The journey began with a cool very early morning ride to pick up Susie in Sherburne NY. We had to deal with bouts of thick fog and I mean thick. We grabbed Susie and headed on our way to PA. once we finally arrived in PA you can tell the difference because they appear to be cleaner and less densely populated then NY. What beautiful scenery; mountains and hill sides plenty of wilderness.
Our first stop was to "
The Rosemary House and Garden" In Mechanicsburg PA; WOW what a beautiful shop. from the front you couldn't imagine the jewel of a garden they had in the back. The build was sort of like those brown stones in NY but a tad smaller (height wise), but very quaint. The store is a Tea cup & Herb heaven with some antique thing mixed right in. It was beautiful. After purchasing my list of stuff that I intended on buying I also left with a beautiful poster that kinda of reminds me of Beatrix Potter type artistry.
Tourist Susie! (Goat Lady Soaps)
Pretending to be shy girl Tina (my Sister)
Antique Tea cup pose! (Tina, Susie, & myself)
So we head back out on the road toward our main destination with our goods in hand, and continue to enjoy the scenery. We had to go through tunnels in the mountain side (3 times) WOW they where huge! A little nerve wracking but neat as well. Finally we arrive to the campsite in Somerset PA and take a look see at the bunkers. Meet up with Tina Sams & Maryann Schwartz (Sisters) whom had be freshening up the bunkers and waiting a couple hours. Well the bunkers weren't what I expected BUT they had beds unlike a different cabin in North-western corner of PA whom only had rooms and no cots, just floors. SO that being said everything else was kinda cool, and Grace (keeper of campsite) is very sweet.
The lovely Bunker house!
A Glimpse of the room
From there we went to our Friday night dinner get together at
Pine Grill; which was a blast and very filling. The dinner included The Wills' (Barb, Fred, & Children), Debbi, Diane, Tina S., Maryann, ?, Susie, Tina K., and myself. We ate well, laughed well, and reluctantly had to end so we could go back and get our stuff in cabin and too sleep for weed walk next day.
The weed walk was upon us and we thought we where making great time when we realized we didn't get the actual location of weed walk and ended up at
Sugar Grove the Will's Store. lol
Luckily Susie had ask Tina S. for a contact number so we weren't late. We left at 5 am Friday so we didn't receive the actual directions before we left, and didn't think to double check Friday at dinner.
Small portion of wills Feary Garden in Front yard
The Will's have beautiful property. You are greated with a lush lawn and a beautiful herb/rock (Feary Garden) garden and they have a great house. They had everything set up so we can see demo's in the comfort of the shade. Our first demo was wild edibles presented by Tina & Maryann.
Tina Sams, Maryann Schwartz, Fred Will & Barb Will (and children) at Demo table.
They are so comical and packed full of info; they feed off each other and don't miss a beat. You know quick witted... Then there was a quick break and then our 2hr. trip Around the Wills property Guided by Fred Will (See Pic Below) to do wild plant identification.
Fred Wills
This is a very humble gentleman whom has generation knowledge that he shared. Meaning it has been passed down from generation to generation, and he is willing to share with the public. How generous of him. He showed us numerous plants some I knew, some I have seen, and some I had no clue what they where. So I truly walked away from this event with added info. After the Weed walk we came back and had lunch and the menu consisted of: Gazpacho (Cold Veggie soup), Salad with wild flowers water cress & Balsamic Vinegar Oil dressing, Stone oven baked (outdoors) homemade dinner rolls, Dill Butter, Sloppy Joes, Tea berry (Wintergreen) Cold tea!! To finish up that great meal (Thanks to Barb Will and her Children); Deb(?) made two different berry sauces (Raspberry, Blackberry) drizzled over angel cake! YUMMY I should have taken photos sorry. It was beautiful.
The Next Presentation was Tincturing by Susanna Reppert Brill of
Rosemary House & Garden and I loved it. Very informational, we got to taste test the fruits of her labor. She even shared the difference in how her husband makes it and how the simpler makes it. I love that. She even demoed making boneset tincture (which I'm going to make some myself) which she picked fresh at weed walk, and showed us her tools of trade and a picture of her hubbies tools of trade.
Barb Will talking to Susanna Reppert Brill
After Susanna's presentation Fred finished things up with a great test on folklore relating to plants and we all had a great time doing this. We knew some and learned a lot! We then broke away and went shopping at the vendors tables (Sorry didn't get pictures of them) There where: Jellies, Maple roasted nuts, Soaps, Shataki mushroom logs, beeswax, beeswax candles, Books, tinctures, ?, More tinctures, bugoff spray, balms, books, jewelery, and candy being sold; there was also beautiful hand made plaques, platters, with real plant imprinted in them and hand painted of clay. Yes I did put duplicates because I was listing by table.
After Fred happily helped people get diggings of plants and things to stick them in we all headed off to where ever we came from. Well except my Sister, Susie, & myself. We went back to cabin cooled down and then went to see the memorial site of Flight 93, and a covered bridge before returning to cabin with food too play Wildcraft game by the Gallagher's of
HerbMentor.com. We had a blast and as it got later we got giddier and where on a natural not enough sleep high lol. Might post picture here soon of us playing.
Sunday we packed up and returned home!
What a great trip. Thank Will Family for everything we had a great time and lots of fun!! Thank you Tina Sams, Maryann Schwartz, Susanna Reppert Brill, & Fred Will for all the Demo's, Weed walk, & Folklore quizes they where AWESOME.
