Eden House Country Guest House B & B Accommodation - Phil The Pot - Herbs
Phil Allsopp
Phil The Pot - The Journey from idea to reality
Early in 2006 on a visit to a local supermarket and with a few moments to spare, whilst scrutinising the herbs on sale in the fruit & veg. department, I became intrigued by the variety of fresh herbs available and I found myself looking closely at the labels on the packaging.
On the top shelf, at eye level, are the pots of herbs. Standard 9 cm pots, full of compost with, according to my quick estimation, about 20 – 30 young plants all competing for light, nutrients and water. Basil, coriander, parsley (curly & flat), chives and thyme. I thought ‘That’s a nice way to sell herbs, buy a pot of herbs, take it home and put it on a windowsill and then, as needed, pluck a few leaves or cut them off completely and replace it with a new one on the next shopping trip. It’s not possible to get them fresher!” The basil looked particularly good.
I then looked more closely at the label on the pot of basil - ‘Product of Israel.’ The coriander the same, and the parsley also – “Product of Israel.” Hang on a minute! I know it’s possible to grow parsley in Pembrokeshire! So the question for me was, why wasn’t it happening? Why were we (this society) shipping things like this half way across the world when it’s possible to produce it right here (or at least some of it). It just didn’t make sense!
So I thought – maybe it’s just because nobody is doing it. And of course, I’ve since discovered that there’s much more to it than that!
If I was able to produce the pot of parsley at Eden House and then sell it locally, it actually would be possible to get herbs fresher to people’s windowsills and then they would be the freshest!
I left the supermarket inspired, but with all sorts of questions unanswered. None more so than the question, "Can I grow basil?" The beginnings of an idea!
Later that summer, in the Welsh Assembly Government magazine Gwlad, I read an article from The Centre for Alternative Land Use (CALU). The theme of the article was herb growing and at the end of the article was the request from CALU for anyone who was thinking of growing herbs in Wales to contact them.
At the time, I was doing precisely that – thinking about growing herbs in Wales. So I got in touch, found myself on a list and left with an invitation to join a discussion group. When that group was formed, the first meeting occurred in Spring of 2007.
“The Birth of a Brand”
At Eden House, where I live and work, it has always been our policy to grow the plants and flowers for the gardens and the vegetables for the kitchen from seed. When multiplying or renewing, we grow from cuttings as well.
To keep up with demand, we have always had a need to protect seeds and seedlings and historically have provided for this with extensive cloches and cold frames. As the gardens here at Eden House have grown, the need for more propagation and protected space for seedlings and young plants has grown too and so in September 2006, we invested in a 10’ x 20’ polytunnel.
We bought the tunnel from 5 Star Polytunnels in Lampeter, West Wales. It arrived as promised and we set about putting it up. Because we are exposed to quite strong winds, we decided to concrete the feet in which took a few days.
It was during this extended period that we got to thinking about all the things we could do with the polytunnel - taking full advantage of an extended growing season, bringing seedlings on for the garden, growing tomatoes and cucumbers and then perhaps even running a little cottage garden business growing and selling herbs in pots, etc., etc.
During our "brainstorming" we were playing around with ideas, including a name, for this as yet, imaginary business. Windowsill Herbs - that’s what they would be.
What would it involve? Fill the pot with compost. Fill the pot with seeds, nurture it in the right way and, if all goes to plan, 'Phil the Pot' with herbs. And consequentially it would be full of herb plants - that’s the point and that’s the end result required.
We love playing with words, so Phil the Pot was born.
However as yet, I still hadn’t tried growing basil. So that was the idea and it remained an idea until early 2007.
Testing the Theory
Putting up a Polytunnel is not as easy as you 'd think, especially if you've never done it before. With planning and thought, and the invaluable help from our dear neighbours Dave & Yvonne, we completed the job fairly painlessly and our completed work was tested to the full within the first fortnight when we experienced the first gales of the autumn.
There was still enough day length and warmth to provide satisfactory conditions for germination and so I started to experiment. Basil and coriander seed packets in hand, I withdrew to the shed.
Many planting trials later, and the invention and manufacture of the "Mk1 precision herb planting machine" complete, many lessons had been learnt.
January 2007 arrived and along with it, Polytunnel 2.
So by the time the CALU organised discussion group came together, I had 2 polytunnels in place. Many of my trials and experiments had succeeded and I'd learnt a lot about the processes involved in growing herbs in this way.
I discovered straight away that the first meeting of the CALU group was a huge networking opportunity and I found I was amongst a group of people who thought and believed growing our produce and selling it locally, to people near to us, was a good thing. It seemed to me that I was onto something.
But it was more than going through the process of finding the answer to the question of “Why from Israel?”. The world of locally grown produce, for sale locally, was opening up before me. And there were lots of people thinking about it, talking about it and doing it.
I came home from the meeting and also started doing it too. I planted and then thought about how I was going to sell them - Phil the Pot, the business, came into being.
So the next time you come to stay at Eden House, ask to see Phil's herbs (in season, of course)
and take home a few herbs of your choosing to add extra flavour to your
cooking as well as to remind you of your stay with us.
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