Odyssey of a Nebraskan Farm Girl Lola in front of The Herbfarm Herb Shop, Summer 1986 |
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 Lola in the 8th Grade Brule, Nebraska, 1936 |
Lola Zimmerman was born Lola Marie Kammer on Monday, November 10, 1919 in Brule, Nebraska, a remote little farming community near the Colorado border. Lola attended school during the difficult dust-bowl and depression years. After her father's sudden death in a field on their farm, Lola moved to California to live with a sister. |
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 Champagne Cocktails The Paris Inn Los Angeles 1941 |
While working at a boarding house in Los Angeles, Lola met a young man, Bill Zimmerman. They were married on December 12, 1941 in Arcadia, California. During World War II, Bill worked for Lockheed Aircraft on a secret project. His team went from concept to flying prototype in 45 days. It was America's first jet fighter. |
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 After the war, Bill and Lola moved to southern Oregon. They built and ran a resort, Rogue Woods,on the Rogue River in Gold Beach. The fishing resort had 6 cabins, a lodge, and a restaurant where Bill cooked. Bill and Lola lived in a tent while they built their first home overlooking the river valley. Rogue Woods was on a beautiful site with many rare myrtle trees. Some of the trees had been there for over 500 years. but oddly, the Rogue River changed its course. Despite all efforts, it ate away all of the Rogue Woods property. The cabins were towed across the state highway. But there was no more resort. In 1954, Bill and Lola moved to Bellevue, Washington, then a sleepy, rural community. While Bill worked at Boeing as an engineer, Lola raised their two sons, Ron and Bob. The family had gigantic vegetable gardens that supplied zucchini, peas, beans, corn, strawberries, loganberries, and tomatoes to the whole neighborhood. 
Bill and Lola purchased an old dairy farm in Fall City in 1974. At an age when most people would be starting to wind down, Lola quietly began turning her love of gardening into what would become one of the signature businesses of the region, The Herbfarm.The Herbfarm began with a single wheel barrow of herbs that Lola parked along the road. Over the next 25 years, that initial wheel barrow of herbs turned into one of the most important herb farms in America. The Herbfarm grew and sold over one-thousand different kinds of herb plants. It also had an herb shop, national mail order business, and a school which taught over 300 different classes each year on cooking, crafting, gardening, and the medicinal use of herbs. Throughout the 70s and 80s, Bill and Lola sought out rare herbs during their travels, which they added to the growing collection. In 1986, son Ron, and his wife Carrie, joined The Herbfarm and added The Herbfarm Restaurant, which served 6-course luncheons and 9-course dinners on the farm. When the restaurant was destroyed by fire in January of 1997, lengthy building permit delays eventually caused the farm to close. The restaurant relocated to Woodinville after operating for two years out of Hedges Wine Cellars in Issaquah.  Bill and Lola retired once again in 2000. They moved to North Bend. In Lola's leisure time, she enjoyed gardening, reading, writing, painting, latch-hooking, and visiting her many friends, and relatives. Bill died in 2001.Lola is survived by son Ron and his wife, Carrie Van Dyck, of Woodinville; son Bob and his wife, Valorie, of Kent; grandchildren Thomas, Paul, and Anne of Seattle; and many nieces, nephews and dear friends. The Herbfarm Restaurant lives on in Woodinville. Lola was proud that it became a AAA 5-Diamond Award restaurant, the only one in America north of San Francisco and west of Chicago. Lola is buried next to Bill. The headstone is engraved with a saying that Bill posted on the dove cote at The Herbfarm in Fall City -- Peace to You, Peace to You." |
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