Written by Richard White

Once upon a time there was a farmer and his wife who grew a lot of herbs. They lived on an island, on the West Coast of Canada. The business was closed during the winter months, which meant that they had more time to see friends; nothing could be finer than sharing food and conversation in front of a crackling log fire.

Because they entertained a lot, the farmer spent many a time in his garden looking for herbs to use in the kitchen. He really enjoyed cooking, so it gave him great pleasure to wander around the herbs, as often they would tell him what to cook. He could almost hear the individual plants pleading to be used in that evening’s menu; choose me, choose me, they would whisper, as he passed by. He comforted the plants by reassuring them that eventually they would all be used.

In order to maintain fairness in the garden (and be politically correct) he tried hard not to have favorites. However sorrel was one of the herbs that he secretly coveted, it’s large, sour tasting, green leaves were perfect for soup; blended with spinach, onions and some stock it soon produced a steaming bowl of goodness. It also liked to be finely shredded and added in small amounts to a salad, where it hid amongst the dull winter lettuce ready to surprise the eater with its sharp lemon flavour.

Thyme plants of all shapes and sizes were dotted around his garden, some were stronger flavoured and used in robust soups and stews, and others had a pleasant aroma of lemons and were often used at the last moment with steamed shellfish. Sometimes the thyme was infused with butter and drizzled over pasta with grilled vegetables.

At the far end of the garden was an area covered with a plastic tunnel; here the farmer experimented to see which annuals would keep growing through the winter. In a mild year he found that cilantro did very well. He had even harvested it on Xmas day to add to a salsa. At other times it was used in couscous, or curry recipes from Asia. A part of the world, where he had worked in his younger days. Dill also grew well in the covered area and was proud to be harvested and used in ‘gravlax’, a Scandinavian dish of cured salmon. This was a favourite dish of the farmers’ friends.

The farmer had a particular passion for Melissa, commonly called Lemon Balm. Her leaves endured longer than most others and were very comforting mixed with hot water and enjoyed as a tea. Sometimes he would find small amounts of mint leaves and add them to the pot alongside her.

A fine looking Bay tree graced his property; it was ten years old now and allowed to stay outside all winter long. Many a slow cooked dish was enhanced with its unusual fragrance. This particular herb was an exception to the rule and only released its flavour when cooked for a long time. He was very happy to have such a fine tree to supply fresh leaves as the dried variety had very little taste.

The farmer had a good life, and after a winter of reading books and eating fine meals, looked forward to the spring where the plants renewed and the miracle of nature continued.

Written by Others

The following is information that appeared in an article witten by Goody Niosi about us in "Great Food Ideas," a supplement to the Nanaimo Free Press. The article was written in November of 1997. Many thanks to the Free Press for permission to reprint the article!

Hazelwood Herb Farm is in Yellowpoint, just off Cedar Road. The farm is open Wednesday to Sunday and visitors are welcome to stroll along the paths past meticulously groomed, raised beds, to shop for plants in the seedling house, to browse through the shop for specialty vinegars, oils, mustards, jellies and soaps and to rub noses with Saffron, the yellow Lab.

Jacynthe Dugas and Richard White are the husband and wife team who created this herbal paradise 11 yars ago. Their production garden contains over 450 varieties of herbs. "Actually, some of them aren't even in the garden yet," Jacynthe says. "We haven't managed to find the room. I'll keep them in the greenhouse until the spring when I hope I have another bed ready for them."

Jacynthe and Richard grow all the culinary herbs and supply many of them to restaurants in Nanaimo. "But we also grow lots of medicinal herbs," she adds. "And we use them to make healing creams. The most popular herbs right now are basil for cooking and echinacea for boosting the immune system."

Richard is the chef in the family. He loved to cook even as a young man in England. Richard had a small garden when they lived in Nanaimo and he discovered the delight of cooking with fresh herbs. It dawned on them that they should make a living doing something they both enjoyed and they decided to take the plunge and create a herb farm. They put in hard work and long hours.

"But we're successful now because we're doing what we want to do. We're never going to be rich but we knew that from the beginning," Jacynthe says.

Jacynthe loves the healing herbs. "I enjoy chamomile. I've been experimenting with skin care creams and I've also been making soap with chamomile."

Richard, on the other hand, loves basil and rosemary. "Rosemary and lamb; a marriage made in heaven," he laughs. Richard spends many hours in his kitchen making basil paste, mustards, herb butters, oils and vinegars and running a cooking school.

"We can take 12 people at a time. We do everything from soup to salad to a main course and dessert. Basically, we're teaching people how to cook using fresh herbs."

Richard is eager to point out some of the more unusual and exotic herbs that he grows. "Some of these herbs are enjoying a resurgence but they have a history and they've had uses for hundreds and hundreds of years. This plant here, Chaste Tree, today its a popular medicinal plant but in the past, the seeds were ground up and made into a condiment and it was used in Monasteries to reduce libido. The old-fashioned name is Monk's Pepper."

And is it used for the same purpose today? Richard shakes his head, "I don't have too many monks come here asking for it."

He points to the Lady's Mantle. "This was used in pagan rituals to keep away demons. A lot of these plants go back thousands of years. We have Rue. It was used centurie ago in Europe. At the time of the plague people would go around robbing the bodies of the dead and they put rue into a vinegar they concocted. It was called Four Thieves' vinegar and they believed that if they splashed this vinegar all over their bodies before robbing the dead, it would give them immunity from the plague.

"Wormwood," Richard points out, "was used in a drink called absinthe and it's toxic in large amounts." Farther along the plant beds there's a plant called Joe Pye-weed, named after a native American Indian who used the plant to break the fever of people who had typhus.

And there's Marshmallow. The roots were used to make the original marshmallow. "This huge one here, that's about 20 feet tall, is the Black Mulberry. It grows about six feet a year," Richard says.

Back inside the kitchen, Richard process his famous basil paste. He freezes this and has the ingredients for frozen pesto sauce to use year round: 1/4 tub of basil paste 1/4 - 1/3 cup olive oil 2 - 4 cloves garlic 1/3 - 12 cup parmesan cheese 1/2 cup chopped parsley 2 - 4 Tbsps pine nuts (or walnuts or pecans or almonds)

Process all ingredients except nuts in a food processor or a blender. Add oil and process until smooth. Add the nuts and cheese and process a few seconds. You can thin it and stretch it out by adding oil, pasta water, chicken stock or whipping cream.

Richard says that pesto sauce is wonderful on pasta. "And it's really nice in bread. You make a loaf of French bread, roll it out, spread it with pesto and then roll it back up. It makes a very special loaf of bread."

Richard goes through his mental file of favourite recipes. "I really like rosemary with lamb," he says. "But the trick is to use the herbs in the last stages of cooking. Fresh herbs don't last very long. They have volatile oils and the heat just releases them. When people use herbs the old fashioned way and put them in at the beginning of the cooking process they find the kitchen smells wonderful - that's because the oils have all come off - but the taste is disappointing."

"So, take your lamb chops and broil or barbecue them until they're about a minute away from being ready. Then put a bit of Dijon mustard on them with some freshly chopped rosemary mixed up in it and a bit of freshly ground black pepper. That's it. Simple as that," Richard says.

And I like to cook with our homemade jellies. A lot of people buy these jellies and take them home and have them on crackers with cream cheese. I try to encourage people to be a bit more creative. If they like pork, they can make pork chops with thyme and plum jelly:"