News 2007
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Contents
- North-West Event, Denton, Manchester - 6 October 2007
- Annual Conference - 15 September 2007
- Herb Society Member wins garden prize - August 2007
- Our new administrator - Felicity (Flick) Kingston - August 2007
- The Society's new Children's Herb Garden - June/August 2007
- VIP visit from Australia - 24 June 2007
- President's Event - June 2007
- Herbs at Chelsea - May 2007
- Sophie Grigson Interviewed by the Times - May 2007
- Wholly Herbs Show at West Dean - May 2007
- Winner of the Herb Society schools' web site launch competition - February 2007
- New Year message from council - January 2007
- Message from the new Society administrator - January 2007
North-West Event - Denton, Manchester
6 October 2007
Herb Society members and guests in the NW area met to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Society. This was the 5th event in the Manchester area. Unfortunately, the venue chosen suffered an arson attack a few days before and so Audrey Butterworth, the event organiser, had to find an alternative venue at short notice and advise those she knew to be registered. Her pictures of the event are given below. Despite all the problems, the event was greatly enjoyed by all those attending.
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Jan Greenland and husband Colin Broom demonstrate a range of herbie recipes |
Amanda Curvill, NIMH, stood in at the last moment because Jane Gray, the intended speaker, was unable to attend. Amanda talked about winter remedies. |
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A member of the audience bravely tries out one of the winter remedies: a mustard foot bath for poor circulation. |
Table setting for the herbie lunch. |
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Sarah Clark of Green Garden herbs told us how to grow garlic successfully. |
Lynne Tann-Watson let us into the secrets of the witches garden. |
Annual Conference
15 September 2007
| We had a wonderful, sunny day for our annual conference attended
by over 30 members and guests.
The day started with the formal business of our AGM. The picture on our right shows our new administrator, Flick Kingston (centre) with our Chairman, John Baylis (right) and our treasurer, Tony Worthington. The rest of the day was devoted to garden design including a tour of our gardens at Sulgrave. Delegates were keen to see our new, Living Earth, children's garden. |
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One of our ex-chairmen, Caroline Holmes, took us on a tour of different gardens with different objectives emphasising the variety of possible design options |
Lynne Tann-Watson gave us her eclectic view of companion planting. Her talk was packed with detail . |
Sue Minter started with a rather apocalyptic view of the effects of global warming but finished on a cheerful note that we were now beginning to learn from nature rather than just to exploit it. |
Barty Phillips went through the history of Herb Garden Design starting with our pre-history, hunter-gatherer approach and then from Ancient Egypt through to the present day |
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Visitors to our new Children's, Living-Earth Garden Find out more about our new children's garden here. Find out more about our schools' web site launch competition. |
Judith Haan, left, discusses the Children's garden with Wendy Compsel. Judith is a new Society member and is well known as a past presenter of 'Tomorrow's World' and as a keen herb grower. Wendy is the head mistress of the school that won the launch competition for our schools' web site |
Herb Society Member wins garden prize
August 2007
Audrey Butterworth is a long-time supporter of the Herb Society who looks after our web site forum, Pot-pourri, and has taken the lead in organising our NW events held in Denton. She has a small patio garden devoted to growing herbs and entered this into this year's Denton in Bloom competition. She received first prize in the patio garden section and goes on the Tameside competition.
To find out more about our meeting in Manchester on 6 October, download this pdf leaflet and registration form (123KB).
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Views of Audrey's garden
Our new administrator - Felicity (Flick) Kingston
August 2007
| Hello everyone - well, this is me! Real name Felicity
(which I will answer to!) but most of the time called Flick.
I'm delighted to be joining the Herb Society and meeting up with as
many of you as possible over the forthcoming months.
I live in Northampton, I'm married to Bill with two children (Caroline and Will), also sharing the house with Polly the cat and Geordie the beagle. The world of herbs is one which is relatively new to me but one which I find fascinating, and I'm looking forward to expanding my knowledge - all help and herbal snippets gratefully received! This autumn I'm taking part in a charity trek for Marie Curie Cancer Care to the Great Wall of China, so now I have two great challenges in front of me! Vicki and I are currently working through the hand-over period, and I look forward to speaking to you whenever you need to call us. Flick |
Felicity (Flick) Kingston. |
A word from our Chairman
The Council is very sad to announce that, following a decision to move away from the area for family reasons, Vicki Bowen is having to resign as our administrator. Vicki has, even in the short time with us, established a very good relationship with volunteers and members, and has streamlined the operating systems for the Society to enable us to function efficiently with a part-time administrator working mainly from home. We thank her for all her efforts for the Society and wish her well in the future.
However, we have been very fortunate to recruit to the post Felicity Kingston. - Flick. Flick, like Vicki will be working mainly from home. There will be no change in our national rate telephone number or the email address.
