I always plan on spending an hour when I visit the Fredericksburg Herb Farm, but I never get out in less than two. First, the bookstore and shop must be perused and every scented candle sniffed (the gardenia makes me swoon). Then the garden paths must be wandered to see what hapless plants and herbs (borage this time?) I can purchase to murder in the privacy of my own yard. Finally, a repast in the tiny restaurant is in order, where flower-adorned plates are served at lunch and weekend candlelight dinners. The outside world is discovering this Hill Country treasure. Owners Bill and Sylvia Varney and chef Juan Carlos Padilla will prepare brunch this month at New York's prestigious James Beard House, and the farm will be featured on a Food Network show tentatively set for October 29, 2001.

In 1985, Bill and Sylvia Varney decided to leave the big city and moved to Fredericksburg, Texas, a town with strong German roots in the heart of the scenic Texas hill country.

Sylvia, who had been working as a financial analyst in Houston, couldn't find challenging work in Fredericksburg, so she decided to strike out on her own, and opened an herb store and apothecary in town. Read the article online and see the the interview .....

With flavorful food, aromatic scents and colorful views, Fredericksburg Herb Farm is a treat for the senses.

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Everything's herbal at Fredericksburg Herb Farm
by Sheryl Smith-Rodgers

Read article excerpts CLICK HERE.....

NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Bill Varney is one of those small business owners who understands how difficult it can be to secure capital to finance growth. He's spent more than a year applying for loans to expand his herb farm deep in the heart of Texas hill country.
The Varneys' Fredericksburg Herb Farm has annual sales of about $1 million, yet they have been repeatedly turned down for a $500,000 loan. By Varney's calculations, he has about three times the collateral needed for a loan in furniture, fixtures, equipment and inventory.
"We see a big future with herbs and herbal products," said Varney, "but for growth, you need to have capital." CLICK HERE TO READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

At their Fredericksburg Herb Farm, Bill and Sylvia Varney enthusiastically share their romance with herbs — whether they're pampering guests at the Herb Haus, their cozy bed-and-breakfast, or delighting diners at the Tea Room with fresh, adventuresome dishes, or nurturing their gardens. The business has evolved over the years, beginning as a shop filled with herbal products — foods, drinks, toiletries. CLICK HERE TO READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

From Bill and Sylvia Varney, owners of the enchanting, 14-acre Fredericksburg Herb Farm in the Hill Country, comes an engrossing new book, Herbs: Growing and Using the Plants of Romance (Ironwood Press, $18.95). This husband and wife team -- he's the gardener; she's the cook -- are passionate about aromatic plants, and refer to herbs as the plants of romance because "they grow up close and personal, twining around the heart's qualities and preferences." The Varneys hope their latest book (the couple also co-wrote Along the Garden Path which contains more than 140 recipes) will embrace all the senses and "allow the connection with nature, both physically and emotionally." CLICK HERE TO READ ENTIRE ARTICLE Recipes and more!

People have been cutting, drying, pounding, and brewing herbs since the beginning of time, but few with as much fervor and finesse as the folks at Fredericksburg Herb Farm. This fragrant and flourishing 14-acre oasis suggests Impressionist paintings wrought from nature's palette and evokes serene images from the books of Beatrix Potter. Bill and Sylvia Varney have taken the humble herb to new heights in the lotions, potions, balms, and blends they create from herbs and edible flowers they grow in the heart of historic Fredericksburg. By combining "common scents" with extraordinary business savvy, the inventive couple has turned simple spices into a sophisticated cottage industry that keeps some 15 employees and a marketing force in nine states busy with wholesale, retail, and mail-order sales.

From an Herb Lover's Garden
A Prescription For Happiness

Once home to an old Texas pharmacist, Varney's Chemist Laden is now minded by an herb-loving couple who dispense specialties such as bluebonnet soap, purple-basil vinegar, and home-blended teas served on the shop's columned front porch.

Fragrant Outing
From candles to herbs to tempting treats from the tea room, the Fredericksburg Herb Farm provides its visitors with an aroma-filled excursion.

