Reply To: Introduce Yourself!
Hiya all 🌿,
My name is Jen. I was raised in the BC interior and have spent many summers out in the bush at our off the grid boat-access cabin, roaming the woods with my Dad, now retired but formerly BC Forest Service forester. I’m sure that’s where my love for the wild comes from. I’ve cultivated it with many backcountry trips and stints as a tree planter but my professional interests have kept me in the city, first as an engineer and then an architect. I went to school in Victoria and have work/lived in a few countries but spent good chunk in Toronto. Now I’ve been back in BC living and working in Vancouver for the past 11 years. Starting with the birth of my first daughter 7 years ago I’ve been making my way back to my roots. After my second daughter was born I started to work in the birth world as a birth and postpartum doula, and I’ve been doing that since, with a 9 month break after my 3rd daughter’s birth 17 months ago. I birthed all three at home and it seems to have really pushed me to explore the holistic arts. I’ve completed training for essential oil use during the perinatal year and that is now an integral part of my birth doula offering. I took a fantastic training a few years ago through Sacred Postpartum where I learned how to make tinctures, teas and salves. Since then I’ve been making potions for my family, friends and prenatal and postpartum clients. But mostly I’m following recipes with little knowledge about the plants. I’ve amassed a good collection of books; Susan Weed’s, Rosemary Gladstone’s and Dr Aviva Romm’s sitting near the top, but I’m really looking forward to learning about and from the plants in this course. I live in a housing coop and we have a communal rooftop garden that is mostly fruit orchard and vegetable garden but I look forward to adding more herbs. All the flowering herbs look super beneficial for our two beehives as well, so it shouldn’t be a hard sell to our hardening committee. I look forward to getting to know you all and learning together.