The harvest festival is one of the most beautiful traditions at Hessenpark. Since the open-air museum was first established, the end of summer has been celebrated every year with harvest and craft demonstrations, food and drink.
On 3 and 4 October, museum visitors can experience machine threshing with a threshing box and steam engine at the threshing hall in the North Hesse building group. In the Emstal-Sand farmyard, a historic tractor drives a pin thresher and a wind winnower, while the flails are swung using pure muscle power. All demonstrations show the threshing of grains from the ears of corn. Every day, several ladder carts loaded with sheaves of grain are threshed in this way. When cleaning the grain with a winnowing machine and a flail, you can see how the chaff is separated from the grain. The straw from the threshed sheaves is not only used as bedding in the stable. Straw ropes can be made from old grain varieties with long stalks using a historical machine. In the past, these served as a cheap substitute for rope. Today, they can be tied into wreaths and used as autumnal decorations.
The churches are decorated for autumn, and a harvest festival service will be held on Saturday and Sunday in the church in Ederbringhausen. Children can make their own apple juice with small hand presses, swing the flail and demonstrate their craftsmanship by carving pumpkins or turnips. In addition, the autumn market attracts visitors with a wide range of handmade crafts: knitted and sewn items, decorations for the home and garden, jewellery, leather goods and much more. Regional delicacies such as cheese and mushroom specialities, honey from direct sellers, all kinds of pumpkin delicacies, liqueurs and jams round off the range of products on offer.
Refreshments will also be available: the potato steaming team will be in action, producing freshly steamed Hessenpark potatoes, which will be served with quark, green sauce and herring salad.
Harvest festival with autumn market
3 + 4 October 2025, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
