information on workshops\medicinal plants\ethnobotany.
howieb at delphi.com
Tue Mar 1 22:54:49 EST 1994
1994 Apprenticeship Program
Columbines and Wizardry Herbs
You Must Want To:
*Commit yourself to work hard. You can not break picking appointments, and
must reasonably plan to finish the apprenticeship.
*Learn plant identification through keys and field characteristics.
*Learn our wildcrafting methods, including a high regard for the local
ecosystems and the continuation of the stand.
*Find you own personal stands of medicinal and food plants.
Medicinal Herbs Covered in Depth:
Kinnikinnik Valerian Pyrola
Mullein Skullcap Osha Angelica
Yarrow Ceanothus Manzanita Penstemon
Elder Pipsissewa St. John's Wort Oregon Grape
Apprentices will thoroughly explore many aspects of these plants. We
will create useful herbal preparations with them. Harvesting and processing
a variety of roots, barks, leaves, flowers, and seeds gives you a rounded
view of plant harvesting techniques. The program will cover many more
medicinal, food, and poisonous plants that we don't harvest.
Upon completion of the apprenticeship, you will be able to identify,
locate, harvest, process, and use a plant you have never seen before.
Basic Botanical Terms
Plant Identification Through Keys: Practice is the only way to master this
Plant Identification Through Field Characteristics: Certain plants are
identifiable without a key by their unique markings.
Family Identification: We will cover the major plant families of the
Northwest. This is a very useful plant identifying skill.
Plant Pressing: This will be an optional activity.
Locating Stands of Herbs
Tending and Propagating Stands of Herbs
Wildcrafting: We will explore values and techniques for personal and
Cleaning and Processing Herbs: This is an essential part of plant
harvesting. We will use all of the plants collected. Apprentices
will keep a complete selection of herbs.
Food and Spice Plants: This will include many a meal depending on student
Poisonous Plants: For safety, we will learn to identify poisonous
look-alikes of useful plants.
Herbal Preparations: We will discuss poultices, teas, tinctures, oils,
salves, facial astringents, and more. We will make many herbal
preparations in the field with fresh herbs. Apprentices keep a
Threatened. Endangered, Rare, and Sensitive Plants and Ecosystems
What to Expect:
One Day Picking Trips: In the spring term, the weekly one day trips in the
Cascade Mountains will focus on identifying, locating, and tending stands of
herbs. We will harvest and process some medicinal herbs and stop along the
way to enjoy food and spices plants also. We typically leave Sisters or
Eugene between 8 and 9 AM and return between 5 and 6 PM. Pack a good lunch.
Bad weather will not stop us from taking these trips.
Lectures: In the spring term, we will arrange weekly two hour lectures to
discuss each picking trip in detail and practice plant identification. In the
summer term, a series of six two hour lectures on herbal preparations and
medicinal uses will be scheduled accordingly.
Overnight Trips: Similar to one day trips, but with a closer feeling for the
earth. We will go to some remote and powerful places. There is one overnight
in the spring term and four in the summer term. Spouses and families can join
us on some summer overnights, with prior arrangements; however, they must
provide their own transportation. We generally car camp. Overnights count as
two single day trips.
Cleaning and Processing: Apprentices clean and process some of each of the
plants gathered on the picking trips. This is an important part of plant
Howie Brounstein is the owner /operator of Columbines and Wizardry Herbs,
Inc. He has taught botany, herbalism, and wildcrafting extensively over the
past ten years. He is also active in locating rare, threatened, and
endangered plant stands.
Apprentice schedules will determine the times and days of classes. The
spring term will consist of nine one day trips and one overnight. We
require a minimum of two trips per month to continue as an apprentice. Three
cancellations without notice (no shows) are grounds for expulsion. Please do
not bring dogs on picking trips.
Enrollment in the summer term is based on the successful completion of the
spring term. It will consist of four overnight trips over a two month period,
or an overnight every two weeks. The summer schedule will include a series
of six lectures.
