The Pennyroyal Herb Club is honoring founding club member Jean Merrell with a memorial bench in the herb garden behind the Ruby Laffoon Log Cabin on Saturday.
Club member Pat Fulkerson said Merrell founded the club in 1993 and soon after started the herb garden at the Laffoon Cabin.
“The intention of the Jean Merrell Memorial Garden is to create a pleasant and educational community garden where visitors can experience culinary and medicinal herb’s of the 1800s,” she said.
Merrell and her fellow gardeners spent days transforming the back of former Kentucky Governor Lafoooon’s childhood log cabin into a garden of living history, said Fulkerson. Herbs were specifically chosen and planted to reflect what would have been used in everyday life by Kentucky homesteaders in the 1800s.
Adrianne McGregor, an herb club member, said Merrell passed away suddenly in 2019 at the age of 86. She said the club was in shock at first, but then decided they wanted to do something to honor her memory.
Because the log cabin belongs to the Historical Society of Hopkins County, the herb club needed to get permission and go through steps to have the bench installed.
“By the time we had all that in place, then COVID happened,” said McGregor.
Fulkerson said once the bench was installed, the garden was refreshed with herbs and plants. She said there are signs that tell the common name, the scientific name and whether the plant is culinary and/or medicinal.
McGregor said there are a lot of plants that were commonly used in western Kentucky in the 1850s that are now considered to be weeds.
“There are some herbs out there that people are familiar with, but I doubt very much that we would have found them in western Kentucky in 1850,” she said. “They were around, but not necessarily here.”
Sally Taylor-Buie, club president, said the garden is to help further the herb education of the club members and their families.
“If you learn about them, you start growing them or buying them and using them if you cook,” she said. “You increase your knowledge of herbs.”
Fulkerson said while the Historical Society owns the cabin, the herb club maintains the garden around it.
Historical Society member Judy Adkins said Merrell was a member of both organizations and took an interest in the upkeep of the log cabin.
“She was interested in history, especially the cabin,” she said.
Adkins said Paul Merrell was an avid organic gardener, and when he married Jean in 1978, she added herb and organic gardening to her interests.
Fulkerson said every member of the club has a special memory of Merrell and her vast knowledge and love for herbs.
Fulkerson and McGregor both credit Merrell for their involvement in the herb club.
“Jean was the backbone,” said Fulkerson. “If you had a question or something you needed to have done, she got it done.”
Adkins gave an example of when the historical society re-did the museum in 2012, all the labels were handwritten on card stock that had yellowed. Merrell went in and wrote down all the labels, then went home and made new labels for the items in the museum.
“So, the label you see in the museum now were made by Jean,” she said.
Merrell also presented herb and organic gardening presentation at conferences, festivals and civic clubs, said Adkins. She also wrote articles on gardening as a freelance writer and for her weekly newspaper column.
The dedication of the Jean Merrell Memorial Garden will take place at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the Ruby Laffoon Log Cabin.
The Pennyroyal Herb Club meets every third Thursday of the month at Munns School. The club will meet at 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 17.
The Historical Society of Hopkins County will also resume its monthly meetings starting at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 17 in the Fiscal Court meeting room at the County Government Center. The program is, “Alive and Amazing Well” presented by Docent Danny Byrum.
June 08, 2021 at 12:00PM
https://ift.tt/3fYyEZp
Merrell to be honored by Pennyroyal Herb Club - The Messenger
https://ift.tt/3eCf9lu
Herb
No comments:
Post a Comment