Bernard Pages arrived in Cape Cod from France in 1971. By the late 1980s he was tired of the harsh winters there and relocated to sunny South Florida. He started his new life here as a hairdresser in Palm Beach, and in his free time began to explore the wonderful year round greenery he enjoyed seeing here. He soon found the plant societies based at the Mounts Botanical Garden and became an enthusiastic member of several of those societies. He learned a tremendous amount from his new friends and the other society members, and eventually gave up hairdressing to become a house manager of a Palm Beach estate. Cooking had been a long-time hobby of his, and he had also picked up a variety of skills and techniques from his local friends and acquaintances. His new responsibilities on the estate included cooking for the estate owner and his guests. Bernard will be demonstrating a summer salad and a spice mix for coffee or tea.
Lynn Smelt moved with her family to South Florida from Oregon when she was 2 years old, so she is not technically a native, but very close. Cooking has been a hobby for Lynn since her teens, but she did not really begin to investigate herbs until she was in her 30s and she was home-schooling her kids. She had a backyard garden before the kids came along, but when teaching the kids to garden she expanded to some different varieties of plants and began to include herbs. Her first introduction to a plant society was the Rare Fruit Council, but her love of all things herbal won out about 10 years ago.