Classes Offered from Wild Blessings
Wild Blessings Classes are an important way to get involved in learning with real hands-on experience. Check often to see updates.
Class choices (click to learn more)
• Teaching Tuesdays
• Plant Walks
• Befriending Plants
• Forage to Feast
• Special Events
TEACHING TUESDAYS
A free video class provided each week online following nature’s wave.
When: Every Tuesday, free online, 8-9pm EST
Where: Facebook: Wild Blessings w/ Holly Drake (a private group, request to join) or Wild Blessings YouTube channel
RECENT CLASSES: The Wild Intentional Garden Part 1, Part 2, Blackberry Preparations, Befriending Blackberry , Poisonous Plant Ponderings, Poison Ivy, Edible Flowers
PLANT WALKS
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 many 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.
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. September has 3 Wild Blessing Plant Walks –
Classes fill quickly. Sign up now to reserve your spot. Reservations are required and class sizes are limited. Pay in advance through PayPal, Venmo, or direct arrangement by contacting Holly Drake at 828-406-8241.
September 3 Wild Blessings Plant Walk
When: Saturday, September 3, 2022 9-11am
Where: West Jefferson, NC (details at the event page)
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.
BEFRIENDING PLANTS INTENSIVE
When: Bimonthly on Tuesday’s from 9-Noon and now bimonthly on Saturdays for those who can not attend on weekdays. Dates listed below with links.
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.
We will spend the first hour foraging for our featured plant, the next hour herbing around with it and the 3rd hour learning about it’s multifaceted gifts.
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, September 6, 2022 Queen Anne’s Lace
Each class we will sample the tea of our featured plant to get to know it by the taste of it’s simple tea. Everyone will have an herbal preparation of our plant to take home and the handouts that I provide for this class. 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 and started to build your own herbal monographs, and personal apothecary.
Future dates for Befriending Plants Classes
September 10 (Saturday) Queen Anne’s Lace
September 27 (Tuesday) Befriending Chestnuts
FORAGE TO FEAST
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/
Sign up now to reserve your spot minimum of 24 hours before event. Reservations are required and class sizes are limited. Pay in advance through PayPal, Venmo, or direct arrangement by contacting Holly Drake at 828-406-8241.
September 17 Forage to Feast Italian Cuisine
When: Saturday, September 17, 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, Cooking and Eating together
Wild Italian Menu
(Menu subject to change depending on the number of cooks signed up!)
Wild Beverages: Elderberry Sparkle, Hibiscus Tea, Peach Tea
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 Greek Cuisine)
September 17 (Wild Italian Cuisine)
October 22 (Wild American Cuisine)
FORAGING ADVENTURES
Foraging for wild edible plants is always a surprise of discovery, delight and abundance. We’ll forage for whatever is on nature’s shelves and cook up one wild dish to enjoy. Recipes and handouts provided. Learn by doing! Foraging scratches the shopping itch to get ‘deals’!
September 13 Foraging Adventure
When: Tuesday, September 13, 9-noon
Where: Meet on the porch of the Todd Mercantile, park in the General Store parking lot. We’ll caravan from there to a nearby wild shopping center.
Cost: $35/person – $20 for Wild Blessings Patreon members
Who: People who want to hon their skills in foraging
What: You will learn the rules of sustainable foraging, tips on gathering, garbling, preserving and preparing the wild harvest in each season.
PATREON
