2011 Workshops

To book:
Email christina.stapley@tiscali.co.uk
Or Phone 01249 821087.

Sowing the Seeds of Good Health.
Tuesday March 15th.
The day will be about planning a source of fresh herbs for your harvest to suit your lifestyle. Discover herbs for salads and teas, from growing in windowsill pots to sowing and planting a small herb garden to delight you all year round. We will be looking at tasty seeds to eat and trying new recipes. There will be a special emphasis on herbs offering useful herb seeds; this includes how to gain the most from them in food and home medicine. Fennel, sunflower, pumpkin, aniseed, milk thistle and more plus a planting plan for the twelve most helpful herbs for your garden and information on their uses.

10-4pm. £30. Lunch not included.


A Medicine Chest from Garden and Hedgerow.
Saturday August 20th.
Beginning by thinking about looking after your herbs as autumn approaches, we then explore the most useful first aid herbs to grow or be aware of when on country walks. These include treatments for bites and stings, sunburn, sprains, stomach upsets, stress etc. There will be experience in making herbal oils, teas, herbal syrup, poultices and compresses.   

You will learn about commonly grown herbs and their uses for everyday problems, their preparation, dosage and contraindications. Rules for safe home medicine will be given alongside some hands on experience. Fruits and berries feature, contrasting with soothing leaves such as houseleek and ribwort plantain. From peppermint to Calendula there will be plenty of interest. 10-4pm. £30.

The series of AgingSuccessfully Workshops is intended to inform in a fun way with a mix of facts, recipes and activities - both gently physical and mental. It is suitable for anyone over 30 years of age. The sooner you begin understanding and looking after your body the better. However, there are always helpful changes you can make… Each session is complete in itself yet forms part of the whole understanding.


Ageing Successfully - The Brain and Nerves.
Saturday March 19th.
Could you improve your health in old age, starting now? Do you have specific worries? This workshop offers the opportunity for you to find out about the effects of aging on the brain and nervous system. With a light-hearted approach to the subject, strategies are given for improving your chances of remaining as healthy and agile in mind and body for as long as possible. The nutritional and supportive qualities of herbs will be explored and emphasised. Care of the brain and nervous system includes herbs such as sage, rosemary, betony, St. John’s wort, lavender and more. Helpful dietary advice, mental exercises and a look at lifestyle lead the way forward. Practical experience of simple recipes to make at home will be part of the day with making teas, flavourings, sleep balm, fragrant pillows, a soothing lotion and footbath. Have fun putting on your thinking cap.

10-4pm. £30. (£15 seniors). Lunch not included.


Ageing Successfully - Heart and Circulation.
Saturday April 16th.
Whether or not you have specific worries about this vital body system, this day is aimed to help you to incorporate simple helpful foods, herbs and activities into your daily life. Again a light-hearted approach to improving your health in the future is the basis of the day. At the same time sound information is included to help you understand the needs of your body. Cardiovascular health has received more press than any other area of health in recent years and we are all aware of unhelpful diet, lifestyle etc. This day is looking behind those well known rules to find both the reasons for them and good ideas to aid motivation and offer helpful, safe, everyday support for your better health.

Heart disease and high blood pressure are not conditions to be treated with home medicine. Only safe approaches to prevention and care of areas affected by poor circulation will be detailed. Both warming and calming herbs will be included with a blood pressure check as part of the day to determine whether certain herbs may be unsuitable for you. Amongst the herbs, ginger, bilberry, hawthorn, lemon balm, gingko and rose are some of importance. We will be making teas, ointment, syrup and looking at the role of distilled aromatic waters.

10-4pm. £30. (£15 seniors). Lunch not included.


Ageing Successfully - Breathing.
Saturday May 14th.
The ability to breathe easily and effectively enabling you to take in sufficient oxygen, clearly affects the working of the whole body. Starting from the basic anatomy of the nose and sinuses, down to the lungs, we look at factors which affect tissue health. There is fun testing your senses of smell and hearing – [since sinus and ear problems may be closely related]; as well as breathing exercises and much more. Herbs used in treating sinus infections, allergy conditions and asthma will be featured. Examples are  ribwort plantain, elecampane, eyebright, sage, thyme, liquorice, and elderflowers and berries. There will be practical experience in making an inhalation, teas, compresses and syrups.

