Herbal harvest
Festival connects community to nature
Get lost in the scents, flavors and colors of Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean Basin — right here in the Ozarks. The 28th annual Herb Harvest Fall Festival will take place Oct. 6 and 7 at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View.
Tina Wilcox, head gardener for the Folk Center’s Heritage Herb Garden, said the festival is a delightful and cohesive experience for everyone involved.
“The overall mission of the Heritage Herb Garden is to portray how plants connect the Ozarks with the planet and all of its people. Herbal plants are useful; they provide remedies, insecticides and repellents, textiles, dyes and fragrance. The culinary herbs really bring us to our senses as we seek to experience folk culture through plants,” she said.
Registration for the event is $85 per person for one day or $150 for two days.
Wilcox said a $30 nonrefundable deposit is due at the time of registration, and the remaining balance will be accepted when participants arrive at the event.
A variety of workshops will be offered over the weekend, she said, along with flavorful food inspired by the festival’s theme.
According to a press release, Friday sessions include Plant Explorers of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, with Kathleen Connole, at 9 a.m.; Herbs of Mexico on Your Plate: From Badianus to NAFTA, with Dr. Art Tucker, at 10:30 a.m.; Flavors of Mexico Up Close, with Susan Belsinger and Dr. Art Tucker, at 11:30 a.m.; Introduction
to the Tarahumara: An Ethnobotanical Trip Through Copper Canyon, with Pat Kenny, at 2 p.m.; Make and Take Your Own Sonoran Herb Blend at 3 p.m.; and Unlocking the Relevance of the Badianus Manuscript: The Aztec Herbal of 1552, with Steven Foster, at 3:30 p.m.
On Saturday, workshops will kick off with Ancient Mesoamerican Agriculture: Floating Gardens, Food and Drink of the Gods, and Cochineal Red, with Kathleen Connole, at 9 a.m.; Costa Rica: From Mangroves to Rainforest to Spice Farm and Vanilla: The Queen of Beans, with Susan Belsinger, at 10:30 a.m.; a tour of the Heritage Herb Garden at 1:30 p.m.; Discovering Herbs in the American Isthmanian and Island Neotropics, with Steven Foster, at 2:30 p.m.; and Vanilla and Chocolate Farewell, Adios and Adieu at 4 p.m.
Lunches will be provided, and concerts will take place in the large auditorium from 7-9 p.m. on both nights of the event, the press release states.
“Susan Belsinger and
Dr. Art Tucker are consumed with the pursuit of herbal knowledge through research and daily usage,” Wilcox said. “They recently collaborated on the new Timberpress release, The Culinary Herbal: Growing and Preserving 97 Flavorful Herbs.”
Belsinger designed the recipes for the lunches that will be served at the festival, Wilcox added.
Nell Doyle, Master Naturalist team leader for the Ozark Folk Center, said her group of volunteers weed garden beds, prune roses and plant at the center throughout the year.
The International Herb Association’s Herb of the Year for 2017 is cilantro, she said.
Wilcox said that while cilantro isn’t from the festival’s region of study, papaloquelite and pepicha are used in Mexico in the same foods we use cilantro in in the United States.
Both are growing alongside cilantro in the Herb of the Year garden at the center, Wilcox said.
“There is an extensive display of various heats and colors of peppers in the garden this year, as well as Mexican and other herbs that are similar to cilantro. Since cilantro doesn’t grow well in the summer — it’s a coolweather herb — that won’t be grown in great quantity until the fall,” Doyle said.
“Other plants from the region include culantro, papalo, papaloqelite and pepichu, which contain essential oils that cilantro also contains.”
Doyle said another bed displays an assortment of flowers that originate from the festival’s focus region, including cosmos, cypress vine, Mexican marigold, amaranth and four-o’clocks.
The festival brings together local community members who are interested in herbs, as well as people from outside of the region, to learn and share ideas, she said.
“My personal favorite is almost always Kathleen Connole’s presentation on the plant explorers who brought tropical plants to Europe, the United States and, eventually, to the Ozarks. However, Susan Belsinger’s culinary presentations are also great,” Doyle said.
For more information or to register, contact Tina Wilcox at (870) 269-3851, or visit www. ozarkfolkcenter.com.