Celebrate the season at Middleton Place with The Art of the Harvest, a fall family day that brings the story of the Lowcountry harvest to life through the eyes and hands of its artisans. Experience live demonstrations, from historic cooking techniques (with tastings!) to artisan crafts that showcase how natural materials were transformed into tools, art, and everyday items. Enjoy hands-on activities for all ages, exciting displays, and open discussions that reveal the deep ties between the land and the people who worked it.

Free for members; included with General Admission. Children 14 and under attend free.

Keep checking back for additional details! 

Foodways

Open-Hearth Cooking: Demonstrations of seasonal dishes that would have been prepared during harvest time.

Preservation Techniques: Clemson Extension will demonstrate modern canning and preservation methods alongside a Middleton Place volunteer, sharing how historic practices like pickling, salting, and drying evolved into today’s techniques for sustaining the harvest.

Tastings: Enjoy delicious samples that showcase how pork, cornmeal, and molasses—staples of the Lowcountry harvest—were prepared and shared. Learn how these ingredients, once central to harvest and rationing practices, continue to shape Southern food traditions today.

Cane Pressing: Families are invited to roll up their sleeves and take part in a live demonstration of traditional sugarcane pressing! Learn how sugarcane was harvested and processed into syrup, a key seasonal product of the Lowcountry harvest, and help turn the press to see how sweet juice becomes syrup. It’s a fun, hands-on experience that brings the harvest season to life.

Artisan Skills

Sweetgrass Basketry: Watch a live demonstration of traditional sweetgrass basket weaving, an art form that began with baskets used for winnowing rice and has been lovingly passed down through generations. Learn about the cultural significance of this craft and how it continues to thrive today.

Blacksmithing: Experience the artistry and strength behind Lowcountry blacksmithing as tools essential to the rice harvest are forged before your eyes. Guests will see how fire and skill transformed raw metal into the instruments that sustained plantation life.

Pottery: Observe potters shaping clay into vessels once used to store, cook, and transport harvest crops such as rice, corn, and preserved foods. This live demonstration connects everyday craftsmanship with the rhythms of the harvest season.

Coopering (Build-a-Barrel Activity): Try your hand at building a barrel in this interactive coopering experience! Learn how barrels were crafted and used to store and ship harvested goods, and help assemble one yourself to better understand this essential trade of the past.

Hands-On Activities

Pinch Pots: Create simple clay vessels inspired by West African craft traditions using the “pinching” method. Guests will learn about the significance of these vessels and will be able to take their creation home with them.

Corn Husk Dolls: Families can join in this hands-on activity to create their own corn husk dolls, simple toys once made by children using leftover harvest materials. Learn how creativity and resourcefulness turned by-products of the season into beloved childhood creations.

Vegetable Races: Race uniquely shaped vegetables down a custom-built track — fun for all ages, and a quirky way to learn about heirloom produce.

Sensory Bins: Explore the textures, colors, and scents of the harvest with interactive sensory bins where children can see, touch, and compare different corn products—from kernels and husks to ground meal and grits. A fun, hands-on way to learn how this versatile crop was used from field to table.