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The Fair will have the usual wonderful gourmet food, crafts, workshops and walks and talks on using herbs for crafts, culinary and medicinal purposes, organic gardening, wild edibles, wild mushrooms, massage etc. It takes place in the beautiful and peaceful country setting known as La Paix Herb Farm, which was recently named a National Historic Landmark. (May/Kraus Homestead) To order gourmet luncheon, click here. Please note that those pre-registering for the luncheon will be served first, to assure that they receive the full luncheon.
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Places to Stay: Water Gap Retreat |
| Stonewall Resort |
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Booths to date
March 8, 2008: 1. Maureen Rogers, Herb World (cd's
of Herbalpedia, Herb Business information,
2. Peter Gail,
Dandy-Lion King, Books, dandelion tea,
wild edibles, 3. Melissa Dennison, Garden Treasures (plants,
soaps), 4. Michelle McCune, Briarwood in the Mountains
(Aromatherapy), 5. So-Lux
Candles, 6. La Paix Herb Farm Shop,
Passionate Gardener's Hand
Cream, Paintings of La Paix, Lavender
Hydrosol and more., 7. Dot Montgillion WV Herb
Association, cookbooks, information,
8. Smoke Camp Crafts, plants, teas,
herbs, 9. WV
Environmental Council, environmental
information, 10. The Maslowski's, Mud River Pottery
pottery, homemade
wine samples, Wild Mushroom CD's),
11. Bill Church (wild
plants CD's), 12. Mike Davis, Water Gap Retreat (shibori fabric),
13. W.V. Sustainable
Community Project,**** 14.
dorismelott@earthlink.net quilts, recycled fabric
creations, 15. Amanda's Photos, 16. Art Digman's Wild West artifacts,
jewelry and dowsing
instruments, Sadly, Art died in
April 2008 while dowsing for treasure on his annual winter trip
to the Far West. He will be sorely missed for he was a
very important part of the Fair and my life. His kindness,
his skill and his loving personality were unique. 17. Bonnett Run
Basketry, 18. Mike Plybon and
student, Massage, 19. Rose Wirtz,
Earth Jewels, Unique, hand made Semi
Previous Gem Stone Jewelry and 20. Sandy Perine,
Tree House Herbals 33 organic herbal
products for body and bath. 21. Holly Hinkle, The
Hillbilly Artist,
fun, creative, joyful sculptures from
recycled wood, as well as loving musical creatures painted on
wood. Art that will make your soul smile! 22.
The Beautiful Byway. The
Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike 23. Patrick Fair Trade
Booth 24. Barrel House Bonni McKeown will sell her
CD's and Charleston Blues Society T Shirts http:www//barrelhousebonnie.com
Lavender Cookie |
SCHEDULE OF DEMOS, WORKSHOPS, TALKS,
WALKS & EVENTS on June 28th
La Paix Herb Farm,
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Time |
Workshop/Walk |
Workshop/Walk |
Demonstration |
| 9:30- 10:15 a.m. |
Dot Montgillion Smoke Camp Crafts Medicinal Herbs |
Robert F. Maslowski,
PhD Wild Edible Mushroom Walk (bio below) |
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| 10:30- 11:15 a.m. |
Make Your Own Basket with Carol Ross of Bonnett Run Basketry $6./each | Peter A. Gail, PhD.** Wild Edible Plants -"Dinner at Your Doorstep" Walk & Talk bio and description below** |
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| 11:30- 11:45 |
Lavender Cookie Recipe Contest |
Silver Labyrinth Walk Pamela Martino 11:30 - Noon |
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| Noon - 1:30 p.m. |
Gourmet Luncheon | Dale Hawkins, Executive Chef,
Stonewall Resort Culinary Demonstration |
11:45 - 12:15 Bonnie McKeown with Boogie Woogie Blues |
| 1:00- 1:45 p.m. |
Marie Koon, Apprentice 2007 Essential Oil Distillation & Growing Lavender |
Maureen Rogers: Herb Gardening and Marketing Network The Herb of the Year: Calendula
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| 2:00- 2:45 p.m. |
Melissa Dennison: Making Lavender Wands $2. each |
Bill Church***: The Five Voices of the Birds - Walk and Talk | |
| 3:00- 3:45 p.m. |
Melissa Dennison: Making Lavender Soap |
Geoff Kraus, Chef, (tentative) Restaurant 88: Culinary Demonstration: Lavender Creme Brule. |
3 p.m. - Bonnie McKeown with Boogie Woogie Blues |
| 4:00- 5:00 p.m. |
Dr. Robert Maslowski,PhD: *
Recipes for Wild Edible Mushrooms - Making herbal wines |
