The UBC Apple Festival

Today was the UBC Apple Festival, held at the botanical gardens on campus. Carmella has been to this event before, but it was my first time.  It's a family event, and there is an area for children with apple-themed games and face painting, apple presentations and displays, apple tasting, and other apple events.  There's also a place to buy apples and apple products, like pies, juice, and cider.  You can also buy an apple tree.

Even though there are other events, the main draw is the opportunity to purchase apples that you can't find at the grocery store.  These are heritage apples, new apples, rare apples, and apples with names you've never heard of. 

The Apple Festival is an annual event, held over two days.  We tried to attend it yesterday, but got there just as they were closing, and we weren't allowed in.  So, we went back today, early enough to get in.  Carmella knew they'd run out of apples at the end of the day, so we made sure to get there early.

Here's the sign, pointing the way to the apple trees.  You can't really see it, but there's a list of the type of apple trees you can buy.  Most of them are sold out.

Here's a list of the apple varieties you can buy.  There are probably more than seventy there.  If you look closely, you can see names like Kent, Lord Lambour, Marigold Splendour, Jonathan, Sundance, Wolf River, and Carmella's favourite, Ambrosia.  If you look even closer, you'll see there's a Sold Out sign on every variety except one or two.

This scene greeted us as we entered the sales area.  Only a few types of apples left to buy! 

The market area was a sad site.  Everything sold out on Saturday except a few varieties, and the selling area was empty.  I heard people talking about how busy Saturday was at the Festival, because it was sunny and a weekend.  At this end of the country, those two things don't usually happen at the same time in the fall.  All those Saturday people bought up all the apples, leaving a scant few for the Sunday Stragglers.

 I think I heard crickets chirping, and saw a prairie ball roll by. 

Carmella and I rushed to the sales place to get some apples, as we knew they wouldn't last long.  Carmella bought a bag of the green ones, called Bramley's Seedling and a bag of red SPA 493.  The SPA 493 is a new strain of apple that doesn't have real name yet, just this identification code.  It sounds genetically modified, but I'm pretty sure it's natural and good.  They wouldn't sell us genetically modified apples at an earthy apple festival, would they?  

After she bought them, we checked out the rest of the festival.  While the market area is the most popular section, it's not the only part of the Apple Festival.

Here, a friendly volunteer talks apple with an interested onlooker.  On the tables are something like 200 different types of apples.  There was a placard by each with a small blurb about each one, including its various characteristics: taste, size, crispness, harvest time, and how long they'll last in your cupboard.

Before today, I thought there were maybe five different apple types; Granny Smith, Delicious, Empire, McIntosh, and Crab.  Now, I know that list is missing about 195 names.

The UBC Botanical Garden is a big place, and we had to walk through it to get to the next section of the festival.  They had big apples hanging in the trees to mark the way.  Carmella is happy to find a sign representing the bag of green apples she bought earlier.

We noted that the Botanical Gardens usually cost $12 to enter, so we decided to check out the grounds, since we only paid $2.  In the Asian Garden, Carmella found a bamboo plant.  She nuzzles it like a panda.

She then took this picture, which makes it look like a much bigger tree than it really was!

Here's a tree that was actually really big.  You could crawl into it, as Carmella demonstrates.

She's stuck!

Free at last!

After the Festival, we went over to Carmella's and made this pie.  Carmella did all the hard work, like sorting out the crust, filling it, making the apples ready to put inside, and getting the amounts of sugar and cinnamon right.  I did the grunt work of peeling and cutting the apples.

The pie was excellent!  My favourite part, other than its great taste, was the little apple Carmella carved into the top of the crust.

The Apple Festival was a great event.  Next year, I'm going to aim to get there early on Saturday, and I'm going to try and buy a bag of Jonathan apples.  I read they're widely used in breeding programs because of their great taste.

And those SPA 493s?  They are crisp and sweet, and a great eating apple.  I would recommend them!