Thyme Stands Still in the Herb Garden

As Donna stated this morning "What seemed so important at 8:00am, suddenly doesn't matter."  Time or Thyme does stand still for a few hours when we work in the Herb Garden at the MN Landscape Arboretum.  Theresa from Shady Acres Herb Farm gave us some tips:  Now is the time to cut back the chives - cut them way back to about 1" in height after they flower and in about a week, you'll have more chives.  Deadhead the peonies.  Also any oregano with purple flowers is a weed.  Pull it.  The white flowered oregano is the culinary oregano.  There was a lot of pruning in the garden - snip, snip, snip.

"Go to the Light"

A familiar saying when we're making Saami bracelets is "Go to the Light".  While a challenge, the Saami bracelets are worth the reward in the end. 

Nora brought her horoscope for the day; "Your joy is in the creative process.  If it doesn't turn out perfectly, that in no way robs you of the excitement that comes with making the effort.  You may not have all the skills you need yet, but you're getting them."  

How appropriate.  And thanks to Kathy for the wonderful homemade blueberry ice cream.  We needed the break.

A Memorial to Ted Caspar

Ted & Chip at Shady Acres Herb Farm

Ted Caspar was one of the reasons I joined the MN. Herb Society.  He served as our president twice: 1993-94 and 1998-99.

He was a great cook, always bringing adventuresome, tasty herbal dishes to our pot lucks. Always making jellies, jams, and mustards   for our sales. Always trying to get us to try something new and different.  He had an amazing collection of cook books and miscellaneous recipes, which he generously shared with everyone.

Ted collected vinegar recipes for many years and passed them on to Jill. He encouraged even the new and timid members  (that would be me) to just get out there and try something new. "Just throw some herbs in a jar of vinegar and wait to see what turns up.  How bad could it be?" What came of that experiment was blueberry-honey-red basil vinegar.

As he began to get older, he started to give away his books. I have several.........one that never fails to make me smile is "A Druid's Herbal for the Sacred Earth Year"..........not something you might expect to find in the library of a Lutheran minister.........but a good example of his inquiring mind.

Ted loved all aspects of herbal gardening. I hope that he would be pleased to see  the bench depicting Pedanius Diosorides, the Greek physician and author of a five volume encyclopedia on herbal medicine, that we have placed in the Cloister Garden in his honor.
I know that when I look at it, I will remember Ted Caspar and smile.

Chip

The beautiful bench in the Herb Gardens at the MN Landscape Arboretum in memory of Ted

Watch for further info about this beautiful bench in a later post.