Forest Gardening Mentorship: Ecological Resilient Design
Ecological Resilience of Native Plants
April 22 – Nov 6, 2023
“Learning from the forests to live is to reach the highest level a human can aim for.”
~Vanadana Shiva
This program is committed to ‘planting the future’ by saving our native healthy and edible plants through an education that inspires tomorrow’s foragers, wildcrafters, herbalists, forest gardeners, permaculturists and ecologists. It offers a rigorous and intensive immersion into designing and regenerating our landscapes.
Discover how a genuine working relationship with Earth is the cornerstone for enduring personal, community, and ecological health and happiness. Learn how to achieve the same benefits natural systems demonstrate: stability, resilience, self-maintenance, self-renewal and increased nutrient conservation at personal and ecological levels.
We discover an ancient relationship with Nature through ecological study and forest gardening. One that evokes a sacred partnership with the living planet. You will learn ways to participate in creating thriving ecosystems that sustain and regenerate all life.
“The ultimate goal of both herbalism and forest gardening is not only the production of crops, but also the cultivation and perfection of new ways of seeing, of thinking, and acting in the world.”
In this 12-day intensive forest gardening design training mentorship, you will dive deeply into the vision, theory, and practice of designing healthy, integrated, vibrant and resilient ecologies using a healthy forest as our model. Shantree will offer presentations, field site walks, experiential exercises, and design projects to help you comprehend how natural forests’ architecture, social structure, underground economics, and successional progressions pertain to the design and creation of regenerative ecologies of all types. You’ll understand various ecological design processes while designing a compilation of wild and native food-producing ecologies. You’ll also participate in garden management, natural economics, and the profound exemplary shifts essential to co-creating “humanatural” landscapes and cultures.
Be both empowered and inspired through the seasons. From the land ecosystems at The Living Centre, you will learn about the wild and native plants of the bioregion.
This mentorship supports you in visioning the future you want to live and how to make that happen!
“Knowledge gained through experience is far superior and many times more useful than bookish knowledge.” ~Mahatma Gandhi
The Leadership Pathway
Forest Gardening for the Herbalist Path
This mentorship program is an excellent adjunct to your self-directed studies or complements the long-distance nutrition, herbalism, forest gardening or permaculture course you have taken or are enrolled in. Throughout the mentorship, we work together to accelerate your growth in your studies. The ability to work with complicated challenges can be dramatically reduced. This program helps build confidence as a wild nutritional and ecological garden educator.
This program offers simple yet effective processes, systems and structures to resolve significant challenges in your life and on the planet. It engages students in the active practice of the fundamentals of ecological design through real-life situations. The methodology, called “action learning,” allows students to learn professional design skills of inner and outer environmental regeneration and documentation techniques by carrying out their project work while maintaining regular contact with me. Participants may continue their studies beyond this program to complete one of our diploma courses.
The mentorship program is about gaining the tools to apply ecological herbalism and forest gardening understanding and experience and then apply this immediately to your life. You feel rooted and self-assured, knowing you are not alone in your desires and visions for a vibrant life.
The objective of this program is that all participants take action in their communities. Envision yourselves as a pebble thrown into a still pond. The pebble is the journey you are about to embark on, and the pond is the Earth. Each time a pebble is tossed into the pond, it evokes a ripple. Every ripple will spread out in a concentric ring from every pebble tossed. If enough pebbles are thrown into the pond, Earth’s surface will be covered with waves.
This action-learning program is process-oriented, learner-directed, and focused on designing and implementing real-life projects. Participants in the program carry out projects in their communities with support.
Who is this mentorship program for?
We are looking for enthusiastic agents of change who are ready to co-design new, socially just and ecologically sustainable approaches to how we live. We are looking for those prepared to take risks and stand on a new practice’s cutting-edge in this area.
“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.” ~Plutarch
The Program Process
For 47-years, Shantree has shared his passion for the plant world; now, he has created this unique integrative plant journey for the first time. A system of philosophies, personal transformation strategies, and ancient earth wisdom will be shared to develop and deepen into the plant realm’s powers. With the healthy plants as our guides, we begin to see through the eyes of connection and oneness. Living rooted in the natural world’s cycles and laws yields a strategy for crafting positive connection cultures.
