Volume 8, Issue 4, September 1999
The Black Swamp Herb Socity, with Gardens at the Wood County Historical Center
Thank You All
Dear Black Swamp Herb Society Members,
As Chairman of the volunteer committee of the Black Swamp Arts Festival I want to thank the many members who volunteered for the Festival. Sunday, Artists’ Breaks, is our “special” area but volunteers did not limit themselves so narrowly. BSHS members volunteered for Youth Art, Saturday Artists’s breaks, concessions and Sunday cleanup. You added significantly to the ranks of 600 volunteer spots that were filled over the three day Festival. Some of you called at the last minute – and all suitable spots were filled. Thank you as well.
At the August meeting a specially designed placque was presented to the group marking the fact that BSHS had volunteered for the Festival for three or more consecutive years. Only eight organizations were so recognized city wide.
I have been distracted by many things plus the Festival, and after five years service have resigned as Volunteer Chairperson, partly to clear my head and time for more herbal thoughts and actions. Under the guidance of Kathy Hicks preparation for the Old Home Christmas are proceeding. Please consult your membership booklets for workshop times. Thanks to Karen Wallack who again undertook the very difficult job of laying out, typing up and assembling the membership booklets. Those who do not have their booklets by the September 20 meeting, will receive them in the mail.
Our Florida friend, Marian Weaver renewed her membership and gave us a donation. Warm lavender thoughts to her.
Congratulations to Dot Golden and Jean Gamble, our dynamic duo, for being named Wood County Historical Society Volunteers of the Month for June. They deserve the recognition and we are proud.
Thanks to Monica Ostrand Cinda and other Wood County Park friends for beautiful new native garden sign.
Wood County Day is this Saturday, September 18. Garden alert. Even if you can come out only for half an hour, dead heading, staking, weed pulling, edging needs to be done. Wednesday and Thursday gardeners come! If you can spend an hour or so Saturday in the herb garden hostessing, please call Frances, 352-XXXX.
Next meeting is Monday, October 20 at 7. We will be working in the garden “Herbs for the Winter.” with Valerie Trudeau. Hostesses: Kandi Dukes and Angela Bair.
Cooking with Herbs
An article by Richard Bender in Herb Companion Oct/Nov. 1990 gives inspiration and courage to the cook clueless about making herbal jellies.
Herbal jellies can be thought of in two ways, as spreads on our toast and as enhancers of flavors in day to day cooking. Add a herb jelly to a sweet and sour sauce, or mint jelly to steamed peas, or use jellies as a glaze on meat or add a bit to the stir fry.
The basic approach to making an herb jelly is to brew a strong tea, then add sugar and pectin to make it jell. Experimenting with amounts of sugar and substituting honey can cause “jelling failures,” but not to despair. A runny jelly becomes a herbal syrup (!) and useful in cooking, and perhaps as a topping. Such failures can be the basis of a refreshing summer drink. Never say never.
About making the special tea…
Many variations here. As a general rule pour 6 cups of boiling water over 1/2 to 1 ounce of dried herb or 3 cups of fresh chopped herb, then let the tea stand for several hours. A coffee filter works well for straining. Evaporation and absorption into the herbs will reduce he amount of tea. Use 4 to 4 1/2 cups of tea depending…
Basic Jelly Recipe
(Makes 3 pints)
4 cups herb tea
5 cups sugar
1 package (13/4 ounces) powdered pectin or 3 ounces liquid pectin
Don’t double the recipe. Problems.
Use a large, deep saucepan, as jelly can triple in volume when it’s boiling.
Canning jars, new lids, and rust-free screw rings must be boiled for 10 minutes and left sitting in a boiling water bath until used.
You need a jelly funnel, ladle, jar tongs, and hot pads.
Measure the sugar into a bowl and set it aside.
With powdered pectin add the pectin the cold herbal tea, bring to a strong boil, then add the sugar all at once, stirring constantly.
