Creativity with Edible Flowers

The newest issue of TeaTime Magazine is hitting newsstands right now, including tea rooms, gift shops (yes, even The Rosemary House), and mailboxes near you. This May/June 2018 issue includes an article written by our very own Susanna Reppert Brill entitled 'A Feast of Flowers'. Susanna shares hints and tips on how to incorporate edible flowers into your afternoon tea menu both as colorful garnish or flavorful additions to tea bread or floral butters. As a subtle nod to our 50th anniversary, she even included mom's famous rose petal sandwiches! When The Rosemary House was first opened, our mother would host tea parties in the garden, free of charge, to local women's clubs and church groups in an effort to promote the business. She would serve herbal tea of course (hot or iced depending upon the season), fresh strawberries with vanilla powdered sugar, sesame crackers made using Waverly Wafers, and rose petal sandwiches. To this day, they are still served in the tea room on special occasions. We are so pleased to be included in this nationwide magazine. Kudos to Susanna!

Did you know we have an Online Guest Book where you can share your personal memory 

about The Rosemary House, how you knew mom, or what herbs mean to you. 

Please stop by and leave us a special note!

Nevertheless She Persisted

          

         No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn. ~Hal Borland

Think Spring!

It's time to get serious... time to think spring.... with this beautiful Royal Albert Bone China tea cup and saucer from England. This pretty hand painted cup is one of a set of twelve, the Flower of the Month Series. It certainly evokes thoughts of springtime violets. We eagerly anticipate their appearance in the garden. We know they are ready to spring forth!

Time to Dig Out!

The recipe for snow ice cream, that is! A spring nor'easter dumped over a foot of snow in our area today. It feels like a winter's worth of the white stuff in just one day. Once the shoveling is done, it's time to make some snow ice cream!

Snow Ice Cream

1 c. evaporated milk
1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
7 c. clean fresh snow

Combine milk, sugar, and vanilla. Quickly beat in the snow until consistency is similar to ice cream. Serve with your favorite toppings and enjoy!

Roastmary!!

The #1 one product that just flies off the shelves at The Rosemary House is our very own ROASTMARY®. This was one of the first seasonings on our shelves and it was, and still is, a winner! Our mother's dearest friend Teresa Kuentz, was an excellent cook with an Italian heritage who always used garlic, salt, pepper and rosemary in her cooking. That winning combination formed the basis for this timeless seasoning. My mother (saving on the cost of long distance calls) would write to Teresa and ship a batch of the blend for tasting and tweaking. Teresa would then phone with an instruction - more rosemary, or less salt, or more pepper, and another batch would be made and sent off for the taste test, until finally, she had her dear friends stamp of approval. 

We are proud to say Roastmary has now been sold in all 50 states, 14 countries and counting. It's perfect for chicken, pork roasts, baked potatoes, even garlic bread. We've been told it is delicious on everything except perhaps ice cream!

As part of our 50th Anniversary celebration for The Rosemary House, we honor these two remarkable women with their strong bond of friendship that has exceeded 50 years. They shared an amazing love and enthusiasm coupled with energy, inspiration, and creativity that spilled over into all their endeavors. We were blessed to learn life's lesson's from these amazing women.

Bertha and Teresa (L) shared smiles, laughter and busy hands when they were together.

Roastmary Biscuits

2 C flour

4 t baking powder

½ t Roastmary

4 T shortening

¾ C milk

Combine dry ingredients, cut in shortening and blend in the milk.  Knead a few times. Pat out to ½ inch thickness and cut with biscuit cutter.  Bake 12-15 minutes at 450 degrees.

Roasted Cauliflower

1 large hard of cauliflower

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 Tbsp. Roastmary

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.  Cut fresh cauliflower into small florets.  Toss cauliflower, olive oil, and Roastmary in a shallow baking pan.  Roast for 12 to 15 minutes, or until tender. Serve Warm.

Yes, we do mail order! Order Roastmary here!

Happy St. Patrick's Day Tea!

Our St. Patrick's Day celebration in the tea room featured a festive shamrock laden tea. The day began with a Leafy Green Salad topped with fresh basil, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, honey balsamic vinaigrette and a crispy buttery shamrock toast.

Next up, the sandwich course that included:

Farmhouse Chicken Salad Sandwich, Fresh springtime rolled Asparagus Sandwich, Heirloom brown bread with pure Kerrygold Irish butter, Turkey & Havarti Cheese with parsley shallot mayonnaise, and a Miniature Reuben with corned beef and Swiss cheese.

The next course included a wee bit of a Shamrock Shaped Scone and Cranberry Orange Irish Soda Bread. This was served with sweet cream, lemon curd, raspberry preserves, and an assortment of fresh fruit.









Desserts, plated in the kitchen, ready to be served, included a medley of shamrocks. There was a Lucky Leprechaun Green Velvet Cake, The Luck of the Irish Mint Frosted Brownie, and a Good Luck! Good Cheer! Shamrock Sugar Cookie.








Following the tea, Karen Donnelly of Greenhalgh Tea and The Orchard Tea Room presented a program on the history of tea in Ireland. After her presentation, she gifted everyone in attendance with a recipe for Donegal Seedy Bread (from the Complete Book of Irish Country Cooking) and a sample of Irish Breakfast tea. As she noted in her program, the Irish enjoy a strong, bold, hearty black tea. This blend of CTC black tea from Assam, Kenya and Rwanda certainly fits that description.





We proudly wore our green for the day. Angelica shows off her prowess of carrying 6 teapots at a time. Note: this is at the end of the day, during clean up, when the pots are empty and have cooled down. None of us have mastered the skill of carrying this many tea pots when they are full and piping hot!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 
May the luck of the Irish be with you!

Was MYOB, Now the Fairy Corner

This ad appeared in the Mechanicsburg High School newspaper in 1969. MYOB at the time stood for "Mind your own Business" (or Beeswax) but at The Rosemary House it stood for My Own Business. Under mom's guidance, this was the little enterprise the sisters had in The Rosemary House. Tucked under a stairwell, it was the perfect amount of space for the young Reppert girls to learn the ins-and-outs of maintaining a business. We sold patches with peace signs, love beads, large colorful tissue paper flowers which Marj made and then carried to school where orders had been taken from other students, incense, posters and other fun teenager items. 

Once Susanna, Nancy and Marj were no longer teenagers, the area transformed into quality little toys, perfect stocking stuffers and goodies for moms and grandmas to select. Now it has transitioned once again and is our fairy corner. Filled with fairies, stickers, pixie dust, mermaids, fairy books and coloring books, unicorns, fairy jewelry and many more treasures and trinkets.


Originally a spot where teenagers would hover, it has become the area where the littles make a wish and ask grandma if they can pick something special.



This 1971 high school yearbook ad, placed during Nancy's senior year simply pronounces "The Rosemary House has the best gifts."