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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. 

Lavender Fair 2008: Love & Learn 
Saturday, June 28th.  Put it on your calendar!
Admission:  $5/person, $10/family (one car)

 

Menu 

Order Gourmet Luncheon Now 
or phone (304) 269-7681 or mail to La Paix Herb Farm, 3052 Crooked Run Rd., Alum Bridge, WV 26321.
$27. each by check or money order:  $28.
by credit card (link above or by phone)
(reservations limited)

Root Vegetable Salad with Baby Carrots,
Radish, Fennel, Celery Root and Beet Greens
Sherry Vinaigrette
____

Summer Tomato Salad and Green Bean Salad
Extra Virgin Olive Oil, La Paix Pesto and
Balsamic Vinegar
____

Dale Hawkins will return for his 6th year of catering the Lavender Fair. 

Sweet Onion Fougasse with Tapenade
Herbes de Provence Butter
___

Butter Roasted Herb Chicken
June Vegetable Ragout
Gratin Dauphinoise Potatoes
Celery Root Lasagna
___

Cherry Almond Tart
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
______
Mint & Lavender Iced Tea
Complimentary Wine served with full luncheon

$27./person plus sales tax (4%)
Order Gourmet Luncheon Now
Cancellations after June 25th will not be reimbursed.
To mail reservations ($28./person), send to:
La Paix Herb Farm
3052 Crooked Run Rd.
Alum Bridge, W.V. 26321

Reservations limited to 100 people.

There will also be a Food Booth serving Pesto Puffs, Chicken and Vegetarian Wraps and
Beverages ala carte. 

 

 

 

Maureen Rogers of the Herb Growing
and Marketing Network
will return in 2008 to speak on "Calendula, Herb of the Year 2008".

The Lavender Cookie Contest will stimulate your taste buds and earn the winner $25. and fame on the La Paix website!


Bob Maslowski,* PhD,  will return again to take you through La Paix's woods in search of the edible mushroom!

Dot Montgillion, Smoke Camp Crafts, will return in 2008 to talk on Medicinal Herbs.
Photo by Mike Costello

And I'll be back (Myra, The Steward of La Paix) to enjoy the love and laughter and wisdom this Fair seems to engender in all who attend.
Photo by Mike Costello

Melissa Dennison of Garden Treasures will return to give her very popular workshops: Making Lavender Wands and Making Lavender Soap - and I hope her booth of plants, lavender and soap will be sold out again.  She was very happy last year!

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bonnie McKeown of Barrel House Bonni fame will energize you and entertain you with her Boogie Woogie Blues - from Chicago via Charleston WV!

 

 

 

 
   

Places to Stay:
Water Gap Retreat
Stonewall Resort

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 
Order Gourmet Luncheon Now

Lavender Cookie
Contest!

Bring your recipe, your
cookies
and let us know you are
coming!   Email us.

SCHEDULE OF DEMOS, WORKSHOPS, TALKS,
WALKS & EVENTS on  June 28th

 LAVENDER FAIR AND MORE 2008
  La Paix Herb Farm, Alum Bridge , West Virginia

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)
 
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**
 



 
11:30- 11:45
 
Lavender Cookie
Recipe Contest
Silver Labyrinth Walk Pamela Martino
11:30 - Noon
 
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

 

 
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  
       

*Robert F. Maslowski, PhD (Wild Mushroom Walk)
Bob Maslowski, BA psychology Holy Cross College, Ph D. Anthropology/Archeology University of Pittsburgh. Archeologist, US Army Corps of Engineers, Huntington (Retired). Has done extensive work in the Ohio Valley and worked in Israel, Cyprus, Vietnam and Laos. Adjunct Professor, Marshall University Graduate College. Teaches Appalachian Courses and a survey course in Food and Culture which includes a mushroom walk on our 140 acre farm in Milton. Grows shiitake mushrooms and makes a wide variety of award winning wines.
Selected Publications

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.
1989  Prehistoric People of the
Kanawha Valley: Resource Guide. Sunrise Museum, Charleston, West Virginia.

Professional Organizations American Anthropological Association (Life) Society for American Archaeology (Life) West Virginia Archeological Society (Life) West Virginia Historical Society (Life)
West Virginia Academy of Science (Life) Virginia Archeological society (Life) Southeast Archeological Conference (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.

 

This Letter to the Editor appeared in the July 4th, 2007edition of the weekly Weston Democrat

Lavender Fair Thrills Visitor

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
Tridelphia, W.V.

Directions to La Paix: Please do not visit before the Fair - let us prepare!

1.  From Interstate 79
2.  Take Exit 99

3.  Turn left to Weston
4.  Go through Weston
to Route 33 West
5.  Drive approximately
15 miles on Rt. 33 W
to Alum Bridge
6.  (landmarks:  Alum Bridge School on left)
7.  Continue on Rt. 33W
about 2 miles to
8.  Crooked Run Rd.
on left (sign on right)
9.  Turn left over concrete
bridge on Crooked Run
10.  Travel 2-l/2 miles
to first left (signs will
be there)
11.  Turn left, continue about
1 mile to Parking
and Registration
12.  You are here!
Welcome~

 

Lavender Fair 2007, 2006, 2005 2004

 

Web Site Design by

Myra Bonhage-Hale, Steward, La Paix Herb Farm

 

Alum Bridge, West Virginia, 26321


 (304) 269-7681
email us

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