Gardeners Ready for Herb Sale

You can grow them, eat them and use their vast colors as gardening accents.

On Saturday and Sunday, several thousand varieties of herbs, ornamental herbs, vegetables and perennials will sprout at Tamanend Park in conjunction with the annual flea market and art show.

Besides offering 3,000 to 4,000 plants for sale this weekend, the Tamanend Park Herb Garden Club's members will be selling crafts and incorporating some of their harvest into baked goods, according to Program Director Peggy Rastiello.

Rastiello said "herbal cookies" and lavender cookies–which she describes as a "sugar cookie with lavender in it"–will be available for sale, as will pumpkin bread and other goodies. For visitors interested in turning their own herbs into recipes, Rastiello said the club will be selling a cookbook for $10.

"Everything in it has herbs in it," she said.

Planting roots

The Tamanend Park Herb Garden Club began in 1983 with four Upper Southampton residents. One or two of the founding members are still involved, she said, adding that the club has since grown to about 76 members. Of those, only about 30 people turn out for the club's monthly meetings, she said.

"All garden clubs are kind of dwindling these days," Rastiello said.

Some of the members get involved with the club for health reasons. 

"When you use fresh herbs you get more out of them than when you use dried herbs," Rastiello said, adding that eating herbs is "better than taking a supplement."

Others enjoy cooking with 35 different culinary herbs, including varieties of basil, thyme and savory, she said.

For Rastiello, the prospect of color brought her to the club 20 years ago.

"I was looking for silver, purple and gray," Rastiello said. "At the time they didn’t have perennials in those colors."

If you go

The Tamanend Park Herb Garden Club will hold its annual sale Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Tamanend Park, 1255 Second Street Pike in Southampton. Proceeds provide a $1,000 scholarship to a Delaware Valley College student studying horticulture and a $500 scholarship to a high school student involved with the 4-H.