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Local author and herbalist Lanny Kaufer is pleased to announce that he is now in his 50th year of leading Herb Walks in Ojai, Santa Barbara, and the surrounding area. He is inviting the public to celebrate the anniversary with him at a free Garden Party in the Chumash Garden at the Ojai Valley Museum on Saturday, June 27, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. As a native plant consultant for the museum, he will lead a tour of the revamped garden, featuring new plants and updated signage linked to the museum website.
Kaufer is the author of Medicinal Herbs of California, a field guide published by Falcon Guides in 2021. He will have copies for sale and signing at the event. Herbal tea and light refreshments will be served. He is hoping to reconnect with people who herb-walked with him in the early days before he created a website and digital mailing list at HerbWalks.com in 2012.
Kaufer calls his tours “Herb Walks” rather than “native plant walks” because they feature plants defined as “herbs,” i.e., those that can be used for food and medicine. One of his first mentors, the late herbalist William LeSassier, coined the term “Herb Walk” in the early 1970’s when he led them in Santa Barbara. After LeSassier moved east, Kaufer borrowed the name when he moved to Ojai and started leading his own walks in 1976. By then he had been studying with Chumash plant expert Juanita Centeno who sometimes co-led walks and workshops with him in Ojai in the 1970s.
For more information about the event and to RSVP, please visit HerbWalks.com.
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