Sep 30

THYME TRAVELER: Day Trip To The Baker Creek Heirloom Expo

By Karen England, for Let’s Talk Plants! October 2024.

Day Trip to the Baker Creek Heirloom Expo in Ventura, CA

During the summer I found out that two of my International Herb Association (IHA - iherb.org) gal-pals, Tina Marie Wilcox and Susan Belsinger, were going to be in California from Arkansas and Maryland respectively, for three days in September to be presenters/speakers at the Baker Creek Rare Seeds 11th Annual National Heirloom Exposition – The World’s Largest Pure Food Fair at the Ventura County Fairgrounds.

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When I found out they were coming westward, I told my friends that I wanted to see them while they were in Ventura and offered to “help” them if they needed it.

“Susan Belsinger and Tina Marie Wilcox are long-time friends who have co-written books and articles and presented herb workshops across the country for 30 years.”

Susan is an herbalist food writer, editor and photographer who has authored and edited over 25 books and hundreds of articles.

Tina Marie is the herbalist and head gardener at the Arkansas Ozark Folk Center and current president of the IHA.

Normally these two do not need anyone’s help let alone mine, but it turned out that I could help a little; due to airline and state travel restrictions regarding plants and seeds, some of the herbs that they needed for their talks had to be left at home, so they sent me a list of plants, etc., to bring to the expo if I could. The list included oreganos, parsley, sage, rosemary, lavender, yarrow, lemon balm, winter or summer savory, basil in a pot (for a pruning demo) and, if it were pot bound, even better they said, because it could be used for the root pruning demo too. They also asked for a small plastic bag of my native soil, a bag of potting soil and a pot for repotting the basil.

I brought them as much of their list as I could plus, I brought bay, pomegranate, blackberry, thyme, rose, scented geraniums, sweet Annie, fennel, mint, fig, and more.

I helped them all day. It was so much fun. I manned their booth for a bit while they were preparing for their first talk and even got to introduce them to the audience at their first presentation. They were selling Herb of the Year™ books, the same books that I sell when I am speaking, and these are books that we are all contributors to, so we all signed our chapters in them, adding no additional cost to each book.

They made tomato sandwiches from the food story: tomato sandwich in Susan's latest book, The Perfect Bite, as part of their demonstration and we three ate them afterward for lunch. Yum!

I was only there for the first day of the expo, but it was great and I got to see and meet so many people, including Jay Kapac, a friend from the Geranium Society in Los Angeles, who has developed the Sweet Hips® Rose – “The rose you want to go to fruit”. I bought one and can’t wait to plant it.

Next year, I am going to the Heirloom Expo all three days whether anyone needs me or not.

Before I left and headed home, I tried on a dried Cucumber Hat. Yes, you read that correctly, I walked the Squash Labyrinth, made by Veriditas and The Labyrinth Society, and took a selfie with the Squash Tower.

Although I didn’t get to say "hi" to Brijette Pena of the San Diego Seed Co., I did see that their booth in one of the Vendor Halls was packed!

I will see both Tina Marie and Susan again soon at the IHA’s Meeting of Members and Herbal Education Workshop that will take place Thursday, October 17, 2024, in Mountain View, Arkansas in conjunction with the Ozark Folk Center’s Wild Herbal Hike and Medicinal Plant Symposium on October 18-20, where along with these herbal gal-pals, I will be an official presenter at the conference not just a helper.