Green Herb Medicine School
Year-round program with herbalist Kathi Keville & visiting staff
Take all or your fav segments! Kathi’s love for history and folklore includes worldwide ethnobotany—the use of plants by indigenous peoples. These courses are all inclusive for everyone. We’ll get you into nature even if you use a cane or wheelchair.
Our school honors the Nisenan Maidu for this land and the sharing of plant knowledge.
Class Offerings
Experience the warmth and connection of in-person guidance! Meet the herbs! Share discoveries and laughs with other plant lovers! Develop your plant communication skills!
Tell your own experiences! Explore and question everything!
... and most important, fall in love with nature and it's power to heal!
Roll up your sleeves for hands-on instruction in herbal medicine-making, gardening, and herb crafting. Hear Kathi—a walking plant encyclopedia of herb knowledge—offer her unique perspective as she weaves together herbal medicine systems of the world, infused with lore and science and love.
Body Systems Series
Heal from the inside out. Each class explores one body system based on holistic protocol—herbs, aromatherapy, nutrition, acupressure, movement, flower essences—plus enjoy a delicious 7-course healing meal and make-your-own elixir bar. Leave with practical formulas, recipes, and tools to support lasting wellness.
Apprenticeship with Kathi
Learn by doing. This seasonal outdoor workshop will root you in the healing power of plants. It follows the season over several months, blending plant walks, foraging, and medicine-making with plant ID and use field trips, a campout, and wild food potlucks. Build a wild herb first-aid kit and a home remedy chest. and hive.
Aromatherapy Seminars
Discover essential oils, hydrosols, and aromatic plants—how to use them and their science and lore. Distil garden plants. Learn hands-on formulating and blending under Kathi's experienced guidance. Visit 60 aromatic plants in the fragrance garden. Practice therapeutic applications. Culminates in Level I Aromatherapy Certification.
Wild Herb Walks & Herb Garden Tours
Be amazed at how much medicine and food you'll find in the wild and herb garden. Learn to ID herbs and their medicinal properties. See how to process them into food. Find out the many cultural uses and ecological considerations. See a variety of foraging, harvesting, and medicine-making techniques.
Aroma-Herbal Tuscany Retreat
This amazing experience takes plant folks on a fun, healing, soulful journey. We walk through ancient stone towns, exploring natural healing and fragrance. This 12-day retreat is all about lavender fields, natural perfume, herb walks and herb crafting. Meet Italian herbalists, gardeners, scientists, perfumers, and aromatherapists.
Upcoming 2026 Classes
Aromatherapy Seminars
Medicinal & Aromatic Plant Distillation & Essential Oil Workshop
Seminar I: September
Key Features:
-
Gain Essential Oil Knowledge: Learn uses for dozens of aromatic plants and their essential oils. Experience the aromas and their healing properties embracing body, mind, and spirit. Enjoy the stories that show the use of each fragrance.
-
Blending & Formulation: Hands-on lab sessions develop your sense of smell and creativity and sense of smell as you learn to craft an assortment of amazing aromatic products for healing.
-
Experience Distillation: See how essential oils and hydrosols are made as Kathi distills plants from her herb gardens. Learn how to make your own kitchen distiller.
Medicinal & Aromatic Plant Distillation & Essential Oil Workshop
Seminar II: October
Advanced Aromatherapy Seminar II
Take your aromatherapy training beyond the basics and into the realm of advanced practice. In this seminar, you’ll gain confidence in evaluating quality, comparing chemotypes, and understanding essential oil chemistry and botany at a deeper level. You’ll be introduced to rare and unusual oils with unique therapeutic benefits, and learn advanced blending techniques that go far beyond simple recipes.
Key Features:
-
Advanced Essential Oil Knowledge: Evaluate oil quality and purity, compare chemotypes and species differences, and explore rare and unusual oils with unique therapeutic uses.
-
Blending & Formulation: Hands-on lab sessions creating complex therapeutic and cosmetic blends, including lotions, creams, toners, and other skincare products using hydrosols, fixed oils, and herbal carriers.
-
Practical Skills & Outcomes: Design custom therapeutic blends with confidence and integrate advanced techniques into both medicinal and cosmetic aromatherapy practice.
By the end of Seminar II, you’ll have the skills to create complex therapeutic and cosmetic blends, confidently assess oil quality, and expand your aromatherapy practice into advanced, professional-level applications.
This is Part 2 of a three-part series. Note that to meet the Level I Aromatherapy Training standards set by the National Association of Holistic Aromatherapy, you must complete all three weekends to completion. Certificate granted upon completion.
