A Zen Buddhist Community in Shelburne, Vermont

Healing Herbs

An Introduction to Local Plant Medicine

The Wheel of the Year

23 aug 2025

Plants, in their steadfast commitment to place, can teach us how to move with the seasonal cycles and how to heal our inner and outer landscapes.

Introduction to Goldenrod:
Exploring the Medicine of Late Summer

Learning to live in right relationship with the natural world is a foundational tenet and natural outpouring of Zen practice. In herbal medicine, paying close attention to the seasonal cycles in our own backyards opens a window for understanding individual and community health.

In this afternoon workshop, participants will enjoy an introduction to local plant medicine as they explore the healing properties of Goldenrod, Solidago spp., which grows in abundance on the grounds of the Vermont Zen Center and throughout our bioregion. Following a short walk through the temple grounds, participants will have a chance to sit with, harvest, and make medicine with Goldenrod. We will end our afternoon with tea. Together, we will gain a deeper understanding of this time in the Wheel of the Year and have a chance to delve into the healing properties of goldenrod and its connection to late summer.

 Medicine and sickness cure each other. The whole earth is medicine. What is your self?


—Zen Master Ummon

What You Will Learn

Participants will gain a basic understanding of local plant medicine and how to work with the Wheel of the Year. Everyone will leave with a booklet with information about growing, harvesting, and preparing medicine with goldenrod.

Schedule

  • 01:30 — Welcome and Tea
  • 01:45 — Introduction to Local Plant Medicine and the Wheel of the Year
  • 02:15 — Walk through the temple grounds
  • 02:45 — Meditating with Goldenrod, followed by harvest
  • 03:30-5:00 — Tea preparation, refreshments, and sharing

Instructor—Aylie Baker

Aylie Baker

Aylie Baker is a resident of the Vermont Zen Center. Over the years, she has been fortunate to learn about gardening from other members while working in the Zen Center’s flower and vegetable gardens. She received herbal training as an apprentice of Spoonful Herbals, led by Kara Buchanan and Katherine Elmer, and as a clinical intern at the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism in Plainfield, Vermont, under the guidance of Betzy Bancroft, Larken Bunce, Kristin Henningsen, Linden DeVoil, and Julie Mitchell. She is also mentored by her mother, Caroline, a gardener and retired nurse, and herbalist, Deb Soule, with whom she worked for two seasons as a gardener at the biodynamic herb farm and pollinator sanctuary, Avena Botanicals in Rockport, Maine.

Next Class

  • Saturday, August 23, 2025
    1:30 - 5:00 pm
  • Anyone may apply. No experience needed. Children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.
  • Enrollment Minimum 4; maximum 15

More Information

  • Location

    Vermont Zen Center
    480 Thomas Rd
    Shelburne, VT

    • Refund Policy

      We do not offer refunds if you cancel in the week prior to the class. However, your payment can be applied to a future course.

      • Cost

        $60 per person

        • allergies

          We will spend most of our time outside, so please be prepared if you have allergies. Goldenrod is a helpful remedy for fall allergies, as we will learn about in our workshop. It often grows alongside ragweed, which is a serious allergen for many. Whereas goldenrod is pollinated by bees, ragweed depends on the wind to spread pollen, and so often enters our airways. If you are allergic to plants in the Asteraceae family, you may be allergic to goldenrod.

        • take home

          Everyone will leave with a booklet with information about Late Summer and the Wheel of the Year, as well as growing, harvesting, and preparing medicine with Goldenrod.