10-4pm. £30. (£15 seniors). Lunch not included.


Ageing Successfully - Digestion.
Saturday June 11th.
We are what we eat – to a large extent that is true. If we cannot digest it properly then we will not be absorbing the best from our food and we may have serious discomfort into the bargain. This day looks at the progress of a meal as it is digested, those foods which are kind to the digestion and those that are not, together with the best ways of preparing and cooking them. Stimulating and reducing appetite are looked at with some menus for review and information on foods. This will be an enjoyable day for anyone who loves food whether or not they have digestive problems or are cooking for someone who has. Herb aperitifs, mixes to sweeten foods reducing the use of sugar, low sodium herb salt, tasty herb pepper, mixing and learning about herb seasonings will enable treatment for many problems to be part of diet. Amongst herbs featured will be fennel, peppermint, sage, thyme, marshmallow, meadowsweet, dandelion and chamomile.

10-4pm. £30. (£15 seniors). Lunch not included.


Ageing Successfully - Kidneys, Skin & Hair.
Saturday September 10th.
The connection of these three body parts will become apparent on looking at some simple physiology. The day will be about cleansing internally and externally and toning both the urinary system and the lymph with safe herbs. Diet is also closely related to matters of skin and hair conditioning and will play an important part. Herbs for specific conditions will be discussed, these will include chickweed, Calendula, elderflower and frankincense. Rosemary, yarrow, nettle and sage are important for the hair and some others explored on the day are white deadnettle, houseleek and marshmallow. We will be making creams, toners, lotion, shampoo, lip-salve and teas.

10-4pm. £30. (£15 seniors). Lunch not included.


Ageing Successfully - The Immune System.
Saturday October 15th.
This system of the body is one under the greatest strain from our modern lifestyle and that strain is showing in the growing number of obstinate infections and auto-immune diseases. It has a complex physiology and the immune system will be presented at a level which is aimed to retain a light-hearted aspect in the presentation, while at the same time being sufficiently informative. Auto-immune diseases cover a wide range of medical conditions, some of those associated with aging will be discussed. Rheumatic and arthritic diseases affecting joints will be in the next session. Any particular requests should be mentioned when booking. Exercises, attitudes and strategies to repel infections form part of the day as well as a practical session making teas, protective sprays, vinegars, hand-baths, and more.

10-4pm. £30. (£15 seniors). Lunch not included.


Ageing Successfully - The Muscles and Joints.
Saturday November 19th.
The last session in the series, to many people it will appear to be the most important. Looking after our muscles and joints in age requires attention to diet, specific forms of exercise as well as general exercise, massage and herbs. Anatomy and physiology will be explained for specific joints if requested. Different forms of pain relief will be explored and the practical session will include poultices, compresses, herb pillows, teas, ointments and creams. Many herbs are used in this area and we will look at those containing salicylates such as willow and meadowsweet, hormonal treatments including black cohosh, resins, and others, detailing which are suitable for home use and which should be prescribed.

10-4pm. £30. (£15 seniors). Lunch not included.

www.wealddown.co.uk
Email: courses@wealddown.co.uk
Tel: 01243 811464

Herbs for a cottage garden.
Friday May 20th.
When is a flower not a flower? When it is also a herb. Discover the hidden uses of familiar garden flowers from the herbaceous border. The importance of fragrance, beauty, and, above all, usefulness when choosing plants to grow, continued from the Medieval period to the Industrial Revolution. Forgotten uses will emerge as we explore all aspects of growing, maintaining and harvesting traditional, popular garden plants. These will include Lilies, Hollyhock, Golden Rod, Roses, Mallows, Soapwort, Dahlias, Aquilegia, Sunflower, Iris and the smaller Violets, Houseleek etc. Samples of wines, dyed materials, remedies and skincare products will inspire a choice of designing your own ideal border or plot for personal needs or making recipes. 9.30-4.30pm. £50.

