La Fée des Bois Apothecary played host to the second annual Outaouais Herb Gathering Festival over the weekend in Greermount.
Visitors, who came from across Quebec and Ontario, were invited to camp on the farm and partake in a series of workshops about local medicinal plants.
On Saturday night participants gathered around the fire for an evening of music and storytelling with entertainers and local singer-songwriters.
According to the festival’s Facebook page, Outaouais Herb Gathering is a “unifying event to learn, share, connect, co-create and celebrate medicinal plants and holistic health.”
Mariane Desjardins Roy, owner of La Fée des Bois, said they had a variety of talks and workshops on topics ranging from harvesting medicinal mushrooms to microbiome health to Indigenous herbal traditions.
This is the second year for the festival. Desjardins Roy went as a presenter last year but wanted to bite off even more by hosting this year’s event.
“I approached them in December of last year, and they said yes,” she said.
In addition to hosting, she led a workshop, a tour of the plants she grows in her garden including flowers, herbs and medicinal plants, many of them traditional to the area.
The festival’s theme this year was “The Medicine of Our Ancestors,” an exploration of the plants that are native to the Outaouais region.
Candice Bernes came from Val-des-Monts to host a guided meditation at one of Saturday’s workshops, and said the workshop was well-received.
“I had people reach out to me the next day to join me for mindfulness practice with an online community I donate time to,” she said, referring to Seeds Meditation, a global meditation community.
She hopes the festival will mean more exposure for her business as a mindfulness coach.
Desjardins Roy, who was part of the committee that organized the festival, said they wanted to be as inclusive as possible, making sure that all kinds of people could participate in this year’s events.
This meant offering workshops in both French and English, as well as special programming for kids.
Desjardins Roy said she hopes to host the festival again next year.
