Off to the Jersey Shore! Oh Wait! No! It Was Off to the Jersey Herb Farm, An English Tearoom and Willowwood!!

So day two of the Pennsylvania road trip was actually extending the road trip into New Jersey!  One of my favorite and one of the best herb farms in the east is Well Sweep Herb Farm.  The Hyde family are collectors of plants specifically herbs.  It is like a wonderful place for the herb gardeners/collectors like Bonnie and I.  I am always at Well Sweep for their Christmas shop in November.  So Louise Hyde, grand dame of Well Sweep was surprised to see me in June!  I like to keep her guessing.  If you are looking for unusual herbs, Well Sweep is the place for you.  They have both a print and digital catalog and they do do mail order.  I have mail ordered in the last several years and it is like a wonderful Christmas surprise in May.  Very enjoyable, herbally speaking.

Look How Happy I am to be at Well Sweep!

They Have Beautiful Display Gardens with Everything Identified!

So Many Herb Varieties, So Little Time!

A Really Lovely Knot Garden!

Still Early in the Garden Season, But Already Looking Good!

We just had the best time going from bed to bed seeing all of the varieties of herbs that they offered!  It was a fabulous visit and of course, we came away with lots of plants!  Then it was off to one of my favorite tearooms in Chester, New Jersey called Sally Lunn's Tearoom & Restaurant.  I love their afternoon tea any time of day.  Sandwiches of egg, cucumber and cream cheese and salmon, fruit and a big oversized scone with clotted cream and jam.  Bonnie had one of the many specials of the day, lobster sliders and salad.  Everything was fresh made and delicious!  To top it off big glasses of iced tea because it was too hot for hot tea!  Always enjoy my visit to Sally Lunn's!

On Perry Street in Chester is My Favorite, Sally Lunn's!

My Afternoon Tea!

Bonnie's Lobster Sliders and Salad!

So I really don't have time usually to explore the Chester, NJ area because I have to rush back to pick up The Herbal Husband after his top show.  So I Googled before Bonnie and I started this adventure for gardens in the area and found the Willowwood Arboretum just 9 miles away from the tearoom.  Started in 1908 by two brothers, Harry and Robert Tubbs and Harry's adopted son, Dr. Benjamin Blackburn developed the land into Willowwood which has become New Jersey's most comprehensive and continuously operating arboretum.  A little Chanticleer like but different with a lot of land to explore.  Glad we got to see a small portion of this beautiful arboretum.  For dinner we went to Texas Roadhouse where I had the salmon.  It was delish!  

Has a Very Country Feel!

Lovely Cottage Garden!

A Beautiful House!

More Garden Space!

The Roserie!

My Salmon Dinner at the Texas Roadhouse!

 So ended the second day of our herbal road trip and I would say it was a very fun and herbally expansive day!  We have the ickies and stickies and now thunderstorms.  I am picking raspberries like crazy and making jam!  It is a very productive year already!  Hope you had a great day!  Talk to you tomorrow.

Plodding Along The Herbal Path and a Road Trip or Two!

The Herb Garden Still Has A Lot of Green and Gray!

Always Love My Annual Visit to Well Sweep Herb Farm's Christmas Shop!

One of the Beautiful Perennial Beds That Still Had Some Color!

My Afternoon Tea at Sally Lunn's in Chester, New Jersey!

Sharing Tiramisu with The Herbal Husband!

Red Anniversary Roses from Our Friends in Uruguay!

We have arrived in November already!  I can't seem to get on my laptop enough these days to blog!  So here is a recap of the last weekend.  We almost always go to Allentown this time of year.  It is not always on our wedding anniversary, but this year it was.  The Herbal Husband has a toy show that he likes to attend and I almost always go to Well Sweep Herb Farm in Port Murray, New Jersey for the start of their Christmas shop and the Sally Lunn's Tearoom & Restaurant in Chester, New Jersey for afternoon tea even if it is sometimes in the morning when I arrive.  It is a lot of driving for me because remember I drive for your safety and mine!

Can I just say that besides the huge (more than 1,900 varieties) selection of herbs, perennials and exotics, Well Sweep Herb Farm is visually a feast for the senses.  The Hyde family who has owned the farm for 46 years and the quality is consistently excellent from year to year.  If you live in the vicinity, I hope you will support this herb farm with your business.   Their Christmas shop is stuffed full of all kinds of herb related gifts, dried flowers, books, potpourri items, and lovely Christmas and herb related gifts.   Fortunately for us that live further away, they still do mail order.  I have started to order each year just so I have some unusual herbs for my herb garden.  They do have a paper catalog still and you can download their catalog if you would like from their website.  One of my favorite herb farms in the east.  Here is a link to a post I did for Mother Earth Living called Herbal Travels:  Well-Sweep Herb Farm.  So nice to see that they are continuing to prosper.

I continued on down the road to Chester, New Jersey and stopped by one of my favorite tearooms, Sally Lunn's.  It has been in business 30 plus years and is still consistently very good.  It was very busy on Saturday and I sat for a time next to two ladies who had never had afternoon tea and needed to learn the proper way to steep loose leaf tea.  I came to the rescue.  My afternoon tea was delicious as usual and I took a scone, clotted cream and jam back for The Herbal Husband's afternoon tea at the hotel.  Didn't quite have the same atmosphere, but clotted cream is his middle name!

Then we made a reservation at one of our new favorite restaurants in Allentown.  It is called Henry's Salt of the Sea.  It is very cozy with a long bar and booths in the front.  They are known for their French inspired seafood.  I had sea scallops and The Herbal Husband had schnitzel.  We were both happy and we had a weekend of mostly good food and not counting calories.  The Herbal Husband showered me with wonderful gifts and cards.  He told me I got him a toy ship from Italy and I got him a LSU purple fig for his collection at Well Sweep.  We came home to a box sitting on our doorstep full of roses from our friends in Uruguay.  We were afraid they would freeze in the cold, but actually it was like them being in the refrigerator overnight.  It worked quite well.

As far as the herb garden goes, there are still many herbs that have remained green even with the cold temperatures.  I still have a part of the golden pineapple sage that is still alive and blooming, a shoot of a calendula may keep blooming for Thanksgiving (Maybe wishful thinking!) and the tarragon has come back nicely.  As always the chives are nice and green and so is the salad burnet.  All of the herbs we transplanted earlier are doing well.  I was afraid we were too late with our transplants, but they have worked out.  Would like to make a few Christmas presents, herbally speaking.  Here is a link to my post last year giving you links to an artemisia tree and spice wreaths.

Well, I hope you are getting things done more smoothly than I am.  My big project that I am trying to get done is my talk on Shakespeare's Herbs and Flowers for next March.  So please forgive me if I am not around too much.  I will try to post when I can.  We had a rainy day in the herb garden, but still milder than usual.  Talk to you later.