Past and present vegetable garden festival: autumn activities at Domaine de Méréville (91)

How about a closer look at the fruits and vegetables of yesterday and today? On Sunday, October 5, 2025, the Domaine de Méréville will be hosting a new edition of its vegetable, fruit and aromatic plant event in Essonne. It's a chance to celebrate the rebirth of its historickitchen garden, in the heart of a picturesque 18th-century garden classified as a Historic Monument and Remarkable Garden, during a fun and convivial day out in nature.

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The Rotary Club Evry-Corbeil wants to help people discover old and new varieties of all these plants, and enable the general public tolearn how to grow and prepare them, while at the same time raising awareness among the people of Ile-de-France of the richness of local produce and short distribution channels. Funds raised will be donated to Rotary and the Essonne Mécénat foundation.

Numerous exhibitors will be on hand to reveal their expertise, and you can enjoy guided walks, tours, seed exchanges, and workshops to leave with a whole host of new skills!

Program for the day

• Activities organized by the Association des Amis De Méréville - All day long

Test your knowledge of the Domaine's tree species, and don't miss the other events organized by the Friends of the Domaine de Méréville association. On the program: tasting of homemade soups, basket game (cucurbits and local produce) to be weighed to estimate its weight as closely as possible in order to win it, chestnut net game where you'll have to guess the precise number of chestnuts, coloring on the theme of autumn... Come and try your luck and win small gifts and sweets thanks to these fun and educational activities!

• Creative vegetable garden - All day

Two workshops to get your creative juices flowing around the theme of vegetable gardening. Young and old alike can learn the art of origami and make seed bags from recycled paper. And for the more artistic among you, coloured seeds and legumes will be on offer to create works of art using the Seed Art technique. And don't forget to take part in our new apple variety recognition game, so you can go home with one!

• Beekeeping and sale of honey from the Domaine - All day

Since 2019, beehives have dominated the Domaine's kitchen garden. For the Fête des potagers d'hier et d'aujourd'hui, meet the beekeeper to discover the life of bees and taste honey-based products, thanks to his educational hive.

• Composting training by a real composting guide - All day

Discover all the secrets of composting and learn how to turn your waste into gold for your garden! It's fun, educational and environmentally friendly for the whole family!

• Les visites olfactives, Cie Le T.I.R et la Lyre - 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. - Reservations 01 64 94 99 10

Tell me what you smell, and I'll tell you who you are... Imagined by actress and director Violaine de Carné, who has been working on the sense of smell for many years, the olfactory tours are a theatrical, olfactory walking show. Guided by two researchers/extractors, these tours take you on a journey through time and space, through the prism of scent.

• Conference: Preparing your vegetable garden for winter using agroecology - 11am and 3pm - Reservations at domainedemereville@cd-essonne.fr

Do you have a vegetable garden and want to be as prepared as possible for spring 2026? Join Damien Czarnecki, from Jardins de la Marette, for his mini-lectures! He'll be sharing his practical advice on agro-ecology and organic gardening (harvesting, cleaning out plots, planting or covering, tips on preserving vegetables, etc.). A producer of organic vegetables and owner of a farm with hen houses producing organic eggs, he has been applying these soil-friendly methods for several years, without chemicals and in organic farming (AB).

• 4pm: Concert-show - Mosaïque Potagère, by the Felicitas ensemble

Tomatoes ? Peppers? Eggplant? Chillies? ... Where did these fruits and vegetables come from before arriving in our European gardens and inviting themselves onto our tables? And what music was being played in the distance? Three musician-gardener-explorers take up the games and words of poet Jacques Jouet. Supported by François Bruel's animated images, they set off to discover distant and unknown lands. On their musical journey, they glean new foods and flavors. The show takes us into a poetic and unusual universe, paying homage to Mother Earth.

• 5 p.m.: Draw and prize-giving for the Rotary Club Evry Corbeil raffle

To support the event, Rotary's humanitarian work and the restoration of the Domaine de Méréville kitchen garden, you can take part in the day's big Tombola when you visit the Domaine on October 5. Your entry ticket entitles you to take part! There are lots of prizes to be won, made up of Essonne products donated by the various exhibitors. A great way to combine good deeds with the discovery of local products.