What You Will Learn
This mentorship weaves deep wild plant connection, nature immersion, eco-philosophy, deep ecology, systems thinking and ecological principles with the living arts, deep listening, and self-awareness skills as essential learning.
Processes and Practices
Discover ways to navigate through understanding plant nutrition and forest ecology, exploring cultural plant practices and methodologies, cultivating deep plant connection, balance, inner resilience, the arts, and other time-tested processes. Every session includes practices that reconnect us to the primal forces of living plants and the elements – Air, Fire, Water, Earth, and Ether. These experiences refine your ability to consciously participate in life’s self-healing activity and creative unfolding between Head, Heart, and Hands.
Field Studies
Learn firsthand how to read the internal and external landscapes. Know how to recognize plants and ecosystems and what grows in what habitat. Develop the essential skills of tracking and taking case studies. Design herbal regenerative lifestyle protocols for yourself and others. Craft a community service that will be a sustainable livelihood and have a sense of fulfillment.
Design Your Focused Venture
As part of your journey, you will be invited to identify a project to actualize the program’s tools. Designing your focus can extend your work during the early phases of your mentorship program. You may either have an excellent idea of such a focused learning experience before starting this program, or you may observe during your mentorship material for coherent patterns. Your facilitator may wish to aggregate topics to create a focused concentration for your program with help from your facilitator.
‘Design Your focused learning inspires you to imagine creating a focused custom-tailored to suit your passions. Here are just a few examples:
- Start a herb garden operation.
- Begin an organic herb nursery
- Create a Forest Garden design operation
- Initiate a nutritional, herbal education business
The project may be more personal or an “inner” transformation. Growth is a lifetime’s work, and each person’s path is different. Your change and project will reflect your aspirations and callings. You will need to name the focus of your degree design pathway at least 3 to 4 months before completion. This will be discussed during the one-on-one sessions.
This mentorship program is designed as a modular spiral, which deepens with each training session. Participants will be introduced to new content during each session while sharing inexperience as a herbal tribal clan and a deep connection with the plant world. We begin with gratitude and setting collective intentions, spend our days in various configurations of small and as groups, learning together in the natural world, and end by sharing lunches and gathering in a circle. The learning and support continue through the seasons, with One-on-One sessions, small group tutoring sessions, buddy check-ins, and application of the educational materials. Moving between the deep-dive 3-day training and time to integrate and apply the content through the seasons makes the curriculum come alive and enhances a new way of being, living and engaging the world.
We request that participants attend ALL of the training, as unison is fundamental to building harmony and trust for our collective experience and deepening journey. If previous commitments mean missing more than two or three days of the program, please consider reapplying at another date. Outside the training, you stay in contact through a buddy system and engage in program projects on time. The research projects are designed to incorporate into and empower the life you choose to lead and your work with the plant kingdom. Please consider your capacity to participate fully before applying to the program.
“True education does not consist merely of acquiring a few facts of science, history, literature, or art, but of character development.” ~David O. McKay
Within a community of like-minded plant adventurers (maximum of 10 participants), held in the beauty of Nature’s embrace of our Forest Garden Sanctuary and trails, we will explore critical ingredients for creating a plant community to support a bioregional culture shift. This supportive community makes it easier to overcome challenges and blocks that keep you from experiencing your full potential and creative edge.
This experiential pathway will take us through the seasons of the plants of spring through fall. This mentorship intends to support individuals in becoming forest garden community advocates for our bioregion plants. The mentorship includes home study material and assignments.
** Upon completing this mentorship and the forest gardening correspondence course, you will receive a – Forest Garden Mentorship Certificate.
What Will Experience?
“Tell me, and I forget, teach me, and I may remember, involve me, and learn.”
~Benjamin Franklin
You will come out of this program with a unique “Mentorship Medicine Pouch” a compendium of specific skills, practices, and approaches to improve your well-being and effectiveness as a forest garden educator. We’ll go from vision and theory to design and practice. Topics include visioning, project development, stewardship, design aptitude, and honour commitments. We will also explore aspects of inner leadership, such as cultivating gratitude, balance, ‘inner resilience,’ and exercises to root and ground your leadership in the heart, in Nature, and partnership with a community of other leaders.
