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VOLUME 15  ISSUE 2                                 www.kettlebyherbfarms.com                                FALL 2011

 

BITS , BYTES & BUGS!!

Been a bit busy lately, setting up a new ‘Store’ for the website, not sure I totally like it yet, but I am getting used to it.  The benefits being: Top Notch On-line Security; Easy 1 page check out and it’s really super fast on subsequent orders if you sign up the first time and you are able to track the status of your order too!  It also has a simple ‘Newsletter Sign-up’ box!  From my end (appropriately referred to by the Technical support People as the ‘back end’) it is easy to update individual product information without having to upload the whole ‘shopping’ site and also to update order status.  On the down side.......it looks a bit boring, and there is not a lot of flexibility with changing ‘fonts’ and colours or adjusting images.......but, I guess considering ‘my budget allotment’ the important issues are covered!


And you know what happens when you decide to change one thing, it leads to a whole bunch of other changes, so what seemed like a straightforward upgrade, turned into a major project along with acquiring a bevy of new ‘tech’ knowledge-however, I am sure I am still 10 years behind, and if you believe the Support people, who I have been in constant contact with lately.......more like a generation!!! 
Check it out at www.kettlebyherbfarms.com  - ‘catalogue’ and don’t forget to hit the ‘like’ if you feel so inclined! 


In appreciation of your patience while ironing out any remaining ‘bugs’ as the shopping portion of our site goes ‘live’,  enter  this coupon code: KHF1130N , at ‘checkout’  and you  will  get a 10% discount on your first order-(before shipping/taxes) until February 1, 2012!  Plus it is a double win if you order before Jan 1, 2012 as, this is our season to ‘Give Back’ and we will be donating 10% from all orders (before shipping/taxes) to  The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB). (see more info below!)

2011 FUNDRAISER!!!

This year, I wanted to find a Canadian charity, who offered services/support across Canada that really made a difference in one’s life.
The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) certainly does that. 

CNIB was founded in 1918 and it’s services include rehabilitation and support, an extensive range of innovative and helpful products and one of the world's largest libraries for people who are unable to read traditional print – all of which are designed to help Canadians overcome the challenges of vision loss and lead full, active lives. They are strong advocates for a barrier-free society and also fund cutting-edge medical research in universities across the country, aimed at improving our understanding of how to prevent, diagnose and treat eye disease. For more information visit their web site: www.cnib.ca

Again, this year we will be donating 10% of all sales (before taxes/shipping)  until January 1, 2012.....and in addition Kettleby Herb Farms will be donating $10.00 extra for every $100.00 that is raised ..............Thank you for your past support and I encourage you to get shopping!!!!

A Rose is a Rose, is a Rose ............ is the 2012 Herb of the Year!

Roses have been important since the earliest times, in rituals, cosmetics, perfumes and medicines. The ancient Romans mixed rose petals with wine for a decadent flavour and petals were showered over guests to give them a warm welcome. In Egypt it is believed the Cleopatra kept rose filled pillows in her boudoir and once received Mark Anthony in a room knee deep in rose petals. The rose is also the national flower of the United States and symbolizes the birth month of June. The rose is recognized around the world for its scent and beauty.

Various kinds were used medicinally by the ancient Greeks, Romans and Persians; in AD77 Pliny recorded 32different disorders that responded well to treatment by rose preparations, Red rose petals were listed in the British Pharmacopoeia until the 1930’s as an astringent and flavouring for medicines. Rose oil was originally made by macerating rose petals in oil or molten fat. Sixteenth century Persian chemists produced  similar oil by distillation and still today, most rose oils are produced in that same region of the world. It takes about 1 ton of rose petals to produce 1 pound of pure rose oil, which makes Rose Oil extremely expensive and for this reason, is now largely synthesized. Some 96% of women’s perfumes and about 42% of men’s fragrances contain Rose oil. Rose water, a by-product of the rose distillation process, was first produced by the Persian physician Avicenna, in the first century AD and ‘Cold cream’ was originally known as ointment of Rose, since both Rose Oil and Rose Water were ingredients. 

The majority of ornamental roses are hybrids that were bred for their flowers. Ornamental roses have been cultivated for millennia, with the earliest known cultivation known to date from at least 500 BC in Mediterranean countries, Persia, and China. Many thousands of rose hybrids and cultivars have been bred and selected for garden use as flowering plants. In the early 19th century the Empress Josephine of France patronized the development of rose breeding at her gardens at Malmaison. As long ago as 1840 a collection numbering over one thousand different cultivars, varieties and species was possible when a rosarium was planted by Loddiges nursery for Abney Park Cemetery, an early Victorian garden cemetery and arboretum in England. A few species and hybrids are grown for non-floral ornamental use. Among these are those grown for prominent hips, such as the flagon shaped hips of Rosa moyesii. Sometimes even the thorns can be treated as an attraction or curiosity, such as with Rosa sericea.

Roses are also the favoured subject in the arts. The Luxembourg born Belgian artist and botanist Pierre-Joseph Redouté is known for his detailed watercolours of flowers, particularly roses. Henri Fantin-Latour was also a prolific painter of still life, particularly flowers including roses. The Rose 'Fantin-Latour' was named after the artist. Other impressionists including Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Pierre-Auguste Renoir have paintings of roses among their works. Shakespeare, Yeats and Bronte are just a few whose prose are dabbled with roses and the list of songs flavoured with roses is wide and varied: The Rose (Bette Midler); Moonlight & Roses; Yellow Rose(Dolly Parton); Kiss from a Rose (Seal); Fable of the Rose & American Beauty Rose(Frank Sinatra); Contemplation Rose (Van Morrison); Wild Irish Rose (U2); Honeysuckle Rose & La Vie En Rose (Louis Armstrong); Ramble on Rose (Grateful Dead); Thorn and a Wild Rose( Allman Brothers Band); Every Rose has its Thorn (Poison); Black Rose (Eric Clapton)............and the list goes on!

