Workshops & Events

featuring educational classes, hands-on workshops, field and forest plant walks, and healing sessions with New England holistic practitioners and wellness experts

Herbal Medicine ● Organic Food
Energy Healing ● Yoga ● Nutrition ● Spirituality Massage Therapy ● Wild Edibles

The U.S.A. is in the midst of a health crisis. We are seeing increasing incidences of diabetes, obesity, and cancer evident even in our children. While our health problems rise in number and severity, we are simultaneously polluting and depleting our natural resources.

In a society where the stress levels in our daily lives continue to skyrocket, antibiotic resistance is rampant, and healthcare is becoming less and less affordable, we need solutions that are holistic and community based. To realize these solutions, we must re-identify a connection to the land and develop a healthy ecosystem that includes people. Practices including traditional herbal medicine use, seasonal, local food consumption, and exercise for body and mind can ecologically and sustainably promote health and healing.

We invite you to join us for an experiential weekend

of healing to learn how YOU can

Cultivate Wellness in your world!

WORKSHOPS

Please check back regularly...more workshops & practitioners to be added soon!

Garden of Your Soul – Preparation, Planting and Pruning with Lynn Durham To cultivate true wellness, you need to use the interconnectedness of mind/body/spirit to your advantage. There are all sorts of possibilities for your life. In order to produce what you want, there are certain gardening techniques that will help. Join Well Being Coach Lynn Durham to consider preparing the soil in your life and raising your awareness as to what to plant and what to pull so your life’s harvest is in keeping with your heart’s desire.

Apitherapy- Health and Healing with Products from the Hive with Ross Conrad The honeybee and hive products have historically played a large role in disease care and prevention. Today science is finally catching up to what naturalists, herbalists, and acupuncturists have known for years. Covered are the healing properties of Honey, Pollen, Propolis, Royal Jelly, Beeswax and Honeybee Venom.

The Herbal Kitchen with Maria Noel Groves Get inspired to turn your garden herbs into fantastic treats you can use year-round or give away as gifts. We’ll discuss techniques (and demonstrate a few!) to make herbal vinegars, oils, honeys, butter, cheese, cordials, pastes, spice blends, sugars and salts.

Nutrition Botany – Do you know what you are eating? with Barbara McCahan, PhD This workshop is designed to provide basic information on the distribution of nutrients throughout the various anatomical parts of plants that we consume. By knowing something about basic plant anatomy, and the botanical functions being carried out by different plant parts, we can have a better understanding of how to build our cuisines for nutritional balance and adequacy. Knowing about energy storage in roots and seeds, the abundance of various types of dietary fiber and the best sources of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants found in foods will empower participants with information for enhanced personal nutrition.

Herbs for Dental Care with Sandra Lory Let's demystify our teeth and gums! Take home a protocol to follow for general dental health maintenance, and discover supportive treatments for common oral health issues!

Homesteading for Health and Happiness with Bob St. Peter Bob will present the strategies and lessons learned from personal examination of physical and mental health on a subsistence homestead in coastal Maine.

Hands On Soap Making with Karen Lacharite Discover delightfully healthy alternatives to commercially available body care products. Karen will demonstrate and assist as we make our own handmade soap using all-natural and/or organic ingredients and pure essential oils.

Mycological Landscaping with your Gardens, Dave Wichland Explore the relationship between mushrooms and garden plants, and discover the positive role mycelium has on the garden ecosystem. Working together with mushrooms and garden plants, you can cultivate a richly nutritious and medicinal ecosystem in your own backyard!

Transformation, Quantum Physics, and Ourselves with Jahnay Pickett This workshop entails the investigation of the authentic self, the mind-emotion-ego loop, and “who’s running the show” in light of the on-going and intensifying transformation of all life and matter as we know it! Where do we fit in, and how we can make a difference by transforming our own lives and our world?

Herbal Remedies & Your Animals with Carole Lizotte This workshop will cover the safe use of herbs and will as help you build an herbal apothecary for the everyday occurrences in your animals' lives. We will also discuss natural remedies for treating Lyme disease, fungal conditions, and much more.

Break-Through Ceremony with Karen Lacharite We will, as a group in a supportive and encouraging environment, perform exercises and experiences that will assist us in breaking through some of the barriers that hold us back in life.

Mushroom Food, Mushroom Medicine with Terry-Anya Hayes Mushrooms are good food and better medicine! Meet mushroom allies that please the palate as they boost the immune system, lower cholesterol, strengthen respiratory function, and fight cancer. Discover how to stalk, buy, store, and prepare a variety of delicious and healthful fungi! We will sample Chaga Chai, Reishi Energy Tea, and- if the Mushroom Goddess smiles- fresh Shiitakes cultivated right here at D Acres!

KEYNOTE ADDRESS: We are pleased to announce that our keynote speaker will be Jim Merkel, author of Radical Simplicity. Jim's keynote will focus on "Wellness Through Simplicity!"

SPEAKERS & PRACTITIONERS

Ross Conrad, Dancing Bee Gardens Ross Conrad learned his craft from Charles Mraz, world-renowned beekeeper, father of apitherapy, and founder of Champlain Valley Apiaries in Vermont, and his beekeeping son Bill. Former president of the Vermont Beekeepers Association, Conrad is the author of Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches To Modern Apiculture, and has written numerous articles on beekeeping, organic farming, natural healing, and health issues. His 12-year-old small sideline beekeeping business, Dancing Bee Gardens, supplies his friends, neighbors, and local stores with honey and provides bees for Vermont apple pollination in the spring. Ross lives in Middlebury, Vermont.

