This is the time of year when some things are wrapping up, while others are wanting to be born. It is a time of taking stock of what has worked, making changes, and planning for the year ahead.

Normally, at the end of the year, I am planning for next year’s in-person courses and setting dates, getting ready to open registration for a new batch of students to spend the following growing season with as we refine medicine-making skills.

However, this past year, there wasn’t the normal level of interest in the in-person courses. Where I usually fill both beginning and advanced 9-month courses, I barely had enough students to run the classes. I’m still not sure what changed, but the truth is, I can’t run these courses if there isn’t enough interest to fill a class. Therefore, I will not be offering the Advanced Apothecary course in 2026. I’m going back to my original strategy of only offering that course every 2 years.

I’m still on the fence about offering the Folk Herbalism course (my herbal foundations course). To help me decide, I’ve created a short survey to see what the interest is. If you want to see me run this course in 2026, you can let me know by filling out the survey here. It will only take a minute, and it will really help me make this decision. To read more about this course before doing the survey, see the course description here.

In good medicine,

April