Natural Perfume & Incense & Essential Oil Workshop
Seminar III: November
Advanced Aromatherapy Seminar III
Take your aromatherapy practice to the next level with a focus on perfumery, esoteric oils, and clinical applications. This seminar emphasizes advanced chemistry, extractions, and rare essential oils while giving you hands-on experience in creating perfumes, colognes, and culinary extracts. You’ll also gain practical skills in clinical aromatherapy, designing treatment protocols, and working with specific therapeutic needs.
Key Features:
-
Perfume & Fragrance Mastery: Learn advanced perfumery techniques, blending top, middle, and base notes, working with rare and unusual oils, and crafting natural colognes and perfumes. Explore esoteric oils, rectified essential oils, and terpenless options for unique aromatic applications.
-
Clinical Aromatherapy: Gain practical experience designing aromatherapy protocols, conducting consultations, and applying oils therapeutically for specific conditions. Integrate techniques with bodywork, hydrotherapy, acupressure, and other holistic practices.
-
Culinary & Extract Applications: Create edible hydrosols, tinctures, and culinary extracts. Learn safe internal uses of essential oils and how to incorporate them into foods and beverages.
-
Chemistry, Toxicity & Advanced Lab Work: Study chemical compounds, EO extractions, and rectification techniques. Understand toxic oils, safety considerations, and alternative herbal solutions. Hands-on labs include making therapeutic smelling salts, colognes, and advanced fragrance formulations.
-
Professional Skills & Future Applications: Explore aromatherapy occupations, legal considerations, marketing ideas, and certificate opportunities. Apply scientific research to practical aromatherapy and creative projects.
By the end of Seminar III, you’ll have mastered advanced perfumery and clinical techniques, be confident in handling rare and esoteric oils, and be ready to expand your aromatherapy practice into highly specialized, therapeutic, and creative applications.
This is Part 3 of a three-part series. Note that to meet the Level I Aromatherapy Training standards set by the National Association of Holistic Aromatherapy, you must complete all three weekends to completion. Certificate granted upon completion.
Body Systems Class Series
Jan • Feb • March
Deepen your holistic healing skills in this hands-on class series, with each session devoted to one of six body systems. This course strives to embody the essence of each organ and system.Learn to design custom protocols for individuals that integrate herbs, aromatherapy, flower essences, nutrition, lifestyle, emotional well-being, yoga, qi gong, sound and color therapy, and practical medicine-making. Each class combines physiology, chemistry, and the latest research with legal and ecological considerations, providing thorough handouts and suggested home study.
In these classes, you'll experience:
-
System-Focused Protocols: Explore holistic healing strategies tailored to each body system.
-
7-Course Meal: All the food, herbs, and spices in this delicious lunch are good for the system we study that day. Herbs like marinated fennel bulb and lees popular foods like braised turnips become entrees. You'll leave with the menu and recipes to recreate healing meals at home.
-
Multimodal Integration: Not only herbs, aromatherapy, and nutrition are integrated into this experience, but also flower essences, yoga, chi kung, sound and color therapy, acupressure, mudras, healing music, and more to create this multifaceted healing experience. It embraces ancient healing methods, shamanistic practices, self-healing mind techniques, psychology, and audio, visual, touch aspects of healing.
-
Personal Applications: Learn consultation techniques to use professional or to help friends and family, create specific formulas, and herbal medicines.
-
Lab & Kitchen Creations: Learn to make custom herbal smoothies, teas, and create remedies at our Elixir Bar from a large section of herbs, sweeten with fruits and honey in our class lab.
-
Take the Healing Home: Thorough handouts, suggested home study, and updates on recent research and legal/ecological considerations.
By the end of each class, you’ll be able to design complete, personalized holistic protocols for the body system of focus, combining multiple healing modalities for practical application at home or in professional practice.
Digestive Tract, Liver, Kidney/Bladder, Heart & Circulation, Lungs & Sinus, Nervous System, Immune System
Dates for these classes are not set yet. Please sign up for class updates below to be the first to know when details and dates are set.
Herbal Apprenticeship: Medicinal & Edible Plants
April • May • Aug
Embark on a hands-on herbal immersion that blends plant identification, medicine-making, and outdoor exploration—from foothills to high mountain meadows.
With field trips, lab work, and camping adventures, this course offers a rich, grounded journey into the healing power of plants.
Bring an open mind and heart to explore medical herbalism from the ground up! Learn and observe the wonders of natural healing. Take this plant journey with an experienced herbalist and with a group of extraordinary folks.