Lynn Durham, RN Lynn Durham, RN is a Well-Being Coach who incorporates her experience as a professor, author, columnist, professional speaker and mother of three sons to help clients and audiences feel better. She has been called “a glass of Prozac” by a fellow attendee at the Harvard Deaconess Mind Body Medical Institute and a corporate consultant dubbed her “a creative antidote to the everyday stressors of business . . . and life.”

Maria Noel Groves, Wintergreen Botanicals Maria Noel Groves, clinical herbalist, runs Wintergreen Botanicals, a small clinic and herbal education center nestled in Bear Brook State Park in Allenstown, NH. Her primary herbal teachers include Michael Moore, Rosemary Gladstar, and Nancy Phillips.

Terry-Anya Hayes Terry-Anya is a Maine-based writer, herbalist and educator who lectures widely and leads mushroom and herb walks wherever the herbs and fungi beckon. She is a past president of the New York Mycological Society.

Karen Lacharite, Ancient Fire A Certified Firewalk Instructor and Personal Empowerment Leader, Karen has been leading people through these exercises for several years. Karen has years of experience making all natural handmade soap and herbal products using pure, natural ingredients and essential oil.

Carol Lizotte, Green Gems Herbals An Herbalist to the Animals, Carol completed her herbal apprenticeship in 1998, did advanced studies in 2000, has a certification in Aromatherapy, is a Flower Essence Practioner and a Shamballa Reiki Master.

Sandra Lory, Mandala Botanicals Sandra is a holistic health educator, grassroots health activist, herbalist, artist, and gardener in Barre, VT. She has worked at Sage Mountain Herbal Retreat Center in East Orange, VT for the past seven years.

Barbara McCahan, PhD, Plymouth State University Dr. McCahan is an Associate Professor of Health and Physical Education in the Department of Health and Human Performance at Plymouth State University. She received her MA and Ph.D from UC Santa Barbara in Cellular Biology and BA from Revelle College at UC San Diego in LaJolla, CA. She teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in health and exercise science including Applied Nutrition for Healthy Living. She resides in Plymouth with her husband Ted and her two daughters, Claire and Molly. Additionally, she has been a Director for the Community Guaranty Savings Bank in Plymouth since 1985. She is an active advocate of healthy, sustainable, active living and supports the educational efforts of D Acres toward this end.

Jim Merkel Jim is the author of Radical Simplicity. Originally a military engineer and arms trader, Jim changed his life at the time of the Exxon Valdez disaster, quitting his job and devoting himself to environmental service and world peace. He downsized his life and lived on $5,000 a year for 16 years. Jim founded the Global Living Project (GLP) and initiated the GLP Summer Institute where teams of researchers attempted to live on an equitable portion of the biosphere.

Jahnay Pickett, Designing Devas Walking a central path between the metaphysical and physical worlds, Jahnay is a Certified Absolute Balanced Mastery Practitioner, Certified Bioenergy Balancing Practitioner, Shamballa Reiki master, ordained Minister, and transformational energy healing facilitator. Over the years, Jahnay's area of expertise has become one of facilitator and interpreter between these two worlds, guiding the client in conscious dialogue with their body consciousness, their multiple energy bodies, their personal Guides/Angels/Unseen Friends, and parallel lives affecting and impacting their current reality.

Bob St. Peter, The Good Life Center Bob St.Peter is the Executive Director of The Good Life Center at Forest Farm in Harborside, Maine. He works, gardens, and loves at home with his wife and two daughters.

Dave Wichland, Wichland Woods Wichland Woods is a unique, local myco-business located in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire. We have trained under Paul Stamets of Fungi Perfecti and have spent 8 years studying and experimenting with growing mushroom in a plethora of different indoor and outdoor mediums. We educate the public on the techniques of “backyard mushrooming” and how everyday resources can be used to cultivate their own mycelia network. By educating the public about mycology, we strive to promote people’s awareness about the health and ecological benefits of mushrooms.

************************************************************

CONFERENCE REGISTRATION

Earlybird Discount:

SAVE 20% if you register before May 1st!

Two-Day Registration: $100
-Including Two Organic Lunches: $125
-Including Five Organic Meals

and Camping: $150

*Ask us about group discounts and work-exchange opportunities!*

To register BY MAIL, please print the Registration Form and return to:

Lauren Buyofsky, D Acres of New Hampshire

P.O. Box 98, Dorchester, NH 03266

To register BY PHONE, please call (603) 786-2366. A $50.00 deposit (check or money order payable to D Acres) to hold your reservation must be mailed to Lauren Buyofsky, D Acres of New Hampshire, P.O. Box 98, Dorchester, NH 03266 within 10 days of making a phone reservation to hold your place. Your registration will be complete when your deposit/payment is received.

There is a 25% discount for residents of Grafton County and a further 25% discount for members of D Acres of New Hampshire. Members who live in Grafton County receive a total 50% discount!

Please contact Lauren Buyofsky if you have questions:

(603) 786-2366 or info@dacres.org

Thank you...we'll see you in September!!

2008 is the year of Gardening for Health, Cultivating Wellness

No one will be denied access to D Acres workshops & events due to inability to pay.

A 25% discount on all workshops and events is offered to members of D Acres and to residents of Grafton County, so...

50% off for Local Members