Road Trip-Rosemary House Comes to the Herbal Wild West!

This is the gardenia bush in bloom at Rodef Shalom Biblical Botanical Garden and this garden was the first stop for The Rosemary House bus tour to Pittsburgh this morning.  The gardenia flowers were intoxicating!  Opened in 1987 next to the Rodef Shalom Temple, the garden is a natural setting depicting ancient Israel, with a waterfall, a desert, and a stream which runs through the garden.   The biblical garden has a themed garden each year that is different.  This year's theme is What Shall I Wear in Clothing and Perfume?  Hence, the gardenia flowers.  I also have to say that they were wise in their research and they included what else but a lemon verbena!

That's it bending over in the bed!  I was in the Biblical Garden about ten years ago and in those ten years, trees are larger and shading more of the garden.  Below is a bay laurel and fig tree that are very much in the shade of a walnut tree and both are not as vigorous as they could be.  This garden is a labor of love because a lot of the plants are tropical and need to be indoors for the winter months.  Rodef Shalom has their own greenhouse. You don't hear of that much, do you?

This is a view of the waterfall and river through the garden.  It is really very inspiring.

The wonderful part of The Rosemary House is not only do you get wonderful herbal information, have fun, but you eat well.  Nancy Reppert's cookbook is chock full of goodies and her lunches are a very special part of the trip.  Click on the link to order a cookbook where you can find the recipes.  Just look at the presentation!  I unfortunately didn't take other photos because I was enjoying it too much!  Oops!  Sorry about that!  There was a savory cheese spread with crackers, a fresh fruit cup, marinated roast beef, potato, vegetable & mint pesto salad, lemon chive pepper muffin and lemon verbena rosemary butter bundt cake.  It was all delicious.  The Herbal Husband got some leftovers, but truthfully not much!  You don't go hungry on a Rosemary House bus tour. 

I got permission to post the following photo.  Susanna and Nancy are two very special people and if you find yourself out in central Pennsylvania, you should make a special effort to stop by The Rosemary House or Sweet Remembrances Tearoom.

Hope everything went well with the rest of the trip.  Susanna was already talking about a return trip!  Maybe they can stop in my herb garden next time!  Don't tell The Herbal Husband!  Judi, my eyes were closed for our photo!  We'll get a good one next time!