Through this forest gardening regeneration design program, you will learn a new way of thinking and being. You will experience what is naturally yours – an intimate relationship with the wild plants. You will discover to source your leadership from this connection and stay attuned to your life patterns, creating a new level of success and awareness in your stepping–forth empowered.
- You will explore the correlation between ecological design thinking and the related disciplines of bioregionalism, ecology and their application to herbal design;
- The foundation of an ecological worldview (deep ecology, systems thinking, Gaia theory and the application of living systems principles to the design of systems, objects, and places;
- You will develop personal and group inquiry practices to raise awareness of the interdependent relationship between the individual, society, and Nature and between theory, experience and training;
- You will develop and enhance your design, communication, and facilitation skills in support of communities of place and interest;
- You will make use of a range of tools, methods and facilitation techniques to project delivery;
- You will co-create participatory, hands-on practices and theoretical principles for new approaches to the regenerative ecological design process of projects and apply them in your community projects;
- Using research indicators and case studies, how to assess the connection between the environment and built form, behaviour, well-being, and resource consumption.
“All the beauty lost before wants to find us again.”
The Process
Why a Herbal Mentorship Approach
The Mentorship process weaves deep plant connection, nature immersion, deep ecology, systems thinking and ecological principles with an in-depth study of plant understanding, environmental design and case studies.
This program is designed as a modular spiral, which deepens with each training session. We meet approximately one 3-day weekend each season. Participants will be introduced to new content and design practices during each session.
Days are spent in various configurations of small and more significant groups, learning together in the natural world. The learning and support continue through the seasons through small group tutoring sessions, buddy check-ins, and one-on-one educational materials with Shantree. The progression of moving between the 3-day weekends and having time to integrate and apply the content you have learned makes the curriculum come alive and enhances a new way of being, living and engaging the world.
We request that participants attend all weekend training, as unison is fundamental to building harmony and trust for our collective experience and deepening journey. Outside of the weekend training, you can expect to spend approximately 10 to 20 hours between peer coaching training and engaging in program projects on your own time. The research programs are designed to incorporate and empower your life and work. Please consider your capacity to participate fully before applying to the program.
“True education does not consist merely in the acquiring of a few facts of science, history, literature, or art, but in the development of character.” ~David O. McKay
** You will receive a Forest Gardening Certificate upon completing this mentorship and Forest Gardening correspondence course.
The Local Wild Living Design
Foundational Workshop
April 1-2, 2023
This hands-on foundational workshop is for those ready to begin this exploratory journey. An integration of edible and medicinal plants, local living nutrition, permaculture fundamentals, wholistic energetic medicine, herbalism principles and deep ecology of forest gardening. Learn more>
Regeneration & Resilience:
Soil Ecology, Permaculture & Native Plants
April 22 – 24, 2023
This hands-on Training is to work from the soil to the finished product. Learn about herbal landscaping and creating a regenerative and resilient sanctuary. We will focus on the practical hands-on learning of designing landscapes to maximize soil nutrients for nutrient-dense plants. This will include wild plant identification, harvesting and the art of wildcrafting of herbs, understanding nutrient-rich plants and how to use them, and creating a personal plant project for yourself. Experiencing and assisting herbs’ growth ensures a private healing loop between the planter and the planted—a link between a forest gardener to a forager and herbalist. The microbiome of a native plant is much more resilient than expected. Their diversity and adaptability protect plant bacterial communities against antimicrobial substances. There is no better remedy than one nurtured with care and intention from preconception to packaging. Learn the uses of a handful of herbs in-depth and make basic nutritional meals.
- The Art of Growing Soil
- Designing an Ecological Landscape
- Symbiotic Relationships: Inner & OuterTerrain
- Wild Wisdom of Weeds
- The Art of Foraging
- Wild Weed Farming
- Foraging Tools & Techniques
- Wild Weed Walkabouts – Permaculture Plants
- Understanding Our Bioregional Nutritionals
- Ecological Herbalism – Local Wild Living
- A Permaculture, Biodynamic & Biointensive Approach
“A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people. ”
~Franklin D. Roosevelt.”
