It’s a bird! It’s a bee! Nope, it’s several thousand herbs for sale. At Herb Day 2019, the goal was to spread awareness of plants and green initiatives in the Baton Rouge area.
Hosted by the Baton Rouge Unit of The Herb Society of America on Feb. 23, Herb Day lasted from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The free event included activities like a Herb Plant Petting Zoo, a raffle, classes, artists selling their wares and music.
The event chair, Mary Williams, said that the event is popular in the Baton Rouge community because of its many attractions.
“We’ve got thousands of really good plants available, nice healthy plants and then we’ve got these activities,” Williams said. “We’ve got music and we’ve got things you can learn about there from the beekeeper and gorgeous pottery or jewelry, nice things going on and the whole thing is free.”
The event is intended to increase people’s knowledge of herbs, spread awareness of the organization’s work and generally make people more enthusiastic about gardening. Since it’s a family-oriented event, they had many activities geared to children, like making Mardi Gras Mambo herb gardens in pots.
Some children-orientated activities were popular with adults as well. Williams said that while they tried to reach out to the children with the herb petting zoo, it attracted a lot of adults.
“We thought it would be for kids, but grown-ups love it, Williams said. “You can go over to the plants and there’s somebody knowledgeable behind the table. And about a dozen of them are different plants there, you’re encouraged to touch and smell and then taste them.”
Besides increasing knowledge of herbs, the organization hopes to showcase their health benefits. Classes at the event like “The Healing Traditions of Acadiana” and “Herbs in the Spring Menu” educated those interested in using herbs, showing them how to cook with herbs and what traditional medical benefits herbs had.
Williams said that herbs are often underutilized. She says that although there’s a lot of herbal research, many people don’t realize that herbs can be used to improve health naturally.
“We’re learning more and more about herbs and their benefits,” Williams said. “There’s all kinds of wonderful stuff that herbs can do and we’re trying to get people to understand. You can grow them, you can put them in your spaghetti. And you can have yourself some elderberry cordial and improve your immune system.”
The organization also wanted to bring attention to their other projects, like their future herb gardens at the Burden Center. They want to encourage the creation of more herb gardens in Baton Rouge.
“We’ve got a growing season here 12 months long,” Williams said. “Why don’t we see that anymore with people in their own neighborhoods? So community gardens are a way to do that.”
