Practical Medicine Making Intensive 2024
Become a skilled medicine maker! This course introduces many of the incredible ways we can make medicine with plants. Learn how to harvest herbs and make potent medicine for yourself and your community safely, effectively and sustainably.
This is a PRACTICAL hands-on course. You will get stuck in and learn how to make tinctures, glycerites, infused oils, ointments, vinegars, cough syrups and lozenges. Put the theory into practice. Equipping ourselves with the skills to take care of ourselves and each other is essential.
2024 Dates
Friday 13th September, 10am - Sunday 15th September, 5pm
Second course is Friday 27th September, 10am - Sunday 29th September, 5pm 2024.
Location
Just outside Street, Somerset (full details on booking)
Food & Accommodation
Nourishing home-cooked food & a peaceful place to camp with hot showers, sauna & swimming pond
What you will learn
Potent Medicine Making
Learn which factors contribute to making potent and effective medicines; from ecological conditions to seasonal variability, harvesting and storage, to spirit and relationship. You will learn how to harvest herbs sustainably in ‘right relationship’ with the land. Throughout the course we will touch on different plant constituents and which medicine making methods are most effective in creating potent medicines.
Gain an understanding of:
- Sustainable harvesting
- Potent medicine making
- Which medicine making methods for which plants
Tinctures & Vinegars
We will explore how to extract plant medicines in alcohol and vinegar. You will learn about folk methods and weight to volume methods and get practice making both. By the end of the weekend, you will feel clear about how to make these effective medicines simply and easily with different dried and fresh herbs.
Become skilled in:
- Folk tincture & vinegar methods
- Weight to volume tincture methods
- Warm infused herbal vinegars
- Fresh and dried herb differences
Glycerites & Cough Syrups
Glycerites are mixtures of medicinal substances with glycerine. This is a fantastic alternative to alcohol. You will learn how to make ‘cold glycerites’ as well as ‘warm glycerites’ that use heat as a method for enhanced extraction. You will learn how to make an effective ‘marshmallow gloop’ so that you can combine it with glycerites for your own herbal cough syrup. We will also cover how to make effective herbal decoctions and herbal lozenges.
Learn how to make:
- Cold glycerites
- Warm glycerites
- Herbal cough syrup
- Herbal decoctions
- Lozenges
Infused Oils & Ointments
Infusing herbs in oil is a wonderful form of medicine making, yet not without challenges! Learn how to effectively make herbal infused oils with dried and fresh herbs. We will also look at ‘warm infused’ methods for making herbal oils with various equipment. Infused oils are the backbone of effective ointments - by the end of the weekend you will know how to combine oil and wax to make your own ointments.
Learn how to make:
- Infused oils including a heavenly lavender oil
- Warm infused oils
- Herbal ointments
Medicine Making Systems
What records do you need to keep? What are you meant to write on your labels? How do you know what to harvest when? Nicole will share her years of experience in making medicine for herself and projects across the world. Throughout the course you will learn effective medicine making systems that you can put into practice yourself, from checklists, to label templates and all the ticks and tricks to making things en masse.
Feel confident in:
- Record keeping
- Labelling
- Storage
- Making medicine at scale
Course Costs, Facilities & Accommodation
The course cost is separated into three parts:
1. Tuition - This is a very active three-day course, with a lot of medicine making ingredients and materials. Due to the practical nature of the course it is a small group size (maximum 15 people). Due to my anticapitalist principles, a third of the places have been set aside for free or subsidised places. Please email to express your interest, details of how to apply for one of these places will be released once the costs are covered from paying learners.
Your financial contribution will make the course possible and will cover all the expenses to make it happen! Funds raised will be used by the Solidarity Apothecary in my work in supporting people experiencing state violence with herbalism. Tuition costs £250.
