herb talk in barn
herb walk

Course Information

Cost: $995.00 (2 years completion)

Where: The Ginkgo Tree, located on Dogwood & Brambles Farm.

Start date: Start any date you wish, your two years of class are according to your start date.

When: The “Hands On” portion of class is held on the last Tuesday of each month (Oct thru May) 7:00pm – 8:30 pm. **Changes or compromises may be made to comply with current Covid 19 regulations.

Materia Medica Book

The Ginkgo Tree Herbal Course Includes

  • Ten lessons in a beautiful, specially designed course binder
  • Correction of all homework
  • Certificate upon completion
  • Monthly “hands on” class
  • Monthly take home of product made in class
  • Includes herbs for lesson one’s materia medica
  • $50 off Registration fee & Vendor fee for Back To Your Roots Herbal Retreat

Tell me all about The Ginkgo Tree Herbal Course

The Ginkgo Tree Herbal Course emphasizes self-care, home health, and self-reliance. You will learn how herbalism can offer a low-cost alternative to your family’s health care. This self-empowering, joyful home study course offers a “hands on” approach and is recognized as one of the best courses available on this subject. Your Herbal Educators and Course Facilitators (depending on your location) will be Penelope Beaudrow and Evelyn Mueller, who will be your instructors throughout your herbal journey, bringing a wealth of herbal knowledge, excellent training skills, and a passionate love of herbs.

The Ginkgo Tree Herbal Course guides you into the very heart of herbalism. It instills in the student both the necessary skills to practice this ancient healing art as well as a profound understanding of the spirit and essence of herbalism. This course was designed specifically for students requesting a systematic, in-depth study of herbs but who were unable to attend full time residential herb programs. It contains a depth of knowledge and a lively student/teacher interaction seldom found in home study courses.  Students are welcome to attend the “hands on” components to obtain further knowledge and skills, but are not a requirement for certificate.

Though the course thoroughly instills in the student the practical skills necessary to practice herbal home health care, it doesn’t ignore the rich spirit and essence of herbalism. The heart of this course is the development of a deep personal relationship with the plant world.

Each lesson will have herbs that must be purchased for study purposes (materia medica). The Ginkgo Tree will prepare small quantities to keep costs down for students.

For the New Student

Upon registration, your new course binders and lesson one herbs will be mailed directly to you. Penelope or Evelyn will phone or email you to go over the course and course material, binder and books, and herbs for lesson one. Each student will be required to email their completed lessons for review and keep up with the material medica for each lesson to receive certificate. Attending the “hands on” component is not necessary for a certificate, but encouraged to the student. The “hands on” component will teach you skills and a deeper understanding of working with herbs, with new classes each month. Attending monthly classes and spending time with “like minded” individuals will also spark many new friendships. All students must RSVP for the monthly class, this provides attendance numbers so we can have the correct amount of supplies for the evening. Monthly class information can be found on our website blog https://theginkgotree.ca/blog/ or on our face book page https://www.facebook.com/pg/theginkgotree/posts/ a week out from class. The course generally can be done within a year, but we extended the initial registration fee to cover two years of attending classes. There is an additional $250 annual registration fee to any students who have been taking herb course for over two years and just want to come to attend classes or finish course.  Therefore, we will have some students just starting, some just finishing up and some that have no intention of ever finishing and guests 🙂

Herb Course Walk

Meet Your Teachers

Penelope Beaudrow, Registered Herbalist

Location: Central Ontario (Cannington)

Penelope Beaudrow is an Herbal Educator and Registered Herbalist who earned her herbalist diploma from the Dominion Herbal College in British Columbia. She is Product Development Specialist and Herbal Educator at Faunus Herbs for the past 24 years.  Penelope is also a board member of the Association for the Advancement of Restorative Medicine, moderator at The Annual International Restorative Medicine Conference and past organizer of this conference for seventeen years. She is also the founder of The Ginkgo Tree, a small herbal business (Education, Teas & Tinctures) located on her family farm, Dogwood & Brambles, where she also facilitates The Ginkgo Tree Herbal Course. They are very proud that their family farm is designated as a United Plant Savers Botanical Sanctuary.  A passionate herbal educator, Penelope has lectured for The Restorative Medicine Conference, New England Herbal Conference, International Herb Symposium, Back to Your Roots Herbal Retreat, Heartwood Gathering, Canada Blooms, Toronto Botanical Gardens, Durham District School Board, Richter’s Herbs, Chippewas of Georgina and other various organizations. She also has appeared in the Toronto Star’s Gardening Column, by Sonja Day and United Plant Savers 2018 Publication.

