FAQs
Q.
Are you bringing back The Herb Farm preserves?
A.
No — because they never went away! The much-loved preserves are still made by Harry and Rosemary’s son, Rachel’s uncle Chris, and his son Stephen, at country-flavour.co.uk. You’ll find them widely available in local shops such as Cranstons. We’re focusing on teas and herbal blends for now.
Q.
Can we visit the Herb Farm and gardens?
A.
The Herb Farm and gardens are not open to the public (...yet!) but you can find our teas and honey in local shops, at our stall at Orton and Brampton farmers’ markets, at our regular pop-up shop in Carlisle Market Hall and here on our online shop. And if you’re local, we offer free delivery.
Q.
Why Chinese teas?
A.
John's obsession with Chinese tea and tea culture happened quite by accident. He hadn't had a cup of tea for many years having found that, since being diagnosed with IBS, tannins negatively impacted his gut — and yes, that also ruled out red wine! However, he was overjoyed when a friend suggested a gentle Dianhong style black tea from Yunnan, China. Using only first and second flush leaves picked high in the mountains in March-April, the difference to the typical English "breakfast" tea was overwhelming. Yunnan is the birthplace of tea, and was where the British East India Company went for seedlings, knowledge and even workers to smuggle into India. Darjeeling actually traces its origins to Chinese tea plants and techniques secretly transferred to India by the British in the 19th century!
And so Chinese tea opened like a book for John, and soon he was exploring delicacies such as Pu-Erh and Liu Bao, aged and fermented teas pressed into cakes and matured for decades, and gongfu cha "tea ceremonies" (also known as "kung fu tea"), in which tea is tasted and mindfully appreciated in a similar way you might imagine to a red wine tasting. It seemed only natural that The Herb Farm should use this ancient source Yunnan black tea as its everyday tea, becoming one of the very few tea companies in the UK to do so, and offer shou pu-erh mini teacakes to curious customers too.
Having a background as a poet, John soon found himself writing about his discoveries and delving into often ancient Chinese literature on tea, tea history and tea culture. He began a poetic translation of Lu Yu's 8th Century The Classic of Tea (or ChaJing), the first known extant text devoted entirely to the subject of tea. You can read more about that here.
Q.
Why are you donating 5% of profits to the village church?
A.
Several reasons. The Herb Farm's connection to the village church is strong. The peace garden was established there in memory of Rachel's grandmother. Furthermore, John has long been a supporter of our beautiful rural Cumbrian churches. Last but not least, we've been praying for The Herb Farm for years! Now we are living in a state of thankfulness, and we have to give something back!
Q.
What did you do before becoming The Herb Farmers?
A.
Rachel is a trained yoga teacher and dairy farmhand. She has also been a support worker.
John is a poet and former English teacher in secondary schools. He's worked in the hospitality industry and he has also spent time as a farmhand! More recently his fascination with quality food and drink led him to work for E. H. Booth & Co..
They are a husband and wife team, and have a young son.
Q.
How much herbal tea are you growing yourself?
A.
As of launch, right now, December 2025, we are not. That's because we are currently re-establishing the herb gardens and aim to be producing our Balm Tea from our own grown herbs within 2 years, as well as using other homegrown herbs in other products. In the meantime, we are learning the skills of blending and tea-making using the best stock we can find. All our teas are handcrafted ourselves - each teabag, made sustainably in Scotland and even supplied to us in compostable packaging, has been filled and tied carefully by us, from our carefully chosen ingredients, by our own hands. The gardens themselves have been mulched ready for winter, and fabric has been laid out to smother areas that have been converted to lawn which we can convert back to herb garden. And the Chinese tea... well, it's highly unlikely we'll manage to grow any of that in our Cumbrian climate!
Oh, and it goes without saying... we'd love beehives.
If you have any more questions, contact us here.