Whether it’s growing herbs or building a cupboard, this Pennsylvania couple does it with a personal touch.

Jan Hoffman and husband David Woodward, traditional cabinetmakers in East Berlin, Pennsylvania, commute just 120 feet between the late-18th-century house where they live and show their furniture and the barn where they work. Their daily trip is a quick one, but it’s also scenic, passing by their traditional four-square kitchen garden made up of four 8×8-foot raised beds. “We get plenty to eat from those four small beds,” Jan says. Handmade cloches are sprinkled throughout the beds, and the result is accelerated growth. When most Zone 5 gardens are just getting growing, Jan and David are already cooking with garden-fresh basil. “The usual drill is to plant basil outside in late May,” Jan says, “but by then, we have fairly big basil bushes—plenty for harvesting.”

The basil is joined by emerging perennial medicinal and culinary herbs, such as comfrey, thyme, mullein, horseradish, and sorrel. Jan grows additional annuals, such as borage, nasturtiums (“we eat every part”), lettuces, and old-fashioned black radishes. “To help with all of our planting, we started making hand-turned seed and bulb dibbers,” Jan says. “People began asking for them, so now we make them to sell in the shop.” Jan and David’s store and gardens are open to visitors by chance or appointment. At evening open houses in summer, guests sit on handmade chairs and play checkers on traditional game tables. The venue is lit solely with candles and oil lanterns. “It’s one of my favorite times in the garden,” Jan says.

For more information, call 717/259-7676 or log on to hoffmanwoodward.com.

Published: June 2008