Events

The 12th Annual Salt Spring Island Apple Festival

South Vancouver Island

Sun. October 3rd, 2010 9:00am - 5:00pm

The Salt Spring Island Apple Festival is your chance to visit Apple Heaven while still on earth! ;We have a very unique, diverse, exciting organic Apple Festival. The 1500 or so happy people who attended in 2009 are our best advertising. They were delighted, blissful and FULL. They all became Salt Spring Island apple connoisseurs. Where else do you have over 350 different apple varieties being grown organically and for good taste? ;Can you imagine a 92 year old woman, with a walker, becoming as enthused as a teenager when she discovered we had the old Gravenstein apples she had known as a kid. She climbed up the 2 stairs to our selling area on her own. WOW. Her words were, "You have made my day". The ultimate experience for many a child is to be able to reach up and pick an apple from a tree and then EAT IT. So at the Apple Festival, we encourage children to get involved. All kids under 12 attend for FREE. The kids also get an Apple Festival badge to wear on their shirt. We want whole families to come and we also try to get children involved (with their family) in volunteer positions so they really get connected in a much deeper sense. ;Where else do you have over 350 different apple varieties being grown organically? Salt Spring's apple history dates back to 1860. Explore our incredible island, the Organic Gardening Capital of Canada.;
More apple Festival highlights:;
• *Display of over 300 apple varieties all grown organically on Salt Spring Island;
• *Tasting of more than 100 apple varieties at just one farm (Apple Luscious). Most others had tasting of their own varieties;
• *At least 12 labeled varieties of apple pies baked by the Pie Ladies;
• *Theatrical performances by Johnny Appleseed, Theodore Trage, the Queen and Captain Apple;
• *A rich history of apples going back to 1860;
• *Educational information on organic apple growing;
• *Apple identification services;
• *Orchard bee and honey bee experts available;
• *Apple art by local artists;

Salt Springers are very proud of their apples and the incredible collections we amass at Fulford Hall for every Apple Festival is a sight to take your breath away. The scent of apples when you enter the room will take your soul on a journey. In 2009, we displayed 316 apple varieties all grown organically on Salt Spring Island, all arranged alphabetically and all having detailed labels.The task of setting up the collection is performed the night before by a team of about 30 island volunteers, ranging in age from children to senior citizens, who consider this one of the highlights of their year. They love their apples and they are delighted to show island visitors our apple diversity. Note that at Apple Festival 2006, there were 296 varieties, but with a very cold, wet spring in 2007, some varieties did not produce a crop. In 2008 we broke the 300 variety barrier for the first time. The Salt Spring Island Apple Festival is farm based, connecting you to the organic farmers on Salt Spring. They are your best guarantee of food quality and good health.