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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 Tuesday Making Herbal Applications 1 - The growing plant to finished product in a jar: either Wednesday Making Herbal Applications 2 - Gathering and Preparation of Herbs for Skin & Hair Thursday Making Herbal Medicines - Teas & tinctures & emergency treatments. Friday Herbal Compresses: Identification, Gathering and Preparation of Herbs for steam Saturday A Day at the Market: The Worarot Market, Thai and Chinese Pharmacies. Introduction Sunday Day Off Monday Thai Food as Natural Medicine - Day 1. Includes learning to use traditional Tuesday Thai Food as Natural Medicine - Day 2. Learning to use the knife Thai-style for fruit Wednesday Thai Food as Natural Medicine - Day 3. Vegetarian Cooking, and/or Fresh Spring 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. 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!
Live-in students: 2400 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 2400 + 1 day off x 1200) = 22,800.00 baht. Non-live-in students: 1800 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 1800 = 16,200 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. |