Community Herbalism in the age of COVID19: Teleseminar with Emily Ruff and Susun

July 16, 2020 @ 9:00PM EASTERN

Details for connecting to the event are available for download from your bookshop account once purchased. 

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Please join Susun Weed and herbalist, Emily Ruff for a teleseminar on Community Herbalism in the age of COVID19. Susun & Emily will discuss how herbalists can support their communities through mutual aid and resources for staying up to date on health, plus discuss the ways a nourishing tradition approach can keep our bodies and minds healthy. Special focus will be on the mental and emotional health concerns of the pandemic and herbal allies that can support keeping our mind and heart in center.

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Emily Ruff, Executive Director, is a community herbalist who has practiced the art and science of plant healing for over a decade. Her studies have taken her around three continents where she has studied under healers of many traditions. Her background in gardening and botany came in childhood while wandering the wilderness and digging in the sandy soils of Florida with her grandfather, a tobacco farmer turned urban gardener, and her father, a botany and astronomy professor. Her journey into herbalism continued through apprenticeships in Guatemala under the tutelage of local healers on the southern coast of Lake Atitlan, in the mountains of Vermont at the feet of Rosemary Gladstar, and in the Central Florida apothecary Leaves & Roots with herbalists Carolyn Whitford and George D'Arcy. Emily's academic studies include Ethnobotany, Philosophy, and Women's Studies at the University of Central Florida and Curanderismo with the University of New Mexico.

She is a Bach Flower Registered Practitioner. Emily's dedication to preserving bioregional medicinal plant traditions and ecosystems led her to become active in the organization United Plant Savers. Inspired by a need for greater connection among her regional community, she founded the Florida Herbal Conference event in 2012, an event that continues to sell out annually. In past years, she served multiple terms as president of the Herb Society of Central Florida and as co-founder of Homegrown Local Food Cooperative. Most recently, in response to the tragic shooting at Pulse Nightclub, Emily founded the Orlando Grief Care Project. From the community relationships cultivated through the national response to this tragedy, Emily formed the Herbal Action Network to continue weaving the web of compassionate herbalism into community engagement.

Sharing her time between Florida and Vermont, she currently serves as director of the Sage Mountain Botanical Sanctuary. Emily's classes have been described as "heart-filled," "enriching," and "empowering," creating a bridge between the teachings of our ancestors and the technologies of our modern world. Emily can be found in joy cooking, practicing yoga, writing, photographing flora, creating music with family and friends, and digging her fingers in the dirt. The plants continue to be her greatest teachers.

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Details for connecting to the event are available for download from your bookshop account once purchased.