Meet Our Team » Babette L.
Babette L.
Herb Grower
Babette's many hats:
In spring I am often trimming plug trays to get them ready for transplanting or I am moving plug trays from here to there to make room for finished flats. Spring is a constant shuffle. I will occassionally work on the transplanting line. When shipping season starts I pull herbs and keep up on herb and groundcover inventory. In the fall I order and manage herb and groundcover categories. Like my co-workeres I help with construction, greenhouse cleaning at year's end, and sticking cuttings the first of the year. I am also an occasional designer, writer, editor, HR assistant and as Suzanne's spouse, greenhouse emergency helper.
The 2025 Staff story prompt was how do you use, (work with) plants? Here's Babette's response:
Plants are so much more than just greenery; they are my neighbors, friends, teachers, healers, and sources of nourishment. Many of the herbs we plant from Rush Creek Growers thrive in our circular herb garden, bringing joy and flavor into our lives.
The parsley sauce we make—a blend of parsley, golden raisins, vinegar, anchovies, garlic, and olive oil—brightens our plates year-round. Eucalyptus, hung above the bath, clears the air on cold winter days. Herbs like chervil, basil, dill, marjoram, chives, and nasturtiums transform simple egg dishes into something extraordinary. Sage, roasted in olive oil under a bed of potatoes, is pure bliss. And calendula—whether placed in a vase, scattered on salads, steeped in morning tea, or soaked in olive oil for a healing salve—always brings a bit of sunshine wherever it goes.
Sweet grass syrup, frozen into ice cubes, is divine in cocktails, while a sweet grass braid, once lit, clears out the media demons (something we discovered after a particularly heated presidential debate). Other delightful plant-inspired moments: lavender baths in January, tarragon and grapefruit sorbet (thank you, Gary!), vinegars infused with basil, rosemary, and thyme, mullein flowers in oil to soothe earaches, and violet honey, which graces our salads, ice cream, and even the table itself. Flowers, in salads, in ice, or as decorations, bring beauty and joy into full view.
I bow in gratitude to all these plant beings for their gifts.
Rush Creek Growers is home to so much more than plants. While our plant friends are the focus, I have loved working in a place where a cardboard sign will go up over a few trays of Speciality Annuals that says, “Don’t pull these flats, toad house.” or an announcement at the morning meeting warns us, “Please watch out when you are pulling in Ethel (Yes the greenhouses are named), the Kingbirds are back and have a nest in a basket near the end of the house.” We are all called outside to watch a flock of Tundra Swans fly and yack overhead. Excitement springs out of the radio to herald first arrivals, “Hey there’s a humming bird in the West Wing!” “Toad in Peter!” “Check out the bees on the Lobularia in Lucy”. Perhaps our star companions are the barn swallows. Suzanne gave a heartfelt talk in June about all we could do to make the warehouse safe for them.: “Bring the cats in at night because the babies will fledge soon, keep the Oz door open and the garage door so they can fly in and out. They have been here longer than we have, please let’s respect their place in this landscape.” Happy to report every batch of babies lived this summer and the large ‘gulp’ of swallows swoops our fields. Getting to know the beneficial insects and critters Suzanne brings in to work with the plants to keep our growing range healthy, has added a whole new layer of beings to our neighborhood: tiny predatory wasps, ‘good’ aphids, ‘good mites’, nematodes and many more, but I can’t spell or pronounce them. When I say Rush Creek Growers I feel a rich sense of community in the largest sense of the word.