4 May 2025 | Botanical Gifts: Healing and Culinary Herbs: half day workshop

Date: 4 May 2025

Time: Half-day afternoon workshop 2pm-5:30pm

Location: Savour Headquarters and Garden (aka Chef Wendy's home), 94 Oban St., Wadestown, Wellington

Spaces are very limited in this workshop! Workshop participants will take home 4 herbal gifts using herbs & flowers grown organically in Savour's gardens. We start growing and harvesting the herbs & flowers six months prior to the workshop so lots of care and time are involved in the lead-up to the day. You'll take home your four gifts in pretty jars & tins with handmade labels we'll get crafty making together, and a cute flax bag.

Description:

Enjoy a relaxing afternoon making nourishing and delicious edible gifts for yourself, your friends, your mum. Mother's Day is May 11 and this workshop has been a popular one for mothers and daughters to join together, but everyone is welcome. Join Savour founder Chef Dr. Wendy Joyce at her home and organic garden where we'll begin by enjoying herbal tea and biscuits made from herbs and adaptogens grown in the garden. After a brief introduction to the plants we'll be using, we'll enjoy a garden tour together before heading into the kitchen to make four edible gifts own herbal products tailored to your individual preferences: gifts you'll be proud to give to your loved ones--or keep for yourself!

You'll make and take away: 

1. A personalised herbal tea blend of dried flowers and herbs you'll blend according to your own health needs and flavour preferences. Package it up in a gorgeous colourful tea tin! Here's your chance to get creative and choose which you put in your blend depending on your own flavour preferences and healing needs (we'll discuss specific healing properties of the herbs). Some we'll have on hand: calendula, feverfew, lemon balm, lavender, nettle, chamomile,hibiscus, lemon verbena, rose petals..These we'll blend in gorgeous multi-coloured round tea tins.

2) chocolate herbal bliss truffles full of stress-relieving adaptogens: healthy, pretty to look at and delicious! These bliss balls are full of yumminess and nutrient density! We'll use high quality cacao and adapdogenic powders that support your body through times of stress and fatigue and package them in a nice silver tin.

3) culinary herb salt using dried herbs from our organic gardens: another great way to incorporate herbs into your diet. You can cut down on your sodium intake when you add herbs or dried seaweeds to salt. Plus these are tasty ways of introducing more minerals and flavours into your cooking! Try rosemary, oregano, and other plants we'll have on hand. Plus they look pretty in glass jars in your kitchen!

4) a bottle of infused herbal vinegar: herbal and flavoured vinegars make great gifts! Plus they're a delicious and versatile ingredient for salads and roast vegetables. You can choose the plant you prefer, from pretty pink pohutukawa to a white and green tarragon or rosemary. We'll give you recipes for vinaigrettes and salad dressings you can easily make at home too! We'll give you everything you need to package up your herbal gifts to either give away to friends and family or keep for yourself! Lovely bottles and jars, labels, ribbon/twine, creative stamps for the labels, and a cute flax tote bag to take it all home in. Plus recipes and notes so you can make these items again and again at home.

This workshop is for you if you're keen to:

1)  learn more about the healing properties of herbs and how to blend your own herbal teas depending on your and your loved ones' individual health challenges and flavour preferences.

2) make your own gifts. These gifts are perfect for presents, whether for Mother's Day or another occasion! And we'll have fun making creative labels with twine and bespoke stamps. We'll give you the recipes and skills you need to make these again and again at home.

3) if you've been craving getting creative and crafty in the kitchen and want to make special gifts for your loved ones.

The afternoon is a lovely balance of tasting, making, and learning with Wendy.