If using liquid pectin, add the sugar to the tea and have the mixtures at a strong boil before adding the pectin. With the mixture on a hard rolling boil that can’t be stirred down, stir vigorously for one minute while it boils at high heat. Can immediately.
Remove one jar at a time from the boiling water bath. Set the funnel on the rim and ladle jelly to within 1 / 4 inch of the top of the jar. You may add a clean sprig of an appropriate herb, but keep the quarter-inch headspace.
Wipe the rim of the jar clean, place lid on jar screw ring on top.
Process in a boiling water bath with two inches of water. 10 minutes for 8 ounce jars, 15 for pint jars. (The paraffin seals of our grandmothers is no longer deemed safe.)
Peppermint Jelly
2 cups light packed (2 1/2 ounces) mint leaves.
Chop the leaves before steeping
Rosemary Light Jelly
1/2 ounce dried rosemary, uncrushed
For ease of straining leave the dried rosemary uncrushed. To make a more strongly flavored jelly, use up to 2 ounces of crushed rosemary.
Sweet Fennel Jelly
1 ounce crushed fennel see
Buy powdered fennel from your favorite herb store.
What they saw this summer!
by Marjory Kinney
On August 18, seven members of the Black Swamp Herb Society – Marlene Long, Lois Savage, Jean Gamble, Dot Golden, Harriet Rosebrock, Nancy Seifert and Maijory Kinney -joined members of the Maumee Valley Herb Society on their annual summer bus trip. And what a trip it was!
We left from the Franklin Park Mall a little after 7:00 AM. Our first stop was Michigan State University where we had guided tours of the 4-H Children’s Garden, the Butterfly House, the perennial gardens, and various demonstration and test gardens. In the perennial gardens the Russian sage, autumn joy sedum, butterfly bush, and zebra grass made particularly grand displays.
After some time to wander about on our own and visit the gift shop, it was off to the Kellog Hotel and Conference Center for a delicious and filling lunch of spinach salad, grilled portobello mushrooms on tomato focaccia, raspberry linzer torte, and herbed iced tea. We were certainly ready for a leisurely guided walk around the W.J Beal Botanical Garden also on the MSU campus. This garden, which is the oldest continuing botanical garden in the US, is actually an outdoor laboratory with 15,000 identified plants group by various categories. For example, one collection demonstrated the range of plants found within individual plant families. The great variety within each family was readily observable: for instance, it came as a bit of a shock to actually see that poison hemlock is a member of the carrot family. In another part of the garden where plants were grouped by use, we leaned that hops produced a hemp-like fiber that was used for making rope and sacking. We also saw apple trees grown from grafts of an original tree planted by John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) in Ohio.
With our heads full of such interesting tidbits and lore, we traveled on to our final stop at Grand Oak Herb Farm and the adjacent H & H Botanicals in Bancroft, MI, where we were warmly welcomed by Beulah Hargrove, her son John, and daughter-in-law Lea Ann. During our introductory tour, John astounded us with his fast knowledge of plants and his ability to refer to each and every plant by its botanical name. We were impressed with his collection of over 50 varieties of salvia, including a rare one with black flowers from the Andes. Needless to say, many of us could hardly wait to whip out our checkbooks and take some of the interesting and unusual herbs home. So while John and Lea Ann were helping us select our treasures, Beulah laid tea for us in her cozy tearoom. After a long and exciting day, we relaxed with ginger-peach tea, almost cream scones, and chocolate-almond scones, with Devonshire cream, lavender jelly, and quince-raspberry jam. All were delicious!
A bus load of tired but content, plant-laden day-trippers arrived back to Franklin Park Mall at about 9:00 PM. Any one of us would encourage our members to join our friends in the Maumee Valley Herb Society on their next trip. This one was very well-planned and organized ~ – and just great fun.
Name it!!!
Our Slaughter House mystery plant – people are always asking and nobody knows the name – is given a comer in Monet’s Garden in Giverney. Come on ladies, we HAVE to identify it and start bragging about BSHS and Monet’s garden. ( Photo – Frances Brent)
