2016 26.3 Country & City Cousins Celebrate Summer at Tilth Harvest Fair

“A Country Fair in the City” is the best way to describe the annual Tilth Harvest Fair. Held in the beautiful Seattle Tilth gardens of Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood, the Harvest Fair links Tilth farmers with their city cousins in an annual celebration of food, music, education and fun.

This year Seattle Tilth presents the Harvest Fair on Saturday, August 6. Highlighting peak summer crops fresh from local farms will be a new twist to the annual celebration of harvest season since it has traditionally been held in September. The public will enjoy fresh heirloom tomatoes, melons and berries, along with cooking demonstrations and fun urban farm activities for all ages.

The prototype for today’s Harvest Fair was the “Tilth Summer Picnic” hosted in collaboration with the Northwest Culinary Alliance in 1983. It was a social event and trade show designed to introduce Seattle chefs and food professionals to the array of premium produce available from local farms.

The annual Harvest Fair started in 1988 to highlight the 10th anniversary celebration of Seattle Tilth. The event combined a marketing opportunity for Tilth farmers with a lively series of fun and informative events for the whole community.

The Tilth Harvest Fair was Seattle’s first neighborhood farmers market, and it paved the way for many more. Today there are more than a dozen neighborhood markets in the city and 150 across the state, and the Harvest Fair continues to be a unique opportunity for Washington organic farmers.

The Tilth Harvest Fair provides farmers with a direct marketing opportunity while providing consumers with a lively, educational and entertaining opportunity to buy from several of our region’s leading organic farms.

Farms participating in recent Harvest Fairs include Boistfort Valley, Channing Family Farm, City Grown Seattle, Collins Family Orchards, Kirsop Farm, Mezza Luna, Nash’s Organic Produce, Skylight Farms, and Mt. Townsend Creamery.

In addition to the farms, Seattle Tilth showcases their diverse array of programs including the children’s garden education, Seattle Youth Garden Works, Community Kitchens Northwest, Seattle Tilth Farm Works and the Garden Hotline.

The Tilth Harvest Fair also includes hands-on activities for people of all ages, including the urban livestock area with chickens, goats and bees, and community organizations. The fair is always a hive of activity and we welcome you to be part of the buzz.


Mark Musick was one of the founders of the regional Tilth movement in 1974,
and he started the Tilth Harvest Fair in 1988 in collaboration with Howard
and Jil Stenn. [email protected], 206-463-4736.

Tags: Farmers Market, Harvest Fair, historical

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