Much publicity and many articles were generated during the years of Bill Varney's tenure as founder and previous owner of the Fredericksburg Herb Farm — we would like to share some of them with you here . . .
Publicity
and More • • •
We believe
the Fredericksburg Herb Farm is a very special place • so
do others • here
are few of the things they are say • • •
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.www.SBtv.com
Houston
Chronicle Magazine
April 22, 2001
Ken Hammond, editor
Catherine McIntosh, art director
Houston Chronicle
801 Texas Ave. • Houston, TX 77002
Texas
Magazine - Close Escapes
With
flavorful food, aromatic scents and colorful views, Fredericksburg
Herb Farm is a treat for the senses.
Close
Escapes Everything's herbal at Fredericksburg Herb Farm by Sheryl Smith-Rodgers
Room
to Grow But a successful business struggles to secure a needed loan...
April 23, 2001
by Jane Applegate
New York (CNNfn)
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
Favorite
Places
Fredericksburg Herb Farm Fredericksburg,
Texas
Featured April 1998
Victoria By Emelie Tolley
Contributing Editor Tricia Foley
Photograph by Michael Skott
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.
The
Erotic Herb
July 1, 1998
Texas Monthly
By Rebecca Chastenet de Gery
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!
Fredericksburg
Herb Farm A Gillespie County Couple
Cultivates a Clientele Clearly with Nature's Herbal Bounty.
April,
1996
Texas Highways
By Lana Robinson
Photographs by Lynn Herrmann
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.
Herbal
Delights for Visitors to Fredericksburg
September 1990
Victoria Home & Garden Fashion &
Beauty Cooking & Entertaining Crafts & Collectibles By Emelie Tolley
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.
March/April
2000 Austin Home & Living
Story by Linda Lehmusvirta
Photos by Sheryl Smith Rodgers
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.
April
1994 Country Living
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
A
Weekend In...
Fredericksburg, Texas
November
1993
Town & Country
See Story
excerpts to the right...
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.
...
A
Day to Remember Close your eyes, relax your shoulders, and let the stress melt away.
At the Fredericksburg Herb Farm day spa in Texas, herbal treatments
pamper you with a little bit of paradise.
May 1999
Country Gardens
Health & Beauty by
Deb Felton
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 ...
Herbal
Inspiration How Sylvia Varney turned relaxation into a million-dollar business
November/December
1999 Volume
52 Number 6
Texas Techsan
by
Jennifer Ritz
photos by Artie Limmer
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.
