Rich Mandelbaum
Where Phytochemistry Meets Gaia: Merging Science and Tradition in Herbalism
Location: Transcending Roots Apothecary, Becket, MA
Sliding scale fee: $70.00 – $100.00
Saturday, June 21, 2025 at 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM EDT
Register here.
Sometimes as herbalists we can compartmentalize our approach to plant medicine: a science-based approach, or a tradition / Earth-based approach. But we live in one single reality, and these are just different languages to describe that reality. The real wonder begins where they complement and synergize with each other.
We’ll spend the day celebrating the summer solstice weaving together traditional plant medicine, Gaia, and phytochemistry. Phytochemistry can sometimes feel like an abstract topic, a subject to be learned from books, divorced from our direct experience of the plants. But we’ll take phytochemistry into the field and forest and use sight, smell, and taste to discuss major classes of constituents, learn why plants produce them, how they provide nutrients and medicine, and what this means for us as herbalists and beings on the planet. We’ll deconstruct the artificial wall between science-based and energetic or traditional approaches to herbalism, reframing them as two contrasting languages describing a single Gaia.
The day will be outside, under cover if needed depending on the weather, and walking for an herb walk at some point during the day. If you have ever wondered why the sky is blue – and what that has to do with the biochemistry of medicinal plants – this is the workshop for you!
Amanda Crooke
Plant Walks
– Saturday, March 22, 2025 8:55 am – 10:00 am, (map)
– Saturday, April 4, 2025 5:30pm – 6:30pm, Lockatong Preserve (map)
– Saturday, April 12, 2025 5:30pm – 6:30pm, Lockatong Preserve (map)