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.

LEARN WITH THE SEASONS:

Forage for and Use edible & medicinal plants for your health and well-being

Discover common, easily-recognizable plants such as:

Includes all the common herbal medicine-making techniques 

Watch videos of how to make the following:

Learn easy ways to include tasty wild foods in your diet

Many of the plants covered in these courses are edible and nutritious.

Discover easy ways to include them in your diet

SUPPORTED VIA WEBINARS !

• Webinars are a wonderful way to ask questions and get support.
• Ask Vivienne your questions about making extracts and using edible & medicinal plants
• Getting support helps you to become confident at using these plants
• Can’t attend the webinar live? Don’t worry, all the webinars are recorded. You can send in your questions in advance and Vivienne will do her best to cover them during the webinar which you can then watch back at your leisure.

GET ACCESS TO THE WEBINAR RECORDING LIBRARY!

• The webinar library contains video recordings of Q&A webinars that Vivienne has given with special guest foragers on specialised topics.
• Topics & guests include: Using foraged plants in cocktails with Lottie Muir; Starting an Organic Herb Garden with Denise Dunne; Foraging in the City with John Rensten; Tasty Recipes for Foraged Spring Plants with Mina Said-Allsopp; Contemplating Plants with Robin Harford; Foraging for a Professional Restaurant with Clothilde Walenne.

Here’s what people have said about this course:

“You’ve given us SO MUCH useful info in such a good, clear form. Your course is excellent!”

Kathy Locke, Ireland

“Can’t wait for next year’s additions.  The great thing is that you can look at all information in your own good time, and, you can’t get enough of a good thing!”

Julie Stark, Scotland, 2016.

“It’s so exciting what you are doing. It’s a unique course. I love it.”

Sinead Fine

“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, teacher.

“I’ve just finished watching the webinar and I wanted to let you know that I loved it all… I liked your mix of videos and text, recipes and medicines. I honestly can’t think of a suggestion to improve it!”

Margaret O’Mahony (Autumn E-Course)

“I’m doing Vivienne’s course, I’d highly recommend it. There’s something special about a course like this designed around the plants and environment that you actually live in. There’s nothing else like it in Ireland that I’ve heard of.”

Kay Bells, e-course student and foraging enthusiast, Ireland.

What’s Contained in the E-courses?

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 or balm safely and easily in your own kitchen using ordinary house-hold equipment.
• Detailed documents about the herbs featured in each video 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 to help you to begin to engage with the plants.
• Photographs of the featured herbs to help you to safely identify them.
• 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).

• A chance to ask me your questions: The last week of each course features 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, Face Book 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.
• 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: if I update any part of these courses or add new lsesons 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!

Why learn from Vivienne?

• 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 for 13 years. You can see my work here.
• I’ve been taking guided herb & wild food foraging walks for 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 (151 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 and foraging 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.

Vivienne has featured on the following television channels and national newspapers: 

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 expertBill O’Dea at www.mushroomstuff.com
• This course is not suitable for every country in the world. This course was filmed in Ireland and is suitable for temperate countries e.g. UK, Europe, USA, Canada. There are students enroled from Mexico to Japan! It is does NOT cover plants found in tropical countries.
• 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.