Fire & Forage
Four Saturdays, 11am-3pm: May 17, May 31, June 7, June 14
Kerhonkson NY
Fire & Forage
A 4-week series nurturing your wildness.
Hosted by Emily Shaw of Earth Embodied Healing and Liz Neves of Gathering Ground
Together we’ll hone our fire and foraging skills.
We’ll procure various seasonal foods/teas/medicines from what we learn to identify and harvest from the local landscape.
Learn the art of fire tending + fire by friction.
We will craft and create fire from what we can harvest from the land, and make fire in various conditions.
Inspired by the seasonal guidance of the earth, each week’s theme and teaching is subject to change.
We will nourish ourselves from the fires we create and food/medicines we identify from the local landscape. These will be small treats, so bring the food/water/snacks you will need for the day. We will also be outside in all weather conditions.
Please come prepared for the conditions of that day.
Considering our classes take place outdoors and we will be moving, exploring, and harvesting throughout the day, this class is not wheelchair accessible.
Knives and knife safety will be covered in this course, and it is your responsibility to practice and cultivate awareness with knives/knife safety.
Classes will be 4 Saturdays From May to June (with a week gap for Memorial day weekend)
May 17th
May 31st
June 7th
June 14th
We will meet from 11am- 3pm
Location: Kerhonkson, NY (address upon registration)
Week One: Intro to fire and plant identification
We will start our journey by exploring our relationship with fire and the tools and skill of procuring fire materials from the land. This is the start to learning how to create our fire from what we can gather from our environment, and learn proficiency in fire structure/tending. We’ll root into our deep ancestral and modern connection to the plants, introduce ourselves to the local plant community, and initiate understanding of plant recognition/identification.
Week Two: Deepening our connection to fire
We will explore different methods of creating fire ie. flint and steel, bowdrill, matches, harnessing the sun. This week we’ll bring our awareness to gathering places through elemental associations and creating mental maps (ie, where edible/medicinal plants have grown/continue to grow).
Week Three: Keeping the fire ablaze
This is our week to expand upon the different materials we can use to get our fire started and keep the ember we make alive. We will also spend more time with the bow drill kit and intro how to make your own kit. We’ll deepen into harvesting techniques and preparation of food and medicine plants.
Week Four: Carry the fire with you
This week you can make your bow drill kit and grow the container to keep the practice of fire tending in your life. We’ll explore preservation of plants as food and medicine to grow your apothecary and pantry.
What to bring/supply list:
lunch/water for the day
full tang knife *no folding knives (the one we recommend https://morakniv.se/en/product/companion-c/)
rain coat
extra layers
waterproof shoes (weather dependent)
mugs/insulated container
tupperware for extras
+if you don’t have a knife, and purchasing one is out of your budget, please contact us
Register below. Sliding scale exchange with 3 tiers:
About Us
Emily Shaw infuses earth-centered medicine and physical awareness to provide a container to meet you, your inner earth and inner guidance.
She has spent over a decade mentoring children and adults through coyote teaching and ancestral-based skills, alongside almost a decade of body-centered/somatic healing and massage.
She bridges this experience and passion with the ancestral skills, plant spirit medicine, herbalism/foraging, body awareness, movement therapy, and earth centered teaching to provide a container that meets the client in various healing perspectives; so we can discover the capacity of who you truly are and desire to be.
Her interests and expertise also include movement/fascial based therapy, relationship dynamics/dating, mental health, sexuality, womb/feminine centered wisdom, grief, song/theatre, and timelessness.
Liz Neves is a dreamer, wanderer, and Earth lover who seeks to deepen her connection to the Elements and Other wise beings (plants, animals, fungi). Liz is passionate about shifting perceptions and lifting unturned stones to find creative solutions to life’s challenges. Since 2008 she’s been on a meandering journey of developing her skills in herbalism, earth-based living, shamanism, and energy healing.
She’s come to this path led by her life experiences: of leaving the corporate world, of becoming a mother, of going nomadic, of guidance from dreams. Liz believes we learn our greatest lessons directly from the natural world, from the plants, and from our own internal guidance.
Liz is the author of Northeast Medicinal Plants: Identify, Harvest, and Use 111 Wild Herbs for Health and Wellness (Timber Press).
She currently offers wandering healings, healing plant walks, herbal classes, and dream circles on request. She’s a member of the Contact Collective healing clinic based in the Hudson Valley. Learn more here.