Michelle McCune: Meditation under The Psychic Tree | |
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*Robert F. Maslowski, PhD (Wild Mushroom
Walk)
1982 Archeology of the Bluestone Reservation. Proceedings: New River Symposium, pp. 185-194. National Park Service, Oak Hill, West Virginia. 1984
Protohistoric Villages in Southern West Virginia. Upland Archeology
in the East, Symposium 2, pp. 148-165. James Madison University,
Harrisonburg, Virginia.
Professional
Organizations American
Anthropological Association (Life) Society for American Archaeology
(Life) West Virginia Archeological Society (Life) West Virginia
Historical Society (Life) |
| **Program Descriptions and
Bios for Dr. Peter A. Gail’s presentations Dinner at your Doorstep: Making the Invisible Visible Again by Dr. Peter Gail In Matthew 6:24-35, in the Christian New Testament, Christ asks “Why worry about what you will eat or drink, or wear? Don’t I feed the sparrows and clothe the lilies of the field? Aren’t you more important than they? Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you.” This has confused Christians for centuries. For, if He is going to feed us, where IS all that free food? The answer? Right under our feet! Eighty percent of the plants we call weeds are vegetables brought to North America by immigrants as food and medicine. This was often done at the behest of their sponsors, who told them to bring all the plants which are important to them because they were unlikely to find them here. Plants like dandelions, plantain, purslane, and lambsquarters were imported over centuries of time by many different cultures, each of which planted them and used them, and in many cases still use them today. The seeds of these plants escaped, landed where they weren’t known, and got labeled as weeds by those who knew not what they were good for. These traditional wild food plants carried many safely through personal economic, environmental and political crises in the past, and can do it again. They are certainly one very much overlooked answer for helping alleviate hunger. This session reconnects you to these traditional foods and medicines. In this 1 hour presentation, Dr. Gail introduces you to these plants, and to many of the traditional recipes these cultural groups made (and still make) from them. He then shows you what YOU can make from them to delight your family. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES Dr. Peter Gail, USA Today’s “Dandelion King,” and Good Morning America’s “Wizard of Weeds,”is at it again. Not content with creating and operating the National Dandelion Cookoff for ten years,he’s now off on a nationwide campaign to fight hunger with “weeds!” Can you believe it? Come to “Dinner at your Doorstep” and see if you can talk him out of it! Longer, more formal bio Dr. Peter Gail is an ethnobotanist who has been studying how various cultures use backyard weeds for food and medicine for the last 43 years. He received his Ph.D. in Botany from Rutgers University and spent 25 years in University teaching and research. In 1988, he founded Goosefoot Acres Center for Resourceful Living through which he conducts seminars and workshops designed to reawaken and reconnect modern Americans to the resources surrounding them, and teach them how to use these resources to provide for their basic needs. His focus is on the properties of common backyard weeds as food and medicine. ABC’s “Good Morning America” called him “The Wizard of Weeds”; USA Today dubbed him “The King of Dandelions”, but he simply refers to himself as the “Dandy Dude. He is the author of numerous books and articles on creative living and edible wild plants, a popular radio and TV personality, and the founder of the National Dandelion Cookoff,held each year in Dover Ohio. His column, On the Trail of the Volunteer Vegetable, was a popular feature in The Business of Herbs for over 10 years, and appears periodically in The Wild Food Forum. California Polytechnic University’s School of Science in Pomona CA named him its Distinguished Alumnus in 1979, and, in 2002, the National Wild Foods Association inducted him into the National Wild Foods Hall of Fame. |
| ***Bill Church is a
certified WV Master Naturalist and tracker; certified herbalist; writer,
