Herb Society AGM & Conference 2008
Report

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Once the AGM was concluded the conference began. John Baylis introduced Ann McIntyre, our new president for 2008/09, who gave a talk introducing herself. She talked about the path that had led her to become a herbalist, and gave a mental tour of her spiral garden, which she has offered to do a tour of for members in 2009. She concluded by answering questions and asking those present what their reasons were for joining the Herb Society, what they expected to get from the society and what they think the society should be aiming towards. Some very interesting answers were given and will be given some careful consideration in the coming months. Further information about Anne can be found on the 2008/09 President's Page and Anne's own website Anne McIntyre.

Next to talk was Christina Stapley who gave a demonstration on making lotions and balms for relaxation. Christina's talk was full of tips and stories of her experience with herbs and people. Tina gives workshops and talks and further details can be found on her website Heartsease Tina explained how she had started working with herbs about 40 years ago as a result of research for a book on Elizabethan life, and how her life ever since, has been about experimenting with historical recipes and bringing out of those experiments what she feels is of use today. A tip from Tina, to colour any of the balms or lotions below you can use the following herbs: Alkanet (Alkana tinctoria) to colour pink, Calendula (Calendula officinalis) to colour pale yellow to orange or Ribwort Plantain (Plantago lanceolata) to colour green. The three recipes below are used with kind permission of Tina and are copyrighted to her.

We then broke for a rather delicious lunch provided by ‘Foodsmiths’, everything was wonderful but diners were particularly struck with the Ginger Parfait and the Green Fruit Salad, Jenny contacted ‘Foodsmiths’ and they have kindly provided the recipes, see below. Lunch gave council members the chance to sit and chat to members and guests. During lunch Flick and I took several parties on a tour of the library. Some members were shocked at how small the library is, but one lady commented that it had much improved since her last visit. Members got to ask questions, examine the books and I got to be able to tell them about the future plans for the library and archives. At the end of lunch the prize draw for a wonderful organic food hamper sponsored by NFU was drawn. The winner was Susan Thorne.

Susan Barley of the NFU with Jenny Jones

After lunch Mike Cullen took the stage to give us another of his wonderfully entertaining cookery demonstrations. Before he started cooking, Mike explained that most of the herbs that are used to combat stress and aid relaxation are medicinal herbs, and he wouldn't neccesarily use them in the kitchen. So Mike decided to embark on a different approach to easing stress with food, in his words "food is a very big comforter and if you're happy at the end of a meal, you feel relaxed and your stress will slip away". So he set out to demonstrate a menu of winter comfort food meals. He began by demonstrating his Grandmother's wine technique for ensuring you can chop onions without crying. It involved several slurps of wine and some rather funny faces and the whole demonstration was delightful as usual. He said he'd been asked if water would work instead, the look on his face was a picture. Mike cooks with such enthusiasm and humour, it's hard not to be infected with his passion for food and trot off to the kitchen to try and create the dishes yourself. In fact I can highly recommend the Salmon with chives and coriander as I recreated it in the kitchen and it tasted wonderful.

Mike Cullen's Recipes - All recipes serve 4 people

Goat’s Cheese and Rosemary Pancetta Olives 1 pkt Smoked Pancetta 2 rounds Goat's cheese 3 tablespoons chopped rosemary 1 baguette 50g butter 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 clove of garlic, crushed 3 tablespoons chopped parsley

Method: Heat the oven to 200C/400F Gas mark 6. Melt the butter in a bowl in a microwave, then fold in the garlic and the chopped parsley. Cut 8 slices of the baguette about 2 cm (3/4") at an angle to make the slices longer and spread with the butter mix. Place on baking tray and cook for about 8 mins until crisp.

While the bread is toasting cut each round of goat's cheese into four segments, roll each segment until sausage shaped then roll in the chopped rosemary. Take 8 pieces of pancetta and wrap each of the goat's cheese sausages so that all the cheese is covered, place each pancetta olive on a slice of baguette. Place any left over pancetta on the tray to crisp. This can be crumbled over the salad.

Lower the oven heat to 180C/350F/ Gas mark 4. Return the tray to the oven and cook for a further 8-10 mins. until the pancetta is cooked and the cheese has melted.

To serve: Stack your favourite salad onto 4 plates, sprinkle with some dressing, scatter with sliced olives, grapes and rings of red onion, place 2 of the pancetta olive on each plate, sprinkle with the left over pancetta and enjoy!

Mango and Vietnamese Coriander Cous-Cous Salsa 1 Medium Mango cut into small cubes 2 Vine tomatoes, peeled and chopped Half a red onion, chopped Half a small cucumber, chopped 2 tablespoons Vietnamese Coriander, chopped 1 pkt. Mediterranean cous-cous 300 ml vegetable stock

Method: Butter and line 4 ramekin dishes with all purpose cling film. Combine all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Half fill each ramekin dish with the cous-cous mix then add a couple of knobs of butter.

Fill almost to the top with more cous-cous mix and cover with vegetable stock, then pull the cling film together over the top of the ramekins. Cook on high for 3 mins and then allow to stand for a couple of minutes before turning out.

Marinated salmon with Chives and Coriander Marinade: 60ml (4 tbsp) red wine vinegar 30ml (2 tbsp) dark soy sauce 30rnl (2 tbsp) olive oil 60ml (4 tbsp) chopped chives half a red onion finely sliced and chopped 15ml (1 tbsp) grated root ginger 15ml (1 tbsp) crushed coriander seeds 60ml (4 tbsp) sweet sherry 4 salmon fillets skin removed (if using frozen fillets, allow to thaw a little then peel off the skin from the thin end first with the blade of a knife. It should come away quite easily in one piece).

Method: Place all the marinade in a long shallow dish large enough to take all the salmon with a small space between each fillet, and mix well. Place the salmon fillets in the marinade for a couple of hours, turning occasionally.

Pre-heat oven to 180C/350F gas mark 4. Cover the dish with tin foil and cook for 15 mins, remove foil and cook for a further 5 mins.

To serve: Place a hot Mango and cous-cous salsa on each plate along with a fillet of salmon and spoon over some marinade.

Spiced Peaches or Nectarines This dessert has a lovely warm comforting flavour of mulled wine. 6 peaches or nectarines cut in half and the stones removed 75g (3 oz) soft brown sugar 125 ml (4 fl oz) water 1 red fresh chilli or 2 dried chillies 6 cloves 1 bay leaf 12 lemon verbena leaves or 6 pieces of lemon peel

Winter Warmer Bread and Butter Pudding Firstly: Soak 150g (5 ozs) sultanas and 150g (5 ozs) currants overnight in 6 tbsp of whisky. Drain and use the whisky for the custard. For the custard: 4 egg yolks and 2 tbsp caster sugar 200ml double cream 4 tbsp of whisky and 2 tbsp of clear honey 1 tbsp chopped thyme 1 tbsp chopped sage (purple if available) For the pudding: 4 thick glasses approx 6 cmdia x 9 cm tall, well buttered 8 slices medium sliced white bread easy spread butter ginger preserve or marmalade

Above: Delegates had chance to meet each other and chat about all things herbal. They also had chance to chat to council members and ask questions. Right: After Tina's demonstartion some of the delegates gathered to smell and test the balm and lotions and ask Tina questions.

Quotes from the days feedback questionnaire..

'This is always a lovely relaxed but informative day' S. T.
'A Realy enjoyable day - worth freezing to get there'  - F. F.
'Delightful day, accomplished speakers' - M. W.

At the beginning of the day members were informed that in exchange for completing a questionnaire about their day at conference, they would be given a ‘goodie bag’ to take home with them. The goodie bags contained, herb posters, information leaflets, the recipes from the day, a copy of our ‘Growing Herbs’ book, a fragrant soap sample donated by The Celtic Herbal Company, who also donated a beautiful gift basket for our raffle, and tea samples from Pukka Herbs and Sympathy Teas. The raffle helped to generate some money for the Society and three lucky people went home with prizes of champagne, a digital camera and the gift basket. Our thanks to the NFU, Celtic Herbal Company, Pukka Herbs and Sympathy Teas for supporting our event, and to Anne McIntrye, Christina Stapley and Mike Cullen and his lovely wife Helen for helping make the day a stimulating and interesting one.

A view of the Society's garden at Sulgrave, September 27th 2008

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