Baton Rouge Unit of the Herb Society of America

06/16/2026

June is all about ! Lemon basil, with a delightful lemon fragrance and flavor, is the natural hybrid between Ocimum xafricanum (the hybrid between Ocimum basilicum and Ocimum americanum). There are some lemon basils on the market that claim to be 0. basilicum.

To learn more and snag some great recipes, visit: https://loom.ly/0k4mN48

06/08/2026

06/05/2026

20th GARDEN AND POND TOUR
Saturday, June 13th, 8:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Starts at 841 Pastureview Drive, Baton Rouge, LA

Hundreds of tropical and flowering plants and thousands of hours have been lovingly invested in these gardens. Every square inch has been planted for guests to enjoy. Our charity this year is the Baton Rouge Food Bank; admission is free, but please bring a canned good or donation for this vital community service.

Featured on this year's tour are:

• The magnificent gardens of Charbel and Ruth Harb, boasting 300 varieties of plants, arbors, an art gallery, a pond, chimes, etc.
• The impressive waterfall and pond of Kim and Paula Biggs
• The prized 2-ft size premium koi collection of Robert Wu

All gardens are within minutes of one another. Vendors offering breakfast, coffee, sweets, plants, and garden gifts will be on hand, and the Baton Rouge Garden Society will also be present.

05/22/2026

On her first day as a restaurant owner, she sold thirty-five steaks.
It was May 24, 1965, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The woman behind the restaurant was named Ruth Fertel. She was 38 years old. She was a divorced single mother of two teenage sons.
She had never worked in a restaurant. She had never cooked professionally, never managed a kitchen, never run a business of any kind.
She had been a lab technician at a medical school, earning a salary that was not enough to send her two boys to college.
So when she saw a newspaper ad — a steak house for sale — she had done something everyone in her life begged her not to do.
She had mortgaged her house. She had borrowed the money. She had bought a struggling 60-seat restaurant in a rough part of New Orleans, a restaurant that had already failed under several previous owners.
On her first day, she sold thirty-five steaks.
Thirty-five years later, the business that grew out of that day would have more than a hundred locations around the world.
Her name was Ruth Fertel.
And the most famous thing about her restaurant — its name — was something she would hate for the rest of her life.

She had not even known how much money to borrow.
When Ruth went to the bank, she asked for exactly $18,000 — the purchase price of the restaurant.
It was the banker who had to point out that she would need several thousand dollars more, just to buy food and pay for repairs before she ever served a customer.
She finally borrowed $22,000, with her own house as collateral.
Her lawyer told her not to do it. Her banker was skeptical. Her friends and family thought she was throwing away the only financial security she had.
The restaurant had already broken several owners before her.
Ruth bought it anyway.

The early days were brutal.
She had no one to teach her. She had to learn every part of the business at once, and she had to learn it while losing money.
She taught herself to butcher beef. She was a small woman — five foot two, about 110 pounds — and she sawed through 30-pound short loins of beef by hand, every day, until she had finally earned enough to buy an electric saw.
She cooked. She waited tables. She kept the books. She worked enormous hours.
A few months after she opened, Hurricane Betsy struck New Orleans. The power went out. Ruth was left with a cooler full of expensive raw meat and no electricity to keep it.
She did not panic.
She cooked all of it, and she gave the food away — to the relief workers and the displaced families in the storm-battered neighborhood around her restaurant.
Slowly, against the odds, the restaurant began to work.

And here is the part of Ruth Fertel's story that the famous version usually leaves out.
When it came time to hire her wait staff, Ruth Fertel made a very deliberate choice.
She hired single mothers.
She hired them on purpose, and she hired them again and again, because she was a single mother herself — and she knew exactly what that meant. She knew single mothers were reliable. She knew they were hard workers. She knew they needed the income and would not waste the chance.
For years, hers was the only upscale restaurant in all of New Orleans with an all-female wait staff.
The regulars had a nickname for the women who worked there.
They called them the Broads on Broad Street.
A woman who had been told by everyone she knew that she could not do this had built a restaurant — and then quietly filled it with other women that the world had underestimated in exactly the same way.
The restaurant became a destination. Politicians, athletes, business leaders, and reporters filled the tables. There were lines out the door.
For eleven years, Ruth poured everything into that one location. She paid off the mortgage on her house. She put both her sons through college.
Then, in early 1976, the restaurant caught fire.