Make a herbarium - A personal Plant Record.
Saturday May 28th.
The oldest surviving herbarium in this country is from 1606. It contains whole pressed plants that are still recognizable today, with added notes on identification and use. This remains an exciting connection with the past. The Herbarium workshop provides the chance for you to make a collection of beautifully preserved inspiration for sketching or painting, use in embroidery design, or help you at a future date to identify plants. A must for anyone who has an interest in botany or makes pressed flower cards and wishes to improve on their techniques. As a bonus it enables you to leave an invaluable gift to coming generations. Learn how to press plants effectively and mount them for their best survival. Learn also how to identify herbs accurately and record important details. In a modern herbarium photography can add an extra dimension to the record in revealing the habitat of the plant in question.

9.30-4.30pm. £55.


15th Century herbs in the Medieval manor.
Friday June 17th.
From household accounts, cookery recipes and leechbooks comes a wealth of information and recipes using herbs as flavourings, colourings, preservatives, fragrances, medicines and pest repellents. In making recipes participants will learn balancing herb flavours in sweet and savoury dishes to create a delicious spread on the table in North Cray. Scented water for washing, blending fragrance and protection in strewing herbs and decorating the house for special occasions will bring the past to life. Sage, parsley, garlic, tansy, pot marigolds, rosemary, saffron, and wormwood are some of the herbs used and discussed on the day.

9.30-4.30pm. £50.


Secrets of the Tudor stillroom.
Saturday June 18th.
Earlier recipes form a background for exploring the Elizabethan dominance of perfume against pestilential air in the form of pomander beads, tussie mussies, scented mixes and distilled aromatic waters and vinegars. We then “open the door” on the many activities that took place here from distilling aromatic and medicinal waters to candying sweetmeats and preparing and using dried herbs.
The fragrance and bustle of the stillroom at the height of the rose season are re-created on this exceptional day. Sources of recipes and instructions are explored, together with practical experience in making cough sweets, herb honeys, salves and drinks alongside the fragrant luxuries. Some herbs featured-rose, rosemary, elecampane, pot marigold, frankincense, marshmallow, yarrow, hyssop, betony, St. John’s wort and angelica.

9.30-4.30pm. £50.


Herbs for Health.
Friday July 1st.
From the cottage herbaceous border of the past we identify suitable herbs to supply home remedies for a small medicinal garden today. Guided by medical herbalist Christina Stapley, this is a day to learn about practical and safe home use of herbs. Follow the stages of gathering to drying and storing for use in herb teas, foot or handbaths and soothing pillows. Learn how to preserve fresh herbs in honey or honey syrups, oils or vinegars. Historical and modern recipes provide applications in treating everything from insect bites to sore throats or diarrhoea. Effective traditional herbs featured include marshmallow, elder, fennel, chamomile, lemon balm, houseleek, sage, thyme, lavender and more.

9.30-4.30pm. £50.  

Herbs for Health.
Saturday July 2nd.
As above, a repeat of a popular workshop.


Herb walk around the Museum.
Saturday July 9th.
By popular request this day gives the opportunity to explore not only the numerous gardens in the Museum, but many out of the way places between. On a relaxed, guided tour with a difference, Christina will unlock the secrets of herbal folklore and uses of plants growing in the woods, hedges, alongside tracks and by the water. There is sure to be some wildlife in evidence as a bonus. There will be details of medical applications of the herbs, past and present alike, edible weeds, dyes, pest repellents and more. Whether your interest is in botany, beauty, fragrance, flavours for cookery, times of gathering, safe use, recognising dangerous plants, or country lore – there will be fascinating discoveries for all. The wide range of habitats at the Museum will ensure an interesting day with an occasional opportunity to rest.

9.30-4.30pm. £50.


"Re-writing history": making historical.
Saturday August 27th.
Recipes for inks have been many and various over the centuries. Putting wormwood into inks to stop mice eating documents, adding brandy to inks to keep them from freezing in winter, and an ink stand that turns water into ink are some examples of practical genius. Brightly coloured inks, invisible inks, even portable inks carried round to be made up on arrival have fulfilled necessary roles. Herbs added fragrance to inks, and some gave colour from their sap such as the greater celandine, or from fruit juices such as the elderberry. Barks, berries, fruit, leaf juices, flower stamens, resins and galls are all represented among ink recipes from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Yellow ink from saffron or French berries, soft, pinkish-purple from elderberry, green with added rue juice, red from brazilwood, blue from indigo – a rainbow of colours can be made. At the end of the day there will be a session to try them out.

