Local apple enthusiasts have teamed up to start what they hope will become an annual event, allowing you to enjoy apple season to the core.
Seasons Pharmacy and Culinaria, Beautiful Field Farm & Fruit Trees and Sudbury Shared Harvest have come together to organize Applefest, which will include tours and talks at the Delki Dozzi food forest, plus apple tasting and pressing, kids activities, and cooking demonstrations at Seasons Pharmacy and Culinaria (815 Lorne St.).
Most of the event takes place on Saturday, Sept. 10, food forest tours begin at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m, with the cooking demonstrations and apple pressing continuing throughout the following week.
There will be a cider pressing demonstration at Seasons Pharmacy for the full day of Sept. 10.
Organizers are hoping to find some extra apples, so if you have surplus apples in your yard that you don’t need, please contact Seasons at 705-222-2200.
Tours of the food forest include a talk about growing fruit in northern climates and a question and answer session with local expert Ron Lewis. Pre-registration for the tours/talks is required and can be found here.
Phil Beauchamp from Beautiful Field Farm & Fruit Trees will have a selection of approximately 12 varieties of locally-grown hardy apples for sampling and tasting. If you have an unknown hardy apple tree that you’ve purchased locally in the past and are hoping to identify, this would be a great chance to bring it for direct comparison.
The cider pressing demonstration at Seasons Pharmacy is a great way to use any excess apples or even crab apples or apples with undesirable qualities for fresh eating. Anyone is welcome to bring any of their own apples for pressing at the event.
Beautiful Field Farm & Fruit Trees purchased a commercial sized fruit grinder and bladder press for making fruit ciders and juices and they are hoping to put it to good use and prevent some of the wastage of fruit in the community, including using windfall and imperfect fruit. The equipment will remain at the pharmacy for the weeks following Applefest, available to those who schedule a time to head over and press their own apples for cider or juice.
