Mountain View, Arkansas – – Nature and herb enthusiasts will gather at the Ozark Folk Center State Park April 3-4 for the annual Medicinal Herb Field Trip and Workshop. Participants should be able to walk over rugged, uneven terrain. For schedule and fees, visit www.ozarkfolkcenter.com or call (870) 269-3851.
The Medicinal Herb Field Trip begins Friday, April 3, at 8 a.m. in the White Oak Auditorium. Naturalist, herbalist and storyteller Doug Elliott starts the day with A Dandelion Tale. A slide presentation entitled Edible and Medicinal Plants of Spring in the Ozarks by Sasha Daucus will aid in identification of new plants. John Michael Kelley will establish the intent of the morning hike with his Eye Opener. There are five concurrent sessions in the afternoon from which to choose, including Use Your Own Senses to Discover Healing Herbs —Sasha Daucus; Walking with a Field Biologist’s Eyes and Ears—Bo Brown; Field Expedient Uses of Plants for Kids—John Michael Kelley; Using Wild Weeds from Kitchen to Apothecary—Susan Belsinger and Weeds, Woodslore and Useful Wild Plants Walk—Doug Elliott.
Friday evening at 7:30 p.m., Doug Elliott will present Woodslore and Wildwoods Wisdom – Stories, Songs, and Lore Celebrating the Natural World, a multifaceted cultural tour celebrating North America’s back country. This house concert is open to the general public. Tickets are $10 at the door.
The Medicinal Herb Workshop will be held Saturday in the Ozark Folk Center’s White Oak Auditorium between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. The presentations include St. John’s Wort: Nerve Healing Power Herb —Sasha Daucus; The Magic of Fermentation: Why and How to Do It —Susan Belsinger; A Wild and Cultured Herbal Luncheon (included in workshop fee); More Stories, Songs, and Lore—Doug Elliott. The afternoon consists of concurrent sessions from which to choose including: Fermenting Non-alcoholic Beverages—Shawn Hoefer; Field Expedient Uses of Plants for Kids—John Michael Kelley; Use Your Own Senses to Discover Healing Herbs —Sasha Daucus; and Industrial Agriculture vs. Wild Foods—Bo Brown.
Doug Elliott is a naturalist, herbalist, storyteller, basket maker, philosopher, and harmonica wizard. He has performed at festivals, museums and schools from Canada to the Caribbean. He has been a featured storyteller at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee and has conducted workshops and programs at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and the Smithsonian Institution. He has trained rangers for the National Park Service and guided people on wilderness experiences from Down-east Maine to the Florida Everglades. He was named harmonica champion at Fiddler’s Grove Festival in Union Grove, N.C.
In recent years he has received a variety of honors. The National Storytelling Network (the largest storytelling membership organization in the world) inducted him into their Circle of Excellence for “exceptional commitment and exemplary contribution to the art of storytelling.” The International Herb Association presented him with the Otto Richter award honoring his work with herbs and useful wild plants. The National Association for Interpretation (the professional organization of park rangers, naturalists, museum curators, etc.) gave him the Master Front Line Interpreter Award for his “mastery of interpretive techniques, program development, and design of creative projects” celebrating the human connection to nature.
He regularly writes articles for regional and national magazines. He has authored five books, produced a number of award winning recordings of stories and songs, and is occasionally seen on PBS-TV, and the History and National Geographic Channels. Please join us in thanking the Committee of 100 for the Ozark Folk Center State Park for sponsoring Mr. Elliott for this year’s Medicinal Herb Field Trip and Workshop.
Susan Belsinger is a culinary herbalist, food writer, educator, and photographer. Her most recent projects are The Herbal Calendar 2015 for Tide-Mark Publications and she is co-authoring a book with Dr. Arthur Tucker for Timber Press to be released next fall. She is passionate about her work—sharing the joy of gardening, cooking, herborizing and research through teaching and writing—and inspiring others to get in touch with their senses of smell and taste.
Bo Brown has traveled all over the U.S. and Central America working on bird studies as a wildlife field biologist since 1985, where his passion for learning plants got a boost in doing habitat vegetation analysis on the various projects. He also worked nine years as a contract naturalist for Missouri Department of Conservation. His business “First Earth Wilderness School” holds various workshops and programs in stone-age skills/wilderness survival, native foodways, and nature education, and co-hosts an annual primitive skills/flintknapping event near Springfield, Missouri in its 18th year, the Bois D’ Arc Skills Camp & Knap-In. In between all the various outdoor pursuits, Bo is also a professional musician, playing with several area groups.
Sasha Daucus is a master herbalist, energy healer and Avatar Master. She has worked in her own herbal and healing business, Golden Light Center, located in the Missouri Ozarks, since 1984. She teaches classes, leads herb walks and does private healing consultations. Her class, Using Your own Senses to Discover Healing Herbs, introduces you to the skill of translating sensory awareness into knowledge of the healing properties of herbs. Certain tastes and other impressions of a plant give you excellent information about the healing properties of that herb. This allows you to draw your own conclusions as to the impact of an herb on the human body, and creates a personal point of reference. As your ability to tune into your own sensory perceptions grows, you will find an invaluable source of direct information about the healing plants you work with.
Shawn Hoefer has been many things: award-winning cook, story-teller and poet, painter, nationally known broom maker, teacher, graphic designer, computer guru, calligrapher, homestead farmer, soldier, and quite ill. His desire to be healthier led him back to cooking several years ago – specifically, to the health benefits of fermented foods. Further, his illness no longer allowed him to touch alcohol, so a desire to brew beverages that were non-alcoholic bubbled, as it were, to the top.
After a good deal of experimentation, Shawn came up with several recipes that have allowed him to drink delicious, fizzy beverages. The health benefits of these beverages – although not backed up by any sort of scientific method or FDA approval – astounded him. Shawn been spreading the word about fermented foods and drinks ever since.
John Michael Kelley is a sharp, young teacher. With interests in all things out-of-doors, he has affiliated with, and taught for, Master Gardeners, Steven F. Austin University, Louisiana High Schools, Boy Scouts of America and AF Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. A high school student, this self-proclaimed lover of nature, spends every minute of free time immersed in the forgotten knowledge of the past. John Michael’s specialties include: primitive survival skills, native plant usage and identification, resource management, and ancient craftwork. He works at the Red River National Wildlife Refuge in Bossier City, Louisiana. He aims to share a unique perspective of wild herbs, developed through the lens of field expedience and sustainable practices.
Tina Marie Wilcox has worked in the Heritage Herb Garden at the Ozark Folk Center State Park in Mountain View, Arkansas since 1984. She is a passionate gardener, an herbal entertainer, writer and musician. Tina Marie plans and produces the herb events at the Ozark Folk Center, made possible by the collaboration and support of a host of garden angels. This year, especially, she is thankful to Doug Elliott, The Committee of 100, the Department of Parks and Tourism, Bo Brown, John Michael Kelley, Susan Belsinger, Sasha Daucus and the garden crew and staff of the Ozark Folk Center State Park.