My favorite candle is handcrafted in Fredericksburg. A tall, dripless pillar flecked with bits of lavender, it fills the house with its fresh, sweet scent moments after being lit. Recently my "to do" list included more candles, plants for the garden, a gift or two for friends and an exciting idea for dinner. What I wanted most, however, was to escape from "things to do." I wrapped it all up in one neat package with scenic drive through the quaint towns of the Hill Country to the Fredericksburg Herb Farm, birthplace of my candle.

Herbal Heaven
Potions and concoctions, candles and garden ornaments, even tea and sympathy await visitors to Fredericksburg Herb Farm in Texas

Four of near perfect soil and plenty of sunshine are enough to make any herb fancier's heart sing. Add to this an 1880s farmhouse-turned-apothecary stocked with fresh and dried herbs as well as beauty potions concocted on-site, an aromatic candle shop, a tearoom and greenhouse, a culinary shop offering homemade vinegars and herbal condiments, and an herb-bedecked bed-and-breakfast

Texas World View
"Texas isn't geography. It's history. It's a world in itself," says Edna Ferber in Giant. More than one world, actually — and among the worlds of Texas is the German-accented Hill Country, an hour from San Antonio and ninety minutes from Austin. The ethnic roots of this fertile region were established in 1842, when a group of German aristocrats bought land to form a class-neutral colony. They chose their spot well. The Hill Country is Texas without the heat, the locus of an exuberant ranch and town life. It is to parts of Texas what Santa Barbara is to L.A. or Litchfield County is to Manhattan — the weekend place of choice.

Texas Hospitality
As Ferber said, "Folks drop in, sometimes two, sometimes ten.... Feed'em be 'em, mount'em." For those who won't be partaking of the abundant hospitality on a nearby ranch, Fredericksburg, chief among the charming Tex-Teuton Hill County towns, offers its own unique comforts. Most of the lodging — one reason for the town's popularity — are guest houses. Guests get a house to themselves; hosts provide breakfast fixings — and privacy. Fredericksburg has about eighty guest houses: Some are 19th-century "Sunday houses," used by farmers when they brought their product town on Saturdays and stayed overnight for church; others are on outlying farms...

Restaurants
FREDERICKSBURG HERB FARM & TEA ROOM. Have lunch or tea at an organic-herb farm, with a charming bed-and-breakfast. 402 Whitney St.
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Story excerpts...

Barbara Avery steps into the gardens at the Fredericksburg Herb Farm, gathering stems of fresh rosemary and fennel. As greenhouse manager, she's stocking up on ingredients for the farm's spa work: herbs to freshen client's skin, soothe their sore muscles, and raise their spirits.

The day spa is just one element of the farm's love affair with herbs. Located in Fredericksburg, Texas, 60 miles east of Austin,the farm is owned by Bill and Sylvia Varney. Over the past seven years, these herb enthusiasts have developed the 14-acre site to include five gardens that encourage strolling, a cozy bed-and-breakfast, and a restaurant that features vegetables and herbs grown in the gardens.

To all this, the Herb Farm added a day-spa program four years ago. The Varneys and massage therapist Carissa Ballard invite guests to indulge themselves with the therapeutic and sensory benefits of herbs.

Clients choose from individual services that range from $15 for a half-hour paraffin hand treatment to ...

Just off the beaten path of Fredericksburg's idyllic main street, nestled in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, there is a veritable treasure chest for connoisseurs of superb kitchen and bath products and for gardeners of every age. The Fredericksburg Herb farm, by sight alone, doesn't seem like it's a million-dollar business, with sales markets spanning the globe. It seems more like...home.

The whole idea behind the hugely successful herb farm started as a very simple one. In 1985, Sylvia White Varney '81 and Bill Varney decided to leave behind their fast-paced corporate lives in Houston to open a business of their own. After searching for the perfect small town, they settled on Fredericksburg.

"There's something about Fredericksburg that starts that entrepreneurial fever," Sylvia Varney said.

When Bill was offered the job as a nursery manager in Fredericksburg, he and Sylvia left Houston to follow the dream of owning their own business. However, they weren't exactly sure what that business would be.