This weekend at Rouse Hill House and Farm we welcome in the culinary delights that the cooler weather brings at our Autumn Harvest Festival. 

The season’s finest

There’s plenty of action on this historic colonial estate, including free family-friendly tours, talks, workshops and artisan food products from local producers and providores and live entertainment from the fun-loving Vegetable Plot.

Pack a hamper to take home or pull up a picnic blanket and enjoy on the day – Bilpin honey, Brasserie Bread, Alto Olives, Willowbrae’s beautiful fresh local cheeses, Steph’s French cheeses and handcrafted small goods, complemented with Eat Me Chutneys and Coorong Comestibles preserves. If you feel like something hot, treat yourself to one of Ryan Broomfield’s divine pies or local caterer Momento will be trying their hand at ‘Devilled Bones’ from an 1850s recipe in one of the Rouse family’s cookbooks. Meanwhile Tea-totallers and Young Brothers coffee will be offering welcome revivers and restoratives.

Demonstrations and workshops

FungiCo will demonstrate how easy it is to make your own oyster mushroom garden using straw, coffee, woodchips or other garden waste and artisan cheese maker Kristen Allan will demonstrate some of her hands-on techniques so that you can make your own fresh farm-style cheeses at home. Learn some ‘how to’ and ‘best not’ tips about backyard bee keeping and raising your own chickens.

Local Wormtickler will have quality organic, chemical free seedlings for home gardeners and Crop Swap Sydney will also be joining us, so bring your excess produce, seeds or gardening goods to swap! You can visit the Crop Swap stall throughout the day for advice on growing your own edibles or to rifle through their seed library. They will also be collecting soil samples for free testing conducted by Vegesafe. Bring a sample of your soil to ensure that it is free from metal contaminants and safe to grow your produce in. Find out what you need to bring to have your soil tested [PDF].

The Cook and the Curator will be in conversation with food writer Barbara Sweeney and some of our guest specialists including cheese maker Kristen Allan, and ‘henpreneur’ Dave Ingham. You can also win an Eat Your History gift hamper by registering ahead of time for the event.