Feast Your Senses at RHS Taste of Autumn Food Festivals
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) will be celebrating harvest with an autumn festival aimed at foodies, families and grow-your-own enthusiasts held at all four RHS Gardens during October. Supported by Mr Fothergill's Seeds, the four festivals will be packed with tastings, artisan food markets, cookery demonstrations, seasonal produce displays, live music, book signings, advice, family activities and more.
- RHS Garden Harlow Carr, North Yorkshire: A Taste of Autumn, 4 - 5 October 2014
- RHS Garden Rosemoor, Devon: Apple Day, 5 October 2014
- RHS Garden Wisley, Surrey: A Taste of Autumn, 15 - 19 October 2014
- RHS Garden Hyde Hall, Essex: Autumn Festival, 18-19 October 2014
Whether you have a windowbox, front lawn, smallholding, allotment or just a vase to fill, there will be something delicious taking place at an RHS Garden for you. Entry to all festivals is free with normal garden entry, for more details see: https://www.rhs.org.uk/
What's on in the four RHS Gardens:
A Taste of Autumn at RHS Garden Harlow Carr (North Yorkshire), 4 - 5 October
RHS Garden Harlow Carr is celebrating autumn with a weekend of expert advice, cookery demonstrations, tastings, displays, crafts and more. Local artisan producers will be selling a range of tasty treats from pickles and pies, to beer and brownies. Top French chef Lionel Strub will be cooking up a storm with an outdoor oven and fire pit, demonstrating how to take seasonal produce from plot to plate. The BarrowBand will be singing, dancing and juggling its way through a repertoire of fruit- and vegetable-themed songs, and the festival atmosphere will continue with pumpkin seed art making, wood turning, basket making and other crafts. RHS experts will be on site to answer questions and, with a drop-in mushroom-growing workshop, a fruit-advice service from BBC Radio York gardening presenter Martin Fish and a guess the weight of the giant pumpkin display, visitors will leave inspired.
Apple Day at RHS Garden Rosemoor (Devon), 5 October
RHS Garden Rosemoor will be bringing in autumn with a celebration of that great West Country classic, the apple. Visitors will be able to see, taste and buy a huge range of apples, most not available in supermarkets, as well as picking up tempting ideas on how to make the most of autumn bounty with cooking demonstrations. Stalls will be selling a variety of produce including juices, fruit and cider. RHS experts will be on hand to identify mystery apple cultivars (please bring at least two apples from each, complete with stalks, and ideally also a shoot with leaves) and there will be inspiring talks and demonstrations on planting, training and pruning. Morris dancers will top off the festival atmosphere and entice visitors out to explore the garden at its colourful autumn best.
A Taste of Autumn at RHS Garden Wisley (Surrey), 15 - 19 October
At the RHS flagship garden in Surrey, exhibitors will be gathering to show off the very best of the season's produce and artisan foods to see, taste and take home. More than 40 stalls will be selling pies, garlic, cheeses, jams, fudge, meats and, of course, fruit and vegetables. A huge range of apples from the vast Wisley Orchard will be available to taste and juice. RHS experts will be on hand to offer advice, seed-planting tips, apple pressing, and mystery apple identification. Vibrant fruit paintings from RHS Chelsea Flower Show medal winner Anna Mason will be on display together with striking, prizewinning images from the prestigious International Garden Photographer of the Year competition.
Autumn Festival at RHS Garden Hyde Hall (Essex), 18 - 19 October
Celebrating everything autumnal, RHS Garden Hyde Hall will be packed with colourful displays and stalls of fruit, vegetables and local produce, family fun, crafts, advice and more. Traditional Essex apple cultivars such as ‘Chelmsford Wonder' and ‘Braintree Seedling' from the Heritage Apple Orchard will be available to munch, juice and taste, and the Essex branch of the National Vegetable Society will be showing off the best of the harvest. Stalls will be selling a range of produce and artisan foods, and craftspeople will be demonstrating woodcarving and chainsawing with gifts to buy. Lucy Chamberlain, editor of Grow Your Own magazine, will be manning the horticultural advice desk, and for kids there will be a mini-farm, an autumn i-spy garden trail, longest apple peel competitions and more.