July was picnic month for the Herb Guild. The group had a covered dish picnic in the church basement which was a nice cool spot on one of the hottest days of the summer. Karen Reigel presented a program on Bird Baths and Butterfly Puddlers.

 

The Columbia County Bread & Granola Company’s founder, Douglas Michael, was the featured speaker at the Fishing Creek Herb Guild in August. Michael Perakovich, who developed their unique bread product presented a video and spoke on “Sprouted Wheat, the Future of Bread.”

 

Their process ingredients are only sprouted grain, salt and water with a sourdough starter, a bacterial fermentation without commercial yeast. Asked if anyone else in the U.S. or Europe had developed this process, the presenter said this local company’s bread is unique. Last year their flax based granola got national attention when it was featured on Dr. Oz’s television program. Samples of their bread were served during the guild’s buffet.

Margaret Wettling presented an herb study of elderberry, which is the National Herb Association’s Herb of the Year. The buffet included appetizers and desserts with elderberries in addition to other entrees. Recipes will be posted on our recipe page.

 

“A Basic Flower Arranging Primer” will be the presentation by Sandy Hendricks at the September meeting. The herb of the month presentation will be the not-so-familiar herb, bear breeches. October’s presentation will be “Forcing Bulbs”, with an herb study on bittersweet. 

The Herb Guild’s Garden of the Month features new photo postings of the gardens of John Shott, president of the guild, in Plymouth. Photographs of wonderful private Bloomsburg gardens from a garden walk in July led by Deb Baigis can be viewed on the Home page.