For our first session we journeyed with corn through the readings of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass exploring the ancestral planting system of The Three Sisters. We sowed purple maize, corn, sorghum and amaranth together and closed the day crafting red clay to create living altars filled with seeds that will come to bloom in the garden.

The corn seedlings were planted into the earth along with 3 varieties of squash as reflected on the Three Sisters planting system. We then took the time to participate in a collective rest practice through the teachings of Tricia Hersey of The Nap Ministry to offer us the tool and guidance needed to unlock and revisit what rest can look and feel like in our current climate.

Our final sister - the beans - were sown into the Three Sisters beds alongside their kin of corn and pumpkins. We took the time to harvest greens, beets, edible flowers & herbs together to prepare lunch from the land before closing the day with chapter 3: Resist! from Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey.

Randa Toko, land worker, artist and researcher and - our first guest facilitator - joined us to introduce folk to cyanotype printing, drawing from anthropomorphic herbariums, folklore and our own insights for reflection on human and plant entanglements. We harvested and created lunch together, holding space to meditate and reflect on the world around us at this time.

Claudia Manchanda, radical herbalist, friend and an incredible pillar of our community held us through a maíz appreciation journey, we were showered with anti-colonial knowledge on corn, drank corn silk tea, painted corn, shared our own cultural corn connections and full joyed the most delicious pot-luck corn feast together. Claudia is living with metastatic breast cancer and needs support - please donate to their fundraiser here.

After a busy season on the land, we decided to host a shorter session. We explored our relationships with the element of air through writing prompts and astrology. After which we crafted our own herbal wands/smoke bundles from garden grown yarrow, rue, sage, lavender and rosemary - whilst discussing traditions of purification, cleansing and renewal.

For our final session of the season, we invited medical herbalist, herbal and holistic health educator and workshop facilitator Cherrelle Douglas to join us and lead a relaxed and hands on-session collectively making fire cider, a traditional and accessible non-alcoholic tonic using food as medicine. Everyone was able to create their own tonic whilst learning about the importance of preventative care for our immune systems, the medicinal properties of the plants used and how to use it. We also created time for a ground walk together.