We will award a Certificate of Completion to those students who successfully
attend 80% of field classes and lectures of the entire program.
You will need to purchase A Manual of Northwestern Plants by Gilkey and
Dennis published by OSU Bookstores. This is sometimes available used. We also
require Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West by Michael Moore, Museum of New
Mexico Press. Please be sure to buy the orange book on the mountain west,
not his newer Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West. Many pages of printed
material will be handed out, so a large 1"- 2" three ring binder should be
purchased. Plant presses are not mandatory, but we urge you to use them for a
more complete record of the apprenticeship. Information will be available on
how to make them for almost no cost. You will need a knife or some pruning
shears, camping gear, and foul weather gear. Clothes are particularly
important. Rain pants, raincoat, a change of shoes, and waterproof boots for
walking in standing water or mud are essential for comfort.
How to Apply:
This apprenticeship requires commitment and many hours of travel. It is
exciting and rewarding in many ways: however, it is also hard work. It is not
Interviews will start in January 1994. The total cost for the spring term is
$510.00. A seventy-five dollar discount will occur for payment in full before
the first picking trip. Financing, work trade, and other trade options are
available. If you own a suitable vehicle, you can trade some of the cost of
the apprenticeship for its use on picking trips. Spring term will run from
April 1994 to June 1994.
The summer term will cost $350.00 and will run from mid-July 1994 to the
first week in September 1994. Successful completion of the spring term is a
For more information or to arrange an interview write Columbines and Wizardry
Herbs at PO Box 1553, Sisters, OR 97759 or call (503)-389-6348.
E-mail address Howieb1991 at aol.com
Advanced Herbalist's Apprenticeship
Columbines and Wizardry Herbs, Inc. is proud to announce our third
annual Advanced Herbalist's Apprenticeship Program. This course
will be tailor-made to the students' skill levels and interests. The
program will focus on the plant ecology of Oregon, and how to
familiarize yourself with new ecosystems.
There will be one lecture or workshop per month for six months, with
times and dates to be arranged. These classes will be taught in a study
group fashion with homework projects required. Specific topics will be
determined by class interest, but may include researching new herbs,
preparing new kinds of herbal preparations, herbal first aid kits, fiber
projects, herbal smoking mixtures, plant dyes, and herbal cosmetics.
Either two one day trips or one overnight trip per month will be
offered during a six month period. Each trip will consist of botany
skills, ecology of the ecosystem, and harvesting new plants. Topics
covered during the apprenticeship will include botany review, forest
and desert ecology, plant sighting reports, population monitoring, and
locating rare, threatened, and endangered plants. Trips are scheduled
for the Coast Range, the Willamette Valley, low and middle elevation
western Cascades, the Ponderosa Pine Zone, the Juniper forests, the
Sagebrush desert of eastern Oregon, and the alpine Zone. The itinerary
of two overnights will be determined by class interest.
We will harvest familiar plants upon request, but most will be
completely new. We will go to many places where harvesting is not
allowed, but on every trip we will harvest something from acceptable
You will need to have all the basic equipment foe picking trips. Flora
of the Pacific Northwest, by Hitchcock and Cronquist is the required
text. These are sometimes available used if you look before spring term
at the universities. The total cost for both the picking trips and the
lecture series will be $486.00. A $50.00 non-refundable deposit is
required to hold your place by March 15, 1994. The Apprenticeship
will run from March 1994 to August 1994. The lecture series can be
taken independently for a cost of $42.00. Options are available for
attending beginning level apprenticeship lectures and field trips for a
discount rate. Our first trip is scheduled for the last week of March. It
will be two single day trips back to back, and will include the Coast
Range, the Willamette Valley, a botany review, a guest lecturer, and
harvests of Nettles and Yellow Dock.
If you are interested, please contact Howie Brounstein at PO Box 1553,
Sisters, OR, or call 503-389-6348.
e-mail howieb1991 at aol.com
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