Welcome to the Blue Owl!

Blue Owl Garden Emporium herb farm offers locally and sustainably grown culinary herbs, edible flowers, herbal seasoning blends and teas, and a variety of other herbal concoctions. With about 200 dried herbs available during the winter and as many as 175 fresh ones during the summer, it's likely we can fill your every culinary herb need. All grown in Licking Co. Ohio without synthetic pesticides or artificial fertilizers.

We also offer culinary mushrooms, grow-your-own mushroom logs, native fruits, and various other forest edibles in season from our forest farm, Blue Owl Hollow. Our mushroom selection is seasonal and includes: shiitake, nameko, mukitake, several oysters, wine-cap stropharia, lion's mane, reishi, and maitake. Not content with mere comestibles, we have a growing line of forest-derived crafts, such as rustic "rosewood" buttons (cleverly created from that invasive shrub every forest landowner loves to hate, multiflora rose!), fatwood firestarters, and Swedish log candles.

Our fascination with unusual-but-useful plants ensures that we always have something of interest on hand. Blue Owl products are available at several Central Ohio farmers markets and small businesses. Yes, inflation seems to be the new normal, but you can keep more of those dollars within our community by visiting your favorite Central Ohio farmers markets and patronizing other locally-owned businesses!

Hello 2024, RIP 2023! :

After an absolutely necessary winter sanity break, we are back selling at the Worthington winter market. I, for one, am happy to see the backside of 2023; it just wasn't a great year. I'm hopeful for a better 2024 and initial indicators are good: we harvested 2 big baskets full of mushrooms over New Years! Plus we have a fun new product to introduce....

Catnip Catnap Mats are HERE! Our lastest cat accessory is now ready for the big time. Introducing Blue Owl's Catnip Catnap Mat (aka the NipNap Mat ;-).

So, what IS a catnip catnap mat? Simply put, it's a rectangular 9" x 12" woven mat of catnip stems, i.e., stalks leftover after leaves are stripped off. These stems used to go into compost, but bits kept mysteriously re-appearing around the house and it became clear that the stems, like the leaves, are also highly attractive to certain cats. Why a mat? Well, most cat owners know that anything box-like is a preferred place for cats, in fact, studies have shown that they are drawn to any square or rectangular visible shape on the floor, as described in this Smithsonian Smart News story about a 2021 study published in Applied Animal Behavior Science (includes links and videos).

If plain old duct tape rectangles are attractive, how about rectangles made out of catnip?! Our in-house cat testers gave an emphatic YES! As with most Blue Owl products, catnip catnap mats are biodegradeable/compostable when your feline is finished with it, although the hemp twine will likely outlast the mat itself. Stop by the market and check them out!

Classes, Workshares, Workshops:

2024 Mushroom Workshare Dates & Times:

Believe it or not, it's that time again. Signups for 2024 mushroom workshare dates are open and ready for you to learn everything there is to know about growing mushrooms on logs. Here's how it works:

Every Sunday afternoon (noon-4) and Tuesday all-day (10-6) for about 6 weeks in very early spring, you have the opportunity to join me in renewing Blue Owl Hollow's mushroom production infrastructure by inoculating new hardwood logs with various types of culinary mushroom spawn. You'll learn the process, get a tour of our mushroom production area, and have the opportunity to earn your own log to take home. Email if you are interested, pre-registration is REQUIRED. If a date is marked FULL but it's the only time you can make it, please let me know anyway; we can add you to a waiting list, since cancellations do occur.

Here's the 2024 schedule:

Other news of note:

Plant Hardiness Zone update:

In other news, the USDA has updated its Plant Hardiness Zone maps. Based on 30-year averages of the lowest annual winter temperatures, it is used to determine which plants will survive winters outdoors. This is a BIG DEAL for gardeners and farmers -- the last update was 2012 -- although Blue Owl Hollow's zone didn't actually change this time (we're still Zone 6a). For more information and downloadable maps, read this OSU Buckeye Yard & Garden onLine article.

Past news items of interest, including links to various presentation materials, are also available.

February 2024

Loose-leaf teas:

Seasonings:

Dried herbs
(~150 varieties)

Forest products:

Crafted products: