Harvest Well

🌿 About Rooted Branch

You’ve stepped into a place where time bends just slightly—where the path grows quiet, and something ancient begins to stir.

Here, we gather not to escape, but to return.
To remember.
To create.
To listen for the whisper of our ancestors in the plants beneath our feet and the stories waiting to be reawakened in our hands.

At Rooted Branch, ancestral and land based learning isn’t about digging through pain or perfecting a lineage—it’s about kindling the virtue to clear the vice. It’s about coming into relationship with the past for the sake of creating what is needed here, now.
In my world, creativity is the offering.
It is what lifts grief.
It is what roots wonder.
It is what makes the invisible visible again.

🌱 My Path

I’m Carina (or Cara), and I’ve been following a red thread.

It began, perhaps, with a song—a desire to sing lullabies in Scottish Gaelic to a child not yet born. My grandfather spoke the language, but my mother refused to learn. Reclaiming it felt like a return to something tender and powerful. I joined a Gaelic choir, began learning the words, and somewhere in the process, the red thread pulled taut.

It led me to family I hadn’t spoken to in years.
To our ancestral home in Balquihidder, Scotland.
To a bag of discarded wool I had no idea how to use. 

To felting, spinning, skirting, dyeing.
To creating botanical paintings in the style of Charles Rennie Mackintosh with wool from our own sheep.

It led me to plants—first the ornamental ones that were known and named, then the native ones that had been forgotten. My family had lived on that land for generations, and yet the native plants around the home remained unnamed. The same pattern showed up in Scotland, where rhododendrons were considered weeds, while here, star thistle and broom—plants with Scottish names—were treated the same way. I began to see how plants, like people, lose their place when disconnected from relationship and traditional knowledge.

So I learned. I became a native plant steward. I volunteered for restoration projects. I studied ethnobotany and Indigenous science, and I kept following the red thread.

Everywhere I go now, I tend place.
I listen. I observe. I build relationship with the land, the plants, the animals, and the ancestors who walk with me.
And I remember the words written by my great-great-grandmother in the autograph book she gave her daughter before she left Balquihidder:

"When on a lonely spot you stand and wish a friend to see,
Remember me is all I ask, and I’ll remember you."

That’s the heart of my work.
The ancestors know us so well.
And we belong among them.

🍂 Rooted Learning

I apprenticed with Irish elder Amantha Murphy for four years, learning the Way of the Seabhean—folk healing, midwifery wisdom, the wheel of the year. I studied ethnobotany in depth with Heidi Bohan in the Gatherer to Gardener program, and went on to complete all coursework for a second degree in environmental science and Indigenous studies from Evergreen State College. There, I deepened my work with food systems, native plants, and biocultural restoration through an ethnobotanical and justice-centered lens.

Teachers described me as creative, thoughtful, and deeply relational—a weaver of story, policy, and practice. But more than anything, I found my “why.” I do this work because it heals.

It changes families.
It changes how we live in the present.

🔥 What I Offer

Rooted Branch is a hedge school—a place of quiet rebellion and deep remembering.
It’s not certified. It’s not sanctified.

It’s a space for those ready to listen inward, to gather in wild places, and to reclaim what’s been waiting beneath the surface.

Through seasonal classes, workshops, and ancestral coaching, I guide people into relationships of resonance, relationality, revelation, and rebirth.

My deepest joy is watching people change—watching their lives begin to mirror the quiet power of the land they belong to.

🌾 An Invitation

If you’re unsure where to begin, ask yourself:
Who in your family lived closest to the land?
Start there.
Build a relationship with them.

You don’t need to know your whole family tree.
You don’t need to feel ready.
You just need to feel that little pull, the one that says: it’s time to remember.

Welcome to Rooted Branch. You belong here.

🌿 Learn With Rooted Branch

Classes, Workshops & Gatherings

Here at Rooted Branch, learning unfolds like the seasons—gently, with rhythm, in connection to the land beneath your feet and the stories held in your bones.

You don’t need to know your lineage, your language, or the names of the plants just yet.
You only need curiosity and the willingness to begin.

These offerings are invitations—
To tend place.
To remember the old ways.
To co-create with your ancestors through craft, ritual, story, and soil.

In the spirit of the old Irish blessing of the Seven Duile—Land, Sea, Sky, Sun, Moon, Stars, and Spirit—each class seeks to root us more deeply in the living world and our place within it.

Whether you're drawn to the hearth, the hedgerow, or the work of your hands, you are welcome here.

✨ Words from the Circle

Reflections from those who’ve walked this path

Each person who steps into this work brings their own thread—and we weave something powerful together.

Here are a few reflections from clients and teachers who have journeyed with me in this work. May their words help you feel what’s possible.

“I worked with Cara one on one on an ancestral healing piece that I knew I needed outside support with. I'm glad I followed my intuition because it guided me straight to Cara. She is incredible. I was working with a lineage line that I could feel held a lot of both power, and suffering. Throughout the ongoing container of our three sessions together, I felt held, embraced, supported and uplifted.  The dreams I had during the time of our work together confirmed the potency of depths we penetrated under Cara's care and guidance.  

The sessions with Cara were deep, grounded and powerful. I experienced both emotional release and incredible inner revelation as I experienced healing coming for my ancestors across time and space. Our work together opened up a whole new inner ancestral stream for me, and it's been an absolute delight to weave this part of my lineage into my life.

If you are looking for an authentic, kind, warm, strong healer to do lineage work with - Cara is the real deal. She's the one you should see.” -Lauren Morgan

Academic Endorsements

🌾 Kendra Aguilar, MPA

Faculty, Critical Indigenous Studies & Food Sovereignty

“Cara is a grounded and gracious presence in any learning space. They bring clarity, compassion, and an ability to synthesize complex systems—particularly around justice, food, and ecology. Their deep respect for Indigenous knowledge and commitment to reciprocity makes them a powerful ally in movements for cultural and ecological restoration.”

🌙 Hailey Maria Salazar, M.A.

Faculty, Community & Regenerative Practice

“Cara brings visionary thinking and relational integrity to everything they do. Their presence invites reflection, connection, and transformation. They have a rare ability to listen deeply—to land, to people, to the unseen—and to translate that into meaningful, healing work.”

🍃 Dr. Marja Eloheimo, Ph.D.

Faculty, Indigenous Studies & Ethnobotany

“Cara is a thoughtful, creative, and community-centered practitioner. They approach learning with curiosity, reciprocity, and a strong sense of relational ethics. Their commitment to both ecological care and cultural revitalization makes them a vital contributor to any healing or educational space.”

🌀 Penelope Partridge, M.A., LMFTA

Faculty, Applied Psychology & Experiential Learning

“Cara has a rare gift for creating spaces of trust and belonging. They balance creative brilliance with emotional depth and honesty. As a peer, facilitator, or coach, they reflect back the beauty and wisdom in others while showing up with full integrity in their own work.”