Lanny Kaufer
2 Courses • 314 StudentsBiography
Lanny Kaufer of HerbWalks.com has been leading herb walks, nature hikes, and workshops in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties in California since 1976, educating hundreds of residents and visitors on the edible and medicinal flora of the area. He holds a biology degree from UC Santa Cruz and is the author of Medicinal Herbs of California: A Field Guide to Common Healing Plants (Falcon Guides, 2021). Lanny hosts the Ojai Herbal Symposium, most recently held at Krotona Hall in November 2023, and scheduled to return on May 30, 2026. He is also on the faculty of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at California State University, Channel Islands, and serves as chief consultant on medicinal plants for the Swimmer Medicinal Garden in Playa Vista, CA.
Lanny specializes in making the study of edible and medicinal plants accessible and enjoyable for people of all ages. He acquired much of his plant knowledge through field study with well-known herbalists and ethnobotanists, including, in the 1970s, the late William LeSassier and the late Chumash plant expert Juanita Centeno. He has co-led workshops, field classes, and expeditions with respected experts such as the late herbalist and author Michael Moore; author-herbalists Michael Tierra and Amanda McQuade Crawford; author and Professor Emeritus James Adams of the USC School of Pharmacy; author-survivalist Christopher Nyerges; and Chumash educators and siblings Julie Tumamait-Stenslie and Patrick Tumamait, among others.
