A crisp fall day with the sun shining overhead on Saturday, Sept. 29, gave Salt Spring Apple Festival goers the chance to crunch on their apples and enjoy local farm scenery in bliss.
Apart from the Fulford Hall display of tables lined with hundreds of different apple varieties grown on Salt Spring, there was the opportunity to visit 15 farms, giving access to parts of Salt Spring one otherwise might not see.
It's the only time in the year when the Beddis Castle, with its orchard planted in 1884 by the Beddis family, is open to the public.
There's also Ruckle Heritage Farm in Ruckle Park. Full of Highland cows and fields of turkeys and goats, it's a place with a rich history. The oldest operating family farm in the Gulf Islands, it was established in 1872 by Henry Ruckle, one of Salt Spring Island's earliest settlers.
The Province purchased the land from the family in 1973 creating the park and a life tenancy agreement that granted six family members the right to continue to occupy and farm the land. Since the expiry of this agreement in 2019, BC Parks has been responsible for managing the 82 hectares but has secured a contract with Mike and Marjorie Lane to operate the farm.
By visiting farms such as Ruckle Heritage Farm, people glean the broader story of Salt Spring through the apples and their farmers.
There's a reason why Salt Spring is historically an apple hot spot, said Daphne Taylor, a volunteer answering questions in Fulford Hall.
"The planting conditions here are so friendly for apples. And we have a great climate. I think once people saw that, more came, more planted. And it's British people showing up and wanting to replicate what they left."
This year around 375 types of apples were displayed on the table – there would have been more but one farmer wasn't able to get them in on time, Taylor explained.
"We've had around 460 or 470 in a good year," Taylor said.
Of all those apples, which is the most interesting? "Lots of people here are interested in red-fleshed apples. They're not totally common, but once you see them, they're just so beautiful."
While there is still a great variety of apples there is always the risk of the number of apples on Salt Spring declining. Changing climate was cited by many farmers as a concern and Taylor also mentioned that things change with each generation.
"We still have people here who go, oh, I just bought so-and-so's property, but we don't like those apples, so we cut them down," she said.
But for now, apple culture is thriving. The annual event attracts about 1,500 apple lovers including Derwyn Owen, who said it's the busiest festival he's seen in recent years.
Owen was there on a mission.
"My wife's putting on a pie party," Owen said. "So she sent me out to get 120 apples." Of course, the difficulty was in the choosing. "That's the difficulty," he said. "Everybody has a different opinion. But some people are exposed only to the apples they get in the grocery store so they don't know what species there are."
He also said he was there for the history.
"Why do I appreciate the festival? Because the Apple Festival ties back to the history of what this island was in the late 1800s. It's a touchpoint," he said.
