February 7, 2026 @ 12:30 pm – 4:00 pm

When the lush greens and bright blooms of summer fade away, a quieter world of wonder remains. Join ethnobotanist and longtime Firefly instructor & beloved friend Marc Williams for an immersive workshop and garden walk exploring the art of winter plant identification and wild foraging.
Together, we’ll learn to recognize the subtle signatures of plants during their dormant phase—tracing patterns in bark, buds and form that reveal who’s who beneath the winter hush. Marc will guide participants in deepening their botanical literacy and relationship with local ecology, blending scientific insight with ethnobotanical wisdom and practical foraging knowledge.
As we walk the garden and surrounding landscape, we’ll:
Winter botany is a lesser-known, yet vital skill that invites us to see the natural world with new eyes. By learning to read the land in its quiet season, we strengthen our awareness, resilience, connection and capacity to live sustainably within our ecosystems—all year long.
This class will be held outdoors on Saturday, February 7th, 2026, from 12:30 pm – 4:00 pm near Asheville, NC.
This class is suitable for all levels of experience! The minimum age is 10 with an accompanying adult.
Ethnobiologist Marc Williams has studied the people, plant, mushroom and microbe interconnection intensively while learning to employ botanicals and other life forms for food, medicine, and beauty in a regenerative manner. His training includes a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies concentrating in Sustainable Agriculture with a minor in Business from Warren Wilson College and a Master’s degree in Appalachian Studies concentrating in Sustainable Development with a minor in Geography and Planning from Appalachian State University. He has spent over two decades working at a multitude of restaurants and various farms and has traveled throughout 30 countries in Central/North/South America and Europe as well as all 50 states of the USA. Marc has visited over 200 botanical gardens and research institutions during this process while taking tens of thousands of pictures of representative plants and other entities. He has taught hundreds of classes to thousands of students about the marvelous world of people and their interface with other organisms while working with over 100 organizations and particularly as a Board of Directors member of United Plant Savers, Plants and Healers International, and online at the website www.botanyeveryday.com. Marc’s greatest hope is that this effort may help improve our current challenging global ecological situation.
In order to make our workshops more accessible, we offer two price options for each class, with an additional Equity Discount for qualifying individuals. Please consider these options and select your price at checkout.
Thank you for helping transform the world into a culture of abundance, resilience, and opportunity for all.
*Please check your pricing options before you register for your first Perennial Workshop. The pricing options are the same for all events, so you only need to do it once!
Registration closes at 8am on February 7th