Forde Abbey Harvest Festival Highlights

A celebration of the harvest, our two-day festival at Forde Abbey is all about reaping the rewards of the gardening year, whether it’s cooking with veg crops, making natural dyes or wreaths from flowers or trying your hand at scything.

In 2018 we welcomed Gardeners’ Question Time regular Matthew Biggs and Guardian columnist Alys Fowler, along with John Challis and Jim Buttress. Highlights included a perfume pop-up from Dorset parfumier Parterre and a visit from the ‘Tree Listener’ Alex Metcalf, who plugged into Forde’s trees with his sensitive recording equipment to reveal the sounds inside the bark.

At our inaugural Harvest Festival in 2017, Charlie Dimmock and Christine Walkden headed the line-up, along with local Somerset artisans sharing how to grow your own flowers, make soap and dye material using foraged flowers.