and is a network and computer specialist at Glenville State College. Bill has trained for many years as a tracker, botanist, learning about animals, birds, herbal medicine and other things about nature. He works full time as a Network and Computer Specialist for Glenville State College. He has taken classes from some of the countries most famous Herbalists; (David Winston, Rosemary Gladstar) and from Linda Christen and Ann Romance here in West Virginia. He is of Cherokee and English descent. In 2005 Bill wrote and published “Medicinal Plants, Trees, & Shrubs of Appalachia”, which lists 107 plants from the Appalachian region, especially Gilmer and the surrounding counties. He is Co-coordinator for the Gilmer County Master Naturalist Association and has taught classes on herbal medicine and the Concentric Rings of Nature. Bill is also working on two other books; one is using plants for other uses; such as rope, baskets; etc and the other is on Edible Plants; plus working on articles and videos for John Gallager's Herbal Mentor website on medicinal plants for the Appalachian Region. Bill's website is "www.cherokeehawk.com" (this is a Native American oriented website) and he also does the website for the Gilmer County Master Naturalist Association at: "www.gcmna.com". ****(West Virginia Sustainable Communities Project educational booth on recycling/waste management West Virginia Sustainable Communities Project: Demonstrations will include: easy, no-cost or low-cost opportunities for people at their home or business to save energy and water and reduce waste which will put more money back in their wallets that they would be paying to the utility companies and save our precious environment from pollution. We will be offering conservation products to use at your home or business like compact fluorescent light bulbs, low-flow aerators, and low-flow showerheads. |
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This Letter to the
Editor appeared in the July 4th, 2007edition of the weekly Weston
Democrat To the Editor: It is a truism that the outsider oftentimes compels us to prize our treasures at hand or within ourselves. I am such an outsider to your community, but consider your area a spiritual or second home and seek out any reason to spend time with you. One such occasion was the Lavender Fair at the La Paix Herb Farm on Crooked Run, the hidden jewel of Myra Bonhage-Hale, who considers herself simply as steward of that restored May/Kraus homeplace. Friends near Weston recommended the annual fair. I was more than surprised; delighted at such hospitality, beauty, the overt valuing of the past and noted energy to assure the future. Hundreds gathered from far and near. Gently sheltered booths offered handcrafted products and foods in a random fashion in seemingly uncultivated glades. There were cooking demonstrations featuring many of the herbs growing there - I remember especially the lavender and lemon thyme - all conducted by passionate and interesting persons, some local, such as Geoff Kraus. Your own Dale Hawkins and his team prepared a gourmet buffet that even enticed young people to try and to enjoy "real" food for a change. His genius was praised by all in the crowd. All food is better tasting and more nourishing, I am convinced, when prepared with love. The atmosphere was very much like visiting with friends. Strangers were united by the meal consumed in small groups with others who soon became friends. Table fellowship here was very unique, but fellowship it was, which is always the true nourishment. It is to Myra that credit goes for uniting a deep understanding of our heritage with the cultivation of our hopes to come. This is the gift of this outsider, the vision that she brings to us. News of revamping the convention and visitors bureau has been in the Democrat of late. I do hope the bureau will search out and publicize this rare gift to Lewis County. James F. Mullooly Directions to La Paix: Please do not visit before the Fair - let us prepare!
1. From Interstate 79
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Lavender Fair 2007, 2006, 2005 2004
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Myra Bonhage-Hale, Steward, La Paix Herb Farm
Alum Bridge, West Virginia, 26321
(304) 269-7681
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