I wanted to blog about our trip to Jekka's Herb Farm near Bristol on Monday, coz Celiwe wasn't there and if I don't do it, it'll probably get lost in the annals of time, and I'll forget, like I forgot about Becky and I jumping up and down to catch a glimpse of Orlando Bloom at the Pirates of the Caribbean premier in Leicester Square back in 2003.
The farm is run by a woman called Jekka McVicar and she's been growing herbs for about 25 years. She's won something like 17 gold medals from the Royal Horticultural Society and won an award at the Chelsea Garden Show last year as well, which is quite an achievement considering she won for a herb garden!
Sameer's colleague Mpumi is planning on starting a herb farm with his wife. They're hoping to preserve some of the indigenous plants that are used for medicinal purposes and at the same time, transfer skills to people in the Eastern Cape, and also help boost the economy in the area as well.
So we went to see Jekka,who Mpumpi met at Kirstenbosch last year when she was doing a lecture tour. Her farm is just outside Bristol so it was a three hour drive from here but I didn't really feel it, I slept the whole way there.
We got there and went in to the little pre-fab building next to the stone cottage and chatted to Jekka about herb farming. Well, lets just say I don't know anything about it! Respect to Jekka! There's so much you have to consider when sourcing your plants, propagating them, gathering and cleaning seeds, tending seedlings, controlling the environment for optimum sun, optimum light, optimum water and having integrated pest management so you don't have to use pesticides and deciding what kind of soil, what kind of compost, what kind of nutrients you want to use and on and on. And on!
So, I'll skip the rest and just post pictures. Coz really, it was teh pretties! Too bad I didn't get a picture of Jekka's dog, Hampton. He was soooo big and sooo gentle. Really adorable. Made me want to get a dog.
Oh, other than these two, there are a couple more pics on my Flickr site if anyone's interested.
3 comments:
I've been wanting to see Ugly Betty too, but I think it's on the one channel we just can't get reception for here :( It seems like a fun & quirky show, though, from what I've seen.
We bought a little Basil plant in the shop, but then we discovered it had died over the weekend. I got to use it in a total of two dishes. At least it was tasty, but I guess we'll stick to the prepackaged stuff from now on.
Dude - I also bought a load of herbs when we were still at the house last year, and they also all died within a matter of weeks! Must be some secret herby thing we are not doing correctly. My aunties and my best friend's mum have herbs growing like mad around their houses and they just use it to cook with all the time, so there must be a way. I just don't know what it is!
Perhaps if it's grown from a seed in the garden, it'll survive better than if it's been bought in a shop and stays in its container? I shall have to experiment with this one day when I have a garden :)
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