Classes

Willow Basket Workshop

If you’re looking for hands-on learning in wild edibles or wilderness skills, you’ve come to the right place!  Prairie Shore Botanicals offers a variety of classes and presentations.  Classes are designed to maximize your hands-on experience at every level and give you the confidence you need to practice the skills on your own.  Small class sizes allow each student to receive personal guidance from the instructor.

If you’d like to book any of these classes or presentations for your organization, business or event, please contact me. I am flexible and willing to adapt content, length or format to suit your needs.

You can also sign up for my mailing list to receive course and event updates!

Classes:

Laura’s “You can eat that?!” Wild Edible Adventure

Plant Identification: Tips and Tricks

Family Foraging and Wilderness Skills Workshop

Willow Basket Workshop

Reed Basket Workshop

Presentations:

Breaking Through the Wall of Green – Introduction to Plant Identification (2 hours) Are you eager to eat local wild edibles but afraid of making a deadly mistake? Lay your fears to rest as I walk you through easy-to-learn plant identification tips and help you get the most out of your field guides. You’ll walk away with new eyes and the ability to distinguish edible plants from their poisonous look-alikes.

Your Wild Edible Backyard (2 hours) – Whether you’re in the city, on a farm or at the cottage, there are highly nutritious plants growing right under your nose! I’ll provide details on identification, harvesting and preparation of several common wild edibles so you can use them all year round!

Know Your Roots (2 hours) – The underground world of plants is a fascinating place! Explore the unique relationships that occur between plant neighbours and their soil environment. I will introduce you to several edible and medicinal roots along the way.

Acorns for Food and Medicine (1.5 – 2 hrs) – Learn how to harvest and process acorns to make delicious food, beverages and effective medicine. I’ll cook up some fresh acorn pancakes so you can see for yourself just how good they are.

Cattails (2 hours) – Long referred to as the “supermarket of the marsh”, cattails can provide all the basic necessities of survival – shelter, water, fire and food – and more! Find out how cattails can be your best friend during a survival situation, or just a cool plant to do fun things with as I demonstrate their multitude of uses.

Intro to Mushroom Identification (2 hours) – Mushrooms come in all shapes and sizes, yet they can be very difficult to identify. This class will lay the groundwork for mushroom identification by walking you through key identifying features ranging from big picture to subtle details. Whether you plan to eat wild mushrooms or simply enjoy the splendor of this intriguing life form, this class will open your eyes to a whole new world.

Wild Edible Mushrooms of Manitoba (2 hours) – There’s something about mushrooms that causes even the most stoic adult to revert to childlike behaviours in their presence. Explore the world of mushrooms and learn which ones are safe to put on your plate. I will share identification tips and explain the differences between edible mushrooms and their poisonous lookalikes.

Wild Gardening – Working With Nature to Grow Edible, Medicinal and Other Useful Plants (2 hours) –

By assuming the role of caretaker, we can help our wild spaces reach their greatest potential in a way that is mutually beneficial to them and us. Learn the ins and outs of gardening wild spaces, including site selection, which species to plant and which ones to avoid. Find out how to become a caretaker of existing wild spaces, re-wild tame environments, and harvest and encourage useful weedy species where they already exist in human-manipulated habitats, whether they’re in your backyard, at the cottage, or a remote wilderness.

Tours:

Gardenton Heritage Tour (1 day) – Learn about the natural and cultural history of the Gardenton area with this fun and informative tour that combines the Manitoba Tall Grass Prairie Preserve, Historic St. Michael’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Gardenton Ukrainian Museum. See what the first settlers saw when they arrived and find out how they used the local plants to eke out a living on this beautiful, but marginal, land.

See full brochure.

Minimum group size of 10 needed. If you don’t have a group, contact me anyway and I’ll try to hook you up with another group.