Featured Grower: Herb & Co.

We're coaxing some of the Barn Market growers, designers, makers and creatives out of their studios and workspaces to share their unique stories and passions behind the beautiful handmade and grown items they bring along to the market.

There is a real passion for gardening behind Herb & Co's range of edible and medicinal plants. Jane and Harriet work from their greenhouses at home, promoting seasonal growing and organic gardening practices. Working on a smaller scale than your average nursery, Jane and Harriet's plants are living proof of their commitment to gardening and raising the healthiest of plants to bring to the market. 

We asked them to share a little bit more about their unique Tasmanian business, Herb & Co.

What brought you both together to create Herb & Co?

Harriet and I met at the Botanical Gardens (RTBG) in early 2011, when we both embarked on a new career and life-changing course. We were both accepted into the RTBG’s inaugural Certificates 1, 2 & 3 in Horticulture. Both of us had young families and were looking for a new focus in our lives.  This course was just what we were looking for. Juggling young families and all that life throws at us, we were nearing the completion of our course in 2012 when an opportunity to purchase a stall at Salamanca Market arose.  In what has become our signature style we jumped at the chance.

We began our small business venture in April 2012, purchasing the Salamanca Market Stall.

After an enthusiastic start with a dash of blind ignorance thrown in, Herb and Co is now up and running.

What has been the most challenging aspect of running Herb & Co:
We work from greenhouses set up at our homes and continue to juggle the busy, unpredictable lives of our families, but it works and we love it.

Finding our way in an industry that was new to us both has been the greatest challenge. Our course at the RTBG was fantastic and gave us the skills to grow and propagate our plants but what it didn't teach us was the skills to negotiate a new industry. 

We all have bad days at work, what is it about Herb & co that keeps you going?            Not the money! (We are still working on that part of the business).To be honest we laugh a lot! Also we are passionate about growing and promoting edible (and medicinal) plants that are suited to Hobart's climatic conditions. We love talking to like minded customers and sharing ideas and experiences.

Is there anything you wish you could say to everyone who stops by your stall at the market?

Lots of keen gardeners are confused about when to plant basil and coriander! Plant your basil in late spring when you put your tomatoes in! Basil needs hot weather conditions. Coriander is a short lived plant that thrives in our calmer, cool weather; plant it in early autumn all the way through to spring. Plant coriander every 3 weeks for a continuous supply.

It's midwinter, is there anything we should be growing right now in our gardens and windowsills?

At the moment we have strawberries, rhubarb crowns, saffron, parsley, winter greens and all your perennial plants (lavender, sage, oregano, thyme, rosemary). These can go into your gardens now ready to take off in spring.

It is always nice to have a few annual herbs sitting on your window sill ready to go. Parsley, coriander, heartsease (edible viola) and even a nice pot of winter greens always look good on your windowsill.

Herb and Co are newbies at the Barn Market, what can we expect to see for your first market and into the future?

We are excited to be joining an Eastern Shore market. We will have a large range of beautifully presented herb and vegetable plants, gifts of potted herbs and fruit. Plus our clever husbands hand made recycled timer boxes of herbs. Our range of plants will continually evolve with the seasons.  Expect a smile and lots of enthusiasm.

We can't wait to have such a fabulous plant stall joining us at the Barn Market on July 19th. Please give Harriet and Jane a warm- welcome !

You can find Herb & Co on facebook and at the Barn Market.

Featured Designer: Sarah, from Sea Soul Studio

Every inspired object on every single stall at the Barn Market has a narrative.  Sometimes we feel we intuitively know that story –just from a glance. And sometimes the handmade objects stir a memory, a feeling or desire that leaves us needing to know more.  

So, we’re coaxing some of the Barn Market makers, designers, artisans and creatives out of their studios to share their unique stories and passions behind those objects we call handmade. 

We're incredibly proud of the prodigious talent they share with us at each and every Barn Market.  

Sarah Woodward is the energy and drive behind Sea Soul Studio. Not only are her pieces incredibly beautiful, they are also very tactile and reveal an intimate connectedness with, and passion for, the stunning corner of Tasmania she calls home.

What was the inspiration and drive behind Sea Soul Studio?

As most creative types would agree, the urge to design and make is an incredibly strong force within us, sometimes surpassing the urge to eat and sleep! After deciding to leave the frantic world of cheffing and allow myself to really BE and create from that place, Sea Soul Studio was born.  Even though it is my business, it is hugely personal because what I create are little pieces of my experience of life. My designs are influenced heavily by our lives in our lovely old cottage by the sea as well as our roadtrips, travel and general wanderlust.

What attracted you to working with clay?

Well, its mud pies for adults, really, isn’t it?  I have been working with clay for about 4 years now and I am still in awe of it’s versatility, you can create almost any form you can imagine. Whether or not that form holds up to the stresses of drying and firing is a completely different story, let’s just say I have a rather large “mosaic” stash.

You have described yourself as having a “bowerbird nature”, does that influence your work at Sea Soul Studio?

Every day! Points of inspiration come from the most unexpected places, and I’ve learnt never to force it. I’ve been thinking recently about a new range of jewellery for Winter and was coming up blank for a few weeks, then I found a piece of pressed tin panelling and held and looked at it for ages, I just loved the pattern and texture. So, there will be a brooch in homage to this and a ring inspired by ceiling roses!  So, this is how a new collection is started.

Can you describe a major challenge you have had to overcome to create Sea Soul Studio?

RSI! As I was winding down the hospitality career, I had awful pain in my hands and wrists (tenosynovitis in my left, which meant I couldn’t even move my thumb. At all.)  I almost had surgery but decided if I was going to do this whole life-balance-live-my-true-nature-thing then I owed it to myself to try resting and allowing my body time to heal. (And I’m a big chicken!) Which it has, until I try to do too much, then I get some warning pains, which is my body telling me I’m getting a bit out of balance!!! So, be careful what you wish for.

What can we expect to see in the future for Sea Soul Studio?

I am so excited about branching out from fine porcelain jewellery and creating some beautiful, earthy homewares. So far there are dishes and spoons of varying sizes, some for special purposes such as the Thorne Cottage Cheese Dish (named after our house), which is the perfect size for a wheel of brie and can be popped in the oven if it happened to be one of those yummy prosciutto wrapped specimens. 

My hubby-to-be has built me a fabulous new slab roller, so I’m looking forward to making some big platters in coming months, all ready for sitting around the fire and eating antipasto off, whilst sipping mulled wine out of old silver goblets.

Thanks Sarah! Keep an eye out for Sarah and Sea Soul Studio at the Barn Market. 

We'll have stories from other makers over the coming weeks and months - pop back again to read more about our amazing local talent!