Gardening Like the Forest:
Designing the Ecological Landscape
May 13 – 15, 2023
Healthy forests maintain, fertilize, and renew themselves naturally. Envision living in an intentional, resilient, forage-able ecosystem in your yard, and it grows your food and medicine! Imagine meeting your own needs while regenerating healthy ecosystems at the same time. Forest gardens mimic natural forests’ structures and functions while growing food, fuel, fibre, fodder, fertilizers, farmaceuticals, and fun.
Ecosystem cultivation endeavours to mimic the structure and function of natural ecosystems in food and medicine-producing ecologies. The most practical level requires designing guilds of plants, often in the form of polycultures. Successful polycultures combine valuable plants to reduce competition, create additive yields, and decrease the gardener’s work and outside inputs (e.g., water, fertilizer). The most exciting and challenging part of the garden design process is polyculture design. Each day will build off the next; this Training explores the detailed ecological theories and experimental design processes behind polyculture design through exercises and techniques. Participants will observe, evaluate, and redesign perennial polycultures at The Living Centre.
- A Forest Gardener’s Tool Kit
- The Seven-Story Garden: Vegetation Layer
- Design Processes 1: Overview, Goals, and Assessments
- Design Processes 2: The Design Phase
- Natural Patterns in the Garden
- An Intimate Way of Guild-Building
- The Polycultural Elements of Forest Gardening
- Blueprinting Your Polyculture
- Management, Maintenance, and Co-evolution
“One is tempted to say that most human plants, after all, are the weeds.”
~John Burrou
Forest Gardening:
Medicines from the Edge
July 15 – 17, 2023
Forest ecologies reveal numerous valuable qualities we can learn and be inspired to implement into our culture and grow from what humans would be wise to emulate. We live with our culture and that of increasing our nourishment.
Forest ecologies are:
- Self-maintaining, renewing, fertilizing, and propagating themselves without an individual’s input
- Self-building, storing, and conserving clean air, cleaning water, nutrients, soil excellence, and biodiversity.
- Self-sustaining – a system that is stable, irrepressible, and adjustable.
These qualities emerge from the forest dynamics as a whole system, not from any elements that comprise the forest alone. To design productive edible ecosystems that express these qualities, we must understand forest structures, functions, patterns, and processes and use this knowledge wisely.
We will dive deeply into the vision, theory, and practice of designing wholesome, dynamic, and resilient medicinal ecosystems using temperate deciduous forests as models through site walks, experiential exercises, and design projects to help you understand how the architecture, social structure, underground economics, and successional processes of natural forests apply to herbal ecosystems’ design. You’ll realize various ecological design processes while designing a range of compilations of food-producing ecologies at our demonstration and research gardens.
You will leave inspired and empowered to design ecological forest gardens.
Pattern & Observation
- The Web of Connections
- Working with Nature
- The Forest Garden Design Process
- Natural Patterns in the Garden
- Patterning: Unity & Biodiversity
- The Three Ecological Principles
- The Five Elements of the Forest Architecture
- The Seven-Story Garden: Vegetation Layer
- The Practical Process: A Step-by-Step Guide
- Ethical foraging of the wild edibles of the season
“The keystone of forest gardening is a paradigm shift in our human consciousness.
From monoculture mind to polyculture mind;
From separation to unity;
From exploitation and manipulation to respect and interdependence;
From intervener to ecosystem participant.”
~Dave Jacke
Celebrating & Sharing Our Passions – Going Forth
Nov 4 – 6, 2023
Our final weekend prepares the way to re-weave ourselves back into modern culture, making our vision and purpose a reality. This time focuses on supporting you in clarifying, shaping, energizing and fulfilling your vision. We give plenty of time to explore how our unique service can help craft positive cultures of connection in an increasingly chaotic and unstable world. Identifying essential inner and outer resources, creating a supportive community, and following the herbal guidelines will allow us to confidently anchor and nurture the service passion you bring to our community’s healing. This final weekend will allow you to share your love and creativity with our community.
