A story of many chapters. 10 years ago we gathered as a community at Fire Mt Scout Camp and created a beautiful & educational sharing of ideas and creative inspirations.

The Northwest Herbal Fair Rides Again! 
August 19-21, 2011

Mount Vernon, Washington Fire Mountain Scout Camp

Weekend Overview by Skeeter Pilarski

The Northwest Herbal Fair (NWHF) is one of the Northwest’s premier herbal events of the year!
No other herb gathering in the region brings together so many workshops and presenters. Over 1,000 participants, 100 workshops and 70 presenters. The NWHF has reached these numbers twice before and this year we anticipate our grand reunion will be even bigger!

Why has the Northwest Herbal Fair been so successful? For one thing, the NWHF is an indication of the growing number of people who are involved in, or interested in, herbal medicine and natural health. People turn to herbal medicine for many reasons. Effectiveness, safety, seeking cheaper alternatives to pharmaceutical drugs, and for moral reasons. The natural healing movement is huge and growing rapidly. Herbs are a big part of the movement. The NWHF offers people a chance to learn lots in a fun atmosphere for a low cost. The gathering is for herbalists to meet each other and exchange knowledge as peers. It is also a place where experienced herbalists can teach the interested public and advertise their services and products. It serves both the existing herbal movement and the folks who are just getting involved.

Another reason the Northwest Herbal Fair has been so successful is that the fair became one of the best tribal gatherings of the year for the Whatcom County progressive community. People came not only for information but for community and sense of family. A lot of us tend to think of ourselves as belonging to some sort of earth tribe. People who deeply care for the Earth and each other. All sorts of other people are welcome as well and lots of them come, but the earth tribe vibe has definitely been part of the scene and we expect this to continue. We do hope that all of our many friends from Whatcom County will join us for the 2011 reunion. In addition we hope that that the NWHF will become one of the Skagit Valley’s best earth tribe events this year. This year’s venue is less than an hour's drive from the Anacortes ferry landing so we hope to get a larger attendance from the San Juan Islands as well. We are only a 90-minute drive from north Seattle. Besides herbalists from all around Puget Sound, we always get some hard-core herbalists from Oregon, British Columbia and even California, Idaho, Montana and beyond.

A festive atmosphere, music and entertainment are part of this multi-faceted event. This is an herbal festival & celebration as well as an educational conference. We will have full-on, incredible dance bands on all three evenings. Two main acts each evening. Plus there is acoustic music during the day, theatre, art, and everyone is invited to bring musical instruments.

Tracks:

Each track will consist of a series of relevant classes. This affords participants a chance to go deep into one particular track or to sample various tracks.

• Introductory Herbalism

• Advanced Herbalism

• Herbal Product Making

• Wildcrafting

• Plant Walks

• Growing Medicinal Plants

• Plant Spirit Medicine

• Plant Biodiversity for the Pacific Northwest Symposium

• Other healing modalities

  A special track in 2011 will be a “Symposium on Plant Biodiversity for the Pacific Northwest”.
  We especially call for papers and presentation on biodiversity related to medicinal plants but the scope of presentations also includes food plants, fibers, dyes, wood, restoration and the many other uses that plants have, both for products and for function. The symposium is for people interested in permaculture, crop diversity, ethnobotany and other fields involving the study of large numbers of plants. The symposium track will have its own keynote speakers, workshops and presenters in addition to the Herbal Fair’s other herbal and natural healing tracks.

  Vending & Trade Show. There will be dozens of vendors selling herbal and health care products, herb books, locally-made crafts, selected food stands and local farmers selling fresh veggies and fruits. This is an excellent opportunity for people who make herbal products or do herbal education to market their goods and services to a wide diversity of herbally-minded people.

  The Northwest Herbal Fair is a green event * Minimal waste.
  * Optimal recycling
  * Locally-grown

  * Locally-staffed
  * We encourage car-pooling.

  Come help! The Northwest Herbal Fair is always a big undertaking. It takes dozens of coordinators and hundreds of volunteers and work traders to handle parking, gate, camping, food, vendors, stage, workshops, decoration, signage, children’s activities and much, much more. Have you been on the team before? Would you like to be on the team this year?! How would you like to help? We hope to have our coordinator crew filled out by March. There will be a meeting in/near Bellingham in late January. Please let us hear from you if you’d like to help in any way.