Upcoming Community Classes

I teach classes at libraries, community centers, herb stores, farms, schools, and more! Details and registration information for all upcoming classes is available on this calendar:

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“There are so many things to appreciate about Mo’s “how” in leading us, including honoring plants as our community members and elders and giving us all permission to set aside the notebook and relish in wonder. Mo is a fabulous educator!”

Class Offerings 2025

Interested in booking me for one of these classes? Email me at mo (at) mokatzchristy.com!

Medicine Making

Demystifyting Tea Blending

Anyone can make a delicious herbal tea blend! In this class, we will discuss a handful of common herbs for tea: their uses, flavors, energies, and what they add to a blend. We will smell each of the herbs and taste some as well, learning how the flavors blend and how they complement each other.

We will discuss different considerations for the process of making tea including infusing versus boiling, temperature of the water, and length of time infused.

Part information and science, part sensory exploration, this class will be as playful as it is educational!

The Art of Medicinal Spice Blending

Food is medicine! And medicine can taste delicious.

Did you know that we have far more bitter taste receptors than any other, and when we taste something bitter our whole body reacts? Or that aromatic molecules ease gut spasms by irritating our smooth muscles so that they contract and then relax?

Come deepen your understanding of how flavor shows up physiologically in our bodies! In this class, we will learn how to use common kitchen spices to promote circulation, ease gut spasms, modulate blood sugar and more!

After we’ve fully nerded out on chemistry, Mo will guide the class in making our own medicinal spice blends! Each participant will have the opportunity to make their own individualized blend to take home for their household or to gift to someone they love. Part science, part play, this class is for anyone who knows that cooking is the best way to care for our communities.

Grow Your Own Medicinal Herb Garden

No matter how dark and tiny your apartment is, you can grow herbs! Herb gardens are stellar for urban spaces because herbs thrive in a wide variety of ecological niches. We will focus on herbs for gut health, stress regulation and sleep, and immune support. We will discuss herbs you can bring inside for the winter, herbs that you can grow in lead soil, and herbs that can handle neglect. Leave with the information to grow, tend, harvest, and use herbs that you grow here in Boston!

Make an Herbal Tincture

Learn how to make an alcoholic herbal extract! Infusing herbs in alcohol is a great way to preserve them so that you have them readily on hand. And they last for years!

This workshop will teach the aspiring herbalist everything you need to know to make a high-quality tincture. We will go over each step of the process including sourcing herbs and alcohol, measuring the appropriate ratios, macerating the tincture, straining, and finally using your tincture.

Each participant will leave with a jar of herbal tincture and a cheesecloth to strain their tincture at home.

Make an Herbal Syrup

The sweetness of honey combined with the flavorful tartness of medicinal berries…come learn how to make an herbal syrup! In this class, we will discuss what herbal syrups are, what they are used for, and how to make one.

From the immune activity of elderberry syrup to the nourishment of an iron syrup, herbal syrups are certainly delicious and nutritious. We will learn how to make a syrup shelf-stable as well as methods of preserving or prolonging the life of perishable syrups.

Finally, we will make one ourselves! We will mix medicinal berries and honey to make a delicious immune and heart support syrup. We will learn about each of these plants (+ honey) and how they each contribute to the medicine of the syrup. Each participant will get a small jar to take home and share with their family and community. Come prepared to enjoy the sticky sweetness of herbal syrup!

Fresh Herb Tea Blending

Discover the fragrance of fresh herbal tea blends! Bring a mug and join us in the garden to learn about the uses, flavors, and energies of different tea herbs. This class will be primarily play and exploration, with science and botany blended in.

Make Your Own Herbal Coffee

Learn about the medicinal alternatives or additions to coffee that can promote digestion, support the liver, and balance energy. We will taste different blends and make one designed for our individual constitution to bring home!

Vegetable Fermentation for Gut Health

Plant Walks

Monthly Plant Walk

(Example Description) Join herbalist Mo Katz-Christy for a meander through Danehy park to meet wintertime city plants and explore their medicinal uses! We will explore weeds and cultivated plants, trees and shrubs, and have lots of space for questions and conversation. Bring a notebook if you like, and meet us at the parking lot on Sherman Street (if you’re late you should be able to find us – we won’t move too far too fast!).

Herbal Tea Walk

Come discover the delightful art of harvesting medicinal herbs for a fresh tea! We will start with a walk around the farm, woods, and fields, learning about the medicinal uses of the plants we find. We will harvest as we go, and bring our herbs back to make a delicious herbal tea!

Bring a mug and join us to learn about the uses, flavors, and energies of different tea herbs. This class will be a mix of play and exploration, botany and science!

Wild Weed Fall Herb Walk

Let’s welcome fall by exploring the wonder of wild weeds! Join clinical herbalist Mo Katz-Christy for a stroll along the Community Path to learn about the medicine, botany, and magic of medicinal herbs. We will ask, what does it mean to look towards our local plants for medicine, especially when our soils are contaminated and invasive plants abound? What does it mean for a plant to be a “weed”, and where do humans belong in relationship to our ecosystem? We will discuss the bounty of medicinal plants in Somerville and their specific indications and properties. Bring a notebook and get ready to scribble fast as we delight in the bounty of our neighborhood!

