In theory, or in practice

This image is one that I created back in 2020 for the Herbal Botany & Manufacturing class for my Naturopathy degree (click on image to see it in full). Interestingly, this was the only subject that had the exact same assessments as when I studied first time back in the 90’s… I did yarrow back then.

Despite the essence of the project being the same, there were significant changes, that I find entirely reflective of the changes to the industry as a whole.

Back then, we had to find a whole plant, press it, stick it down on a poster and label the parts. It was hands-on, we had to grow the plant, or know where it grew; we had to learn how to handle it with care, press it without it getting mouldy, and work out how to do it in a way that we could then transport it back to college without it disintegrating. It was the first lesson for many city-dwelling students, on how to handle herbs.

Fast forward 30yrs, the complexity of the very same project was over the top. It was no longer a requirement to grow or source a specimen. It had become a theoretical tech project. The first requirement was to use a new computer system called Canva. A system I’m entirely familiar with now, but had never heard of at that point. Pictures of plant parts, etc., could be searched and sourced online, and instead of looking in one or two compulsory texts, we had to search & fully reference, multiple.

Me, being the stickler that I am, insisted on taking all my own photos, hand drawing all my own diagrams, and wound up spending over 80hrs fulfilling word counts, and other restrictions.

Was it worth it?

Let’s just say that I look at this piece now and can see areas I could improve, but it was over and above what I thought I was capable of at the time. And despite being penalised because my tutor refused to believe that all the images were my own and took marks off for them not being referenced, I was proud of what I’d achieved and how it looked.

That said…

It had clearly been morphed into a means to learn new tech, find online botanical information and APA7 referencing, rather than becoming familiar with the plant itself, or learning how to engage with it in a botanical setting, despite the name of the subject.

In fact, it was this project that reinvigorated my sense that I needed to expand my medicine garden, and return to the grassroots teaching that brought me to this point many moons ago. To bring back information on growing, the importance of moon phases and planetary alignments, and the passion that comes from living the cycles of the herbs along with them, and integrating them into everyday life, even if just by tending to them.

It is with that in mind that I am in the process of creating a series of workshops that I will be facilitating this coming spring! More information on that soon…

Bella💕