A practical guide to using local wild plants
as herbal medicines and nutritious wild foods
Est. 2015
Discover the fascinating world of edible and medicinal plants.
This course is for your enjoyment!
Learn at your leisure for your pleasure and knowledge,
wherever you live, whenever you want.
AUTUMN COURSE IN SEASON NOW
LEARN WITH THE SEASONS:
Forage for and Use edible & medicinal plants for your health and well-being
Est. 2015
*This online course is packed full of videos to help you identify and show you how to use local plants as herbal medicines, nutritious wild foods and skin care.
* Watch these videos over and over again, whenever it suits you so that you become confident at using these plants yourself.
INCLUDES HOW TO MAKE:
- Elderberry cordial (a delicious, immune-boosting favourite)
- Hazelnut & sorrel pesto (using yummy fresh local autumnal greens)
- Red clover bean spouts (abundant and highly nutritious)
- Save plantain seeds (our native ‘psyllium seed’ and rich in Omega oils)
- Make nettle root tincture (a tonic for men and the prostate gland)
- Use dock root and vinegar (a nourishing and inexpensive iron tonic)
- Harvest cramp bark (a muscle relaxant pain killer)
- Rosehips & blackberries (immune-boosting tonics for winter)
- Extract plantain leaves (make a healing first aid balm)
- Identify haws (make a tasty chutney from them)
- Dig up & cook silverweed (the staple crop we ate before potatoes!)
- Dry, tincture, extract and preserve medicinal herbs so that you have them when you need them.
- Watch webinar recordings on specialist topics such as Foraging in the City.
- And lots, lots more……
AUTUMN COURSE ENROLING NOW
Enrol by Thursday 19th Oct and get access to a special beginners’ Q&A webinar with Vivienne covering commonly asked questions about herbal medicine and using wild foods.
This is also an excellent opportunity to ask me your questions too! Type them in live and get your answer during the webinar. Or send them in advance and I’ll try to cover them during the webinar and you can watch back the recording when it suits you.
Join Now
ONLY €105
Approx £90 | US$116
A one-off payment for life-time access to this course.
Join in to ask questions live
Jargon Free Guides
Lifetime Access
Bring The Lessons With You
Private Community
Learn At Your Leisure
>>>> INCLUDES Q&A WEBINARS WITH VIVIENNE AND SPECIAL GUEST FORAGERS
RECORDINGS FROM WEBINARS IN 2016 ARE AVAILABLE TO WATCH NOW.
NEW WEBINARS WILL TAKE PLACE IN 2017.
WEBINAR RECORDING AVAILABLE NOW
Special guest webinar about
Foraging in the City
With special guest forager John Rensten
Contrary to what you might expect, cities can be great places to forage for wild foods & medicinal herbs. John Rensten takes foraging walks in London and runs the website http://www.foragelondon.co.uk/. He shares some of his tips with us about urban foraging. He is the author of The Edible City , a new book about the joys of finding wild food in the city.
VIDEO RECORDING AVAILABLE NOW
Special guest webinar about
Contemplating Plants
With special guest forager Robin Harford
Robin is a highly-regarded forager. His website eatweeds is considered to be one of the UK’s leading wild food foraging sites. He is a co-director of Plants & Healers International, a non-profit that connects people, plants and healers around the world, he travels extensively documenting and recording the traditional and local uses of wild food plants in indigenous cultures. Robin will introduce us to ‘contemplating plants’: a method that helps people to slow down and connect to plants on a deeper level.
Discover the fascinating world of edible and medicinal plants.
Learn at your leisure, wherever you live, whenever you want.
Autumn
This course covers herbs that are usually in season in the Autumn (Sept. & Oct.). In 2016 support for this course (will be available from 12/9/16-24/10/16).
Lessons are about seasonal herbs (especially seeds, nuts, roots and berries) such as elderberry, rosehips, sea buckthorn, hawthorn berries, silverweed, dandelion root, dock, plantain seeds and hazel nuts etc. Learn how to make elderberry cordial, a sore throat remedy from blackberries, fresh sea buckthorn juice, hazelnut and sorrel pesto, dandelion coffee, hawthorn chutney, an iron tonic from dock roots and much more. Discover common local plants that are rich in Omega oils, vitamin C, iron, calcium and other minerals. Make your own delicious immune-boosting tonics. Have these skills for life.
The course includes a mixture of recipes for making medicinal extracts and unusual culinary dishes. There is sometimes a bit of a cross-over between these recipes because many medicinal plants are also edible. ‘Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food!’
Learn at you leisure! This course does not require doing ‘homework’ or a time-commitment each week. I’ve designed this course to fit in with busy lifestyles. You can engage with it at whichever level suits you best and you can return to it year after year, to study and use the plants when they are in season. If all that happens is that you start to recognise some of these plants growing around you then this is a very pleasurable life-enhancing interest to have; if you have more time then you can try making all of the recipes, post photos of plants to learn more about identification, have a go at herbal medicine-making and get advice about experimenting with some recipes of your own.
