A group of people planting a small tree in a wicker basket outdoors, with others holding gardening tools and containers in the background.
A woman giving a presentation to a group of people outdoors, with a table of vegetables and herbs.

Public and private immersive lessons on traditional Vietnamese foodways and medicine.

A wooden table with various fresh vegetables, herbs, flowers, and jars of preserved goods, set outdoors with a wooden fence background.
Person harvesting green onions in an outdoor garden with wooden raised beds in the background.

Herbal Steaming

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 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 take part in a communal herbal steam.

A woman kneeling on the ground in an outdoor garden setting, watching a large pot on a stone and brick fire pit. There are various plants and gardening supplies around her, including herbs and vegetables in baskets, a large bag of charcoal, and other outdoor furniture nearby.

Lactofermentation

Learn to preserve vegetables with rice water and salt, using a traditional family recipe for making Vietnamese fermented mustard greens called “dưa chua.” Participants apply these methods in class to vegetables in season and take home a jar of their own pickles. The workshop includes a tasting of a variety of lactofermented vegetables that Phoebe has preserved from her harvests over the years.

A woman in a red shirt presenting to a group of people seated around a table inside a greenhouse filled with plants.