Ecosystem mimicry is one of the concepts at the heart of ecological regeneration and forest gardening. A thriving forest, for example, strives to replicate the structure, relationships, and successional pathways of natural forest ecosystems. I’m fortunate to have lived on this land for 40+ years and share my passion on this site every year. This allowed me to know this ecosystem deeper each year, try experiments, and see what happens. This landscape will be the playground to learn, share, and explore how this land nourishes and regenerates itself. This ecosystem will be our teacher/mentor through the seasons.
As we grasp new conceptual frameworks by applying practical herbalism and regenerative design techniques, you will learn essential skills for replenishing and regenerating ourselves, our ecological biospheres, and our human communities back home.
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
~Howard Thurman
Includes:
- 14-Day Hands-on Training
- All Ethical Foraging Herb Walks
- Integrative Home-Study Research Projects
- 3-One-on-One Hour Sessions (spaced out between each Training)
- Handouts and hands-on mentoring experience
- Forest Gardening: A Call to Action Manual
The invitation is to make our potluck lunches organic, local, wild, live-food plant-based meals; this will be organized for the weekend’s first two days. The Living Centre will provide lunches for the 3rd day of each Training.
What You Will Experience?
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” ~Benjamin Franklin
The training offers a beautiful blend of modern science and trans-disciplinary knowledge essential to becoming a forest garden educator, with a wide range of hands-on experience in the meadows, fields and forest.
You will come out of this program with a unique compendium of specific skills, practices, and approaches to improve your well-being and effectiveness as an educator. Topics include visioning, project development and stewardship, the aptitude to design programs. We will also explore aspects of inner leadership, such as cultivating gratitude, balance, ‘inner resilience’, and exercises to root and ground your leadership in the heart, in nature, and in partnership with a community of other leaders.
Through this regeneration design program, you will learn a new way of thinking and being. You will experience what is naturally yours – an intimate relationship with the wild, native and resilient plants. You will discover to source your leadership from this connection and stay attuned to the patterns in your own life, creating a new level of success and awareness in your stepping forth – empowered!
- You will explore the correlation between ecological design thinking and the related disciplines of bioregionalism and ecology and their application to forest garden design;
- The foundation of an ecological world view (deep ecology, systems thinking, Gaia theory) and the application of living systems principles to the design of systems, objects and places;
- You will develop personal and group enquiry practices to raise awareness of the interdependent relationship between the individual, society and nature and between theory, experience and practice;
- You will develop and enhance your design, communication, facilitation skills in support of communities of place and interest;
- You will make use of a range of tools, methods and facilitation techniques to project delivery;
- You will co-create participatory hands-on practices, and theoretical principles for new approaches to the regenerative ecological design process of projects and apply these both in class, and application in your community projects. Learn how to assess the connection between the environment and built form, behaviour, well-being and resource consumption using both research indicators and case studies.
“All the beauty that’s been lost before. Wants to find us again”
A Mentorship Approach
Mentorship, much like a traditional apprenticeship, is one of society’s oldest forms of experiential education. In many cultures, herbal training occurs almost exclusively in a setting where experienced herbalists work closely with others to share their accumulated wisdom. The structure of these relationships varies widely, but all have in common the desire to share information while offering support, guidance and critical feedback.
Our mentorship process supports individuals to become confident, skilled educators. Often those who have completed extensive training are actively seeking the support and guidance of an experienced forest gardener to act as a mentor.
Community is an essential aspect of ecological design. Designing forest gardens is all about relationships, after all – the relationships we have with each other and with health as well as the relationships we have with plants. One of the most special relationships within this study, though, is the relationship between mentor and student. Many forest gardeners eventually find some sort of mentor – it’s a very natural expression of how our ecological knowledge and wisdom are passed along and is the traditional way that designers were passed from one generation to another. Many forest gardeners at some point have had mentors that helped shaped them to become who they are today, and many continue to work with mentors even now!
