Marge Clark
Christmas Thyme at Oak Hill Farm
My herbal friend, Betsy, sent me an email last summer suggesting that I might be interested in finding more information about Marge Clark. Betsy wrote, “She wrote three herbal cookbooks, ran a farm restaurant, and lived in central Indiana. She was a powerhouse and a very nice person.”
That’s all I needed to know to find and purchase one of those three books, Christmas Thyme at Oak Hill Farm, 1994.
It’s the perfect book to read through during the Christmas season, to add to my collection of books that tie in gardening, plants, and Christmas.
Her Biography
It didn’t take me long to find Marge’s obituary in The Indianapolis Star, dated August 9, 1999. I’ll include an image of it for you to read through. She was only 65 when she died from injuries from a car accident.
A little more digging proved to me that “Marge Clark” is a common name. There were far too many references for me to sift through, but I did find several articles about the talks she gave on both herbs and gardening.
Her Books
In addition to Christmas Thyme at Oak Hill Farm, Marge wrote two other books: Take a Little Thyme (co-authored with Ann S. Harrison) (1985) and It’s About Thyme! (1997) I believe all three were published by her as Thyme Cookbooks, Marge Clark.
You can easily find “good, used copies” of Christmas Thyme at Oak Hill Farm and It’s About Thyme for reasonable prices. But the only copy I saw for sale online of Take a Little Thyme, which was published in a three-ring binder, will set you back around $80!
My copy of Christmas Thyme at Oak Hill Farm is even signed. “From Pat Holt - To Nadine, Marge Clark October 27, 1994.”
Christmas Thyme at Oak Hill Farm
In her Christmas book, Marge shares her traditions, recipes, and the herbal decorations that were part of her family’s Christmas celebration.
There are recipes for four different Christmas Thyme Parties, including Come for Coffee, A Christmas Buffet for Friends, A Christmas Tea, and Christmas Eve at Oak Hill Farm. This is followed by a chapter on “Holiday Decorations from Oak Hill Farm.” This chapter also includes information about the Christmas legends of some plants like Christmas roses, rosemary, manger herbs, etc. followed by a section on Biblical herbs.
The book ends with a chapter on “The Best Gift is a Homemade Gift.” It’s filled with recipes for using herbs from your garden to make marinades, vinegars, potpourri mixes, breads, cakes, and even tree ornaments.
Advice from Marge
Marge noted in her last book that to keep from going overboard during the holidays, she tried to finish decorating by the first week of December, entertain friends during the second two weeks of December, and keep the week of Christmas for family celebrations. I think that’s a wise way to keep from going nuts during the holidays!
One other piece of advice from Marge.
”The best gift is a homemade gift. How true that is! Some of you are going to say, but I don’t have time to make homemade gifts! Well, that’s true, I’m sure, for some of us, but if you took one of those long, tiring days of Christmas shopping and spent it in your kitchen instead, you would be surprised how many of the following fit ideas you could complete in just that one day!”
And then she gives some excellent advice on making homemade gifts with herbs you may have grown in your garden, with personal touches to make them extra special.
Do you know of other women authors of gardening related books that I should research as Lost Ladies of Garden Writing? Send them my way via a comment or email!
And if you find these articles interesting and think others will, too, please share them and/or subscribe.
I’ll return with the next Lost Lady of Garden Writing article in the new year. In the meantime, you can find me in several places: my website and blog, The Gardenangelists podcast, and my weekly newsletter, In the Garden With Carol.
I love, love Christmas Thyme at Oak Hill Farm. I had the pleasure of hosting a book signing for Marge, at my Little Farm Herb Shop in 1989, Her second book, It's About Thyme was an updated version of Take a Little Time. Marge was a beloved member of our herbal community and her books are a joy to read. I use her turkey tetrazzini recipe from Christmas Thyme at Oak Hill Farm every year. Thank you Carol for sharing Marge's story and books.
Carol, I would love to see that book. I agree, homemade gifts are the best! As usual, reading this Substack is dangerous for me, because you always find more books for my bookshelf!