You receive:
- Videos showing the featured plants that are currently in season and how to identify them.
- Videos or photos demonstrating how to include foraged herbs in an easy, everyday meal.
- Videos demonstrating how to make your own herbal remedy, tonic and balm safely and easily in your own kitchen using ordinary house-hold equipment.
- Detailed documents about the herbs featured in the course so that you can read the key properties of each plant (e.g. nutritional content, medicinal uses etc.), try out recipes and have clear guidelines so that you can use them safely.
- Suggested simple activities for you to try out each week to help you to begin to engage with the plants.
- Photographs of the featured herbs to help you to safely identify them.
Photo: Making Elderberry Syrup
You will also receive:
- A chance to ask me your questions: the last week of each course will feature a bonus live webinar. This is your chance to put your questions to me so that you can feel confident about using your new skills (Please note: this is not a chance to have a medical consultation or to ask direct medical questions: I cannot treat people via phone, email, text message, Facebook or Skype but, I can educate you this way).
- Access to a private Facebook group: here you can let us know how you’re getting on with your new journey into the plant world, post pictures of the plants that you’ve found, the delicious dishes that you’ve created and/or the remedies that you’ve made. I will pop in and out of this group so this is also a good place to check things that you are unsure of and post questions for me. It’s also a great place to receive the support and encouragement of others who are learning and to see new recipe ideas.
- Documents and recipe sheets for making herbal tonics and extracts e.g. tinctures, infusions, syrups, cordials, infused oils, ointments etc.
- My basic, jargon-free, beginners’ guide to safely identifying plants (to help you to avoid any mishaps when foraging).
- My guide to using herbs safely: for adults, children & in pregnancy; including when not to use them and when to seek professional advice instead.
- A list of recommended herbal suppliers so that you can buy herbs that you want to use but can’t find growing near you.
E-Course Bonus Features
As well as the above features, you will also receive the following:
- My list of recommended books so that you can learn more about wild food foraging and herbal medicine.
- My list of recommended, reliable websites.
- Further study: a list of courses where you can train to become a professional, qualified herbalist; information on informal apprenticeships where you can gets some hands-on experience with an working herbalist.
- A list of suppliers of ingredients e.g. herbs, bottles, jars, oils, waxes etc.
- Herbs in the City: an info sheet with tips on how to forage when you live in towns and cities.
- A brief guide to organic versus conventional gardening: otherwise known as the alarming truth about weed-killers and why you should avoid them like the plague!
- A guide to common poisonous plants (so that you can avoid them!).
- Plants for bees: bees love herbs and herbs love bees! A list of herbs to plant to encourage bees into your garden.
- Free updates for 12 months: if I update any part of these courses within the next year then you’ll receive these updates free of charge.
All students get life-time access to the resources (documents, videos, photos etc.) in this course. On-line support from Vivienne is currently provided seasonally but will not be available for life-time!
Photo: Hazelnut & Sorrel Pesto
Some of the Video Demonstrations included in this E-Course
- Sea Buckthorn (extracting the fresh juice)
- Elderberry cordial (a delicious, immune-boosting tonic)
- Blackberry oxymel (a great remedy for sore throats)
- Plantain infused oil (a healing first aid treatment)
- Plantain ointment (great to treat cuts, scrapes and grazes)
- Cramp Bark decoction (a natural muscle relaxant)
- Dandelion root coffee (a nutrient-rich, caffeine-free roast)
- Hazelnut & Sorrel Pesto (delicious and local)
- Cooked Silverweed roots (our native alternative to potatoes)
- Dock root iron tonic (easy to make at home)
- Using plantain seeds (rich in Omega oils)
How to make herbal tinctures (including decocted root tinctures)- Identification videos for each featured plant.
Some of the photos included in this course
- How to make hawthorn chutney (really tasty, great with cheese)
- Rosehip syrup (boosts the immune system; rich in vitamin C)
- Identification photos for every herb
Photo: Ripe Elderberries
A Selection Of Student Testimonials
“I am just sending an e-mail to you to say thank you for the 1st series of your E-course. I found it very interesting, full of useful information, easy to follow and profound in knowledge. And you know what? It turned out that I did not have to go further than our own garden to find all of the herbs…I made Hawthorn syrup for the very first time in my life and it is delicious with ice cubes especially on a hot summer day. So thank you again and I am looking forward to the next series.”
Edit Varga
You’ve given us SO MUCH useful info in such a good, clear form. Your course is excellent!
Kathy Locke
I know I’ve said it already, but I’m in heaven with this course! Best thing I ever did. You’re so enthusiastic yourself and so generous with your time and knowledge. It’s great that people from around the world can access it too
Catherine Gallagher
It’s so exciting what you are doing. It’s a unique course. I love it .
