Apprenticeship

Dates: (September 16-17; October 14-15; November 18-19; Feb 17-18; March 16-17; April 20-21; May 18-19; June 22-23, 2024)

Location: Wakefield, QC

“Making walks in the woods, city parks, and even the corner of the parking lot engaging and magical”

Go on a one year journey dedicated to deepening connection to the natural world and all our relations, especially through foraging, wild herbal medicine, and bushcraft!
Get personal mentoring, as well as explore your relationship with nature in community!
Dramatically increase your confidence and knowledge as a naturalist, forager, herbalist, and natural crafter!
Experience fun and inspiring breaks from your life, with moments of profound engagement and realizations!

Apprenticeship includes:

8 weekends of courses in the core curriculum, with option to stay overnight.
Mushrooms 101 course
Optional bushcraft and skills courses, foraging outings, and Wildharvest dinners!
July & August: 2 summer day-trip canoe foraging outings, and some short car foraging trips
Free access to all other courses, (except with guest instructors)
Personal mentoring, in person and remotely (guaranteed 3hrs minimum)

Learning Goals:

Trees: To know nearly every naturally occurring tree, winter and summer, and at least some medicine, food or drink value, bushcraft uses, and perhaps some lore from times and cultures past
Medicines: Learn many powerful medicines from our local environment that resonate with your heart, body and spirit. Start to feel how the Earth is offering all sorts of healing for you and your loved ones.
Annual and perennial wild plants: 50+ species in our local area for food, drink, medicine, crafts, and general delight
Mushrooms: learn how to learn this challenging kingdom, and get solid on 30+ edible mushrooms, 10+ medicinal mushrooms, as well as mushrooms and lichens for natural dyes.
Wildfood preparation: the amazing flavours of wildfoods will be explored from the perspective of everyday food, gourmet cooking, special treats, and special preparations and preservations such as vinegars, “beers”, “sodas”, saurkrauts, pickles, etc.
Bushcraft: by taking the time to harvest plants and working with our hands to make beautiful baskets, tools, carvings, dyes, and other items we get to know the plants in a special way, as well as ending up with beautiful hand made items.
Bush skills: options to learn a about tracking, fire making, and more that can enhance your nature time
Nature lore: Learning together connections between animals, plants, people and life through stories and anecdotes

Other goals:

Health: Through engaging with local plant medicines, we can help ourselves and our loved ones stay healthy and vibrant, get better quickly if we get do get sick, and be able to help treat more serious conditions.
Money: save money on foods, drinks, and medicine!
Connection and Joy in Nature: Goals include: spending quality time with plants and the forest; learning from other cultures who are or were more connected to nature; overriding the chatty brain to be in our senses and our beginner’s mind;
Connection with people: Sometimes its just nice to hang out with other nature nerds!
There will be occasional community meals and gatherings around the fire!

Added Value:

All materials will be supplied, (such as oils, jars, labels, medicinal alcohol)
Electronic notes for every class, including a colour coded calendar of local foraging options,
Opportunities to take cuttings and transplants from our wild areas and "wild" gardens
Many options and resources for continued learning
Invitation to our Wildharvest dinners
Ongoing mentoring through phone or Facebook messenger

Schedule:

The core curriculum weekend courses are 10AM -4PM on Saturdays and Sundays, usually the third weekend of the month, except the June weekend
Apprentices are invited to all other Rivers and Roots courses and events, and will be invited to the occasional apprentice only foraging outings.
Apprentices will also have access to three hours of personal mentoring, in person or online, and perhaps on their property or favourite natural areas (for local participants, or mileage charged)
All classes will be a mix of nature walks, harvesting, class learning, and work projects such as food or medicine preparations, or a bushcraft project.

Saturday: Our Saturday concentrates mainly on wild edible foods and their preparations. There will be a secondary emphasis on simple medicine harvesting and preparation. After our morning meeting, we will be wandering and foraging from various environments. Our afternoon will be about preparation of the harvest. (Note: some of our winter sessions will vary from this template. Details at https://www.riversandroots.ca/fulldayworkshops

Saturday evening (optional for those staying overnight): After some time to set up camp (for those that are camping), our outdoor kitchen will be available for preparing meals. Saturday evenings may include crafting, fires, songs, sharing of passions and stories and inspirations, context weaving and gratitude, evening walks, star gazing, or just relaxing.

Sunday: Our Sunday sessions will centre more around foraging plants and mushrooms for health and medicine, as well as special areas of interest such as plant dyes, fibres, bushcraft, and other traditional uses.

(Note that on certain weekends, Saturday will be bushcraft and medicine, and Sunday will be food foraging.)

Requirements:

Participants must be 16 yrs of age or older. (childcare may occasionally be available, please inquire!). Participants should be physically capable of hiking up and down hills. (If this is not possible, you may still participate in most of our program, but may have to miss out on some of our more strenuous harvesting activities).

Accommodation:

The cabin and/or the basement apt. may be available for those interested. Otherwise, participants may camp out on our property and have access to our:

Outdoor Kitchen. Outhouse/bathroom, Outdoor Shower & Walkout Basement suite complete with kitchen and bathroom (shower and toilet)

If you do not have access to camping gear, please let us know and we will do our best to find you some for you.

Food:

You will be responsible for your breakfast and lunch. You are welcome to use our outdoor kitchen, and/or Cabin kitchen. Evening meals will be a mix of potluck, our foraged wildfoods, and sometimes provided by us. The details will be in the pre-weekend emails. Please let us know of any dietary restrictions or allergies.

Payment:

Cost: $2000

Deposit of $300 due upon registration to hold your spot.

Work trade and payment plans available. Indigenous participants may attend at cost (materials etc.), and there are scholarships available for immigrants, single parents, and otherwise financially challenged individuals with a passion for nature. Please inquire.

rivers & roots

rivers & roots apprenticeship