About the Montana Herb Gathering
The Montana Herb Gathering is an annual event bringing together herbalists, wildcrafters, manufacturers, farmers, students and other herbal enthusiasts from across Montana and around our bioregion. We are dedicated to teaching and learning about, raising awareness of and sharing love for medicinal plants.
History
In 1997, Rebecca Wittenberg invited a group of herbalists in Missoula and Bozeman including Elaine Sheff, Robyn Klein, Bronwyn Troutman, and Sunny Mavor, to meet at her home in the Bitterroot to compare notes, discuss clinical cases and socialize. The event was fun and inspiring that everyone agreed they should try to get together again...
Meanwhile, Bronwyn was talking with Lynn Montgomery and Michael "Skeeter" Pilarski about forming a Montana gathering along the same celebratory lines as the ones Skeeter had been hosting in Washington for decades. As the plan began to materialize it became clear how well the informal herbalists' guild would fit in with an outdoor, overnight, educational gathering. Susanna MacDougall made her land available, a date was set, and the first Montana Herb Gathering was born.
1998
The first gathering was like a fair on Susanna's beautiful land. The herbal marketplace was in full swing, as were the African drums and dancers. We had door prizes, with everyone getting at least one thing, and our Saturday night meal was a pot luck for which everyone cooked. Though most teachers and students camped under the stars, we provided a covered classroom tent for Dr. Rustem Medora.
1999
Greg and Mary Tilford contributed considerable momentum to the second year's gathering, helping to bring the United Plant Savers and the Montana Herb Gathering together for a joint effort. We were very excited to count Rosemary Gladstar and James Green among our teachers. Stephen Buhner and Trishuwa brought their portable lodge, starting our tradition of hosting sweats. Absolute Vision provided delicious gourmet vegetarian cuisine. High winds blew away the tent being used by the meditation class, but everyone saved the food tent! The venerable design of the tipi, however, weathered the wind without a problem.
2000
By the third year, the MHG left the Bitterroot and landed at the Methodist Camp on the shores of Flathead Lake. Tom Elpel and Roger Wicke joined us for the first time, and Alma Snell won everyone's hearts with her tales of traditional Crow medicine.
Though we were sad to see Sue Wall-MacLane leave as registrar, we were happy to have Kirk Norby ably fill her shoes.
We had swimming and canoeing and Jessica Datta and her family led Nordic sweats. The 2000 event also marked the first Botanical Ball, complete with herbal pinatas! (The papier-mache was so sturdy that it took several direct direct hits from Jim "Strongman" Flocchini to finally burst the pinatas and reveal their contents.)
2001
2001 found us at the lake again, with Aimee McQuilken taking a leadership role and organizing work study. Curley Youpee joined us, and Mark took over the sweat. Mandy Hallos donated her time to our first website.
2002
In 2002, we brought the gathering back to the Missoula area and the Lubrecht Experimental Forest where we had the pleasure of Jeannie Norby's cooking. Our teacher lineup was exciting as always, featuring first-time visits from Michael Moore, Terry Willard, Ryan Drum and Feather Jones. Helen Burnside joined our staff, and we were pleased to welcome Jenniphyr Reich-Sterling, whose excellent organizational work was a real asset to the gathering. Bastyr became our first official academic sponsor.
2003
We're excited to have Richo Cech return, who was last with us in 1998. Also, for the first time this year we will be taping lectures!
2007
The 7th Montana Herb Gathering was a fantastic success. Michael Pilarski, Kris Hill and Katrina Farnum took over the organizational reigns with superb gusto. Thank you to all who attended and worked so hard to get this bird off the ground again. Re-awakening our Herbal Spirits after a four year nap was well worth the wait. Our presenters had a blast as well as the attendees. Huge thanks to Michael Moore and the South West School of Botanical Medicine for producing so many top notch herbalists, ten of our 20 presenters were graduates of SWSBM. Darry Sterns was our head chef who managed the outdoor kitchen and work study students superbly. Presenters included Paul Bergner, the Flocchini family, Mo O'Brien, Jo Powell, Karyn Schwartz, Christopher Scipio and Adam Seller just to name a few. Thanks to Alice for renting her beautiful event space to us, Montanagua Moss Creek Sanctuary, everyone loved the Bath House! One of the best treats was the essential oil demonstration by Lori Parr-Campbell (Lavender Lori) of Purple Beacon Essential oils, from Missoula. Before the Botanical Ball on Saturday night the kids who had been spending time in the Fun Zone, prepared an herbal skit for the enjoyment of the adults.
If you have photos from any of our gatherings, we would love to see them. Please send us jpgs or tifs so we can display them on this site. Send us your memories too.