2. Food - Meals are provided for by Nicole’s amazing Mum, Michele, who prepares nourishing and delicious meals with produce from the land. As the course is very physically active and condensed, we recommend opting in for meals so that you can sustain yourself over the three days! Meals include breakfast, lunch and dinner with pudding and snacks in between as well as all drinks. We can cater for food allergies and preferences, please communicate them in advance. £4 breakfast, £7 lunch, £8 dinner.
2. Accommodation - The course is hosted at a beautiful smallholding in Somerset. It is backed on by a nature reserve, incredible hedgerows and many medicinal plants. The main facilities are camping. There are compost toilets, hot showers and a kitchen for in-between meals. There is also a sauna and new DIY outdoor swimming pond. Campervans are welcome (please contact Nicole if you have a large live-in vehicle as it may not fit through our access). Camping is £10 per night.
The total cost including food and accommodation = £327
Booking is available now to confirm your course place = £250
Funds will be requested for food and accomodation in July. You are welcome to stay off-site and to self-cater if preferred!
Please email info@solidarityapothecary.org if you'd like to pay via a payment plan.
Please note, places are first come first served.
About Nicole & the Solidarity Apothecary
I’m a clinical herbalist and anarchist organiser based in the Westcountry of England (in Somerset, south of Bristol). My lineages are English, Welsh and Irish. I have been studying herbal medicine informally and making medicine for over 15 years. I completed a four-year clinical training with The Plant Medicine School in Ireland to develop my skills as a practitioner.
As a herbalist, I focus on supporting people experiencing state violence. I run a project called the Solidarity Apothecary, who’s mission is to materially support revolutionary struggles and communities with plant medicines to strengthen collective autonomy, self-defence and resilience to climate change, capitalism and state violence.
I make and distribute thousands of medicines each year as part of grassroots projects such as Ukraine Herbal Solidarity that distributed 18,000 medicines to people fleeing the genocidal re-invasion of Ukraine in 2022. As part of the Mobile Herbal Clinic Calais, we made and distributed over 6,000 medicines at the beginning of the pandemic. Each month, our medicine making sustains a comprehensive inventory of herbal medicine serving thousands of refugees in northern France. I make a vast amount of medicine for my personal clinic and the Solidarity Apothecary’s herbal care packages that are distributed to defendants, prisoner families, frontline organisers and more. Learn more at: https://solidarityapothecary.org/about
What others have said about the course
"I cant recommend learning with Nicole enough. She has an extraordinary depth of knowledge which comes from deeply lived experience and a place of really profound compassion and radical care. All this comes together in a learning environment which is really really supportive, unjudgemental, and rich with information, tips, insights, jokes, experience, stories. She is a generous and warm and gracious teacher, and it really felt both enabling and a privilege to participate in her work. Working with Nicole and engaging in her work as the Solidarity Apothecary feels like one of the lessons I’ve needed in our connections and capacities with plants and one another."
Hannah"I came away from a weekend of herbal medicine making completely blown away and so inspired to start making my own remedies. Nicole was an amazing teacher and packed so much into the three days with her amazing knowledge and great sense of humour. I would recommend this to anyone wanting to put their love of plants and herbs into practice...a month later and I am still fired up, excited and have a row of my own tinctures and vinegars brewing..so far!! The course was very hands on and practical which brought it all to life for me..thank you so much Nicole."
Jane Parker
"This was such an informative and immersive weekend. The beauty of the land, Nicole’s teaching style and her genuine care for the whole group made for a safe and nourishing learning environment. It’s also a great place to meet and connect with other plant lovers working towards collective liberation. Highly recommend."
Glena Rodriguez"Everything about this workshop met my needs - from the consent-based agreements on the first morning to the mostly outdoor and flexible classroom style, regular breaks and hands-on learning. I was also really inspired by all the people who came along and shared their projects and visions around mutual aid and accessible herbal medicine. Thank you Nicole for your generosity and easeful learning environment. It was one of the best experiences of my year."
TamaraPhotos from the Previous Course