The building was destroyed.
Ruth Fertel did not take the insurance money and walk away.
Within seven days — seven days — she had moved her restaurant into a new building a few blocks away and reopened it, larger than before.
But there was a problem.
When she had first bought the restaurant, the sales agreement had stated that the original name could only be used at the original address.
She had moved. Legally, she could no longer call it by its old name.
She needed a new name immediately. The new building was ready. The staff was hired. The customers were waiting.
So Ruth did the simplest, most awkward thing she could think of.
She took her own first name and stuck it onto the front of the old name.
Ruth's Chris Steak House.
It was clumsy. It was a tongue-twister. One critic later joked that saying it three times fast could be used as a sobriety test.
And Ruth Fertel hated it.
She said so, openly, for the rest of her life. "I've always hated the name," she told a magazine years later. "But we've always managed to work around it."

She also never set out to build an empire.
The expansion happened almost by accident.
One of her most loyal customers moved away to Baton Rouge — and kept driving all the way back to New Orleans just to eat her steaks. Finally he asked if he could open his own Ruth's Chris in Baton Rouge, closer to home.
Ruth knew nothing about franchising. But she said yes — because, she explained, she was a good judge of people.
That was how it began. The earliest franchises were all friends and devoted customers. And Ruth controlled every one of them obsessively. She traveled constantly. She inspected the kitchens. She tasted the steaks. Any location that did not meet her standard lost the right to her name.
From New Orleans, the restaurant spread to Baton Rouge, then Dallas, then across the United States, then around the world.
The single mother who had once sold thirty-five steaks in a day had built one of the most recognized steakhouse names on earth.
Ruth Fertel was diagnosed with lung cancer in her seventies. She kept working through it.
She died in April 2002, at the age of 75.

Today, the restaurant she built operates in more than 150 locations around the world.
Most of the people who eat there have no idea who Ruth was.
They only know two things. They know the steaks are extraordinary.
And they know the name is strange.
That strange name was an accident — attached to a building she had to flee after a fire, stuck onto a business she never planned to grow, hated by the very woman whose name it carried.
But it tells her whole story anyway.
A divorced single mother with no experience and a mortgaged house. A woman who taught herself to butcher beef by hand. A woman who hired the single mothers nobody else would bet on.
Her name was Ruth Fertel.
She put it on the door because she had nowhere else to put it — and the world has been saying it ever since.

05/05/2026

Many people opt to plant milkweed to support monarch butterfly populations, but the type of milkweed matters.

The LSU AgCenter recommends planting native milkweed instead of tropical milkweed. Native varieties die back naturally each year, which helps limit the spread of a parasite that can harm monarchs. Tropical milkweed often remains green year‑round, allowing parasites to build up and pose a greater risk to monarch populations.

You can read more about supporting these pollinators and native milkweed here: https://tinyurl.com/5d52m66f

04/21/2026

Interesting

02/28/2026

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02/26/2026

This is a list of many of the herbs we expect (or hope!) to have for Herb Day 2026. We will have herbs in 4"–5" pots, 1 gal. pots, and some in both sizes. Most small pots will be $4 ($5 for peppers); most gallon pots will be $12, except Bay Laurel ($16), Peggy Martin Rose ($20), and Olive trees ($30).

Come early for the best selection! Veteran Herb Day participants know how fast popular herbs sell out!

We take cash, check, cards, Paypal, and Zelle!

