Pop-up growing and pickling at Margate’s Sunken Garden

Thom Eagle

27 June 2026
10am – 1pm
Sunken Garden

Local gardeners and Despacito Art School sharing their work at the Mobile Growing Unit as part of the ‘Gardening Day’ at the Sunken Garden. Photo: Open School East, 2026

Thom serving pickles made with Despacito Art School at the Sunken Garden ‘Gardening Day’. Photo: Open School East, 2026

A pop-up growing and pickling workshop with live demos and opportunities to get involved hands-on, led by OSE Community Chef Thom Eagle with members of Despacito Art School.

Pickles were made with produce grown in the OSE planters at Ethel-Athel Alleway Garden (carrot, dill, onions) and tasters were offered throughout the pop-up. At the pop-up Despacito Art School also shared insights into their art and community-led approach to working with the Sunken Garden gardeners.

We also brought our OSE community cookbook Growing Wild (in ENG, SVK, CZH) to share hyper-local foraging, growing and cooking tips developed with Despacito, their families and local neighbours.

This pop-up was kindly hosted by Sunken Garden as part of their Gardening Day.

Thom Eagle is an award-winning author and cook. His first book First, Catch: Study of a Spring Meal was awarded Best Debut Food Book by Fortnum & Mason in 2019, nominated for an Andre Simon, and named one of the best food books of the year by The Times and The BBC Food Programme. He is currently based in Kent where he writes, grows vegetables, and teaches classes on pickling, fermenting, curing and foraging.

The Sunken Garden is a community coastal green space in Westbrook, Margate. Volunteers meet monthly to look after the Sunken Garden and host the autumn Sunken Garden Eco Fair.

This Civic Programme event is part of OSE’s two-year thematic cycle Home is where the garden is – find more events: https://openschooleast.org/home-is-civic