Join me for a 1.5 hour Nature Walk in conjunction with the annual Wheeler Gorge Visitor Center Open House. I’ll take a break from our booth — featuring our mobile Herb Walks Bookstore — at 1:00 p.m. to walk up the nearby Wheeler Gorge Nature Trail.

The trail climbs very gradually alongside the creek and then up and out of the creek’s riparian plant community to loop back to the trailhead through the sunny chaparral plant zone. The walk is classified as an “easy” hike by the Los Padres National Forest.

Read more and register here.

Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West is a full-color photographic guide to the identification, edibility, and medicinal uses of over 250 plant species, growing from Alaska to southern California, east across the Rocky Mountains and the Northern Plains to the Great Lakes.

Order a copy here.

Please join me and a friendly group of like-minded learners and lovers of the outdoors for a Nature Hike to Potrero John Camp deep in the Sespe Wilderness of the Los Padres National Forest.

The hike will take place on Potrero John Creek, 20 miles north of Ojai. We will cover 1.7 miles each way on a mostly level trail with very gradual elevation gain through chaparral and riparian settings, beginning at 3700 feet. We’ll stop for lunch at Potrero John Camp.

Read more and register here.

Monday, April 25: Annual OVLC "All About Ojai" Herb Walk

Pascal Baudar, author and renowned professional forager for L.A.’s top chefs, will be our very special guest on Saturday, April 30, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

He will join me for a foraging walk and then lead a wild food demonstration featuring primitive herbal brews and other creations from his just-published book, The New Wildcrafted Cuisine: Exploring the Exotic Gastronomy of Local Terroir.

Pascal will have copies of his new book on hand for sale and signing.

Read more and register here.

I’ll return to my favorite Santa Barbara area trail for a 3-hour Herb Walk along San Antonio Creek on Sunday, May 21, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

On this walk, as usual, we will identify, demonstrate and discuss the many uses of wild plants for foragers, herbalists, and naturalists seeking out plants for food, first aid, home remedies, survival, crafts, ceremony and more. Poisonous plants will also be identified.

This will be an opportunity to revisit some of the plants we saw here in February and observe how they adapt and change with the seasons.

.

Read more and register here.

Please join me and special guest Dr. James Adams of USC School of Pharmacy for our first-ever, in-depth Medicinal Plant Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, June 4-5.

On Saturday we will travel to a one or more locations and spend the day exploring different plant communities.

Then on Sunday we will hike and forage in the morning, take a lunch break in Ojai, and go to a downtown Ojai kitchen where Dr. Adams will show us how to prepare plant medicines from material we have gathered.

Read more and register here.

Thanks to local physican and frequent Herb Walks participant Dr. Jaehyun "Jimmy" Byun, I learned of the Japanese Society of Forest Medicine. Their purpose is to "promote research on forest medicine including the effects of forest bathing trips and therapeutic effects of forests on human health."

Their website reports on a Japanese government financed research project of 3 years duration which found that, among other health benefits, "forest bathing trips reduce the concentration of cortisol in saliva, reduce the concentrations of urinary adrenaline and noradrenaline, reduce prefrontal cerebral activity, reduce blood pressure and stabilize autonomic nervous activity in humans."

I find it fascinating to see how others around the world value time spent in nature. Perhaps our government could learn something from them.