From Spring through Summer, we follow wildflowers and native plant bloom from the Sierra foothills to high country mountains, making herbal preparations and studying plant ID.
Sunday is a field trip exploring different eco-systems along rivers and creeks.
-
Make an herbal first-aid kit and an herbal apothecary from scratch.
-
Share herbal experiences with each other.
-
Do advanced formulating and medicine making techniques.
-
In medical botany, we discuss the relationships of plant families to their healing aspects.
-
You’ll discover how to use a botany key and tricks making plant ID easier.
-
We’ll prepare herbariums and flower essences.
This in-depth course dives into a deep of understanding of herbal medicine. Held in our outdoor classroom. Field trip every weekend.
APPRENTICESHIP ADD-ON: July’s 3-day camping trip is easy car camping next to a high Sierra lake with canoes and kayaks for your use. We share plant stories around the campfire. Native sweat lodge holders join us to build and enjoy a sweat lodge.
GARDEN & LAB: Prepare an Herbal 1st Aid Kit & Home Apothecary from our extensive gardens. Take an advanced look at tinctures, glycerites, salves, liniments, decoctions, pills, tablets, syrups, oils, and flower essences.
FIELD WORK: Harvest and prep herbs. Make a plant press and herbarium. Learn herbal botany and how to ID plants.
RESEARCH: Collect data and research contacts and determine herb safety. Kathi will open her extensive library with 1500 herb books for your research.
AROMATHERAPY: Combine aromatherapy with herbalism. Choose specific techniques and essential oils for physical and emotional conditions.
PLANT ENERGY WORK: Get in touch with the plants to develop plant-based intuition.
Dates for these classes are not set yet. Please sign up for class updates below to be the first to know when details and dates are set.
Wild Herb Walks & Herb Garden Tours
Wild Herb Walks
April • May • June • July
Explore the rich world of wild and cultivated herbs on a guided stroll with herbalist and author Kathi Keville. Discover over 40 herbs with foraging, medicinal, edible, utilitarian, Native American, and global uses. Learn how to identify, prepare, and apply these plants while enjoying Kathi’s engaging stories of history, science, and personal experience. These short, wide, and easy trails are perfect for beginners or seasoned herbalists and offer a hands-on opportunity to connect with nature and the healing properties of plants.
Key Features:
-
Guided Exploration: Walk with Kathi Keville, a seasoned herbalist, leading these walks since 1978.
-
Herb Identification & Uses: Learn practical applications—medicinal, culinary, and utilitarian.
-
Educational Insights: History, lore, and science of each plant shared in engaging stories.
-
Connect: Bring a bag lunch to enjoy a picnic with Kathi afterward, if you'd like.
By the end of the walk, participants will have practical knowledge of dozens of herbs and a deeper connection to the local flora and its traditional and modern uses.
Dates for these herb walks are not set yet. Please sign up for class updates below to be the first to know when details and dates are set.
Herb Garden Tours
June • July
Step into the enchanting world of herbs on a guided Herb Garden Tour with herbalist Kathi Keville at Oak Valley Herb Farm. Explore 500 medicinal herb species thriving in beautifully landscaped display gardens, mostly shaded and with benches for a comfortable stroll. Learn about plants you already know for cooking and healing, and discover new herbs from around the world. Kathi shares both historical lore and modern scientific insights, along with practical tips for using herbs in everyday life, all enriched with her personal stories and experiences.
Key Features:
-
Guided Exploration: Tour led by Kathi Keville, herbalist and author with decades of experience.
-
Herb Identification & Uses: Learn medicinal, culinary, and practical applications of 500 herb species.
-
Educational Insights: Colorful history, modern science, and Kathi’s personal experiences with plants.
-
Comfortable Experience: Mostly shaded paths with benches along the way.
By the end of the tour, participants will gain a deeper understanding of herbs, practical ways to use them, and an inspiring connection to the world of medicinal plants.
Dates for these herb garden tours are not set yet. Please sign up for class updates below to be the first to know when details and dates are set.
Aroma~Herbal Tuscany Retreat
Journey to Tuscany with Kathi Keville
June 19~30 • 2026
Enjoy hands-on workshops in herbalism and aromatherapy, countryside plant walks, and excursions to Florence, Siena, San Gimignano, Perugia, and Assisi. Highlights include the Assisi Lavender Festival, Summer Solstice & Herb Day traditions, cultural explorations, Tuscan cuisine, and a rejuvenating spa visit—blending holistic health, history, and sensory delight into an unforgettable experience.