CULINARY HERBS
Anise Hyssop
Basil
African Blue, Blue Spice, Coldasil, Crimson King, Rutgers Obsession, Spicy Globe, Sweet, Thai
Bay Laurel (bay leaf)
Celery, Cutting
Chamomile
German, Treneague
Chervil
Chicory
Chives
Garlic and regular
Cilantro Chinese Parsley (coriander)
Culantro
Curry
Dwarf, Tall
Dill
Fernleaf and regular
Fennel
Smoky and regular
Garlic, Elephant
Lavender
Fernleaf, Goodwin Creek, Primavera
Lemon Balm
Lemongrass
Lovage
Mint
Apple, Banana, Best, Black Currant, Bowles Applemint, Chocolate, Citrata Basil, Citrus Kitchen, Curly, Ginger, Grapefruit, Jessica's Sweet Pear, Kentucky Colonel, Mojito, Mojito Cubano, Moroccan, Orange, Peppermint, Silver, Spearmint, Swiss, Thai, Variegated Peppermint, Vietnamese
Nasturtium, Mix
Oregano
Cuban, Greek, Hot Spicy, Italian, Portuguese, Sweet Marjoram
Parsley
Curly, Italian, Plain
Rosemary
Abraxas, BBQ, Creeping, Foxtail, Huntington Carpet, Prostrate Trailing, Spice Islands, Tuscan Blue
Rue
Sage
Berggarten, Garden, Garden Grey, Icterina, Officinalis, Pineapple, Tricolor
Sorrel, Garden
Tarragon
French, Mexican
Thyme
English, French, Lemon Variegated, Mother of, Silver, Silver Queen Lemon, Summerdreams Rose

OTHER HERBS
Aloe Vera
Beautyberry, American
Bergamot, Wild
Catnip
Coneflower
Giant, Purple
Feverfew
Geranium
Citronella— Citrosum Van Leenii Hang (mosquito plant), Presto Dark Red
Magnolia, Sweetbay
Plantain, Narrow-leaf
Yarrow
New Vintage Red, New Vintage Rose, New Vintage White
Yaupon Holly, Dwarf

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
Artichoke, Green Globe
Arugula, Wasabi
Banana
Musa, Dwarf, Ever Red (cold-hardy)
Blackberry
Ponca, Prime-Ark
Blueberry
Emerald
Chard, Swiss
Bright Lights
Lettuce
Little Gem, Romaine
Olive, Arbequina
Onion, Evergreen White
Peppers
California Wonder, Cayenne, Habanero, Jalapeño
Persimmon
Plum, Mexican
Shallots
Strawberry, Camino Real

POLLINATOR PLANTS
Asclepias (milkweed)
Apollo Orange, Native White, Red Butterfly, Silky Deep Red, Asclepias Silky Gold
Bee Balm, native
Foxglove (decorative/pollinator plant only; not edible!)
Camelot Mix. Digitalis Arctic Fox Rose
Fire Spike, Red
Hydrangea, Oakleaf
Lupinus, Texas Bluebonnet
Porterweed, Peach
Rose, Peggy Martin
Royal Catchfly

02/25/2026

While you're at Herb Day this Saturday, be sure to check out all our talented vendors who help make our event extra special!

VENDORS
Alchemy Incense & Apothecary
Incense, Herbal Tea, Herbally Infused Honey
All Jammed Up
Pepper Jelly, Smoked Cream Cheese
Art by Charbel
Art/Paintings on Canvas
Blue Lotus Visions
Connie’s Sketches
Pencil Art, Porcelain Mugs, Trivets
Designs by Reticle
Jewelry, Crystals, Home Décor
Fiber Headwear & Accessories
Follette Pottery
Pottery, Vases, Flowerpots
God Made Worms
Worm Compost, Worm Tea
Handmade Pottery by Susan Rodrigue
Functional Stoneware Pottery
Kelli Foret Artwork/The Dirty Little Artist
Garden-related Artwork/Illustrator
Lebanese Saj Flatbread
Flatbread with Za'atar and Cheese
My Friend Kelly Art
Pressed Flower Art, Jewelry, Custom
Papillons de Pervenche
Fine Art Originals, Stationery
Paul D. Taylor Photography
Fine Art Photographic Prints
Red Stick Reads
Indie Bookshop, Children's and Adult Fiction/Non-Fiction
Season to Taste
Flavored Oils and Vinegars
Turquoise Lily Jewelry Designs
Unique Handcrafted Custom Designs
Vineyard Pottery

FOOD
City Gelato
Gelato and Cannoli
Cotton Candy Me Sweet
Cotton Candy
Louisiana Lemonade
Lemonade, Food

NON-PROFITS
Baton Rouge Camellia Society
Camellia Plants
Baton Rouge Unit of the Herb Society of America
Tea Bar, Herbal Teas
Bromeliad Society of Baton Rouge
Bromeliads
Capital Area Beekeepers Association
Honey

02/21/2026

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