9.30-4.30pm. £50.
 

An A-Z of medicinal trees.
Friday September 16th.
Come and explore the woods, folklore and historical herbal recipes containing products from trees. A walk in the Museum grounds offers us familiarity with identifying native and introduced trees. The scope of the day widens this list to include North American and exotic additions to our historical Pharmacopoeia. Through pictures, products and making recipes we will look at the use of fruits, blossoms, leaves, barks, roots, wood, sap and resin to make medicines, splints for broken limbs, and even provide fuel for heating the recipe.
Over millennia trees have also given foods, wines, spices, incense, dyes, inks and basketry materials. Adding a rich folklore enhances the day. Find out about the uses of ash, hawthorn, birch, elder, lime, horse chestnut, oak and willow. From America, sassafras, prickly ash and slippery elm. Not forgetting spice trees producing cloves and cinnamon and gum resin sources, Boswellia, Commiphora and Guaiacum.

9.30-4.30pm. £50.
 

Christmas Herbal Decorations.
Sunday December 11th.
This is a day to unwind from the stresses of preparing for Christmas as you enjoy making home decorations with natural materials. A Christmas wreath has a base of traditional greenery, enlivened with spices, herb seed heads, dried flowers and fruits, offering the opportunity for a unique effect. A natural table decoration reflects the tradition of bringing in the Yule log. This log is decorated with woodland fruits and a candle of your choice. Fun to make woodland animals and birds to hang from the tree use a selection of natural materials. A sleepy fur snowman can be filled with soothing herbs to delight young and old alike, or you can make a cinnamon sled carrying sacks of myrrh and frankincense, pulled by chenille reindeer.

9.30-4pm. £55.
 

Christmas Herbal Decorations.
Thursday December 15th.
A repeat of the popular workshop above.
 

Enter a Celtic Home.
Saturday May 29th.
This is a day to look at the world through different eyes, as we find both fascinating possibilities and certainties for the Celtic way. Their mastery of natural materials is evident from archaeology. With no written record we look at what we know of their lives and daily needs which can be met using herbs. Then follow the trail of early gatherers through tastes, fragrances, textures, colours and forms to uses. Practical experiment involves native herbs in simple cookery, dyeing wool, fragrances and safe home medicines. Woad, burdock, sweet gale, mullein, goosegrass, elder, vervain, meadowsweet, bramble, betony, sanicle, marshmallow and nettle –these herbs and more will take us from sources for string to soup, dyes to burning torches, cosmetics to cures and insect repellents to aphrodisiacs. Finding the clues in where it grows, how it grows and what your senses tell you about a plant, will open the way to a deeper relationship with your environment. Hints on when and how to gather for the most intense flavours and fragrances and to obtain the highest therapeutic values are given for you to test. A full understanding of the plants takes a life-time. This day will offer the opportunity of a flying start.

10-4pm. £50.


Life in a Roman Villa.
Saturday June 25th.
The best known herbs today, among them sage, parsley and bay are part of the legacy of the Roman occupation of Britain. We look at features of Italian gardens and Mediterranean herbs and how these were introduced into Britain and still influence our lives and tastes today. The role of herbs in daily life is the theme, leading us from practical experience in making some delicious and easy recipes, still suitable for the modern kitchen, into making fragrant beads and wreaths for decoration, cosmetics and more. The use of the resinous herbs such as frankincense and myrrh illustrate the stark contrast with use of native British herbs. Yet both were, and still are, combined in herbal medicine. Family health and medicines as a responsibility of the head of the household opens the way to making more recipes and insight on their attitudes to disease and therapy. Bright pot marigolds, beloved roses, bitter wormwood and horehound, fragrant rosemary, mints and pennyroyal, and the valued seasonings, savory, thyme, lovage, cumin and caraway all find their places in our exploration of Roman herbs. Our written evidence and recipes come from the cookery of Apicius,   [more than one author], encyclopaedic writings of folklore and much else in Pliny and medicine of Celsus. Records from Hadrian’s wall add British information and both archaeology in Britain and such sites as Pompeii and Herculaneum, provide a rich background to hands on experience with herbs.

10-4pm. £50.


