Herb Society News 2008

If you couldn’t make it to the AGM and Conference this year, you missed a wonderful event, 37 members and guests spent the day at Sulgrave, along with 8 council members plus Flick our administrator. The day started out cold and foggy but as one of our members said “it was well worth the cold damp journey!”. As the formal AGM and other aspects of the day will be covered in the November issue of 'Herbs'. I'll concentrate on the conference and add the recipes from the day here along with some photos.

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.

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.

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

This is a first for the Herb Society, we're experimenting with adding video from events to our website, so those that could not get to an event can view highlights.

Some browsers will not allow video to play direct from a web page, if this affects you, then please try going to the Herb Society YouTube page and playing the video direct from there.

Video footage taken by Simon Cook and used with the permission of Mike Cullen.

After missing a year the Herb Society were once again back at the Tatton Flower Show in Cheshire. Cheryl Waller council member, designed the award winning stand with the theme of Herbal First Aid and was awarded a silver medal for her creativity and hard work.

Cheryl was aided in setting up the stand by Frances Kershner and Jenny & David Jones. We managed to recruit 18 new members, sold lots of merchandise and made many new friends.

As well as those people already mentioned, Council would like to give our grateful thanks to the following members who volunteered to man the stand during the Tatton weekend, turning it into a roaring success:- Ruth & Kevin Waters, Amanda Cutbill, Sue Townsend, Jean Brookes, Natalia Kurkum, Rosemary Scholes, Judith Grubb, Pat Sweetingham, Janet McCulumpha and Mary Dearden.

Jan Greenland, council member of the Herb Society this week filmed a piece for BBC Gardeners World, with our president Sarah Raven, which looks at the many uses of herbs. The programme which is to be aired in 2009 (we'll publish the actual transmission date when known). Jan also went on to visit Sarah's garden at Perch Hill a week after filming.

Jan said "Sarah Raven and the TV crew filmed all over the garden, but focused on the herbs". Jan's garden has been a labour of love for over 10 years and many Herb Society members have visited the garden over the years, it contains hundreds of different herbs.