Our History: How it all began...

    Mary Lou Wolf, a retired Westinghouse statistical engineer, was the creator and tireless promoter of the Baltimore Herb Festival, which will celebrate its 18th year in 2005. Mary Lou was inventive, cantankerous, generous, opinionated, and a whole raft of other characteristics. Along the way she drafted Dickeyville neighbors, former co-workers from Westinghouse, and Baltimore City Parks & Recreation personnel to help implement her ideas, but Mary Lou was the decision maker at all times. Festival-related matters became her retirement avocation on a year-round basis. As her health deteriorated several years ago, Mary Lou became determined to insure the continuance of the annual festival, and to that end she arranged for the creation of Baltimore Herb Festival, Inc., a non-profit organization. Many of the former committee members became members of the Board of Directors. When Ms. Wolf died in December, 1998, shortly after the group was actually incorporated, but before the first festival was produced under the new title, one possibility, of course, was to sigh and declare the Baltimore Herb Festival would have to die with her. That seemed inconceivable, so the festival committee resolved to give the festival at least one more shot in her honor. The annual event continues to thrive.

 Mary Lou’s goals, which have been adopted by the festival committee, center around several areas: 1) Educational - Introduce herbs and their uses to the community; 2) Bring attention to the virtues of the oft-maligned Leakin Park, site of the annual festival; 3) Generate funds to put in an herb garden and restore the chapel in the park; 4) Provide a venue for enterprising herbalists who were in many cases struggling to turn a hobby into a small business.

 The festival’s slogan has always been, “It’s herbs, exclusively herbs!” That insistence on herbs remaining the focus of the festival has served to distinguish it from similar festivals which have expanded to include a miscellany of products and activities. The festival has always been self-supporting–through vendor fees and admission fees.

 Other features of the festival which have remained intact, and which contribute to its unique ambiance: 1) Park setting; 2) Lectures and demonstrations; 3) Two musical groups; 4) CALS railroad rides; 5) Food availability limited to one caterer and one lemonade stand [there are no food stands scattered throughout]; 6)Exhibitors [local non-profit groups which are permitted to use the occasion for disseminating information about their organization and for fund-raising, although they may NOT sell herb-related products]; 7) Vendors of herb plants and herb-related products [90% of their product line must be “herb-related”];  8)Medicinal and edible herb hikes with Friends of Gwynns Falls / Leakin Park volunteers leading general hikes in the park; 9) “Ask the Experts” or special activity tent; 10) Virtually all vehicles must be off the festival grounds before the public is admitted to the grounds, and NO vehicular traffic is permitted during the festival.

 The festival has always been self-supporting–through vendor fees and admission fees. The funds raised over the years have been modest, and have been used to: promote and produce the festival, pay festival expenses, begin to underwrite restoration efforts on the little chapel in the park, and to create and maintain an herb garden adjacent to the chapel.