The mentor-student relationship is so valuable and special because it helps us orient ourselves. Who do we want to become? In what direction are we moving? Mentors are individuals we want to emulate, people who have been where we are now and have gone ahead where we wish to travel. Having a mentor also helps us by providing insight and perspective when the going gets tough. When we struggle with new questions or a new case study and we can’t seem to find answers or when it seems like we’ve lost our way on our path, a mentor can be there with encouragement, a new idea, or the wisdom from a parallel experience that helps us find the missing pieces of our puzzles.
Exactly what is the role of a mentor?
The definition of the word is “an experienced and trusted advisor.” That’s a rather broad definition! Each mentor-student relationship is unique since those two parts of the equation are always going to be two different individuals. It’s up to the parties involved to create the relationship in a way that makes sense for them.
In some cases, the mentorship unfolds very informally, like a friendship. However, mentorships can also be very formal, even to the extent of the mentor being paid in exchange for their time and the mentoring experience being guided by a written contract that details specific goals and desired outcomes the student and mentor have for the relationship.
Regardless of the prearrangement being formal or informal, a mentor is there to inspire and support the ongoing growth of the student and to provide assistance. They should be willing to help us troubleshoot, although it’s okay if they don’t just hand us the answers! Making us think and offering helpful suggestions when problems arise are the symbols of a truly great mentor. They are understanding of our efforts and there for us when we need encouragement. They can also help us be realistic and hold us to a standard, helping set the foundation for skills and a knowledge base that will serve us well in the future. Most importantly, though, mentors can be role models. We should be careful not to put them on a pedestal – after all our mentors are human, too – but at the same time they should be people we think are worthy of imitating in some way. Our mentors are setting examples for us as teachers, consultants, and professionals.
Important to remember that having a mentor is not a replacement for learning about plants and ecological design on your own time – it should complement your own studies. The point of being mentored is to assist you to grow on your own path! Trustworthiness is essential; the relationship should always be directed by professionalism. The mentor-student relationship should always be mutually respectful.
“It is the supreme art of the educator to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” ~Albert Einst
Testimonials
“I am loving listening to your sharings and your enthusiasm for the plants. I am soo wonder-filled hearing you talk about permaculture, forest gardening, herbal plants and your land. Your articulation and wisdom are awe-inspiring. Much Thanks!” ~Natalie Krueger
“From start to finish, this herbalism and energetic medicine mentorship program has been amazing. It has opened my eyes to new paradigms and my heart to new possibilities. I feel like the 7-Day Living the Experience Intensive was vital in making a lasting community.” ~Stacey
“I loved it! It was a great mix of learning new material and lined me with time and space to work independently. Small is beautiful! I loved the small group format. I had a great time. It was what I needed. I felt great each time I came and always left feeling inspired, motivated and strong.” ~Rita
“It was high-quality; the smaller and more advanced group, the more I took from the weekend. I enjoyed going very deep with tastes and case studies working from patterns to details to formulas. The one-on-one guidance supported my growth in my ability to bring something concrete into the world. Thank you! So Excellent!” ~Simon
“Shantree has a vision and a special way of creating a garden that seems to match the spirit of the land. He brings touches to every corner that makes the whole garden such a joy to be in. Thank you for all that you have given me and for the beautiful work you are doing!” ~James
“I’ve learned so many valuable lessons. Shantree, you are so wise. You are such an honourable teacher. This has been a milestone along my path. For that, I am so thankful.” ~Maya
“Honestly, I loved your teaching style, really clear and confident presentation of sometimes really in-depth material. I found your teaching style compassionate and patient and never once felt afraid to ask a question. That was the best workshop on soils I’ve seen. I’ve studied with many organic gardening teachers, and that’s the first time someone has put it in a way that I can understand and see the big picture. Thank you.” ~Heather
“I wanted to further my studies with Natural Healing. I found a course through The Living Centre – Practical Herbalism. It was my dream to do this course. Amazing course, my brain was always thinking of the course and the answers to the Questions. Shantree is an Amazing Teacher, and the knowledge he has he shares with you and always answers and helps you along the course. Thank you for making my dreams come true.” ~Valerie
“As I reflect on the educational aspects of our program, I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for contributing to our internship program’s educational programming this year. As always, visiting your folks is a highlight for the interns. They always come back from this trip with a greater understanding of herbal plants and forest gardening and respect for the diversity of food growing styles. They had this to say “A wonderful, pioneering place! They helped educate about organics, and now they’re taking the next step towards forest gardening.” ~Jaye Crawford, Ignatius Farm Interns, 2012
“I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for contributing to our internship program this year. For the interns, our day at the Living Centre was a definite highlight of the internship. We left feeling inspired and full of new ideas. It was fabulous to see such a successful example of what Permaculture, herbalism and forest gardening can be and how we can go about implementing their principles in our own lives.
