2012

Day & Date	Activity	Topic, focus and special notes
December	No meeting	Having no meeting this month gave members more time to prepare for and enjoy the holidays with their families.
Nov. 14	Regular monthly meeting	Herbal soap-making workshop This hands-on workshop was scheduled with Christmas gift-giving in mind. Everyone had a chance to make a variety of different herbal glycerin soaps. The range of sizes, shapes, colors, and scents were a marvel to behold. In addition to the soap base, we used scented oils and wide range of fresh and dried herbal materials.
Oct. 10	Regular monthly meeting	Sampling the fruits of our herb-infused oils After learning to make herb-infused cooking oils last month, we shared stories of our experiments and samples of the dishes we prepared with the oils we made. Some of the stories had happier and more successful endings than others, but all the food samples were wonderful. We had a great time and brain-stormed a whole list of fun things to do in 2013. — You won’t want to miss any of them.
Sept. 12	Regular monthly meeting	Preparing herb-infused oils Using a variety of oils (canola, olive, and grapeseed) and herbs, we learned two ways of making herb-infused oils: the hot oil method and the cold-infusion method. Click here for the directions. We also learned that some herb-infused oils can be used as a dipping sauce for flat bread as well as for cooking. Here’s the recipe for a garlic-infusion that does such double duty.
Aug. 22	Members only social	Herb-Infused Wine Tasting and Potluck Dinner Thanks for hosting a marvellous event, Mary Ann. Spanish wine infused with thyme and lime was our favorite, and Cabernet Sauvignon infused with rosemary, spearmint and lemon rind was the most controversial. But, we all agreed that each of the potluck dishes was delightful. We capped our meal with Karen�s apple mint tea and our evening with juleps using Grace’s Kentucky mint syrup.
July	No meeting	Summer break
June 10	Field trip	Visit to the Jaybird Farms’ Lavender Farm Thanks to Vivian Pfankuch, the owner and manager of Jaybird Farms, we spent a wonderful Sunday touring her lavender fields, enjoying an herbally-delicious lunch, and shopping for plants and home-made goodies in the farm store. For a more thorough description, see Grace’s thoughts in The Garden of Grace.
April 18	Members-only dinner and workshop	Metal-Stamped Garden Name Tags Therese graciously hosted us for a wonderful light meal and a tour of her herb garden that left several of us salivating over her custom-built potting bench. We also literally hammered out unique and customized plant stakes for our own herb gardens and had such a great offsite, social affair that we hope to do something very similar next month.
March 8	Regular monthly meeting	The 2012 Herb of the Year – Roses Members shared information about taking cuttings and propagating roses as well as interesting recipes for using rose petals in sugars, vinegars, oils, waters and scrubs. Everyone went home with some cut roses with aromatic petals so we could experiment with our new recipes.
Feb. 9	Regular monthly meeting	Seed Starting We shared tips on starting seeds, made newspaper pots in which to start them, and began to experiment with Jello as a seed-starting booster. (Click here for the source of Therese’s milk jug idea; Grace’s Jello instructions will also soon be online.) We also divvied up some pesto-perfect, leftover seeds and planned a couple of field trips for later in the year.
Jan. 12	Regular monthly meeting	2012 Planning Session Canceled due to ice storm.