Against Nature: Herbal Steaming in Vietnamese Traditional Medicine

About Facilitators

Phoebe Tran is a chef, artist, and founder of Bé Bếp, a popup and catering business celebrating the diversity of Vietnamese cuisine. Her distinct approach to cooking centers community and collaboration, and she carries this ethos through all of her events and projects. Her interest and research in traditional Vietnamese medicine has led her on a path of developing a practice in decolonizing herbalism and finding ways to offer food-as-medicine to her community. She formerly farmed at Brooklyn Grange, Gopal Farm, and in Vietnam as a means to understand what it takes to grow culturally relevant Southeast Asian crops in the Northeast. She continues to trial seeds and grow Vietnamese herbs as a means to remain rooted in her connection to land. 

Objective

How do we remain connected to land in urban areas? What does it mean to grow culturally-relevant crops as a form of resilience? In this workshop, Phoebe will share her experience in growing Vietnamese herbs “against nature” and engage participants in developing a relationship with medicinal plants in their own home. 

The ancient practice of herbal home remedies can be traced back thousands of years to the “southern school” of medicine in Vietnam called “thuốc nam.” Unlike its northern counterpart, “thuốc bác,” which borrows from the teachings of traditional Chinese medicine, thuốc nam was founded on the belief system that Vietnamese southerners had the climate and terroir to cultivate their own native medicinal gardens, and therefore, learn practical ways of healing themselves at home. Herbal steams, known as “xông hơi” in Vietnamese, were a culturally important and effective way of treating all manner of ailments and ridding the body of muscle aches and body fatigue. In this workshop, participants will make their own bundles of steaming herbs and learn about their medicinal properties. Phoebe will then demonstrate the process of making an herbal steam at home, and participants will take part in a communal herbal steam in the park. 

What's Included

• Herbs for herbal steaming

What to Bring

• Notepad, pen, paper

Disclaimer

This will be a 2-hour, outdoor, standing workshop. In case of inclement weather, we’ll notify participants 2 hours before the start of our program. 

For the safety of our community, we would like to kindly remind all participants that masks are encouraged at indoor workshops and going forward, the FM team will have masks available at all programs. In lieu of flu season and the ongoing pandemic, we ask that if you are feeling unwell or experiencing any symptoms of illness, please refrain from attending. Your consideration helps foster a more comfortable and accessible environment.