Plant Medicine/Acorn | WildcraftWorkshops

Plant Medicine and
Acorn Workshop

Join us at Gemini Moon Ranch for a special, seasonal Plant Medicine and Acorn Workshop on Saturday, December 20th. 10:00 am - 1:30 pm

We begin with Plant Medicines from 10:00 - 11:00 am where we discuss late season medicinal plants you can find locally and how to use them to make yourself natural remedies for common cold symptoms like runny nose, coughs, congestion and sore throats. Mortar & pestles, notepads, pencils and disposable tea bags will be provided at each table.

The Acorn Flour workshop takes place from 11:30 am - 1:30 pm. Over the course of 2 hours we'll review traditional methods used to store, process and prepare acorns with plenty of opportunities for questions.

We begin with a brief walk around some of the old growth oak trees where we'll examine what we find and discuss what to look for to get the safest, most edible acorns possible.

Using the materials provided we will be shelling, boiling and roasting the acorns before finally grinding them down into acorn flour. As a demonstration I will be using our acorn flour to make an acorn "cake" or "biscuit"

(This workshop is purely educational, we will not be consuming the acorns, acorn flour or anything that we choose to cook, bake or make with it)

Booking

Which plants to look for this time of year

This young California Everlasting is the perfect example of plant medicines we have sprouting up right now. Although this is technically a summer plant, I've been seeing many of them spring up after our most recent rains. We will be reviewing many other medicinal local plants like Laurel Sumac, Seep Willow and Chamise which are all thriving in this late part of the year.

Beneficial Plant Medicines for winter colds

This Plant Medicine Workshop is focused on our winter plants and how they can help ease your typical holiday coughs, colds, sore joints and body aches. We will also discuss beneficial infusions to help rid the body of congestion, runny nose or sore throats as well as many other natural remedies to help get you through flu season.

Create Your Own

Wildcraft Workshops will supply mason jars with local plant medicines to be examined and experimented with. Everyone is encouraged to try their hand at making their own infusions using the mortar and pestles with the disposable tea bags provided at each table.

Have fun choosing the right plant medicines for you!

Acorn Gathering

Our first step in the acorn flour making process is by far the easiest, gathering acorns! Although, it still takes a watchful eye to make sure you're not gathering rotten or infested acorns, I can tell you from experience there are few things worse than cracking open a bug filled acorn shell! So, we will be taking a brief walk under the oak trees to examine the fallen acorns and discuss how to gather the highest quality ones available.

Acorn Processing

During the main portion of the workshop we will be actively shelling the acorns using our mortar and pestles or, weather permitting, perhaps I can do a live demonstration using one of the many native grinding stones found on Gemini Moon Ranch. We will also boiling the acorns several times to draw out the tannins then onto fire roasting and finally grinding them down to our earthy, acorn flour.

Acorn Flour

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The finished product! After "hours" of hard work, elbow grease and a lot of love we'll be left with a beautiful batch of California acorn flour. In this last stage I'll discuss different preparation and cooking methods traditionally used by the native peoples of the region and as a demonstration, I'll use our acorn flour to cook an acorn "cake" or "biscuit"