Being in nature brings a magical feeling of harmony that leaves you feeling lighter and happier. By lifting your mood and bringing you back to a connection we all share to the earth, activities like forest bathing and land art have been proven to be great sources of relief from anxiety and stress. Whether it’s taking a fire-making workshop, learning how to ferment your own fresh harvest, or taking a nature photography course, there are tons of great, educational ways you can get back outdoors and renew. We’ve rounded up five workshops happening this year that can help you do just that.
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Fire-Making Workshop
Amongst a host of other nature-based workshops like foraging for fynbos and nature retreats, Veld and Sea will be running a fire-making workshop on Saturday, the 13th of April. This will be the first in a series of wilderness survival workshops facilitated by Rein Buyze. There you will experience everything from integrating into your natural surroundings to expanding your senses and heightening your perception through activities like bird-watching. You’ll learn about how fire can awaken a deep primal essence within us before learning how to kindle a flame yourself! For more info on this, or any of their other upcoming workshops, visit their website here.
Natural Vegetable Gardening
At Soil for Life, they offer practical, earth-friendly gardening courses and educational workshops at their garden and training centre in Constantia. In their natural veggie gardening workshop, you’ll learn about the basics in laying a strong foundation for your vegetable garden, seasonal planting, maintaining your garden and planting for your health, as well as prep for fighting off pests with natural remedies. Profits from their workshops and courses feed directly back into their community development programmes. To find out more, visit their website here.
ALSO SEE: Gardening Tips: What To Grow In Winter
Women’s Rewilding Retreat
At the Guinevere Guest Farm in Tulbagh, they host retreats all about connecting to nature. With experiences like earth based arts, learning traditional skills, identifying plants, fire making and movement workshops, you’ll be spoiled for choice. On the women’s retreat, you’ll learn about releasing your true potential through yoga and primal movement classes, nature hiking, and other nature immersion activities. Included in the package is six nights’ accommodation with meals, two sweat lodge ceremonies, horseback riding, foraging, yoga, professional photos and transfers to and from the airport. For more info, visit their website here.
Nature Photography Course
Nature’s Light hosts an array of photographic workshops based in nature, from wandering the wild coast to chasing the midnight sun in Iceland. Hosted in small groups, the workshops and expeditions allow the opportunity for one-on-one photographic learning through visiting interesting, unique places in SA and internationally for great photographic shots. For a list of their available workshops coming up this year, visit their website here.
Fermentation Workshop
Learning about how fermented foods act as great natural probiotics to support your gut and immune system is trending at the moment. Fermentation specialist Che Upton from Che Gourmet will be at Grand Central Chiromed in Glen Austin on the 14th of April to demonstrate how fermented foods like Sauerkraut and Kimchi are prepared and why they are beneficial to your health. The workshop will also show how to make easy, cost effective water Kefir and Kombucha at home. For more info on this event, visit the Facebook page here.
ALSO SEE: What Is Kimchi? and How To Make Kombucha At Home
Compiled by Features Writer, Savanna Douglas
