Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
Our Story
One beautiful autumn day on Wilmington Island, Georgia Mike and Stella Mathews were looking around their property trying to decide where to plant their newly purchased pear and apple trees. They noticed that most of the land was covered with shade from the canopies of the live oaks, and there wouldn’t be enough sun for fruits and vegetables to grow well. As they continued to walk around they noticed that the only area that receives enough sunshine to grow a garden is the front yard. They picked out a couple of locations and planted the trees in hopes of harvesting a lot of fruit in the near future! Little did they know that this was the beginning of an amazing garden journey that has evolved into Winchester Gardens!
Over the next ten years Mike and Stella continued to expand their home garden. Each area of the front yard slowly became a new grow space for a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Today, their garden boasts of a range of edible plants from culinary herbs and seasonal vegetables to apples, fuzzy kiwi, plums, and even the native pawpaw!
During the growth of their garden Stella and their Mom Nancy became very passionate about growing herbs. They planted a huge variety of herbs, and it became their big hobby to dry them out for culinary use, cut them fresh for meals, and use them in bouquets and sachets.
One day, their Mom Celina, who inspired Stella to become a landscape architect, came for a visit and brought them a copy of Rodale's Successful Organic Gardening with Herbs. The book is filled with all kinds of crafts and recipes using herbs. Celina pointed out the pages where herb-infused oil and vinegar recipes were listed and said, ‘Since you like using herbs in your cooking so much you would probably really enjoy herbs in oil and vinegar.’ And so they tried it out! What they discovered was one of the most pleasurable food experiences they have ever had – The Flavor Universe! Their big herbal hobby that they had going then became a passionate quest to share this Universe with friends and family. Over the next couple of years, they began making fusions regularly and started sharing them with all of their friends and family.
After a couple of friends, who are local chefs, tried their oil and vinegar their friends strongly encouraged them to develop unique recipes and create a consumer product to sell. In following their friends’ advice, the five herbal blends of Winchester Gardens came to fruition; Tropical, Three Sisters, Seafood, Cottage, and Barrier Island.
Today, Winchester Gardens sells a variety of herb-infused products that are made from the herbs grown at their Biodynamic farm plot located at the Old Dairy Farm in Savannah, Georgia. Now, you can taste the Flavor Universe in all of your favorite dishes too!
The Infusion Process
We like our flavors BOLD! Our infusion process takes 5 months so that the flavor of all of the fresh herbs and organic spices can make a statement on your palate. We use fresh herbs that are cut the same day the infusion process begins instead of dried herbs. This gives our products the unique flavor that sets them apart.
Vinegar infusion is super simple and only requires that the herbs and spices sit submerged in an airtight container for the duration of the process. However, olive oil infusions require an additional step so that it is safe to store the oil at room temperature without the threat of harmful bacterial growth.
The herbs are soaked in a 3% citric acid solution for 24 hours which reduces the PH of the herbs low enough to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria. These steps do not degrade the quality and flavor of the herbs which results in a safe, flavorful olive oil that can be stored at room temperature.
The Herb Grow
Through the R&D phase of creating the fusion blends, we realized that we needed a source of organically grown herbs in the specific selections of our blends. Our search came at a loss as we couldn’t find a supplier in our area that offered fresh, chemical-free varieties of our chosen herbs.
Just as we were accepting defeat we then received word from our friends at Savannah Victory Gardens that a couple of acres for farming were about to open up where they are located at the Old Dairy Farm in town. Tucked away near Bonaventure Cemetery, this land was exactly what we needed to start our own herb growing operation that was soon dubbed "The Herb Grow." We took the opportunity to rent a quarter acre and immediately began building raised beds. We collected several trailer loads of free wood from a local shipping container company and started putting them all together. We filled the beds with a mixture of screened topsoil, and biodynamic planting mix from Longwood Plantation. Our efforts resulted in four rows of raised beds approximately 90 feet long in which to plant the herbs. As we noticed a large open space in between our two middle beds, we decided to plant several varieties of fruit trees for harvesting and sharing with our friends!