Discussion Classes

Taste the Molecular Rainbow: What Color and Flavor Tell Us About Chemistry

Why do all alliums have that strong garlicky smell? How do I know if the dried herbs you’ve had in my cabinet for five years are still good?

In this class you will begin to practice using your senses to teach you about the chemical constituents in your foods and medicine. We will discuss the primary atoms that make up plant molecules, and some common forms that they take. You will get to see, smell, and taste different preparations of the same herbs to learn the flavors and mouthfeel of specific molecules, and to learn which preparations extract which constituents.

Bring your favorite mug and a pen and come join me where experiential and scientific knowledge meet!

Trust Your Gut: Herbs to Regulate, Nourish, and Heal Your Digestive System

Digestion feeling wonky? Come learn how our bodies evolved with plants and how we can work with them to regulate our gut, and in doing so, our whole bodies.

Did you know that our gut sends more messages to our brain than our brain sends to our gut? Or that the liver can regulate our hormones? Or that most of our immune system is in our gut? Whenever our body is dysregulated, the gut is likely to play a role in healing.

Come taste different herbal preparations that promote gut healing and learn how to balance and nourish your “second brain”!

From Chicken Soup to Elderberry Syrup: Herbal Immune Support

Something going around the daycare again? Still coughing from an infection that cleared months ago? From Covid to the common cold, keeping our immune system resilient is key to staying well and smooth recovery from infections.

Come learn how to keep your immune system robust all winter, address an illness when you first feel symptoms, support your body to fully clear the infection, and regain strength afterwards. Believe it or not, each of these stages of illness requires a different approach!

We will discuss herbs, foods, and supportive strategies, focusing on the most accessible methods. We will discuss different herbal preparations including steams, syrups, tinctures. From chicken soup to elderberry syrup, this class will help you weather the infections that come your way.

Herbs to Hourish Frayed Nerves

Have you ever brushed past a lavender bush and felt your body react to the smell? The aromatic molecules in plants are some of the smallest active compounds they contain, and are so small that they can cross our blood-brain barrier and affect our nervous system.

In this class, we will discuss two main herbal actions: adaptogens and nervines. Adaptogens are herbs that long-term improve our resilience to stressors, and nervines are herbs that directly affect our mood. These can uplift, relax, stimulate, or sedate. We will explore how stress shows up in the body and how herbs can work with our whole bodies to modulate our stress response.

Come learn the science behind why you should “stop and smell the roses”!

Gut Care for Elders

Come learn how our bodies evolved with plants and how we can work with them to regulate our gut, and in doing so, our whole bodies!

As we age, our gut motility and absorption slows and plants can play a new role in maintaining a healthy digestive tract. In this class, we will learn about the primary ways plants can interact with the digestive tract: to heal the gut lining, regulate secretions and movement, and improve assimilation. We will taste different herbal reparations and learn how to use them to promote balance.

This class is for anyone who is an elder, cares for elders, or hopes to be one someday!

All About Adaptogens: How to Build Long-Term Resilience in the Body Without Depleting Ecoysystems

Adaptogens are the “Next Big Thing” in herbalism – and they truly are wonderful! Herbs that help us regulate our stress response over the long term – who doesn’t need that? However, more is not necessarily better and many adaptogens are endangered and overharvested. By selecting the appropriate adaptogens for our constitution and bioregion we can be more effective in regulating our stress response and connect our own health to the larger health of our ecosystem.

Herb of the Month Series

Come spend the afternoon getting deeply acquainted with one medicinal plant each month! We’ll spend time getting to know each plant through drawing, taste, science, and stories of herbalists’ experience. Bring your journal and leave with an in-depth account of botany, history, clinical use, safety issues, preparation and dosage, and much much more.

Come each month to build your materia medica or just once to meet a new plant friend!

Jewish Herbal Classes

Medicine on the Seder Plate: Parsley, Lettuce, Horseradish, and More!

Bitter herbs, spring greens – these plants contain nutrients and flavors that are essential to our springtime bodies. In this class, we will explore the physiological wisdom in the plants we hold sacred. We will delve into the bitter flavor, as we discuss why neither horseradish nor lettuce – the foods typically included as “bitter herbs” on the seder plate – are particularly bitter. We will learn about the vital importance of the bitter flavor for the functioning of our body systems, as well as the uses of the other flavors in these plants.

We will discuss how our body’s needs correspond with the seasons of the year, and how these differ by climate. What does your body crave in springtime, and how is (or isn’t) that reflected in our Jewish traditions? We will taste the plants on the seder plate and learn how these tastes interact with our bodies.

In a time of great shifting of our climate, it is easy to feel out of whack. The apple trees certainly do when a late frost kills all their blossoms. The seasonal significance of these rituals can help us and specifically our bodies feel in sync with the season even in unseasonable weather.

Trees as Medicine for Tu B'Shvat

Trees play a powerful role in medicine, both herbally and extracted in our pharmaceuticals. In this class, we will learn which herbal actions trees most commonly offer us. We will explore the chemistry behind those actions and the benefits they offer the tree. We will taste some local tree medicines and learn about some of the trees used in Jewish rituals.

Come celebrate Tu B’Shvat by learning a new way to love trees! Part science, part taste test, this class will be as playful as it is educational.