Harvest festivals
This weekend Bishop’s Palace in Wells, Somerset, is holding a two-day festival with stalls selling local produce, talks on growing your own, hands-on gardening sessions, morris dancers and brass bands. There is still a collection of tinned and dried goods for charity, though (from £8 adult, £3 child, 28-29 September, bishopspalace.org.uk). At Norwich Cathedral, Harfest brings the farm to the city. There are animals, farming displays and a farmers’ market, plus live bands and performing arts groups (free, 5 October, rnaa.org.uk). Winchester cathedral is hosting a harvest weekend with falconry displays, livestock, tractors and a market. The focus will be on the climate crisis, with talks from environmental groups, and Winchester School of Art is making a giant bee from recycled material (free, 5-6 October, winchester-cathedral.org.uk).
The London harvest festival at Woodlands farm in Greenwich celebrates city farms and community gardens. It includes an animal show, a horticultural display, craft activities such as pottery and metalwork, and lots of local food and drink (free, 28 September, farmgarden.org.uk). Also in London is the unusual Sea Harvest Festival at St-Mary-at-Hill in Billingsgate in the City, once the centre of the fish trade. Once a year, fishmongers return for a service of thanksgiving and a wet fish display (free, 13 October, stmary-at-hill.org).
Apple and damson harvest
The National Trust is offering a cider-making working holiday on the Killerton estate in Devon. Recruits will help the rangers to harvest and juice more than 50 varieties of apple, using a 19th-century press. A good level of fitness is needed to pick the fruit by hand, carry bags of apples and put the fruit in the press; the reward is plenty of last year’s batch of cider. The bunkhouse accommodation is within easy reach of Exmouth and the east Devon coast (£220, including meals, 6-13 October, nationaltrust.org.uk).
Brockhampton, a medieval manor house and estate in Herefordshire, is restoring its fruit trees, including reinstating two lost orchards. They’re home to lots of damson trees, including a regional variety called Shropshire prune.
Throughout September, visitors are welcome to pick their own (£3 a kilo). During October, the focus turns to apples (pick six for £1); on 12 October, there is an apple-pressing and cider-making day (£15 for 12 litres, nationaltrust.org.uk).
Kent Life, a heritage farm park near Maidstone, is holding a Cider Fayre to mark apple harvest, with homemade and guest ciders, and cider cocktails (5-6 October, £9.95 adult, £8.25 child, kentlife.org.uk).
Feasts
The Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall has an eight-day harvest event with seasonal lunches every day, culminating in a three-course feast night. A seasonal display showcases estate produce, from heritage fruit and vegetables to bamboo, charcoal and wool; and there are also talks on seed collecting and onion stringing, and activities including corn dolly-making. Visitors can meet the rare-breed farm animals on a trail through the gardens (£15 adult, £7 child, 15-13 October, feast night £30, 12 October, heligan.com).
The Thelma Hulbert gallery in Honiton, Devon, is hosting a harvest feast to celebrate its exhibition, Well Trodden Wrong Ways, about the landscape of the Jurassic Coast. Photographer Paul Blakemore and artist Jo Lathwood will attend a harvest-inspired tapas dinner, with local beers and music from a chamber quartet. Earlier in the day, there are family-friendly activities at the gallery, such as harvest-themed face-painting (£15 for food and a drink, 5 October, thelmahulbert.com).
Food festivals
Falmouth oyster festival in Cornwall will be celebrating the start of the native Fal oyster season (free and ticketed events, 10-13 October, falmouthoysterfestival.co.uk).
Arreton Barns, an arts and crafts centre on the Isle of Wight, is celebrating the corn harvest with its annual sweetcorn fayre. Visitors can try their hand at sweetcorn speed-eating, tuck into corn on the cob and sweetcorn fritters, and watch corny cooking demonstrations. There’ll also be a beer festival, live music and children’s entertainment from Bob the Cob, Connie Corn and Nora Niblet (£4 adult/£1 child, 28 September, arretonbarns.co.uk). In Surrey, the Rural Life Centre in Farnham, has a harvest ceilidh (£11, 5 October, rural-life.org.uk).
Grape harvest
The Tinwood Estate, a vineyard near Chichester in West Sussex, is running harvest experience days. After coffee and cake, visitors will join in the grape harvest, helping to handpick grapes such as chardonnay, pinot noir or pinot meunier. Two hours’ hard graft is rewarded with a three-course rustic harvest lunch, matched with three sparkling wines (£59, 4, 6, 13, 18 and 20 October, tinwoodestate.com).
A harvest celebration natural wine producer Terlingham Vineyard near Folkestone in Kent, includes a tour of the wine cellar and a guided walk through the vineyard, where visitors can sample the ripe grapes, and a tasting of still and sparkling wines with a cheeseboard (29 September and 5 October, £30, terlinghamvineyard.co.uk).
Apple days
Apple Day was first celebrated in London’s Covent Garden in October 1990, and now hundreds of apple-themed events take place across the UK each autumn. Dozens of National Trust properties are holding events, such as Gibside, a Georgian landscape garden in Tyne and Wear. Applefest takes place in the walled garden, with apple picking, bobbing, eating and juicing (£12 adult, £6 child, 5 October, nationaltrust.org.uk). The National Botanic Garden of Wales near Carmarthen has an Apple Weekend with 400 varieties of apple on display, apple-themed quizzes and plenty of cider (£11 adult, £5 child, 19-20 October, botanicgarden.wales). Three of the four RHS gardens have apple festivals, where visitors can take their own fruit to be identified by the experts: Rosemoor in Devon (free, 5-6 October), Wisley in Surrey (free, 16-20 October) and Harlow Carr in North Yorkshire (free, 30 October-3 November, rhs.org.uk).
Autumn celebrations
Mottisfont, an 18th-century house and gallery in riverside gardens in Hampshire, is holding a six-week celebration of the harvest. There will be display of seasonal produce and demonstrations of activities from cider making to charcoal burning. Walks include guided tours of the village orchard, a “gourd walk” through the new kitchen garden and a scarecrow trail around the grounds. Children can make a green man mask; and everyone can have a go at making compost, creating land art and pumpkin bowling (to 1 November, £16.50 adult, £8.25 child, nationaltrust.org.uk). Butser Ancient Farm, also in Hampshire, is holding a haust celebration. Haust is the Old Norse word for autumn and is a time to give thanks for the harvest, say farewell to summer and prepare for winter (£9 adult, £5 child, 29 September, butserancientfarm.co.uk).
At an autumn fair at Belton House near Grantham in Lincolnshire, visitors are encourage to plant bulbs, try spinning and weaving, and sample produce and crafts from 50 local traders (£16.50 adult, £10.50 child, 12-13 October, nationaltrust.org.uk).
Looking for a holiday with a difference? Browse Guardian Holidays to see a range of fantastic trips
This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that third-party cookies will be set. More information.
