GARDENING : Third Annual Harvest Faire of Herbal Delights
If you are a herb fancier, a crafts lover, an avid gardener, a gourmet or a Christmas shopper, you will appreciate today’s Harvest Herb Faire sponsored by the Inland Herb Society.
This is the society’s third annual Harvest Herb Faire and promises to be its best. Held in Woodcrest, a suburb of Riverside, the fair begins at 9 a.m. and lasts until dusk.
Consider the assortment of activities and eating and shopping opportunities the fair offers:
There will be lectures, workshops and demonstrations by experts. Included are herb-craft workshops, basket-making, spinning and weaving demonstrations and a lecture tour of an extensive herb garden. You can learn when and how to plant herbs and all about their culinary uses.
Fair-goers will find herbal culinary delights at the various food booths. Herbal crafts will be on display and for sale, as will herb plants and cut herbs.
Crafts play a large role in the fair, in demonstrations and as sale items, and the accent here is on holiday crafts and gifts.
Herbal craft designer Barbara Sausser will offer a wide selection of Christmas wreaths, potpourri and other crafts and will answer questions about craft design using herbs and flowers. Sausser says herbal wreaths offer a great advantage over other floral wreaths. Plain floral wreaths may be beautiful, but herbal floral wreaths are also fragrant.
Along with the crafts, you will encounter a bit of herbal Christmas lore.
For instance, do you know what frankincense and myrrh are? They are aromatic resins from trees found in Arabia. Historically, they have been used in making incense and perfume. Sausser will have some frankincense and myrrh on display; she uses both as fixatives in herbal potpourri.
Incidentally, Sausser said the reason many commercial potpourris lose their fragrance quickly is that they are often treated with an oil to establish the scent, and the scent soon fades. Natural potpourri is a blend of scented ingredients of herbs and flowers and includes a fixative (material that absorbs and holds scents). A natural potpourri will retain its fragrance for a long time.
In Sausser’s craft area, view the magnificent herbal Christmas tree she has created. You may also want to purchase a miniature Christmas tree constructed from rosemary, a traditional Christmas herb.
Nick Waddell, Inland Herb Society president and a renowned herb expert, will conduct regular tours of the herb garden.
Ask Waddell to show you the Mexican bush sage, an ideal landscape plant for Southland yards. It bears purple flowers that bloom all winter and attract hummingbirds.
The garden contains many traditional culinary, ornamental and medicinal herbs, along with unusual specimens. Consider costmary, also known as the Bible herb because in early days churchgoers would use its broad leaves as bookmarks. In addition, they nibbled on the leaves--which have a startling bitter-mint flavor-- to keep awake during sermons.
After your tour, you can buy an herb plant or two for garden or container. Fall is an especially good time to plant perennial herbs. Herb expert Bill Jenks will offer free planting advice at the plant booth.
You needn’t leave the Harvest Herb Faire hungry. Under the directorship of food specialist and master gardener Tracy Di Napoli, delicious homemade herbal goodies will be for sale. Consider some of the culinary choices: baked herbal chicken; herb-vegetable soups; herbal biscuits; herbal dips; persimmon and lemon tea breads; thyme, anise and persimmon cookies; pumpkin pie; spiced hot cider and herbal teas.
A don’t-miss in the food section is Auntie M’s fantastic salad and produce booth. Auntie M (Marcella Waggoner) is famous for her gourmet salads, which feature salad greens, exotic herbs and flowers, and are topped off with her herbal vinegar dressings. She sells them throughout the Inland Empire at certified farmers’ markets. Auntie M is an Herb Society member, and she will share culinary secrets with you. In fact, member-vendors throughout the food section will share recipes with you.
Before you leave the fair, watch expert basket maker Mary Ann Logan work her magic, and catch the weaving and spinning demonstrations.
The herb fair originated because two society members, Donna Metcalfe and Barbara Sausser, longed for a country herb fair like the ones common in the East and Midwest.
The Harvest Herb Faire is at Sausser’s herb garden in the midst of a Christmas tree farm, 15665 Russell St., Woodcrest area (just outside Riverside).
Take California 91 to Van Buren Boulevard in Riverside. Go east about eight miles on Van Buren. When you cross the signal at Washington Street, look for Herb Faire signs. Turn north on Ridgeway Avenue, east on Hibiscus Avenue, then north on Russell. From Interstate 215, travel west on Van Buren. Taped information: (714) 780-2694.
The Inland Herb Society is a group of herb enthusiasts formed 15 years ago in Riverside. The group welcomes new members. Meetings usually are held the third Sunday of the month at UC Riverside Botanic Garden.
Dues are $5 a year and include a monthly newsletter that has been recognized by herb experts throughout the country. Membership information can be obtained by writing to the Inland Herb Society, 15665 Russell St., Riverside 92504.
