Thursday, May 22, 2014

A Visit with Jekka McVicar, the Queen of Herbs, Bristol, England!

Herb Plants for Sale At Jekka's Herb Farm!
Hannah, Jekka's Talented Daughter and Me!
Jekka's Logo on WoodBlocx Bed!
Those Circular Beds Are Going to Have Jekka's Favorites in Them!
Wonderful Collections of Rosemarys and Mints!
The Mints Are All Contained.  This One is Basil Mint!
A Thyme Named for 'Jekka'!
A 'Green Ginger' Rosemary!
A New Lavender to Me called 'Pale Pretender'!
Greek Sage
English Mace
My Favorite, Lemon Verbena Making an Appearance!
2014 Herb of the Year for the US, Artemisia, French Tarragon!
A Very Happy and Healthy Salad Burnet!
Scots Lovage
Broad Leaved Sorrel
So Happy to be with Jekka!
She Is Always Excited to Give Tours of Her Herbetum!
My English Herbal Companion, Gloria, and my English friends, Debs and Simon Cook and I got to attend one of Jekka's Open Days at Jekka's Herb Farm in early May!  We couldn't have asked for a better day to share with Jekka!  Always happy to see her and her lovely and talented daughter, Hannah!  The new herbetum is beautiful.  So full of all varieties of herbs, big collections of mints, lavenders, thymes and rosemarys and British native herbs as well.  Of course, my favorite lemon verbena was included!  The herbs all had signs with uses.  I had never seen Scots lovage (Ligusticum scoticum) and the sign said the young leaves can be used in soups and seeds in breads and with vegetables and has a taste like celery similar to the regular lovage (Levisticum officinale).  I also got to see English mace which I grew briefly in my herb garden.  That sorrel is an herb that The Herbal Husband loves and we lost it in our severe winter this year.

Soon there will be a garden of Jekka's favorites.  I think 30 different herbs in all.  She is also still sells herbs at the nursery.  Just does not do mail order.  And if that all wasn't enough she was also busy getting ready to go to the Chelsea Flower Show in London.

She lead us on a tour of the new herbetum which is her pride and joy.  The beds give you the growing habits of herbs and how to contain them if necessary.  I think every visit will probably be a new and different experience as it should be.  I am learning daily about herbs and I hope to continue to do so until I go to the big herb garden in the sky.  I'm going to try next visit to find a time of year when I can take her out to lunch or dinner and spend some time with her.  Jekka (and Hannah) are two of my favorites.  We had such a great time together when Jekka came to the US for the national herb society meeting.  You can read about her visit with me in Pittsburgh in The Herb Channeler's Adventures with Jekka McVicar.  Jekka is a special herbal spirit and I am lucky enough to call her my friend.

We are madly planting in the herb garden.  I'll show you those photos in the coming days. Hope you had a great day.  It was a beautiful day here in the 'Burgh.  Talk to you later.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

How very exciting; what a wonderful,day out. Great pics, the herbs all look so perfect.

Pat said...

What a heavenly day you had! The Herb Farm looks immaculate and everything so healthy. How wonderful to visit a place where herbs are so loved.
Thank you for sharing!

Carol said...

Beautiful place! Thanks for sharing :)

Lemon Verbena Lady said...

Thanks Tracey. It was a wonderful day with Jekka!

Really TO! You have to save those pennies and hopefully you'll get there some day!

It is a beautiful place, Carol!

Thanks ladies for stopping by as always! xo