.........Stay tuned for more info on Roses in the next issue, but now some ‘Rose Inspiration & Humour’!

*Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns.  I am thankful that thorns have roses. (Alphonse Kerr)
*But he that dares not grasp the thorn, Should never crave the rose (Anne Bronte)
*As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round. (Ben Hogan)
*Treaties are like roses and young girls—they last while they last. (Charles de Gaulle)
*A thorn defends the rose, harming only those who would steal the blossom. (Chinese Proverb)
*One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living.   We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon-
  instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today. (Dale Carnegie)      
*Why is it no one ever sent me yet one perfect limousine, do you suppose?    Ah no, it’s always just my luck to get one perfect rose.  (Dorothy Parker)
*I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description

  in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall.  (Eleanor Roosevelt)
*I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds ‘round my neck. (Emma Goldman)
*And she was fair as is the rose in May.  (Geoffrey Chaucer)
*The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose.  (George William Curtis)
*Those who don’t pick roses in summer won’t pick them in winter either.  (German Proverb)
*A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.  (Gertrude Stein)
*Send two dozen roses to Room 424 and put “Emily, I love you” on the back of the bill.  (Groucho Marx)
*An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.(H.L. Mencken)
*Truths and roses have thorns about them.  (Henry David Thoreau)
*There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose,
  because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted.  (Henri Matisse)
*If the rose puzzled its mind over the question how it grew, it would not have been the miracle that it is. (J.B. Yeats)
*One may live without bread, not without roses.  (Jean Richepin)
*At middle age the soul should be opening like a rose, not closing up like a cabbage.  (John Andrew Holmes)

*The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose.(Kahlil Gibran)
*A single rose can be my  garden...a single friend, my world.  (Leo Buscaglia)
*The perfumes of roses are like exquisite chords of music composed of many odor notes harmoniously blended.  (N.F.Miller)
*From the thorn bush comes forth the rose.  (Old Jewish Proverb)
*But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold.  (Oliver Wendell Holmes)
*Roses are red, Violets are Blue.  I’m schizophrenic, And so am I.  (Oscar Levant)
*The sharp thorn often produces delicate roses.  (Ovid)
*The world is a rose, smell it and pass it to your friends.  (Persian Proverb)
*Won’t you come into the garden?  I would like my roses to see you.  (Richard Brinsley Sheridan)
*Marriage is like like—it is a field of battle, not a bed of roses.  (Robert Louis Stevenson)

*The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet;    the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot. (Salvador Dali)
*If I had a rose for every time I thought of you, I’d be picking roses for a lifetime.   (Swedish Proverb)

*What though youth gave love and roses, Age still leaves us friends and wine. (Thomas More)
*You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will, But the scent of roses will hang round it still.(Thomas More)
*Man is harder than iron, stronger than stone and more fragile than a rose.  (Turkish Proverb)

*Thorns and roses grow on the same tree.  (Turkish Proverb)
*A life with love will have some thorns, but a life without love will have no roses.  (Unknown)
*Do not watch the petals fall from the rose with sadness, know that, like life, things sometimes must fade before they can bloom again.  (Unknown)
*Give her two red roses, each with a note.  The first note says “For the women I love’, and the second, “For my best friend’.   (Unknown)

*The rose speaks of love silently, in a language known only to the heart.  (Unknown)

*What’s in a name? That which we call a rose—By any other name would smell as sweet.  (William Shakespeare)

 

Now that you are feeling all warm and fuzzy......and maybe inspired to send some roses,
check out the info below just to make sure you are sending the right message!!!

A sampling of what the Colour you choose means:
RED: I love you
PINK: Grace and elegance, happiness, and also an expression of admiration
YELLOW: Friendship
WHITE: Purity and innocence
ORANGE: Desire and enthusiasm or secret love
LAVENDER: Enchantment or love at first sight
PEACH: Sympathy or gratitude or modesty and sincerity
BLACK: Death
CHAMPAGNE: Lasting beauty

Even the number of roses you give has meaning: 
1 rose: Love at first sight
2 roses: Deeply in love                                   
3 roses: I love you
6 roses: I want to be yours                                                 
9 roses: Eternal love                                      
10 roses: You are perfect                        
11 roses: You are treasured, the one I love the most  
12 roses: Be my steady                                  
13 roses: Secret admirer                        
15 roses: I am sorry, please forgive me                          
20 roses: Please believe me                           
21 roses: I am devoted to you             
24 roses: I am always thinking of you                  
36 roses: I will remember our romantic moments        
40 roses: My love is genuine
50 roses: Regretless love                
99 roses: I will love you for as long as I live          
100 roses: Always together until we grow old
101 roses: You are my one and only love         
365 roses: I think of you everyday  ....................and for the REALLY BIG SPENDER                                                                
999 roses: Everlasting eternal love (now that’s going to cost$$$$).

 

        Merry Christmas

                     &

    All the best for 2012!

 

                 Sue