Community Medicine Making: Everyday Herbalism: Healing Traditions from the Jamaican Kitchen
This workshop explores the deep connection between food, culture, and healing through the lens of Jamaican herbal traditions. Rooted in personal experience, this session draws from a childhood spent in the kitchen, learning to cook alongside my mom, while also absorbing traditional medicinal practices passed down from my dad. In our home, healing often came from small jars in the cabinet, where everyday ingredients doubled as powerful remedies.
Over time, this foundation evolved into a deeper study of both Jamaican cooking and clinical herbalism. This workshop brings those two worlds together bridging cultural tradition with scientific understanding.
Participants will be introduced to three foundational herbs commonly found in Jamaican kitchens: thyme, garlic, and ginger! In our time together, we’ll explore how they function both in culinary practice and in herbal medicine. Together, we’ll look at how these ingredients support the body, why they are effective from a clinical perspective, and how to incorporate them into everyday routines.
Through a combination of storytelling, demonstration, and tasting, participants will:
Learn how traditional Jamaican dishes incorporate medicinal herbs
Understand the therapeutic properties of key ingredients
Explore simple, practical herbal preparations for daily use
Engage with food as both nourishment and medicine
Featured recipes and preparations include:
Ackee and Saltfish (demonstration)
Garlic-Lime-Honey remedy (hands-on or demo)
Thyme-Ginger-Lime syrup (tasting)
This workshop is designed to feel approachable, practical, and grounded—honoring the idea that healing can begin right at home.
✨About the Facilitator
Hi there, I’m Chelse-Amoy! I’m an herbalist, medicine maker, educator and the founder of Uri Amoy Healing Studios. I’m originally from Atlanta, Georgia and have roots in the island of Jamaica! My parents, who are from Kingston and Clarendon, Jamaica, wove plant medicine into my life from an early age! Whether my mom was adding herbs like thyme to our ackee and saltfish, or the family was doing a flush out with some cerasee tea, or my dad was reaching for some ginger to help soothe my occasional menstrual cramps; my parents made use of so many opportunities to show me how herbs could improve my health. With time, these remedies became my go-to’s as well.
With every passing year, I've fallen deeper in love with herbal medicine and the complete healing it offers on a physical, mental, and spiritual level. My passion is helping you to cultivate the kinds of relationship with plants and your body that makes choosing plants for healing a simple, clear, and satisfying yes!
🍃 Updated Waiver
We've updated our community consent waiver this year and we need folks attending workshops, clinics, and workdays to complete a new waiver. You only need to fill out the form once. So, if you've completed the form at another space (Fruitvale, Ancestral Healing Farm, etc) since mid-April, let the team know. If not, click this link to complete it.
🍃 About Community Medicine Making
These hands-on learning containers are meant to provide both intentional knowledge exchange between local facilitators and community members, paired with hands-on engagement where each learner leaves with new skills and medicines to take home. These sessions range from:
🌿 Tinctures
🌿 Incense
🌿 Herbal Tea Blends
🌿 Fire Ciders
and more!
🤲🏾 About the Space
Freedom Community Clinic's Downtown Community Apothecary & Pharmacy is a donation based resource for for our community to drop in to learn, pick up medicines for themselves or loved ones, make tinctures and tea blends, rest, co-work and more. From seasoned and trained herbalist to those just stepping into their practice, our space welcomes you. We are located near Downtown Oakland.
In all our offerings, we prioritize Black, Brown, Indigenous and Immigrant community members and ask that allies be mindful of the space and resources they take up when visiting and signing up for offerings.
🫂 Accessibility
Our space wheelchair accessible and located near MacArthur Bart Station for those taking public transportation.
We are not a scent-free space and will have incense burning in the space with windows open.
We honor autonomy and have face masks available to folks who need it and will have air filters in the space as well.
We are a no shoes or shoe cover facility and have both slides in multiple sizes and shoe covers available.
✍🏾 Notes on Sign-Ups
All workshops are donation-based with no one turned away for lack of funds.
If you sign-up and can no longer attend, please reach out to us so we can make space for other community members. We understand that things shift last minute and want to make sure that all those who can attend, are notified.
Questions / Concerns?
Reach out to our Apothecary Manager Dan ([email protected]) or Director of Creative Media & Programming ([email protected])