Wake Forest Herb Fest

Think Farmers Market for Herbs! A Whole Lot BIGGER than I would have thought and I caught it after most of the People had left! This one was my first, in Wake Forest or anywhere! I’m looking forward to the next one!

I visit the Wake Forest Herb Fest every year. I’ve done so since we moved to WF as it is a great way to stock up on some homegrown/​organic herbs for your kitchen or garden.
Herbfest is free and is situated at the Festival Park on South White. It used to take place over the course of a week, but this year, it was over two consecutive weekends. Since we were out of town the first weekend, we went this past (lesson learned, there are not as many options on the last weekend).
I went looking for my standards: lavender, cilantro, mint, lemon basil, and catnip. I found all of what I was looking for, except the cilantro. I was able to learn a bit from the staff who told me that I can start my own cilantro by using coriander seed and advised me as to how to go about doing so. I also purchased locally grown tomato plants and am going to start my own growing of tomatoes this year.
Also available at Herbfest this year was the White Street Brewery Beer, however, they were only offering the Scottish Ale. Not as many options on the last weekend, I assume. Also, the first weekend, there is live music, and different exhibits from the local high schools.
The Herbfest is definitely a great local event, and a way to support local gardeners, and a learning experience as well! A must every year!

This was such a great activity I had my parents come all the way out from Greensboro for it. It’s hard not to leave the Herb Fest without at least twelve of everything. There was such a wide selection of the usual items (rosemary, thyme, basil, etc.) as well as out of the ordinary things that I’ve never heard of. I picked up a pot of purple basil and, what I was most excited about, a eucalyptus plant, which is thriving nicely in my back yard — how exotic!
It was also nice to browse through the tents around the outside of the herbs that had arts and crafts vendors. And they had the stage for performances again — the performance we caught appeared to be a lip synching group of kids doing a kind of American Idol/​So You Think You Can Dance kind of thing. My most favorite part of the Herb Fest outside of the herbs was the farm animals — sadly, I didn’t get to pet or feed them as I’d hoped. Next year…

The wife and I always enjoy going to the herb fest. It is held in the festival park at Wake Forest every year for a week towards the end of April /​beginning of May timeframe. When you arrive at festival park there are carts /​wagons towards the entrance. Grab one of these because you will want to load up once you see the variety. As you head down into the center of the park you will see a bunch of tables lined up with various herbs on them. They are organized and categorized very nicely to help find what you are looking for. There are typically several varieties of each herb grouped together.
They also have several very knowledgable staff on hand to answer any questions you may have. At last year’s herb festival I was actually a star! They shot a quick video of yours truly asking a question to the herb specialist for the evening news. In reality I asked him several questions and found out some very interesting things. Did you know that Rosemary does not grow well in a pot? Rosemary apparently grows best in the ground and prefers sandy well drained soil. We also learned why we have such a difficult time growing Cilantro. Ours always gets very scrawny and just grows seed pods (coriander). Apparently the difference is simply temperature. Even if grown in the shade under other plants the temperature in our region is not suitable for Cilantro. It will grow coriander if you like, but the cilantro leaves will only thrive in areas with consistent temperatures below 80 degrees. He did point us to Culantro which we had never heard of. The name sounds similar to Cilantro for good reason. It is basically Cilantro for warmer climates. It grows well even in hotter areas and tastes like Cilantro but the leaves are longer and skinnier with what looks like sharp edges. It is very comforting to be able to ask people the best way to take care of the herbs so you can ensure your new purchases thrive and do not wither away.
If you prefer you can also browse the tents around the perimeter of the herbs containing a variety of merchandise and food from local businesses. Many offer any type of trinket you can imagine while a few local restaurants have food samples and coupons to entice you to come see them.
Over towards the stage there is almost always some type of live entertainment ranging anywhere from a magician for the kids to local high school bands. The dates and times of each performance are posted on the website so you know what to expect or can plan your trip if one of them looks particularly interesting.
There are also a few of the typical festival food fare such as hot dogs, funnel cakes, and lemonaid.
Once you have loaded up on your herbs you head back to the entrance towards the couple of tents. Typically there is a small line here but it goes pretty quickly as there are multiple cashiers to assist you. Several individuals rome around and will count up your items and hand you a ticket detailing your purchases. You then step up to a cashier and hand them the ticket so they can ring you up. They will take cash, check, mastercard, and visa.
We go every year and always enjoy a lazy day (starting with a coffee from Wake Forest Coffee Company of course). The only problem I foresee with next year is where to put our new items. We have completely filled our screened in porch this year with containers of plants so I suppose we will have to replace some items or get inventive!