Heritage Harvest Festival

From Heritage Harvest Festival Website:

SEPTEMBER 22, 2018
Thomas Jefferson's Monticello
A CELEBRATION OF THOMAS JEFFERSON'S AGRICULTURAL AND EPICUREAN LEGACY

Thomas Jefferson championed vegetable cuisine, plant experimentation, and sustainable agriculture. The 12th Annual Heritage Harvest Festival, hosted by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation in partnership with Seed Savers Exchange and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, celebrates Jeffersons legacy in a fun, affordable, family-oriented, educational event promoting gardening, sustainability, local food, and the preservation of heritage plants.

The 2018 Heritage Harvest Festival will be held on Saturday, September 22, at Monticello: on the historic West Lawn, in the vegetable garden, and in the LEED-certified Visitor Center. The venue provides a beautiful showcase for the restored gardens and features the wealth of Monticellos programs in not just gardening, but also natural history, foodways, and the roles of the entire plantation community.

Learn about organic gardening, seed-saving, cheese-making and southern recipes. Explore Jefferson's 1,000 foot long vegetable garden and ornamental mountaintop landscape. Taste hundreds of heirloom tomatoes, melons and peppers and savor local artisan jams, honey and chocolates. Learn new and period cooking techniques at chef demos, pet heritage breeds of animals with the kids, or revive your own kitchen garden at the 12th annual Old- Timey Seed Swap.

At the heart of the Heritage Harvest Festival are educational programs on seed-saving, botanical medicine, heirloom varieties, sustainable agriculture, organic gardening, edible landscaping, regional cookery, and other aspects of sustainable living. Interpretive tours of the restored Monticello garden, plus specialty tours on natural history and native plants, will take place every hour. Monticello will come alive with cooking programs highlighting the little mountain's cross-cultural legacy.

The Heritage Harvest Festival is a grassroots, volunteer-oriented event with serious educational goals. The festival seeks to educate garden and culinary enthusiasts preserve heirloom plants and foodways, and celebrate Thomas Jefferson's agricultural and epicurean legacy. We invite you to join us for a meaningful and fun day celebrating sustainable living and the good things that come from the earth.