Hedgerow Basketry.
Saturday September 24th.
The theme of relating to and exploring our natural environment is continued in this opportunity to become familiar with which materials can be useful in making baskets and which not. If you have ever thought all ivy is the same or that weaving a basket is just taking a willow rod behind one stake and in front of another – come and find the realities. Colours and textures, variations in thickness, understanding and working with the nature of a stem or branch are all involved in bringing together a basket which may be both graceful and functional or a decorative art form. One of the joys of autumn is to gather materials and sit weaving a basket “in the green” from the materials around you, as you enjoy the last warm sunshine. A celebration of harvest which may provide you with a container for yet more harvests.
“Hedgerow materials” include those from gardens and so along with the supplied ivy, willow and hazel, you are invited to bring straight rods of red dogwood or snowberry, fruit tree or lilac suckers, long lengths of golden and natural hop, wisteria, jasmine, or periwinkle to make stunning baskets. A full list of possibilities will be provided on booking. No previous experience is necessary and most participants finish a basket in the day. It may be a round or oval basket in shape, with or without a handle. Occasionally there has also been time to make a lid. In the past fruit or bread baskets have been made for the table, gathering baskets for flowers and herbs as well as the more substantial containers. A fun day of discovery when rules of weaving tend to be seen as almost as flexible as the stems.

10-4pm. £50.

These are proposed details which may be subject to changes, please check when they appear on the Plimoth site www.plimoth.org

Elizabethan Herbs and Herb Gardens.
Thursday July 14th. 1-5pm.
The English Elizabethan garden so full of herbs, intricately knotted hedges, scented and shaded walks with arbours to sit and talk, or eat, must have haunted the memories of the early settlers. The ideal of the paradise garden, a sanctuary from the cares of life, came with them; alongside the desperate need for a plot to grow absolute necessities. On this afternoon we seek to know the Elizabethan garden better. We will do this through an illustrated talk viewing re-created period gardens in England from palaces, through gardens of a wealthy merchant to plots of the poor. Chamomile seats, covered walkways, knot gardens and the medieval mead will all be represented. Some slides are from Christina’s own garden. We will dip into period gardening books to find advice from the sound and sensible to the weird and wonderful, alongside gadgets, tools and uses.
There will be some practical hands on experience as we also walk in Plimoth gardens, touching and smelling herbs, learning propagation, and having the opportunity to put some planting ideas on paper.


Kitchen Gardens and Herbs of the Settlers.
Friday July 15th. 9-5pm.
We begin by looking at the recommended medicines to be taken on board by those who could afford them to support their health during the voyage from England. Facing a long, cramped voyage, these naturally were aimed to support both emotional as well as physical health. Alongside lemons against scurvy and other food supplements, we find cures for seasickness; as well as rose and clove pink preserves. We will make troches for seasickness and for colds and comforting syrups to lift depression.
We will examine those herbs the settlers felt it necessary to take with them for their new life, using John Winthrop’s seed list. These included  borage, burnet, fennel, parsley, purslane, sorrel, hyssop, marjoram, marigolds and tansy. We will also look at the poem by William Bradford  giving us vegetables to plant with the herbs and discuss good combinations in cookery.  Lunch will be a tasty variety of dishes adapted from the 16th and 17th century recipes. This meal will feature herbs that the Settlers brought with them.
A walk in the gardens gathering herbs will raise awareness of the hidden uses of familiar garden flowers from the herbaceous border. It will be followed by making more varied period recipes including a salve, poultices, powders, teas and herb-infused honeys.  
A day filled with a mix of practical experience of plant recognition and making recipes, informed by reference to historical accounts of which herbs grew well, which did not, the abundant native herbs of New England and those herbs introduced at that time which have now become part of the scenery. Samples of wines, dyed materials, remedies and skincare products may inspire a new appreciation of herbal plants for your own garden.


