Head to Attingham Park this weekend as they bring the Walled Garden and Orchard to life celebrating harvest time.
Discover their local food fair where there will be local traders’ food stalls for you to browse and opportunities for you to watch cookery demonstrations from local celebrity chef Marcus Bean. There will be plenty of family fun activities and also a chance to see the traditional art of apple pressing by Attingham’s own Walled Gardeners.
The Harvest Fair will take place between 10am and 4pm on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September. Visitors will be able to enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of the fair and discover more about the autumn traditions of the wider Attingham estate. On show there will be displays from Attingham’s Wardens and some of their estate tenants, who will be showcasing everything that ‘harvest’ means on the whole 4000 acre Attingham estate.
Along with the wider estate, Attingham’s Walled Garden does an excellent job of producing tasty seasonal crops. Produce grown in the Walled Garden is used to supply their catering outlets and given to the shop to sell. This year has been a fantastic for apples. Within Attingham’s Orchard there are a whopping 37 apple varieties growing, and with September being apple season, most will be ripe and ready for the Harvest Fair weekend. On hand over the weekend, there will be an apple expert offering to solve your apple mysteries and identify your unknown apples. So if you don’t know if the apples growing in your garden are Shropshire Pippins or Grenadier cooking apples, it’s your chance to take one in to find out.
The Walled Gardeners are getting excited as they prepare for the Harvest Fair. Senior Gardener, Katherine Bone says, “Harvest time is such a magical time of year as we see the fruits of the season’s labours. This year we are looking forward to a bumper apple harvest and pressing the apples for juice is a process which has happened for centuries. All our apples are picked by hand and visitors can see our large wooden press in action and buy some of the delicious juice.” Apple pressing demonstrations will be at 11am, 1.30pm and 3pm each day and their delicious apple juice will also be available to buy on the day.
Throughout the weekend, local celebrity chef, Marcus Bean and friends will be at the fair cooking up some tasty autumnal delights. Marcus and a host of local chefs will be sharing their wealth of cooking experience and expertise with visitors with cookery demonstrations at 12pm, 1pm, 2.30pm and 3.30pm each day. Marcus has a close connection to Attingham. Him and his wife Jenny, run the successful Brompton Cookery School, from a converted farm on Attignham’s estate, where they host a range of exciting cookery classes for food enthusiasts to develop their culinary skills.
Attingham’s Harvest Fair is set to be a fantastic family day out. There will be lots of opportunities to have fun, learn new things and enjoy the buzzing atmosphere.
Standard grounds admissions apply. National Trust members and children under 5 go free.