Class Season Begins

Next Saturday, the 7th, I teach my first in-person class since the fall of 2019. This class I'm teaching is at my friend Shannon's farm not far from where I live. She grows all sorts of beautifully fragrant and medicinal plants on her farm, from white sage to black hollyhocks, and nearly all of them can be dried and used in incense. The class is focusing on making incense from what is at hand. We won't be raiding the spice cabinet, but instead, we'll be foraging through the garden and plucking what's fragrant, in season, and not poisonous. Yesterday I spent about an hour at the farm harvesting some of the materials we're going to use for the incense class, and today I will be raiding my perfumer's garden and adding to the list damask rose, spearmint, common sage, calendula, and rose geranium. 

We've priced the class very low since our objective is to get people coming out to the farm more regularly, plus it's an introductory class that will, hopefully, spark their passion for the aromatic arts. The normal schedule of outdoor classes at this location specifically begins in early May, ends at the end of May or the first week of June, and then picks up again in September. If you've never suffered an outdoor event in the central valley here in California, consider yourself lucky. The dry air temps here in the summer can reach upwards of 110F, which does not make for a comfortable environment in which to learn. 

I think the rest of the scheduled classes or events for this venue after the intro incense class are a tuning fork class, a plant exchange party, and a sage wrapping class, more or less a how-to class. 

Am I excited about this upcoming class? I'm not sure. I am excited to be teaching live classes again, but maybe not thrilled to be mingling with strangers.