Thanks to everyone who attended for making the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello a great success. Mark your calendars for next year’s festival: September 14-15, 2012.

View the photo slideshow from the 2011 Festival.

BREAKING NEWS! White House Associate Pastry Chefs Margi Fineran & Sarah Tannenbaum will offer a special guest demonstration: The Secret Ingredient: Learn to Make the White House Granola Bars – 1 p.m. on the South Terrace of Monticello.

Charlottesville, Virginia

Celebrate the harvest and the genius of revolutionary gardener Thomas Jefferson, America’s "First Foodie," at the 5th annual Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello, a celebration of gardening, sustainable agriculture and local food, held on the breathtaking West Lawn of Jefferson’s Monticello. Taste heirloom fruits and vegetables and learn about organic gardening and seed-saving at this fun, family-friendly festival.

Our full program is now available online. Download the PDF >>

Friday, September 16

Pre-Festival Premium Workshops
9 am – 5 pm

Special Guest Presentation
5 pm – 6 pm
Bryan Welch, publisher of Mother Earth News, Grit, Utne Reader, Natural Home & Garden and The Herb Companion, and author of Beautiful & Abundant: Creating the World We Want, offers a practical guide for making our lifestyles more sustainable.

Grand Preview Dinner & Evening with P. Allen Smith
6 pm – 9 pm
Reflections on Jefferson: Gardening, Farming and Democracy
Join us for an evening pairing a local foods dinner and a talk with award-winning garden designer P. Allen Smith, host of P. Allen Smith Gardens, P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home and P. Allen Smith’s Garden to Table, and regular contributor on NBC’s The TODAY Show.

Saturday, September 17

The Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello
9 am – 5 pm

• Heirloom vegetable, fruit, and grain tastings at the Tasting Tent
• Trade seeds and learn from experienced seed savers at the Seed Swap
• Chef demonstrations from Charlottesville’s booming local food scene
• Tours of the vegetable gardens, flower gardens, and grounds of Monticello
• Ongoing activities for the whole farmily at the Master Gardeners’ Roots & Shoots Tent
• The Backyard Revolution brings to life our agrarian heritage
• Local musicians on the West Lawn
• Heirloom plants and more from the Center for Historic Plants
• Lectures and workshops with dozens of experts, including:
  • Mother Earth News contributing editor and author Barbara Pleasant
  • Dr. Jeanine Davis, author of Ginseng, Goldenseal and other Woodland Medicinals
  • Sandor Katz, fermentation expert and author of Wild Fermentation
  • Peter Hatch, director of gardens and grounds at Monticello
  • Kathleen Maier, Master herbalist of Sacred Plant Traditions
  • Ira Wallace of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

*** Please be advised that parking and check-in for those holding festival general admission tickets for Saturday, September 17th, will be at Monticello High School (1400 Independence Way, Charlottesville, VA 22902) and Piedmont Virginia Community College (501 College Drive, Charlottesville, VA 22902). Monticello staff and directional signage along Route 20 will direct you to the correct parking area. There will be regular shuttle service to and from the festival throughout the day. Guests who choose to park at the Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center must purchase a regular Monticello House Tour and Grounds Ticket ($22), which includes admission to the festival. The events will be held rain or shine and all reservations are final.