Salt Spring Island has a long and rich agricultural tradition — with the first settler farming activities taking place in 1859 — and it was once British Columbia’s prime apple-growing area.
“Commercial orchards were the first agricultural specialty on the island,” writes Charles Kahn in his Salt Spring – The Story of an Island book. “In the 1880s or early 1890s, farmers planted large orchards, which were in full production by 1900. By the end of the century, fruit growing was big business. In 1894, B.C.’s agriculture department reported 13,739 apple trees, 1,689 plum trees, 1,161 pear trees, 474 cherry trees, and 279 other fruit trees on Salt Spring.”
While Gulf Islands dominance in fruit production gave way to the Okanagan in the 1920s, for a variety of reasons that included easier transportation to markets, the islands have experienced a resurgence in fruit-growing activities in recent decades, along with more agricultural activity in general as the importance of food security is heightened.
Initiating the Salt Spring Apple Festival way back in 1999 was part of a first modern wave of putting agriculture in the spotlight beyond the annual Salt Spring Fall Fair. The event was quickly embraced by the community, with organizer Harry Burton of Apple Luscious Organic Orchard estimating 280 people attending and $2,000 being raised for the Salt Spring Organic Apple Co-op to help purchase apple-processing equipment.
The winning formula hasn’t been altered since those initial years, with Fulford Hall providing a home base for a huge collection of different island-grown apples — from 250 to a record 489 — plus apple pie sales from the Salt Spring Island Women’s Institute’s Pie Ladies and other apple-centric vendors. It’s also the spot to buy beautiful souvenir apple festival posters from this and past years, and to bring mystery apples you’d like to have identified by the experts.
An estimated 15 orchards, farms, cideries and a distillery will welcome guests throughout the day, including the Bloom Castle by the Sea historic orchard and property now owned by Royal Roads University. A festival food hub will also feed the crowds at the Jam Factory/South End Sausage neighbourhood of Upper Ganges Road.
Festival passes cost $10 for adults, $5 for students and are free for younger kids. They are available only from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on festival day — Sunday, Sept. 28 — outside Fulford Hall and the Ganges Info Centre. The hall and self-guided tour spots, indicated on a map that comes with the passes, are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except for the Bloom Castle, which has hours of 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For more information, see saltspringapplefestival.org.