Secrets of the Stillroom.
Saturday, July 16th. 9-5pm.
From the early Tudor still-houses in the garden to the stillroom as part of the main house, we open the door to find the amazing range of activities that went on inside. In full summer the stillroom was a hive of activity with huge harvests to cope with in the larger houses. Dry from the furnace or furnaces which heated the stills, it was also a perfect place for drying and storing many herbs and all kinds of preserves which were made there.
This is very much a practical day when everyone will be involved in making recipes from distilled aromatic waters to scented powders which may be taken home, cough sweets, herb infused honeys, a salve, the then expensive coloured herb sugar, sweetmeats, medical and cosmetic vinegars and more. Some herbs featured- rose, rosemary, elecampane, pot marigold, frankincense, marshmallow, yarrow, hyssop, betony, St. John’s wort and angelica. Earlier recipes form a background for exploring the Elizabethan dominance of perfume against pestilential air in the form of pomander beads, tussie mussies, and scented recipes.
Learn not only how the still works when distilling with water or milk, but household wisdom of the period. This will cover herb uses from washing delicate clothing to repelling pests, and herbal remedies, simple and complex; as we leaf through pages from stillroom books and look at the wealth of knowledge in self-sufficiency that came with the more fortunate settlers.  Samples from the stillroom shelves will fascinate as we follow the herbs from Plimoth gardens into the stillroom to re-create the bustle, fragrances and productivity, making recipes still enjoyable and useful today.


Herbs in Daily Life 1650-1750.
Sunday July 17th. 2-5.30pm.
From household accounts, cookery recipes and herbals we find a wealth of information and recipes using herbs as flavourings, colourings, preservatives, fragrances, medicines and pest repellents. In making recipes participants will learn balancing herb flavours in sweet and savoury dishes; scented water for washing, blending fragrance and protection in strewing herbs and decorating the house for special occasions.
An afternoon to enjoy bringing the past to life with hands on participation. Sage, parsley, garlic, tansy, pot marigolds, rosemary, saffron, and wormwood are some of the herbs used and discussed on the day. ‘The Book of Receipts’ [recipes] ‘of Lady Anne Blencowe’ with her delicious cookery for elegant entertaining and fascinating physic gives us an in-depth look at a single household as part of our researches on both sides of the Atlantic.


Herbal Dyes and inks.
Monday July 18th. 9-5pm.
A practical day enjoying dyeing with wool and silks for embroidery and using some of the same dyes for making inks. The many variables in natural dyeing from the maturity of the dye plants, the soil they are grown in, temperature of the dyebath and so on, make dyeing a continually fascinating hobby of discovery. We will use fresh and dried dyes to illustrate methods and results. Samples of dyed wool and silks using a range of leaves, roots, flowers and barks are sure to give many ideas for experiment. Madder, weld, dyer’s broom and woad have been commercial dyes but the list extends far beyond these. The inclusion of brazilwood, sumach, tansy, and all parts of the elder tree, offers  the opportunity to learn about dyes which Colonists found in America as well as those they brought with them. Brazilwood, logwood, and elderberry juice also give us easy inks to make and use when recording results.
Alongside the dyeing we will look at examples of the importance of herbs in design for embroidery,   needlework on furnishings and their place in woven tapestries. Bring along a sketch pad to record ideas you may wish to follow through. An absorbing day designed to lead to many happy hours in the future, exploring techniques and effects on items for your own use.


The Medicinal Herb Garden. OR
Fragrances and Luxuries from the Herb Garden.
Tuesday July 19th. 9-3pm. To be decided.

www.coam.org.uk
Email: educationcoam@btconnect.com
Tel: 01494 875542

Victorian Christmas Thursday November 10th. 10-12.30pm.
Warming Winter Remedies Thursday November 10th. 1.30-4pm.
Victorian Christmas Friday November 11th. 10-12.30pm.
Warming Winter Remedies Friday November 10th. 1.30-4pm.

Mornings and afternoons can be booked separately or a booking can be made for the whole of each day.

The mornings on both days are filled by making decorations with a Victorian theme. The Christmas fir tree became popular during this period and we will be making traditional tree decorations with nuts, spices, cones, sweets and baked figures of cinnamon dough. A sled laden with sacks of myrrh and frankincense and a scented fairy for the top of the tree complete a morning of festive fun. 
  
In the afternoon on each day we will be making recipes to deal with winter colds and chills. Rich elderberry syrup to stimulate the immune system or ease a sore throat, horehound honey to keep colds away, herbal teas, vinegars, cough sweets and more. 

To enquire about prices or book, email or call the number above.