Ruettger's Seminar Fall 2022

Working List of potential topics throughout course:

Herbcrafting

Ethical, sustainable, and safe foraging for herbs

Drying and storing cultivated and foraged herbs

preserving plants using a plant press and mounting on herbarium paper

Herbal tea blending and storage herbal infused vinegars and fire cider

vinegar herbal infused oils

herbal infused lip balms

wreath making

herbal paper-making using pressed plants to make homemade greeting cards and art cyanotypes (sun art) with plants

Permaculture and Gardening

What is permaculture

Composting

Seed saving and storage, seed lending libraries

Sprouts and microgreens in inexpensive easy ways at home

Rain barrels

Upcycled cold frames and their use

Herb spirals

Perennial food plants

Food not lawns movement

Urban food forests

Diverse Voices for Socially-Just, Inclusive Environmentalism

Braiding Sweetgrass

Decolonizing botany

Seed Sovereignty

Farming While Black, Food Apartheid,

cultural appropriation discussions, land acknolwedgement

Movement Generation - BIPOC led socially-just environmental movement

Sample instructor past experience:

2019 Led a “Garlic Mustard Foraging and Tasting” event for Sudbury Valley Trustees

Garlic Mustard: Foraging and Tasting | Sudbury Valley Trustees

2020 Presented Ruettger’s Lecture “Eat the Invasives! Foraging Garlic Mustard and Knotweed”

Ruettgers Lecture - Eat the Invasives.pdf

2020 Donated a box of herbcrafted items I made to a charity auction, the winning bidder received the box of items and their donated money benefitted Framingham Community Farm.

2020 Took a course on Decolonizing Botany through Native Plant Trust.

2021 Taught a workshop at Stearns Farm on “Herb-Infused Vinegars”

Herb-Infused Vinegar Workshop | Stearns Farm CSA

2021 Taught a workshop at Open Spirit in Framingham on “Solid Lotion Bars” and sustainable product choices Solid Lotion Bar Making Workshop | Framingham, MA Patch