It all started when…

Hello! My name is Jamie Wayne Schmotzer, and I grew up camping from a young age. It’s how I was raised. We went camping as a family since I was a baby, and as soon as I was old enough, I started Cub Scouts. As a teen and young adult, I kept up camping as a way to connect with people and relax. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I heard of this new word: Bushcraft.

After being introduced to the world of Bushcraft, I took the Basic Class at the Pathfinder School in April of 2015 and became friends with Jamie Burleigh, who now is the co-owner of the Old World Alliance. Late 2019, I was brought on as one of the founding instructors of the Old World Alliance where I focused on family herbalism and the home apothecary.

As I wrote in my contribution to the book, Fire Cider!, published last year, written by rockstar herbalist Rosemary Gladstar & Friends (including me!), perhaps my herbal journey all started when I watched the pilot episode of the television series called Kung Fu back in the 1970’s and saw the main character, Kwai Chang Caine, pull herbs out of his haversack after walking across a desert to help him recover from the journey. Somehow that made an impact on me that still reverberates within me to this day.

It wasn’t until I delved deeper into bushcraft, however, that I began realizing that making plant medicine is simply an extension of being a woodsman, and so I gradually learned methods of preparing herbs and making home remedies. After learning how easy it really is to get the basics down, and after gaining lots more experience, I became eager to share what I had learned with other people, and that brings us to where I’m at today - helping people get started in the world of herbalism and setting up their very own home apothecary.

Besides camping, bushcraft, and herbalism, I’m also a musician. I started playing the piano at church when I was 12 years old, and eventually I became fascinated with Blues guitar. Up until the Covid-19 pandemic struck I could be found jamming at a local bar every Thursday night, which I found to be quite therapeutic.

Additionally, I’m an ordained Anglican clergyman. I started seminary in January of 2010, graduated with an M.A. in Ministry in 2012, continued on to earn M.Div equivalency and have nearly completed a D.Min in Ascetical Theology from Nashotah House Theological Seminary in Wisconsin. I also completed the certificate program in Spiritual Direction through the Ignatian Spirituality Institute at John Carroll University in 2015. After four years of being the Vicar of All Saints Anglican Church in North Canton, Ohio, I began a sabbatical in November of 2019 to focus on building JW Apothecary LLC.

I created this website so that people who dig what I do have a single place to go to connect with everything that I’m up to. Thanks for coming along on the ride with me!

Links to my social media presence can be found just below!