Collecting Wild Edibles and Medicinals workshop held in Floyd County

As a follow-up to the 2013 Growing Appalachia conference, members of the Big Sandy chapter and the Rowan County chapter organized a Collecting Wild Edibles and Medicinals workshop on September 8th in Floyd County.

Led by Rowan County chapter member Cody Montgomery, attendees hiked the hills around Wilson Creek and learned about the species located in our area, how to locate their habitats, specific uses for herbs, and how to prepare certain plans for personal use.

“There is an abundance of useful plants in our hills,” says Montgomery. “Virtually everything has one use or another for humans and certainly every plant is beneficial to life as a whole.”

Whether medicinal or culinary, learning how to identify and prepare certain plants gives people the opportunity to save money by doing something like making their medicine, or to earn money by creating a marketable product. Many attendees talked about how excited they were to learn these uses of plants native to our region. Donna Williams of Prestonsburg said, “Connecting directly to the wild edible and medicinal plants of your native mountains is an ethereal experience.”

In March of this year, the Big Sandy chapter hosted the fourth annual Growing Appalachia conference, which is a day of workshops about small-scale farming, energy efficiency, and renewables. Cody Montgomery led the workshop on Collecting and Marketing Wild Edibles and Medicinals at the conference and many people who attended wanted build on what they learned and gain more hands-on experience so the idea for this workshop was born!

Planning for the 2014 Growing Appalachia conference is beginning to get underway. If you’re interested in learning how to save money or earn money or even start a small business using sustainable ideas, then stay tuned as details emerge for next year’s conference!