Sinead Fine Homeopath. Health Educator BHSc, NDVEC, ITEC, Dip HFR
You work so hard Vivienne. You are so generous with your information. I couldn’t recommend your courses highly enough. They are amazing. I’ve learned so so much by doing your two courses. I knew very little re. Lemon Balm , St John’s Wort and Roses before your course …. medicinally speaking. I was able to recognise them …. kind of ….. but your courses are so well worth the money !!
Brid Ní Chleirigh
“I’ve been doing this herbalism course and think it’s rather fab! The amount of work that Vivienne’s put in is just amazing and the course is worth every penny! I honestly wish I’d had it when I was starting out. I especially love the fact that, unlike ‘normal’ distance learning type courses, you get to do it completely at your own pace. If all you’ve got is 15 minutes between putting the baby down for a nap and having to go get started on dinner, you can pick it up, learn something new, and have plenty of time to think it over while chopping your veg. It also gives you access to an associated support group where you can ask Vivienne all the questions you like and every so often, there are live webinars too!”
Mina Said-Allsopp: professional forager, Leeds, UK. http://msitu.co.uk/
As recommended in the Irish Examiner (National Newspaper): Click this link to read the review.
Why learn from me?
- I am a qualified and experienced professional Medical Herbalist (I qualified in 2003) based in Ireland.
- Over the years thousands of people have attended my lectures, talks, classes, guided walks, herbal clinic and/or have watched me on television.
- I am a knowledgeable, entertaining and engaging teacher.
- I have been teaching herbal medicine classes since 2004. You can see my work here.
- I’ve been taking guided herb & wild food foraging walks since 2008 (Yes, since before it became trendy! )
- I co-presented a major national television series in which I foraged for and made an herbal remedy, natural cosmetic or wild food. I presented this show alongside celebrity chef Richard Corrigan and organic gardener Kitty Scully.Click here to see details of this television series.
- I’ve also contributed to two other television series since then. (One of them is currently in production; you can see details of the other series here).
- I have a BSc degree (with first class honours) in Herbal Medicine from the University of Central Lancashire, UK.
- I am a member of the National Institute for Medical Herbalists, the oldest organisation of professional herbalists in the world (153 years old this year!)
- I have to ensure that I am up to date with herbal medicine by doing Continuous Professional Development (CPD) every year.
- I constantly strive to learn more: about therapeutic and edible plants; about medical conditions and diseases; about scientific research and evidence.
- I regularly feature in national newspapers and television and am often asked to comment on issues affecting herbal medicine e.g. changes in legislation etc.
- I have spent several years researching local plants that were once popular remedies and food sources but which have fallen out of use or been forgotten.
- And my classes are very enjoyable and people return to them over and over again.
- The internet is full of information about herbs but little of it is reliable, lots of it is wrong and some of it is out-right dangerous! Learn from an experienced teacher that you can trust: learn from me!
Do you have questions about this course? Then ask me! You can email your questions to me at info@theherbalhub.com. Please put ‘E-Courses’ in the subject line.
What this course is not:
- This is not a qualification: after buying this course you will not be qualified to work as a professional consulting herbalist.
- It is not a medical consultation: We will look ways to improve general health with herbs and how to use safe and effective remedies for common ailments (e.g. colds, coughs etc.) but we will not learn how to treat specific, serious illnesses and diseases with herbs. We may mention these briefly and talk about them in general terms but, this is always an example of a case where I will recommend that someone consults a professional medical practitioner and/or qualified herbalist. I cannot treat people or give specific medical advice via phone, email, text message, Face Book or Skype.
- This is not a science course: we will not cover chemistry, medical trials or evidence for the effectiveness of herbal medicines (but I am working on one that will….).
- Foraging for mushrooms and fungi are not included. This type of foraging is highly specialised and extremely dangerous if you get it wrong. If you want to learn this, then I recommend mushroom expert Bill O’Dea atwww.mushroomstuff.com
- This course is not suitable for every country in the world. This course is written about plants that are common in Ireland, UK and most of them will be available in countries with a similar climate e.g. many areas in mainland Europe and some parts of the USA and Canada (if you would like to check if the E-Courses will cover plants in your country then please check here COURSE ITEMISED VIDEO CONTENT
- This is not a promise to identify every therapeutic and edible wild and cultivated plant.
- The information that you learn in this course is not to take the place of a qualified medical practitioner. It is for educational purposes only. Qualified medical practitioners are highly skilled and helpful people. Please consult one! They are there to help you.
Photo: Ripe hazelnuts on the tree
Photo: Omega-oil rich Sea Buckthorn
ENROL NOW
Join Now
ONLY £90
Approx €105 | US$117