Correspondent photo / Kathryn Adams Don and Becky Kollar of Mineral Ridge look for herbs at Saturday’s herb and plant sale hosted by the Holborn Herb Growers Guild at the Canfield Fairgrounds.

CANFIELD — Carri Bookwalter Burkey, founder of the Holborn Herb Growers Guild, traveled to London, England, in the 1970s to learn how British horticulturalists extended the use of herbs in that country.

She visited existing guilds in England before returning to Connecticut where she lived and was greatly influenced by her mentor, Adelma Simmons, who ran a huge herbal farm in Connecticut called Caprilands. It was in Connecticut that Burkey had the idea of creating an herb guild. After moving to Salem, she decided to create a group in 1982 fashioned after the guilds she saw in England and named it the Holborn Herb Growers Guild,

On Saturday, the Holborn Herb Growers Guild held an herb and plant sale in the vegetable building at the Canfield Fairgrounds, where people came to peruse and purchase a variety of herbs and plants.

The guild operates in Boardman Park, as well as in the Western Reserve Village at the Canfield Fairgrounds. Sandy Ross of Boardman oversees the planting at Boardman Park where many herbs and plants are grown by what is called the “summer kitchen.”

The guild also cares for the gardens in Western Reserve Village where they plant flowers around the entrance and herbs around the doctor’s office as a reminder of the medicinal herbs that were the source of much of the doctor’s medical treatment. Members of the guild give tours to elementary students in the Western Reserve Village and show how herbs were used for medicinal purposes. The children can smell and touch the picked herbs and experience what it was like to live in pioneer days when there were no pharmacies and people had to grow their own medicinal herbs.

The Holborn Herb Growers Guild has 38 members and meets on the third Tuesday of each month. Half of their meetings are at the Canfield Fairgrounds in the Colonial Inn, and half are in Boardman Park at the Beard Cabin or Matthews Pavilion.

Guild president Bobbie Spaulding of Austintown said, “We are a working herb and garden club. In the spring, we plant annuals, clean out debris from winter and lay mulch.” Spaulding has been involved with the guild since 2019 and said, “the best part is working with the ladies and digging in the dirt. During COVID-19, it was the only thing to get me out of the house to keep my sanity.”

Meetings are informal and involve working on different areas of Boardman Park and Western Reserve Village. Occasionally a meeting will feature a speaker, and the ladies frequently discuss how to get more people involved.

Don and Becky Kollar of Mineral Ridge attended Saturday’s sale after seeing it advertised on Facebook. They were looking for plants that will attract butterflies (Bee Balm) and hummingbirds (Butterfly bush – Buddleia), and Becky was interested in the herbs, which she said she uses to cook.

Mary Grace Fowler of Boardman became a guild member 15 years ago. She took a master gardening class at Fellows Riverside Gardens and then wanted to join the guild.

“The main goal of the guild is to educate people about herbs and flowers. The best part is we learn from each other,” she said.

Every fall, the guild members make miniature bouquets of herbal flowers and floral wreaths that are used to decorate the St. James Meeting House in Boardman Park for the Christman season.

The sale on Saturday was one of several fundraisers hosted by the guild. There also will be a tea Sept. 21 at the Lariccia Center, where there will be a speaker, tea and refreshments styled after the high teas in England. Funds raised are used for a scholarship that is made available to a horticultural student in college, and to purchase plants, flowers and mulch.

The guild also has a table in Western Reserve Village at the Canfield Fair and offers demonstrations on how to hang herbs to dry.

Stephanie Ensley of Canfield and Virginia Bartos of Struthers were the co-chairs for Saturday’s herb and plant sale, having co-chaired four others. Both have herb gardens in their yards. What do they say is the best thing about the guild?

“It’s the friendship with the other ladies,” Ensley said.

“It’s the herbal knowledge we gain from being a part of the guild,” Bartos said