By Michael Rainwater
COSHOCTON — More than 50 craftspeople, musicians, growers, herbalists and storytellers will come together for a “Lost Skills Gathering” at Clary Gardens in Coshocton, Ohio, on Oct. 3. The event will take place from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., rain or shine.
Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of traditional skills workshops, ranging from home butchering and forest gardening to cultivating mushrooms and making linen out of flax.
Jenni Parsons of Warsaw, Ohio, organized the event alongside her son-in-law, Brandon Scott. Parsons and Scott are co-founders of Woodland Herbal, an herbal apothecary that offers herbalism classes.
Parsons explained that the gathering was inspired, in part, by her upbringing.
“My mom canned food, and Dad butchered and was an ironworker,” Parsons said. “They fixed cars, they made their own meals, and they had a garden. It was just part of our life growing up. It’s almost like my generation was the last.”
According to Parsons, it’s different today. She said people often turn to the internet when they want to learn how to do something that they traditionally would have learned from parents or elders in their community.
But “there’s only so much you can learn from YouTube,” Parsons said.
In 2025, Parsons attended the International Herb Symposium in Cincinnati, Ohio. She said she found the sense of community among her fellow herbalists wonderful, and she began to wonder what it might look like to hold a similar event at home.
“We kept saying, ‘Maybe if it was in a place like [Coshocton County], it would have a completely different feel,’” she explained. “There were things that we might change, and it kind of morphed into, ‘Why not? Why don’t we? We could do that.’”
Parsons began envisioning an event where elders in the community could hand down their skills to the next generations.
“Now, we’ve got all these grandparents and parents that want to teach us—they want to show us,” she recalled thinking. “So, what if we just gathered them all up for one day? Let the elders teach, and let the young ones learn. That’s kind of how it started.”
Many emails, cold calls, and shots in the dark later, Parsons said she is blown away by the response they have received. Dozens of teachers from a wide range of disciplines and skillsets have signed up to offer instruction, and others are still reaching out.
“We’ve got teachers of all ages, and we’ve got students coming of all ages,” Parsons said. “It has just turned into this great community event.”
The gathering will feature a keynote address from Nathan Wright (Getege’nini), an educator, activist, regenerative farmer and citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Michigan.
“He’s an herbalist, but he’s also part of the ‘Water is Life’ movement, and he did a big PBS special with them that was so incredible,” Parsons said. “He’s a great speaker, really down to earth. He talks about what his elders have taught him. It’s common-sense stuff, and you almost kick yourself for not thinking of it before. And yet, it’s still stuff you can’t wait to write down, take home and try.”
The event will take place at Clary Gardens, a 20-acre botanical garden just minutes from downtown Coshocton.
Jodi Morrison, the head gardener and education coordinator for Clary Gardens, said the Lost Skills Gathering will be “a great opportunity to get out and learn.”
During the event, Morrison will offer activities for kids, including identifying leaves and learning about butterflies at the on-site vivarium and butterfly sanctuary—as long as there are still some hanging out this late in the year.
“I love getting kids interested in Nature,” said Morrison.
The festival will operate on a “Pay by the Heart” model. While admission to the grounds is free, most classes will suggest a small donation of $5 to $25 to help cover materials and honor the instructors’ efforts.
Michael Rainwater contributed this piece to TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.