Evelyn Mueller, Community Herbalist

Location: South Western Ontario (Milverton)

As a graduate of “The Ginkgo Tree Herbal Course”, I am more than grateful to be the protege of our wise mentor and friend Penny. My name is Evelyn and I continue to study with our plant allies as lifelong teachers. Alongside wonderful talented herbalists, I am working on becoming a registered herbalist myself.

As a young adventurer, you could probably find me climbing trees, foraging wild berries and making wildflower arrangements together with my dad. Otherwise, I would be out exploring the beautiful nature that surrounded my small, quaint hometown in rural Bavaria, Germany.

Before moving to Canada, I studied and worked in the profession of an educator; but not long after that, I decided to follow my heart and move to Ontario to live with my lovely husband. We have four adventurous boys and own a farm just outside of a lively, cozy small town.

Being out in nature, surrounded by plants is what grounds me. This untamed beauty, so simple and pure, has always fascinated me.

It is my mission to share the wonders nature is providing for us, to establish meaningful relationships between humans and plants as well as to help awaken our embedded instincts, and use those to nurture and heal our body, our mind and our wonderful earth.

I love spending time out in nature, listening to the teachings of the plants and letting my instincts guide me.  Inspired and driven to make as much as possible from scratch, using the ingredients giving to us by nature, I enjoy activities such as gardening, baking bread, wild crafting herbs and making soap… I also enjoy caring for my horses, call the thrift store my happy place, have more ambition than talent on my ukulele and guitar and most of all, I love spending time with my family.

To Register for The Ginkgo Tree Herbal Course


Guests

We welcome guests to attend any monthly class they are interested in! Guests simply have to email to ensure available space. All guests take home a sample of all products we make in class. Please note as a guest you are not registering for The Ginkgo Tree Herbal Course, simply attending “hands on” classes that are of interest to you, therefore will not receive a certificate, unless registered for The Ginkgo Tree Home Study Course.

Guest class fee: $30.00

Simply email hello@everythingherbal.ca to ensure available space with the subject line, “Herb Course Guest”.


A Heart-felt Thanks

To Rosemary Gladstar for supporting our educational program with the use of The Science & Art of Herbalism Course binder and To Faunus Herbs for donating the herbs for the hands-on component of classes.


Reference Books

Students are required to use at least five books from our recommended herbal book list, which can be found here: blog

Register Here

Frequently Asked Questions:


When can I start the course?

A student may start the course any month of the year.  The two years of class are according to your start date.  During your two years of class you can attend any of the “hands on” classes, simply RSVP for attending the class.  These classes are new classes every month (Sept through May) 7:00 – 8:30 pm.


Is this course binder the same binder Rosemary Gladstar uses on Sage Mountain?

Yes, it is! However, we only use the hard copy binder, not the online version which is available for a limited time only. The hard copy allows the student to have all formulas and recipes for a life time.


How does the monthly class tie into the course?

There are two answers to this question, depending on what you have registered for.

1. As a Registered Student of The Ginkgo Tree Herbal Course all “hands on” classes are included with your registration. This class has become a favourite with our herbal students, receiving practical skills, making the products and formulas required in your lessons, with new classes each month.  The take home of our unique class concoctions is a real hit with our students! Students are required to RSVP each month to attend class.

2. As a Guest you are not registering for The Ginkgo Tree Herbal Course, simply attending “hands on” classes that are of interest to you. There are many herb enthusiasts out there that can not commit to a herbal course, but would like to have some “hands on” with herbs, learning what interests them, and is agreeable to their time schedule. All guests get to take home a sample of our class concoctions! That makes this “hands on” component of our education sought out by many DIY herb and plant lovers! New classes each month.