Your fist chance to meet Flick will be at our annual conference at Sulgrave on Saturday 15 September. So do come along and give her your support.
John Baylis
Council Chairman
The Society's new Children's Herb Garden
June 2007 - new picture added August 2007
In support of the Herb Society schools' web site, we have created a children's garden at Sulgrave Manor next to our existing garden.
The garden is not yet complete but uses circles and spheres as its theme. This is to represent the living earth, the importance of the natural cycles of life and the benefits of recycling.
The garden was designed by Cheryl Waller using ideas from our education officer, Janet Blundell, who in turn was using ideas from children. We had asked for ideas on the schools web site and a prize for the best ideas went to Class 10 Gardening Club at Ravenswood Primary School in Newcastle-on-Tyne. The prize was a selection potted herbs for them to plant out in their own herb garden.
Centre of the garden showing the circle theme
This is just after initial planting in June
By the end of July, the garden had really grown with all the rain we have had
Class 10 Gardening Club at Ravenswood Primary School in
Newcastle-on-Tyne.
Shown here with their prize of potted herbs and with letters from Rose and
Nick. Go
to our schools' web site to find out who Rose and Nick are.
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| This is the space we started with | This is the the garden just after planting out in June |
VIP visit from Australia24 June 2007Marion Bond, the President of the Herb Society of Victoria Australia, visited our herb gardens at Sulgrave Manor on 24 June. She was shown round our gardens at Sulgrave by Herb Society council member Cheryl Waller. Marion was quite amazed by how green everything was.
PictureMarion Bond (L) with Cheryl Waller in our garden at Sulgrave Manor |
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President's Event
June 2007
Sophie Grigson, our 2006/07 President invited Members to a day of fun and information to at Garden Organic, Ryton, on Saturday 9 June. The Society thanks the main event sponsor - NFU Mutual.
The full days programme is given here and picture from the day can be found below.
Sophie Grigson's Cookery Demonstration
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Sophie in full flow describing the joys |
Sophie was ably helped by Helen Pizzey, a chef at Highgate House Conference Centre |
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| Sophie's summer salad | Sophie's gazpacho soup |
The Lectures
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| Timothy Walker, Director of Oxford Botanic Garden, gave an entertaining, information-packed talk on the healing power of herbs. | Rosie Atkins. the Curator of the Chelsea Physic Garden gave us a history of the garden. |
The Delegates
Over 50 Herb Society Members and Guests attended the day
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| The enthusiastic audience. | Sampling some of Sophie's dishes |
Some Delegates were from overseas
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| Fernanda Botelho from Portugal | Dr A S Shawl from Kashmir |
Lunch
The lunch was provided by Garden Organic using ideas from Sophie Grigson
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| The rush of people to the enticing buffet | One of the summer sweets |
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| Delegates tucking into the delightful food | Delegates taking time after lunch to visit the herb garden at Ryton Organic. |
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Natalie Hodgson enjoying lunch with our Patron, The Earl of Clanwilliam. Many of us will remember the wonderful talk given by Natalie at our 2005 annual conference about her experiences as a commercial lavender grower. Sadly, Natalie, at 94 years of age, is having to give up growing lavender. |
Mike Cullen's Demonstration
Mike Cullen, the gardening chef demonstrated a few summer recipes in his own, special entertaining way. Mike also brought a selection of his home-made scones and cakes for us to enjoy with our afternoon tea.
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| Mike enjoying lunch prior to his demonstration | His refreshing summer salad |
The stalls
Three suppliers came to sell us their herbal products.
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| Womersley Fine Foods Ltd | ||
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| Creative Botanicals International Ltd | ||
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| The Littlecote Soap Co. | ||
Herbs at Chelsea
May 2007
Dave Butterworth visited the Chelsea Flower Show and took the following pictures of herb-related exhibits. Go to the show web site for more information.
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| Sarah Clark of Green Garden Herbs was awarded a silver medal for her first time at Chelsea. Don't miss her talk on garlic at our next Manchester event in October. | ||
| Jekka's Herb Farm received a 12th consecutive gold medal. Jekka McVickar is an adviser to the council of the Herb Society |
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| Lavender Growers did well with Downderry Nurseries (above) receiving a silver-gilt medal and Isle of Wight Lavender (right) receiving a silver medal. | ||
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| Two of the show gardens have herb connections. The one above called "East West Garden Design" was designed by Herb Society member, Leslie Bremness. The one on the left was chosen as "best in show". It is a garden that might be built by astronauts on Mars. Some of the plants were chosen for their medical benefits. | ||
Sophie Grigson Interviewed by the Times
May 2007
Journalist, Kate Muir, visited Sophie Grigson at her home in Oxfordshire to talk about the use of herbs in cooking. The article, titled 'Let them eat Herbs,' appeared in a special gardening edition of the Times Saturday Magazine dated 19 May.
