Welcome to Wild Blessings
A learning resource that can help you get outside and connect with nature.
Offering instruction and resources to help you enjoy and benefit from time outdoors, your guide to learning more about creation and the One who made it!
Upcoming Classes
Wild Blessings Classes are an important way to get involved in learning with real hands-on experience. Check often to see updates. To learn more about these different opportunities, go to the Classes page.
TEACHING TUESDAYS
When: Every Tuesday on line 8-9pm EST
Where: Facebook: Wild Blessings w/ Holly Drake (a private group, request to join) or Wild Blessings YouTube channel
Next Class: The Topic of Befriending Plants will be aired on June 28, 2022 (I shared this talk at the Deep South Herbalism Conference in Alabama). The -INGS of Friendship with plants. Going from Strangers to Allies.
With food prices soaring, it is time to Forage! Ever wonder what wild riches lie all around you waiting to be discovered and valued as they have been for centuries past? I can help you! Join me for a plant walk to discover what is in God’s grocery stores. Knowing plants in all their life cycles, learning which parts to gather and how to prepare them for food and medicine is a skill that you can cultivate, one plant at a time. I will be featuring 10 wild edible plants that likely grow near you or in your yard. You will learn to recognize them by careful observation, and fun introduction methods to help you remember each plant and learn how to harvest and use each of them for food and healing. We will enjoy a wild tea and snack together.
When: Saturday, June 25, 9-11am
Where: 279 Deer Crossing, Todd, NC 28684 and other locations TBA
Cost: $25/person – $10 for Wild Blessings Patreon members
Who: Class size is limited to 15 people. A waiting list will be kept to fill any cancellations.
Here is the link to sign up for June 25 Wild Blessings Plant Walk
Wild Blessings Plant Walks will be held on most Saturday mornings throughout the Summer at various locations. I’ll post new sign ups a week before each event.
The July 23rd Plant Walk will be in Warrensville on Barbara and Steve Due’s land.
When: Bimonthly on Tuesday’s from 9-11
Where: At Holly’s house – 279 Deer Crossing, Todd, NC 28684
What: This is an in-person gathering where we celebrate one plant (some of my green allies) to get to know it utilizing all of our senses. Experiencing each plant through observation, learning, writing, drawing, story telling, poetry writing and then herbing around with it to make a fitting herbal preparation (to take home) and wild snack to enjoy together.
Who: People who really want to make the green world their grocery store and medicine chest. This is an investment to take your herbal learning to a whole new depth.
Cost: $35 general admission $20 Patreon members (please pay via PayPal, Venmo in advance, at hollydrake56@gmail.com)
Next Class: Tuesday, July 5,2022 we will be Befriending Yarrow (you will be blown away at what this magnificent plant can do! It is a green WARRIOR! We will make a healing Yarrow Wound Spray, and make a gluten free Yarrow Pasta for our snack. Each class we will sample the tea of our featured plant to get to know it by the taste of it’s simple tea. Yarrow tea works so well with fevers. Everyone will have a spray bottle of Yarrow Wound Spray to take home and the handouts that I provide for this class. RSVP required. By the end of a season of this in person herbal intensive you will have learned the basic herbal preparations, lots of wild cooking tips an started to build your own herbal monographs, and personal apothecary. So excited about
Future dates for Befriending Plants Classes July 19, August 2, August 16, August 30, September 13, September 27, October 11, October 25
Link to sign up for this event
I am a wild foods chef and have offered many wild food feasts where the guests come to learn, forage for wild edibles, and cook a meal together. The cuisine is sometimes Asian, Greek, Italian, Mexican and Indian or just seasonal. All non-wild ingredients are organic, farm fresh and increasingly gluten free. Meats are grass finished, happy animals from local farms or local game. Here is a blog showing what Wild Blessings Forage to Feasts have looked like over the many years of hosting them. https://wildblessings.com/wild-times-remembered/
July 16th Forage to Feast is a Wild Fiesta
When: Saturday, July 16, 4-8pm
Where: Meet at Blackburn’s Chapel parking lot where we will carpool to our ‘wild shopping centers’.
Cost: $85/person – $45 for Wild Blessings Patreon members
Who: Class size is limited to 10 people. A waiting list will be kept to fill any cancellations.
What: A forage to dining experience. Foraging, Garbling, Cooking and Eating together
Wild Fiesta Menu
(Menu subject to change depending on the number of cooks signed up!)
Wild Beverages: Elderflower Cordial Watermelon Slushies
Hibiscus Tea, Peach Tea, Burdock Kefir
Here is the link to this Forage to Feast Event for July 16
Future Forage to Feasts this Summer of 2022 will be held on these dates:
June 18 (Wild Brunch)
July 16 (Wild Fiesta)
August 20 (Wild Asian Cuisine)
September 17 (Wild Mediterranean Cuisine)
October 15 (Wild American Cuisine)
SPECIAL EVENTS
Wild Blessings Library Event
When: Tuesday, July 25, 5-6:30pm
Where: Watauga Library, in the Community Room
Cost: Free
What: I will be teaching on The Restorative Power of Nature
95% of our time is spent indoors addicted to screens and the cost is high – diminished use of senses, attention and focus difficulties, higher rates of physical illness, higher rates of emotional illness… The statistics are alarming yet the answer is simple. Time in nature.
Time in Nature can be just the adventure we need to reset our focus, heal our bodies, and feed our souls..restoring a sense of wonder. Come and learn practical ways to interact with nature as your classroom, physician and playground in reclaiming the many gifts given by our Creator for our enjoyment and wellbeing This will be an interactive presentation, utilizing all five senses. We need green time, not screen time! “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Mary Oliver
Horn in the West 75th Celebration
When: Friday, August 6, throughout the day
Where: Horn in the West
Cost: Free
What: A Wild Blessings Foraging presentation. Handouts and wild snack table offered to the public.
How to help: You can help by bringing a wild food snack to share on the Wild Potluck table. From roots to fruits!
TESTIMONIALS FROM WILD BLESSING STUDENTS
“Ever wanted to know what plants are edible in your own backyard?
Curious which plants on your property would have been used for first aid situations by humans in previous generations? To forage safely for wild edibles and medicinals, you need a guide. And if you live in the High Country or are visiting, you’re in luck, because Holly is amazing. She can show you the poisonous look-alikes, teach you about the plant’s properties and nutrition, AND show you how to prepare them – or, rather, she has you do the hands-on work yourself. I’ve learned so much from Holly over the years, and am proud to call her a friend. You should check out her class!
(I don’t do promotions, but I love Holly and her work, and think humans should reclaim some of this lost knowledge about the plants around us. Did you know you probably have a spinach substitute growing on your property that is tastier and packs more protein – and it’s free? You have to find out!) —” Laura Weant
PATREON
