Priscilla Richardson

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What’s fun Saturday ? Why, the Fincastle Home and Garden Tour. And I personally cannot think of a better way to welcome summer. Even if  you have seen all the heritage homes on the tour, you haven’t seen them this way. This year, the accent will be on gardens, thanks to the efforts of the Big Spring Garden Club and the Roanoke Valley Unit of the Herb Society of America.

When you talk about herbs, you’ve got my interest. And this year you’ll be able to see herbs that were often used in Colonial days. Now growing around the James Matten Early cabin you can find: nasturtium, common tansy, fern leaf tansy, thyme, sweet Annie  and basil. Also calendula, lavender, feverfew, lovage, chamomile, monarda, oregano, Greek oregano, salad burnett, chives, comfrey, catnip  and chervil.
 
Now, without taking away from the Roanoke Valley Herb Society president,  Sam Winkler of Roanoke, who will be giving talks at the Early cabin, I have to let you in on a few things, just so you won’t think these herbalists are crazy. Nasturtium an herb? Well, yes. Those little colorful trumpets dress up and add pepper flavor to food.

And Egyptian, or walking, onions, so called because when their tops fall over to touch the ground they start new plants, fit right in with marjoram, sage and rosemary for main dishes. Plus, lemon balm adds a light lemon taste to tea or sweets. One of the few things they’ve planted that you don’t eat is hollyhock.

“You have to remember,” said Gret Kidd, a Fincastle member , “that back then herbs were used to cover up bad smells or tastes” — as well as to add to the pleasure of eating. When you purchase a sage or thyme plant , plant it in your yard. Then in a few days you can use some of the leaves to push under the skin of a chicken before you roast it. Yum.

Back to the tour: What makes this year especially exciting is the marketplace set up in the Big Spring area, within close walking distance of three of the featured houses. Only homemade food will be for sale at the marketplace. For example, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church is offering sandwiches and drinks. And the Herb Society booth will have various herbal treats, including lemon tea cakes and lavender cookies. Watch for chocolate mint cookies flavored with chocolate mint, which is a variety of mint, not chocolate and mint.
 
Kidd, a retired schoolteacher who gives piano lessons in her home, expects the booth also to sell soapwort, the root of which makes a “nice foaming hand wash for linen and silk.” She herself has sewn fabric bowls.  Of course there will be live and dried herbs available, as well as handmade sandcast containers. These are made out of cement and shaped around hosta leaves. If you want to know how to make them yourself, just ask some of the folks there to explain.

But I’ve left out one of the main reasons to go to this booth: the cookbook. It contains a sampler of herbal recipes used by Herb Society members for their get-togethers.
 
And speaking of cookbooks, the one offered at the Big Spring Garden Club booth also should sell fast. The idea came from two Fincastle-born-and-raised women: Marcia Neighbors, who has been teaching in Botetourt schools for 29 years, and Lynne Bolton, a teacher at Lord Botetourt High School . The book  includes recipes of club members in large  type. And most unusually, it also includes  vintage recipes from deceased members such as the late Hannah Breckinridge. Its three-ring binder format solves a very modern problem of what to do with recipes printed off the Internet onto standard sheets of paper. The club also will sell food and gardening items.

So plan to come to spend the day, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. The houses alone are worth your time, and now this year the marketplace adds so much. Rain or shine, buy tickets Saturday at the historic Bank of Fincastle building at  17 Roanoke St. , $15 for the  public, $12 for Historic Fincastle members. Call  473-3077 for more information.
See you there!