Read the full article here.
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Wholly Herbs Show at West Dean
12/13 May
The Society had a stand at this event where we recruited several new members and sold many of our booklets. Thanks are due to Cheryl Waller (Council Member) for setting up the stand. Our past administrator, Nicky Westwood helped out for half a day as a volunteer.
Winner of the Herb Society schools' web site launch competition.
Cherry Trees School, Suffolk
February 2007
| In February 2006, the Herb Society launched its new Schools' Web
Site along with a competition for schools to enter. The
competition, sponsored by Waitrose, was to, "Design a
herb garden for your school."
On February 23rd, Jan Blundell, The Herb Society's Education Officer, visited the school to present the prize money to Year 5 Rhinos class. The first prize was a cheque for £150, together with a certificate signed by the Society's president, Sophie Grigson. The presentation was made by Mr Hindle, Department Manager of the Bury St Edmunds branch of Waitrose. Each child also received a certificate. |
The prize-winning herb garden |
Head Teacher, Mrs Wendy Compson, told the whole school, assembled for the presentation, that the money would be used to benefit all the children and spent on their individual class gardens.
Schools all over the country are encouraged to use the outdoor environment as an extension to the classroom and many have decided to make their own garden. Some schools have made herb gardens.
The teacher of Rhinos class, Mrs Compson, set aside a week in May 2006 in which children used herbs as a theme for their curriculum work.
The folder of work that was submitted as their entry contained examples of work and photographs showing the children working on their project, both in the classroom and in the garden area. Individuals, or pairs of children, worked on a design and they voted for Jess's design because it took into account the varying heights of the herbs. This was an important consideration because, as the children found out in their maths work, some fully grown herbs reach 60cm.
Not only did they find out about herbs, but they used them too. A batch of herb scones was made and eaten by the children.
It is clear that a lot of hard work went into the week. It also produced a lot of enjoyment too. Indeed what one pupil wrote about their project really sums it all up:
"...we planted the herbs and the soil was nice and moist ... it was a good day for gardening - we all had so much fun together."
Jan Blundell
The Herb Society's Education Officer
The children show off their certificates
Suzanne Abbott Photography
Check out our schools' web site
See more about what Cherry Trees School did from their notice board on the Schools' web site
New Year message from councilJanuary 2007In 2007 we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the formation of the Herb Society. We are looking forward to an exciting year. |
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The major event this year will be at Ryton Organic Gardens near Coventry on 9 June where our President, Sophie Grigson, will be the main speaker and will give a cookery demonstrations featuring some of the dishes we will enjoy over lunch. There will be other lively presentations and activities covering many aspects of herbs to provide you with a fun and informative day. There are more details on our Diary page.
Our annual conference will be at Sulgrave Manor on 15 September and will focus on herb gardens including their design and planting, Sue Minter, previous head of horticulture at the Eden Project, will give a talk on how climate change may influence herbs we grow.
Our annual conference will, as usual, start with our annual general meeting but, this year, we are planning for this to be a shorter meeting than it has been in recent years because we were then discussing our strategic plan. As promised, we will be reporting on progress on the strategic plan at our 2008 AGM.
One of the ideas that was discussed with Sophie Grigson when she agreed to be our President for the current year was the publication of a recipe booklet. After considering a number of alternative forms for this booklet, she has suggested that we get you, our members, to submit recipes which she will edit into a booklet. She felt that there must be a wealth of expertise on herbal cooking amongst you all. Our ambitious target is to have the booklet ready for the 9 June event.
Our schools' web site will continue to develop with puzzle pages and a "notice board" giving news from schools. We will also be working on a children's garden at Sulgrave. We will start to develop plans to work with secondary school children on an exhibition garden for one of the major RHS shows in 2009.
There have been two personality changes. Nicky Westwood, who has been our administrator for 10 years, has decided to move to the South Coast and we have recruited Vicki Bowen, a member of the Society, as her replacement. We know that you will all make her very welcome and we are very pleased that she has joined us. Sally Miller has also decided to stand down from Council and from the position of Treasurer. However, we do hope still to see her in Sulgrave occasionally. Her replacement is Tony Worthington, who some of you will have met at our last annual conference.
As usual, we are not short of ideas, just short of resources, both human and financial, so please maintain your membership, or join, if not already a member. Also, if you feel that you can contribute in any way, we would love to hear from you.
In recognition of the important role played by our many volunteers we will be, for the first time, inviting all our volunteers to a day at Sulgrave on 6 May both as a way of thanking them for their efforts and to discuss with them some ideas about the future development of the Society and how they can help.
Do keep visiting this web site to find our more about the above activities as they approach and about other events.
The council thanks everyone who has helped the Society in the past 12 months and looks forward to working with you all in 2007.
Herb Society Council
January 2007
To make comments on any of these news items, go to our Forum
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