Filipinx Food as Medicine: Virtual August 2026
Workshops are open to people of all racial/cultural backgrounds, with priority to BIPOC participants.
All workshops will occur via Zoom. Recordings will be available.
Sliding Scale:
$ 30 - 100 per person
We ask participants, especially those with privilege, to give what they can, in order to equitably compensate those organizing this space.
During this workshop, we will have hands-on practice of Philippine food preservation traditions. As people of a tropical archipelago, we rely on salt, vinegar, and sugar as basic foundations for extending the life of our ancestral crops. We will focus on three common methods of preservation in the Philippines. 1) Buro– combining rice and salt to preserve leafy greens, 2) Atsara - sweet vinegar Green Papaya pickles combined with spices, and 3) Medicinal Syrup - raw sugar and rum extraction of herbal medicines. We will also discuss adaptations of these recipes to ingredients locally available in the United States / other western countries.
We will have a chance to discuss the variety of regionally sourced salts, vinegar, and sugar that are found in the Philippines to get a sense of the vast range of flavors available to us. We will also explore the medicinal benefits of each extraction type, including a discussion of what methods are best for extracting different properties of the foods and herbs we are preserving. You will finish the workshop with 3 jars of preserved food/medicine that you can make in larger batches in the future!
Sliding Scale:
$ 30 - 100 per person
We ask participants, especially those with privilege, to give what they can, in order to equitably compensate those organizing this space.
This workshop encourages folks to sign up as a pair if you would like to experience the partner based practices demonstrated in real time (Separate registration required). A recording of the workshop will also be available so you can practice on your own time, if you are not able to sign up alongside someone else.
Join us for an experiential workshop focused on herbal based self-care practices within Hilot. Hilot is a Filipino healing art that uses massage, body manipulation, energy balancing, plant medicine, and spiritual rituals, to restore physical, mental, and spiritual harmony. This workshop will focus on Pagsasala (heating of leaves for warming the body), Suob (steam based herbal cleansing), and Pagpag (energetic field cleansing). Our practices will use a combination of ingredients that are easy to source at a large scale Asian grocery store.
At the end of our workshop, participants will feel more comfortable practicing simple, ancestrally relevant forms of spiritual hygiene & intention setting. The workshop will consist of 1) short contextual lecture, 2) demonstrations of techniques, and 3) optional practice where participants can experience the techniques alongside someone in their home. Everyone will leave with a resource sheet with offerings such as prayers, recipes, and deeper explanations of concepts shared during the workshop.
Filipinx Food as Medicine workshops are open to all, with priority given to BIPOC participants. White participants are invited to part-take with the understanding that the space will be centered around the learning needs and historical legacies of BIPOC participants.
Classes are limited to 20 participants.
These classes are for you if you want to:
Reclaim ancestral practices of traditional cooking and herbalism
Reorient to cycles of the earth through ritual, mindfulness, and awareness of the elements in our bodies (earth, air, water, and fire)
Take the fruits of your healing and share them with friends & family
Contextualize your own healing in larger processes of collective liberation
Cultural Protocol:
Each gathering will consist of intentional grounding where we will collectively contribute to a shared sacred space or altar. Suggestions for how to contribute to this will be sent to participants closer to the event date. We will open and close our circle by making offerings to nature spirits & ancestors as a gratitude for the gift of this medicine.
Instruction style combines formal and informal teaching. While there will be demonstrations of specific practices, the rest of our time encourages communal storytelling and reflections throughout the workshop