Herb Garden Project

The 'Herb Garden' is a unique project being offered by buDa. The objective of this workshop is to create a  garden of useful herbs and and understand the wealth from weeds.

In a time when unseen by our very own eyes, pesticides find their way into our bodies through food we eat, an inevitable cycle of unhealthy consumption and resultant ailments begins. Have we traded our health and that of our children to the convenience of ready made, processed and often junk food? It is with a will to find and share simple inexpensive solutions to this problem, that we have devised a workshop for children

The workshop will be a hands on experience to learn and keep alive a dying knowledge system.

Would you like to be part of the problem or the solution?

Would you like to equip yourself with natural and easy ways to better health?

Would you like to truly enrich your children’s lives?

If yes is your answer to any or all of the above, then this workshop is for you.

What is special about this workshop?

This is a project that will keep students engaged round the year. This workshop will give students a hands on experience in gardening and will not only highlight the indigenous herbs but also foreign/alien herbs as well. It is a complete cycle of - soil testing,making a soil bed,identifying herbs,designing and creating/cultivating a herb garden,harvesting,drying & storing these herbs and experimenting with recipes to prepare food and refreshing drinks using this herbs. 
As children are involved in the complete cycle, they find it more applicable,useful and interesting. This project is also an excellent vehicles for getting children interested in nature and enhancing their awareness of the link between plants in the landscape and our clothing, food, shelter, and well-being. Once students build a connection with the natural world around them, they are more likely to become more conscious of their choices/actions and how their choices may affect the world that they live in.These herb gardens also serve as attractive learning labs. This exercise also gives students a hands on approach of seeking information, observing changes,drawing inferences and learning.

 

The workshop will involve :

• Plant identification (including weeds which has got medicinal and food value)
• Herbarium /scrapbook 
• Slide presentation
• Field visits
• Foraging (depending on the surrounding  field)
• Designing and preparing  a Herb Garden 
• Naming the herbs 
• Preparing a herb-guide handbook with recipies and home remedies 
• Cooking and preparing refreshing drinks from the herb

During the course of the workshop we will deal with 3 kinds of herbs: 

• Medicinal Herbs
• Culinary herbs
• Desi(Native) herbs and greens (Including weeds that have medicinal and nutritional value )

Native herbs and greens

This is an area that I am particularly interested and keen to pass on the native knowledge to the future generations .I don't want to miss out this aspect in my herb garden project.
Our  urban, suburban and rural ecosystems are loaded with unnoticed wild foods and herbs. Overlooked as "weeds" these are the same shoots, greens, roots, fruits, berries and flowers that nourished and healed our ancestors for centuries. We can gradually learn to recognize them, harvest them ecologically and use them as supplements in our everyday meal to improve our health.

Plant identification 

Very few of us are familiar with common wild plants, their name, natural history, food and medicinal uses or the folklore associated with them. Because we live in an age where there is rapid degradation of the environment, we must do more than just provide our children with textual information if we expect them to understand and appreciate the natural world and  play a more responsible role in conservation.

                                   Students identifying the desi  herbs  in the field visits.-Shibumi School

Foraging

When I asked the traditional forager what she was collecting I was amazed to see the green wealth growing all over. I joined her and came home with a bag full of ganke soppu and anne soppu.This was my first opportunity to experiment with this exotic leafy food. I came up with a very interesting recipe, which I shall share during the workshop. :)    
This experience prompted me to offer the students a powerful tool for changing attitudes and hearts. The earth is overflowing with common plant species that people have been gathering for centuries — medicinal herbs, greens, shoots, fruits, berries, roots and seeds.We only need to be alive to our surroundings.

In this exercise we are going to forage for a green meal ! Students will be asked to explore vacant plots and uncultivated areas in early spring. It is interesting to observe that the group always comes back with an abundance of greens which has medicinal and food value.

These herbs are so common and prolific that they are denigrated as “weeds”.  These wild foods are fun to collect and use — and they’re 

The Valley School, Bangalore

Children enjoy this activity - identifying the edible greens in the wild and then collecting and preparing a green meal!

                                                              

                                Designing and preparing  a Herb Garden, Shibumi school, Bangalore

Studying medicinal herbs - Folklore Research Center, Honnavar

Preparing refreshing drinks from herbs - lemon grass tambuli
buDafolklore Research Center, Honnavar

Preparing salad using  herbs from school herb garden -  -Shibumi school,Bangalore

                                  

                         Cooking and preparing refreshing drinks from the herb -Shibumi school, Bangalore

Please do not treat this as "yet another activity". Before you join please make sure you are committed and ready to give time every day to learn.The success of the  workshop will depend on the involvement,interest,and creativity of the group.The workshop will gets its credit when you apply these learnings in your daily life.

Thanks to The Valley School, Bangalore, Shibumi School, Bangalore,

Lata,Sharad,Shalini, Apoorva and the participants of my first herb Garden project Ankit, Yanik, Sanjay, Ravi, Varun and Rajat.