Unique Training Opportunities Offered In Helotes
Sam Coffman Offers Unique Classes at the Helotes Creek Nature Center
As reported in the Helotes Herald over the past several months, several interesting and unique classes have been offered at the Helotes Creek Nature Center. These classes, all taught by Sam Coffman, were “Herbal Formulas of the Hill Country,” “Salve-Making,” and “Wilderness First-Aid Certification Training.”
Sam Coffman, a former Green Beret medic, teaches wilderness survival and primitive living skills, along with wilderness medicine and herbology. His hands-on teaching style is designed to help people think for themselves, be aware, and learn to adapt to unforseen circumstances.
His focus is on working with and appreciating flora and fauna native to the Hill Country and San Antonio region. Sam feels that learning this type of information can only be done correctly if each and every student has the time to work on the skills with their own hands.
This kind of practical approach is an excellent way for people to connect to the earth as well. Sam explains, “When a person does the work to, for instance, make an herbal salve or tincture, or learn and memorize local medicinal and/or edible plants, or create a bowdrill fire, or build a debris shelter, it changes that person. It connects that person in a deeper, personal way to our planet and our limited resources. Doing these skills also helps connect us with who we really are as humans, not who we pretend to be through the cultural distractions we use to define ourselves externally.”
Sam’s primary goal is to bring people in closer connection with the earth while teaching them to be the best possible humans, even in the worst possible circumstances.
In his herbology class, Sam identifies and provides an in-depth look at several native Hill Country plants that have medicinal uses, such as Buttonbush, Wafer Ash, American Sycamore, Willow Baccharis, and Little Walnut.
Additionally, he points out poisonous plants, such as poison oak, mountain laurel, Mexican buckeye, and edible plants, such as mesquite and hackberry. At the end of this class, everyone is served a bowl of ice cream topped with freshly made mesquite syrup!
In his hands-on salve making class, he covers the advantages and disadvantages of different base vegetable oils, how to infuse an oil to prepare it for a salve, using beeswax as a hardener, and various natural salve preservatives. During this class, three herbal formulas are prepared: topical wound care, minor abrasion, and bruise and muscle-strain salves, and everyone takes home several ounces of each salve for their personal use.
Salve-Making
