Zataar

Another culinary delight from the Middle East was this container of Zataar. Most of the herbs are powdered in this blend, so it's not as easy to distinguish as the Bedouin Tea which had whole herbs and spices. But, a little Internet research shows that oregano, marjoram, wild thyme, and sesame seeds are the common herbs found in this mix. However, it looks like there are as many variations on this mix as there are cooks and the combination of herbs was often kept secret even among family members. My sister shares that while on their vacation, they were served bread alongside a shallow bowl of oil blended with these herbs. Tasty!

Bedouin Tea

Our sister and brother-in-law journeyed to the Middle East this past February for an adventure of a lifetime. The Holy Lands beckoned them, and they went as part of their on-going 50th Anniversary celebrations, experiencing camel rides, the pyramids, and desert adventures. Periodically, photos were sent long distance, both to share the experience and to allay concerns while they traveled to such a foreign land. 

One such adventure included taking tea in a Bedouin tent. These nomadic people, known for their hospitality, delight in making and drinking tea over an open fire in the desert. Shown here, Carrie and Phil are enjoying Bedouin Tea in Wadi Rum in Jordan. 

Prepared in a metal kettle over an open fire, a variety of indigenous herbs and spices are tossed into the kettle to boil and brew before serving. How lucky to be gifted with a container of Bedouin tea from one of the fabulous markets they visited. Slivers of Lemon Grass, large sections of cinnamon bark, chunks of ginger root, cloves, and beautiful whole pieces of Star Anise coupled with green cardamon pods, create a delicious fragrant pot pourri of herbs and spices harvested from the desert.

This chilly April day, feeling more like winter than spring, inspired me to brew a batch of the tea, on the cook top, not over an open fire alas. Tossing a handful of the herbs and spices into the pot, I boiled it for about 15 minutes to release the essential oils. The fragrance permeated the air. The warm spicy brew was comforting and flavorful - a delicious lemon flavored spiced herbal tea. The lemon grass was predominate and the spices lingering in taste. Perfect!

Special thanks to Carrie and Phil for sharing their adventure!

Fairy Festival Flashbacks

Looking back at the early years of our Fairy Festival when we were excited to welcome 30 kids ! Over the years, we have had so much fun playing in the garden and dressing up.

The fairy festival is a very magical event for all who attend and all who believe.

 Posie's Queen of the May costume.  A fan favorite. Posie's costumes have changed over the years - always elaborate.

Nancy creates amazing treats. In the early years of the festival, the treat table was 'self serve' and based on the honor system. Fairy cakes continue to be a popular fairy festival yummy!

 Now the fairy festival has grown and is throughout the gardens and sprawls into the back alley.

Fairy Rose and her children have danced and played with us over the years. As time marches on, some of her family of fairies, elves, and jesters have grown up and are now married.

 

Do you have memories of the Fairy Festival to share with us? Please share!

Mark your calendar for this year's event, September 8th and 9th, 2018. See you there! For details, visit our website,





This little fairy is off to college in September! How did that happen?

Victorian Hair Art

One of our special events in early 2018 featured "Victorian Hair Art". Our presenter, Lucy Cadwallader  learned about this art form through her involvement with Civil War Reenacting. It was quite common to save a lock or length of a loved ones hair before they went off to fight the war.

Small brooches or lockets could be made with the basket weave woven pieces of hair.  Gentlemen would have pocket watch chains created out of hair. Large family heirlooms could be made with pieces of hair from multiple family members. 

Lucy brought this "Remembrance" bracelet, created to remember Queen Victoria, to display at Sweet Remembrances.

Onion Skin Dyed Eggs

Happy Easter! Our family tradition includes onion skin dyed eggs as part of our festivities. And this year was no exception.















Simply place the eggs and onion skins in a large pot, cover with water and bring the eggs to a boil. Once a rollicking boil has been reached, cover the pot, turn off the burner, remove from the head, and allow the eggs to sit in the pan for about 25 minutes. Drain and run under cold water. You will have a lovely natural dyed mahogany brown egg.

 









The eggs are nestled among natural straw in a wooden bowl.They will grace our Easter table as we carry on the family traditions.

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."