Autumn Bitter Root Remedies with Spoonful Herbals

Adult Programs

A participant hand tightens a ring lid onto a glass jar filled with chopped up roots and a clear liquid – the makings of a bitter tonic.

Our farm landscapes are not only capable of producing nourishing foods, but also powerful plant-based medicines. This weed walk will focus on the identification and benefits of bitter herbs and roots commonly found on the Vermont farm landscape and invites participants to engage in nature-based local medicine as part of a resilient food system. Participants will help gather and process some of the bitter roots into classic tonic recipes traditionally featured in the fall.

Katherine Elmer grew up in the green hills of Central Vermont (Abenaki territory) and revels in the opportunity to connect with folks around a shared love of place and nature through whole foods nutrition and herbal medicine. She is a clinically-trained community herbalist, a national board certified health and wellness coach at the UVM Health Comprehensive Pain Program through the Osher Center for Integrative Health, and has been teaching courses for nearly 2 decades on herbal medicine, integrative health and food systems topics at the University of Vermont and Vermont State University. Katherine completed professional herbalism training through the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism. She manages medicinal plant gardens on UVM campus and is the faculty advisor for the UVM student Herbalism Club. Katherine is founding director and a clinical herbalist at Spoonful Herbals (a local educational non-profit) and co-founder and former co-director of Railyard Apothecary in Burlington. To learn more, check out community classes and educational resources at www.spoonfulherbals.org.

Phoebe Paron is a gardening herbalist witch, who has been alongside plants to harness their magic for the last five years. They were an Herbal Roots apprentice at the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism and are interning at Railyard Apothecary. This is Phoebe’s first season with the Spoonful Herbals team as a Community Herbalist educator and remedy maker and they are excited to create herbal remedies and teach in their community!