Crab apple shakedown at the university is benefiting the community

More than 30,000 pounds of previously ignored University of Guelph crab apples have a delicious new purpose.

If you’ve been on campus at the U of G over the last few weeks you may have seen folks in crab apple trees shaking the fruit right off the branches This is the first step to what will later be a crab apple cocktail mixer.

When you harvest crab apples you shake the tree and lay a tarp down to collect the fruit. Apple Flats, a company based just outside of Kitchener-Waterloo has started their first-full time harvest of crab apples from the trees scattered across the U of G campus.

“All the fruit will just fall on the ground so they would just hit it with lawn mowers,” said Glen Smythe, the CEO of Apple Flats. "The trees have a very high yield here because of the honey bees on campus [as] there is an apiary program here”.

The U of G is known for it’s floral show in the spring created by the blossoms of crab apple trees on campus that stretch down Dundas Lane, McGillivray Lane and Macintosh Road.  

“Between May 10 to May 15 they are a real floral show, they are absolutely gorgeous,” said John Reinhart, U of G Grounds Manager.

Brothers Glenn and Alex Smythe have been making crab apple jelly since they were seven-years-old. Fifteen years later, these young entrepreneurs have a new local crab apple product at restaurants and on store shelves.

“On campus right now we are still discovering trees and the yield will vary year to year,” said Glen Smythe. “We are thinking there is something near 30,000 pounds, but that’s just of our specific type of crab apple.”

Crab apples are tart and the Apple Flats final product is a cocktail mixer that has a bitter, sour taste.

“It’s good, really good!” said Reinhart. “It’s got a tangy [taste].”

Apple Flats only hires U of G students to harvest the fruit.

“The companies we have tried to help are benefiting, and it’s no cost to us so I think it’s a win-win,” said Reinhart. “We aren’t benefiting any way, but we are helping those people, right?”

Soon Apple Flats is hoping to take their business national, after having received funding from a tech incubator in Ottawa. They hope to scale up to a micro-farm based company with multiple offerings, that sells to customers through a subscription model.

“What became very clear, very quickly is that when started to look at agriculture … the models that are being used are outdated, they don’t serve the customer very well,” said Glen Smythe. ”Everbody walks away from the system feeling largely unhappy about it and we felt there’s got to be a better way to do this, especially when you see advancements in other fields.”

In Guelph you can try Apple Flats cocktail mix at the restaurants 39 Carden Street, Manhattans, Atmosphere and Aberfoyle Mill.