Asheville, North Carolina April 6, 2001 Videos offer bounty of plant facts by George Ellison Special to the Citizen-Times My area of competence in regard to plants is teaching methods of identification. I do have an interest in their medicinal, edible and utilitarian uses, but I never offer specific workshops on those topics because I don’t know enough. Whenever queried as to who is competent in this regard, I recommend Ila Hatter. Hatter is a veteran wildcrafter, herbalist, and interpretative naturalist who resides in Graham County. Unlike all too many would-be herbalists these days, Hatter knows her technical botany. She can readily identify this region’s plants down to species level. And unlike the wannabe herbalists, she knows that even closely-related species can vary considerably in regard to medicinal or toxic properties. Her unusual competence has led Hatter to be in demand as a teacher for the Smoky Mountain Field School, Native Plant Conference at Western Carolina University, Tennessee Aquarium, John C. Campbell Folk School, The Mountain Camp & Conference Center at Highlands, and numerous other facilities. On May 20 (for families) and May 24 (for adults) she will conduct afternoon workshops for the North Carolina Arboretum. A few weeks ago Hatter and I were teaching at the same site. I was pleased to spot two videos on her display table that she has recently produced. Titled “Wild Edibles & Medicinals of Southern Appalachia,” these videos contain a wealth of information she has collected through the years. They are the very best I have ever viewed and so I recommend them to you. Not only is the content of the...
Brevard, NC 28712 Monday, May 14, 2001 Hatter To Lead Plant Walks During the last week of May, Ila Hatter, a regionally known teacher and wildcrafter, leads two walks at The North Carolina Arboretum to study the historic uses of native plants. In each walk, Hatter will discuss the plants that provided food, medicine and tools for early mountain people. “Meet the Natives” will be on Sunday, May 20 from 1:30 to 4 p.m., naturalist Hatter takes families on a fun walk in search of plants that have been useful to the Native Americans and other settlers of this region. She will tell interesting stories about these plants and talk about how people have used them for centuries. Cost is $6 for adult members, $8 for non-members, plus $2 per child. “Wildcrafting: Our Appalachian Heritage” will be on Thursday, May 24, from 1 to 4:30 p.m., Hatter leads adults on an identification walk in search of plants that have sustained mountain folk for centuries. She shares botanical information, plant lore and her love of nature and wildcrafting. Cost is $10 members, $12 non-members. Naturalist Ila Hatter enjoys regional respect as a knowledgeable wildcrafter and teacher. She has taught at the J.C. Campbell Folk School and at the University of Tennessee’s Smoky Mountain Field School. She has also served as plant/herb consultant for the CBS television series “Christy,” which was set in the Appalachians at the turn of the century. These programs at the Arboretum are intended to provide information on our Southern Appalachian heritage, not to advocate foraging wild plants as food or medicine. For details and registration, call...
Guide to Western North Carolina PO Drawer 129 Waynesville, NC 28786 August, 2001 ‘Our Lady of the Forest’ teaches properties of medicinal plants From back aches to stomach aches, nature has a cure. By NANCIE WILSON Special to Adventure in the Smokies Identification, location and multiplication. Those are the three principles of foraging followed by true wildcrafters, individuals who collect food and medicinal plants to sell. Graham County resident Ila Hatter knows firsthand the importance of those three rules. Hatter is a well-known naturalist, teacher and wildcrafter whose search for knowledge about medicinal plants has taken her to South America, the Caribbean, Spain and all across the Southeastern United States. Recently, Hatter was featured in a program on healing roots and herbs of the Appalachian woodlands sponsored by the Yellow Creek Botanical Institute and the Tuckasegee Community Alliance. She shared her knowledge of the folk wisdom and oldtime remedies of the Appalachian mountain people and the Native Americans indigenous to the land sometimes called the “womb of the earth.” This pleasant, soft-spoken, middle-aged woman clearly revels in talking about the old times, telling old stories, passing along to her audience just a small portion of what she has learned in more than 25 years of researching and seeking out medicinal herbs and plants. Her husband, Jerry Coleman, proudly tells the audience that his wife is self-taught, that she has “no formal education in the field.” He said that both she and he have been informally “adopted” by a tribal elder of the Cherokee nation from whom both have learned so much about the land, plants and trees that grow...
Sports, Natural Health & Fitness News That’s Good For You (SM) PO Box 1519 Stonybrook, NY 11790 Ila Hatter’s Wild Edibles and Medicinals of Southern Appalachia Summer Series Part I & II offers the best educational tour of herbs found in the great Smoky Mountains, one of the great international biosphere reserves in the world. The Appalachian mountains are where much of the world’s American ginseng is harvested. Hatter is an interpretive naturalist who has lead herbal tours for the National Park Service for 14 years. Both videos offer herbal folklore, natural remedies, native wisdom, identification and harvesting guidelines on a variety of herbs and are a great source of information for campers, hikers, naturalists and gourmet cooks. Also included are the “Doctrine of Signatures” and the “Rules of Foraging.” Part 1 covers: Revolutionary Tea, lamb’s quarters, mullein, monarda, mountain mint, spearmint, plantain, purslane, jewelweed, yellowroot, ginseng and blackberry. Part 2 covers: elderberry, sassafras, basswood, bloodroot, Joe Pyeweed, Boneset, horse nettle, ground cherry and blueberry. Part 2 also features an interview with Amanda Swimmer, a Cherokee elder. Dr. Jim Duke, a regular contributor to New Living, has expanded his talents into songwriting on this video, providing an entertaining little ditty about ginseng. We highly recommend this video. Hatters “Fall Series” is due out May 2001. For more information contact: Wildcrafting with Ila, PO Box 2522, Robbinsville, NC 28771, call (828) 479-8999, visit www.wildcraftingwithila.com or...
The Brandon News and Brandon Shopper January 16, 2002 GROWERSÂ GUIDE Weeds, Ways of Days Gone By By MONICA BRANDIES Correspondent Ila Hatter was one of our excellent instructors when we went to our first Elderhostel last fall. She is a descendant of Pocahontas and was raised on natural remedies and a love and respect for nature. Her recipes appear in wild foods cookbooks and her – workshops have been featured on TV and in several national and international magazines. She currently lives and studies in the Snowbird Cherokee Indian community of western North Carolina. For five days we listened in fascination as she shared the richest nuggets of this lifetime of information with us. Ila showed us leather britches, beans strung up and hung to dry. The same method was used for cabbage leaves and pieces of pumpkin, apples, peaches and plums well before the people had canning jars or freezers. It still works. She had cornhusk dolls, buckeyes to put into our pockets to ward off arthritis and traditional tonics and medicines that many of us remembered. When Catherine Marshall’s book “Christy” was made into a movie and then into a series for TV, Ila Hatter was consulted to make all the medicines, hang the bunches of herbs from the rafters and to make sure these and the plants shown, like the bittersweet on the porch, were authentic to the times. She had a crazy quilt that had belonged to her mother’s Aunt Dora that was used in one episode where the youngster got sick and woke up under the quilt whose various patches, some velvet and satin,...
