Harvesting Autumn

Creative cooking with unusual edibles

with Beth Alexander

Friday 5 September 2025

10am - 4pm (arrive at 9.30 for coffee/tea)

£140

Group Size - 10 people

Autumn is the season of abundance, when the trees at Damson Farm hang heavy with quince, medlars and, of course damsons, the squash are ripening on the compost cakes and the bright pink peppercorns on the Schezuan Pepper tree are daring you to pop them in your mouth for their fizzy, mouth numbing taste sensation.

It’s a busy time here as the harvests are gathered and the kitchen fills up with baskets and jars and  it can feel challenging to find the energy and imagination to cook or preserve it all.    Joining us for the day will be local forager, food writer and retreat chef Beth Alexander, sharing her enthusiasm for creative and sustainable cooking as well as preparing our vegetarian lunch made from seasonal and unusual edibles.

Beth will imbue the workshop with useful titbits from her 20 years of cheffing around the practicalities of preserving, reducing food waste and working with seasonal gluts from our gardens, allotments and hedgerows. We will forage unusual edibles from the garden such as Korean mint, salad burnett, radish seed pods, agretti and edible flowers to adorn our lunch. Then later we will gather together to experiment with creating our own autumn preserves to take away.

Beth Alexander (née Al Rikabi),  is a food writer and chef based in Holt, Wiltshire.   Inspired by her time at Fareshare South West, a charity striving to reduce food waste, she is committed to cooking seasonally and sustainably. She specialises in events and retreats, often cooking over fire in the open air. She is also known as Beth, The Free Range Chef.

Refreshments

Will be plentiful! Expect homemade biscuits on arrival, a tasty seasonal lunch featuring ingredients we have foraged together, finishing off with tea and some of Beth’s beautiful cake. If you have any specific dietary requests do let us know on the booking form.

What to Bring

You may wish to bring a notebook, camera and your own water bottle. Keep an eye on the forecast and bring waterproofs if necessary as we will spend some time outside.

Getting Here

Directions will be emailed to you a couple of weeks before the workshop. Use Damson Farm rather than the postcode on Google Maps.

Cancellation policy

As a small business it’s not sustainable to offer refunds. However if you need to cancel your place up to 28 days before the event you will be offered a credit towards another workshop.   After that time, the offer only applies if we’ve been able to re-sell the place. It’s not possible to promote cancelled places for re-sale less than 4 days before the event.