Community Apothecary
Our mission is:
- To offer pathways to community members to access herbal healthcare learning & practice and togetherness in healthful outdoor spaces
- To train participants in land and ecosystem care, medicinal herb knowledge & cultivation and home remedy making.
- To share the model so it can be adapted to different localities and needs.
Our activity connects people in Waltham Forest around our gardens through a programme of seasonal gardening, learning and peer support. Neighbouring residents in Walthamstow, Leyton & Chingford are able to meet, connect, enjoy and learn in green spaces where medicinal herbs are being grown collectively.
We are currently cultivating four sites in Waltham Forest with a crew of volunteers who are learning plant medicine from the ground up, so that we can strengthen our healthcare autonomy and skills base in our communities as well as offer opportunities for people to connect with local land and experience joy through making the gardens together. The four gardens include residential and housing estate spaces and one large hillside site that we are developing into a medicinal forest garden with space for more substantial herb production. We also offer monthly medicine making workshops in the pay it forward model where people come to learn methods of remedy making while building stocks for the community.