Field trips, workshops, and farm tours greatly enhance the internship experience by exposing interns to diverse farming and food systems and planting ideas for directions they will choose as they move forward. Not all interns will pursue farming as a career path, but what is certain is that they all have a deepened appreciation for farming and will become advocates for sustainable food systems in their own personal ways.
We deeply appreciate that you have been open to sharing your time and knowledge with us this season. On behalf of the entire Ignatius Farm CSA team, thank you once again for your involvement in educating for a healthy food system for the future. With gratitude.”
~Kailea MacGillivray, Senior Education Intern and Volunteer Coordinator, Ignatius Farm CSA
Registration
2023 Dates:
April 1-2 – Local Wild Living Design
April 22-24 – Regeneration & Resilience: Soil, Ecology, Permaculture & Native Plants
May 13-15 – Gardening Like the Forest: Designing the Ecological Herbalist
July 15-17 – Forest Gardening: The Ecological Herbalist
Nov 4-6 – Final Presentation Weekend
Time: 9 am to 5 pm.
Note: Only 12 positions are available
Your Price – $1750
Early-Bird – $1500 (payment two months before starting date)
Certification Package – Register for this Forest Gardening Mentorship & Forest Gardening Correspondence Course together for $3000
To maintain a high quality of learning and care, the Mentorship is limited to only 10 participants.
- Forest Gardening Mentorship Alumni – $1500
- Full-time Students -$1500
- A $500 deposit will guarantee your spot
- Partial work-trade positions are available.
- Partial scholarships for up to $500 off the Regular Price of $1750 are available if funds are available.
Please inquire: 519-652-0230
Click here to download the Application Form
Scholarships – Partial scholarships are available upon request (Assisting promising young adults in the mentorship program’s tuition costs – please send a detailed letter of recommendation. Our scholarship aims to build bridges between future leaders to experience the powerful connections between personal and planetary health.) Please see the Scholarship Application Process
We live in a time of significant change, and creating a new story for our world is crucial.
People all over the world are reclaiming their power and responding to the cry of Mother Earth.
Are there young adults in your community who would thrive in our mentorship program?
Help transform our culture, one heart at a time, by nominating a young adult who helps redefine our culture!
Includes:
- 2-Day – Local Wild Living Design Workshop
- Three 3-Day Hands-on Training Experiences
- Ethical Foraging Herb Walks
- One 3-Day Final Presentation/Graduation Weekend
- Study e-Manual /Handouts
- Integrative Home-Study Research Projects
- 3-One-on-One Hour Sessions (spaced out between each training)
The invitation is to make our potluck lunches organic, local, wild, live-food plant-based meals; this will be organized for the weekend’s first two days. The Living Centre will provide lunches for the 3rd day of each training.
** On specific weekends, other community members will join us
** Certificate of Completion in Forest Gardening is granted upon completing this Mentorship and our Forest Gardening Correspondence Course.
Payment can be made through e-transfer (bank-to-bank transfer) ‘PayPal’ below or by certified check. Please make cheques payable and mailed to The Living Centre 5871 Bells Rd., London, ON., Canada, N6P 1P3.
Please Note: that we require a minimum amount of registrants for the program to happen. If we do not receive the minimum registration, you will be notified two weeks before the start date, and a full refund will be issued for the amount paid until then.
For questions or additional information, please call 519-519-652-0230 or email: info@thelivingcentre.com
For a list of all of our Correspondence Courses
