Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants Courses

Alderleaf offers a variety of wild edible and medicinal plants courses. Learn plant identification and ethnobotany skills - how to utilize a diversity of native wild plants for food, medicine, and survival crafts. Choose from weekend classes up to nine-month programs.

Courses include:

Introduction to Foraging for Wild Edible Plants (Online Course) - Learn the keys to getting started with identifying and gathering wild food plants in North America. Includes how to quickly identify plants, details on the top wild edible plant species, safe foraging methods for avoiding poisonous plants and environmental toxins, and ethical harvesting techniques.

Weekend Wild Edible & Medicinal Plants Course - Learn how to utilize wild plants for food and medicine in the wilderness or at home. This course covers a full range of uses, from quick emergency survival foods to incorporating wild plants into culinary dishes, and the how-to of making salves, tinctures, decoctions, and infusions, as well as using fresh wild plants for first aid situations.

1-Day Wild Mushroom Identification Class - Learn the skills needed to utilize wild edible mushrooms. The course begins with a fascinating slide show presentation that explains how to identify a wide variety of mushrooms found in the Pacific Northwest. The course continues with a mushroom foraging hike. The last portion of the day is spent cooking up the harvested mushrooms into several tasty dishes to sample.

Half-Day Wild Plant Walk Classes - Learn how to identify wild plants, trees, & shrubs and their edible, medicinal, and craft uses; while exploring the trails at the Alderleaf campus. Guided by an experienced instructor, each walk focuses on the different plants available in that season.

Weekend Advanced Plants Course - Continue your learning journey and discovery of wild plants. Learn about new plants and things you can make with them that were not covered in our introductory Wild Edible & Medicinal Plants Course. The advanced course covers syrups, infused oils & vinegars, cough syrups, throat lozenges, lotions, healing oils, and hair rinses.

Nine-Month Alderleaf Wilderness Certification Program - Our most comprehensive course. In-depth training in wilderness survival, wild edible & medicinal plants, wildlife tracking, outdoor leadership, and sustainable living skills. Imagine making herbal medicines and harvesting wild foods that bring greater health to yourself, your community, and the earth. The program prepares you to apply nature skills in a variety of outdoor careers in wilderness education, environmental research, sustainable living, and beyond.

Nine-Month Advanced Wilderness Skills Program - A second year of advanced training for Wilderness Certification Program graduates seeking to further develop their skills towards careers. The program focuses on advanced studies and applications of each of our core curriculum areas (survival, tracking, ethnobotany, permaculture, naturalist skills, and outdoor leadership & teaching).

Online registration is available for many of our wilderness courses.
Visit the Course Registration page to sign up for classes.

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For online plants courses, we recommend HerbMentor from LearningHerbs.

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