and nut trees, perennial and annual vegetables, and flowers.

About Toby Hemenway:
Toby Hemenway is the author of the first major North American book on permaculture, Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, and an adjunct professor at Portland State University. He is also Scholar in Residence at Pacific University.

After obtaining a degree in biology from Tufts University, Toby worked for many years as a researcher in genetics and immunology, first in academic laboratories including Harvard and the University of Washington in Seattle, and then at Immunex, a major medical biotech company. At about the time he was growing dissatisfied with the direction biotechnology was taking, he discovered permaculture, a design approach based on ecological principles that creates sustainable landscapes, homes, and workplaces.

A career change followed, and Toby and his wife spent ten years creating a rural permaculture site in southern Oregon. He was associate editor of Permaculture Activist, a journal of ecological design and sustainable culture, from 1999 to 2004. His current project is developing urban sustainability resources in Portland, Oregon, where he now lives. He teaches permaculture and consults and lectures on ecological design throughout the country. His writing has appeared in magazines such as Whole Earth Review, Natural Home, and Kitchen Gardener, and he is on the board of directors for TLC Farm.

Educator and herbalist, Judy BlueHorse Skelton, shares traditional uses of native plants for food, medicine, craft and ceremony to nourish, heal, and regenerate personal, family and community well-being. With Tryon Creek Farm and Forest as our classroom, we’ll explore the gifts each season offers and learn how to integrate ancient knowledge and contemporary nutritional/lifestyle research into our daily lives.

Drawing from the Medicine Wheel and indigenous gathering cycles and calendars, we’ll develop a seasonal living plan that resonates with the rhythms of our region. As we Re-Member and deepen our relationship with the elements, the un-seen world, and our ancestors, we heal historical trauma and recognize the Green Path to well-being.

Each of the 4 seasonal workshops offers:
- Plant walks to identify and meet our Plant relations;
- Medicine-making activities, from teas and herbal salves, to
distilling essential oils from our native trees
- Edible and medicinal garden design & education, blending
permaculture principles with traditional ecological knowledge
- Practices to strengthen intuitive and energetic healing skills
- Healing power of color, aroma, water, touch, stones, song

9am – 1pm. Herbal tea served. Class limited to 15. $50 for each 4-hour workshop or $175 for entire series. To register please email workshops@tryonfarm.org, or call (503)245-3847.

SUMMER – Saturday, June 13th
FALL – Saturday, October 3rd
WINTER – Saturday, December 5th
SPRING – Saturday, March TBA

About the instructor:
Judy BlueHorse Skelton (Nez Perce/Cherokee) has worked with Indian Education programs throughout the Northwest for 15 years, creating cultural activities focusing on traditional and contemporary uses of native plants for food, medicine, ceremony, and healthy lifeways. She served as herbal consultant and guest lecturer at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine for 10 years. In 2002-03, Judy wrote and recorded segments on Health & Healing for Wisdom of the Elders radio programs. She received an MA degree from PSU in Leadership in Ecology, Culture and Learning, where she teaches Environmental Education Through Native American Lenses and Theory and Practice of Sustainability. Judy’s work, Green Paths to Health and Healing, is centered in Indian Country and shares stories that serve as inspiration and guidance in the design and creation of gardens and communities for nourishment, learning, and healing, feeding the spirit as well as the body.