RURAL BUSINESS
Les Herbes de St Pierre Why choose Herbes de Provence or a tisane from France when Les Herbes de St Pierre is a good deal closer? Cathy Le Feuvre visited John and Christine Mather’s cottage industry
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ear the top of Old Beaumont Hill you’ll find Belmont Farm, a traditional granite house with a red roof and a beautiful garden. It’s been home to John and Christine Mather and their family for more than 25 years; their lovely surroundings have inspired them to create one of Jersey’s newest cottage industries - Les Herbes de St Pierre.
Christine said: ‘Back home we drink tisanes for medicinal purposes, so it’s not so much for the flavour, but more for what it will help you with, and I couldn’t find anything here, so I started growing things in the garden. It grew from there really. We had too much for ourselves, so we started giving the teas to friends and family, and then we grew so much, we began to sell it.’
Les Herbes de St Pierre already offers more than 30 different flavours of herbal tea, all of which are branded ‘Genuine Jersey’, and skin care products using home-stilled distilled natural oils, like calendula from marigold flowers. There are culinary herb mixes, and herb-infused salts are a new speciality, combining Belmont Farm herbs with sea salt from the ancient salt pans of the Guérande district of Brittany.
John Mather.
Many will remember John as the Deputy States Vet in the 1980s and 1990s and subsequently a full-time veterinarian, but when he retired three years ago, his focus turned to a home project initially envisaged by French-born Christine.
Wanting to improve her health and fitness she had begun looking into taking ‘tisanes’ - herbal teas.
The herb drying process which began in the family’s airing cupboard has progressed to a specially built production unit in the garden known as ‘The Facility’, where herbs are slowly and naturally dried, ground, mixed and packaged in recyclable containers and biodegradable compostable tea bags. Everything is done by hand, from the growing and propagation of herbs from seed to the harvesting and picking and the deliveries to the customer’s door.
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