Our Ancestors Just Called It "Life"

A cup of tea, a woven fence, dried herbs in a jar...

Modern life lets us encounter useful plants mostly at the end of the process - as convenient building materials or ingredients to be used and consumed.

What often gets lost is everything in between: the walking, harvesting, carrying, sorting, stripping, drying, and shaping that were once part of daily life.

In this experience-rich day on the land, we step back into these ancestral skills, working with late-summer plants from harvest to use while exploring the movement opportunities built into each step along the way.

What Kind of Day is This?

In this hands-on field day, we’ll explore the movement opportunities present in foraging for late-summer teas and weaving simple garden structures you can make at home.

Over the course of the day, we’ll step into a more ancestral relationship with plants and our bodies, including:

• walking and navigating uneven terrain to reach harvest areas

• identifying and harvesting plants like stinging nettle, wild raspberry, basswood, and willow (depending on what’s available)

• carrying materials back to camp

• processing them into usable parts

• making wild teas, preparing plants for drying, and weaving simple garden structures

We’ll move between focused teaching, hands-on work, and periods of strategic rest, with plenty of natural pauses for observation, conversation, and “movement snacks” throughout the day. This rhythm is part of the learning - not separate from it.

Land-Based Movement

In this active, land-based day, we will pay special attention to the movement patterns and physical skills involved in working with plants.

You do not need to be an all-star athlete to participate, but you should feel comfortable with the idea of exploring movements like:

• hiking for short periods (10-30 minutes) through varied conditions and landscapes

• sitting, kneeling, or working close to the ground

• carrying light to moderate loads (such as harvest baskets or bundles of materials)

• spending extended time outdoors in whatever weather the season brings.

You're always encouraged to work at your own capacity, and modifications will be suggested if anything feels uncomfortable.

That said, this is a movement-rich day, and being unable to participate in certain activities (i.e. hiking) means you may miss out on certain experiences.

Experience Details

By the end of the day, you’ll start to see the “missing middle” more clearly: the steps between plant and product that are missing in modern life, along with a better sense of how to move, carry, and work with plant materials in ways that feel more natural, supportive, and sustainable.

This day is a good fit if you're someone who:

• enjoys gardening, foraging, or working with plants

• is interested in traditional land-based skills

• wants to feel more capable and comfortable while working with plants on real landscapes

What We'll Explore:

• how to identify, harvest, and work with late-summer plants (safely and ethically)

• how plants move from raw material to food, medicine, or craft

• how to carry, handle, and process plant materials in ways that are efficient and sustainable

• how your movement changes depending on the terrain, the plant, and the task

And somewhere along the way, you'll start to notice how the work itself shapes our movements - and changes how we connect to the world around us.

You'll Leave With: Detailed notes and worksheets, hands-on experience working with local plants, and wild teas to take home, along with the movement skills to work with plants while feeling good in your body.

Value: $195 if you sign up before July 15th (Regular price $240)

*We also offer a limited number of supported spots for those who would benefit from attending but can’t access the full price right now. If that’s you, you’re welcome to reach out.

Date: August 29th, 2026 (10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.)

Location: Amber's Medicinal Plant Sanctuary in the Lanark Highlands (a.k.a. The Wild Garden), 15m from Perth, Ontario.

(exact address provided after registration)

About Your Guides

Amber (on the left), Brittany (in the middle), and Alister (a.k.a. Oggi, on the right) first met in 2011 in a Permaculture Design Course in Ottawa.

Fast forward a few years, they'd become fast friends who looked for every opportunity to work together, whether it be kids nature camps and homeschool classes, or simply organizing garden bees as a (not-so-secret) excuse to spend more time together.

After years of talking about the idea, How Plants Move Us is where their shared passions finally come together.

Meet Amber:

Amber's life-long love of plants can be seen in everything she does. From her work as a registered herbalist, to her medicinal plant sanctuary, to the way she moves through the natural world, she has a way of helping people explore the world through their senses and notice the plants that have always been there with new eyes. Through The Wild Garden, Amber regularly gives plant walks and workshops that help people step more confidently into the world of wild food, medicine, and relationship with plants.

Meet Oggi:

Oggi's been moving as a way of life since he first stepped onto the martial arts mats in diapers. As a certified natural movement teacher, his work focuses on what’s missing from modern life: not just learning skills and living closer to land, but reconnecting with our bodies as our most important tools while doing it. His teaching brings awareness to the small - but important - things (like subtle nuances in how you bend, carry, reach, and work) so you can keep doing the work that matters for as long as possible.

Meet Britt:

Britt's love of the natural world started at just 4 years old, declaring one day in her grandparents' forest "When I grow up, I'm going to be a cowboy... and work in the forest!" As a neuro-diverse nature nerd who never grew out of the need to know, she's constantly collecting new land-based skills, facts, and observations - and will happily geek out over them with you if you let her. She brings the same energy into her teaching, helping people connect the dots between what they're doing, what they're seeing, and how it all fits together.

Registration

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