HERBS, HERBAL THERAPIES & FOOD AS

     MEDICINE. A 60hr WORKSHOP for HERBALISTS

                               The Baan Hom Samunphrai School
 

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Restricted to 12 participants with a  60 Hour Testimonial awarded at the end.

        A SAMPLE PROGRAM

Monday          Introduction: Identification, Gathering  and Preparation of Herbs at Baan Hom
                        Samunphrai.  

Tuesday         Making Herbal Applications 1 - The growing plant to finished product in a jar: either
                        Tiger Balm, and/or Lip Balm, and/or Calamine Lotion, and/or a Special Relaxant Sprays.

Wednesday    Making Herbal Applications 2 - Gathering  and Preparation of Herbs for Skin & Hair
                         Care, Smelling Salts, and other topical applications.

Thursday         Making Herbal Medicines -  Teas & tinctures & emergency treatments.

 Friday             Herbal Compresses: Identification, Gathering  and Preparation of Herbs for  steam
                         baths and compresses. Application Techniques. 

Saturday         A Day at the Market: The Worarot Market, Thai and Chinese Pharmacies. Introduction
                         to special ingredients for making medicines at home. Finding traditional Thai kitchen
                         implements.

Sunday                                                          Day Off

Monday           Thai Food as Natural Medicine - Day 1.  Includes  learning to use traditional
                         tools: the machete, the hoe, the cleaver, the mortar and pestle, the charcoal pot.
                         Herbal drinks & teas. A walk to the local earth market to buy fresh ingredients.

Tuesday          Thai Food as Natural Medicine - Day 2. Learning to use the knife Thai-style for fruit
                         and vegetables.  Cooking by season.  Special Thai foods: for example,  Miang Kam,
                         Sticky Rice With mango, Thai Salads.

Wednesday    Thai Food as Natural Medicine - Day 3. Vegetarian Cooking, and/or Fresh Spring
                         Rolls, and/or Herbal Desserts.

DAILY SCHEDULE

7am Rasidaton (Thai Yoga)

8am to 9am Breakfast

9am to 12.00 Workshop Activities

12.00 to 1.00pm Lunch

1.00pm to 4.00pm Workshop Activities

6.00pm Herbal Steambaths

7.00pm dinner

Each day will consist partly of discussion, and partly of examining the plants as they grow in the Baan Hom Samunphrai environs and/or at local markets. There will be some plants that we may discuss that will not be growing or at the local earth market because they will be out of season, and there will be a number of Thai herbal plant books to supplement the discussions.  Students are encouraged to bring their own plant books as well, as such a course is very much a collaboration between the teacher and the student.

Thai Food as Natural Medicine

 This part of the workshop will cover 3 essential topics.

1.    Eating specific foods for the season. By eating for the season, your body is able to combat the effects of the weather. This is even more important when the seasons change, as your body is affected by the dramatic changes in weather.  Needless to say, the emphasis will be on the Thai seasons, of which there are essentially two, Wet (Cool or 'Monsoon') & Dry (Hot). As we are just entering the transition between the Wet (Monsoon) Season and the Dry Season, a time when many people catch colds or suffer other illnesses, some of the course will focus on specific plants and dishes for right now. A significant proportion of each day will be spent foraging for food, buying food in local markets, and preparing food to be eaten at our table.

2.    Eating for one's specific body element and to balance the elements as a whole. Each person has an element that is specific to their body and determined by their birth month and date. That element defines how illness occurs in the body, and which illnesses the individual is most prone to contract. If the body goes out of balance in a way that is evident by their element, certain foods can help to re-balance the elements. Eating foods specifically recommended to their element can also help to maintain balance. For example, fire elements should eat cold foods like watermelon, wind elements should eat foods with a spicy taste like ginger.

3.    Eating to prevent and/or to cure a specific diseases. Certain foods have been prescribed for specific illnesses. These are not just herbal remedies to be taken when ill, but instead plants that are incorporated into the food to fight illness. This can also include foods not to eat, as some foods become taboo during times of illness.  

N.B. This is NOT a Thai Haute Cuisine course. Indeed, there will be no attempt to teach cooking per se, what is more to put every student in front of his or her own stove with space and materials enough to reproduce x numbers of the plat du jour. All the activities will be communal, and take place in and around a working Thai kitchen, most of which is outdoors and quite indistinguishable from the surrounding garden. There is also no Friar Laurence herb garden either, Romeo & Juliet style, no boxwood hedges or even pathways -- the herbs are mostly self-propagating in the hedge rows, and a number of the vegetables are gathered rather than cultivated. You will learn to use a machete on a coconut and to pound, break, and smash roots, seeds, bark and fruit with stone mortars and pestles and/or the broad side of a meat-cleaver.. You will also get your hands dirty with a 'jop', the ubiquitous Thai hoe, carry baskets, stir woks while coughing your life away on the blue smoke, and even put on a few kilos eating what miraculously gets cooked!


RATES

Live-in students: 2200 baht per day. Includes the Rasidaton, teaching. materials, a private room, 3 meals a day, herbal steam baths, and transportation. Total (9 study days x 2200 + 1 day off x 1000) = 20,800.00 baht.

Non-live-in students: 1600 baht per day. Includes the Rasidaton, breakfast,  teaching, materials, lunch, herbal steam baths, and transportation for class activities. Does NOT include transportation to the school in the morning or the return in the afternoon. Total: 9 x 1600 = 14,400 baht Total. 

Students may join for individual days if there is room -- full-time students will be given priority. Non-live-in students may also join for dinner at 7pm for 150 baht each.