HAPPENING ON: Sunday, SEPT 28, 2025
DISCOVER WHY WE CALL SALT SPRING ISLAND
‘APPLE HEAVEN’.
Celebrate Apple Diversity at the Salt Spring Island, BC Apple Festival, where we always feature Salt Spring bounty. Salt Spring is the biggest of the many Gulf Islands, about 20 miles long with a population of about 11,000 people, nestled between Vancouver and Victoria, BC. It has an apple growing history back to 1860. Even those historical growers favoured diversity and now we still grow over 500 apple varieties here.
Website: http://saltspringapplefestival.org/
Ticket sales will happen outside Fulford Hall and outside the Ganges Info Centre from 9 to 5 PM on Sunday, Sept 28, 2025. That is when we release the Program listing all of the Venues open to the public. No advanced tickets available. We try to keep the Apple Festival very simple but meaningful.
Adults $10, Students $5, Kids FREE.
- All 12 Host Farms will be open for Apple Lovers. Use your Program to plan a Self Guided Tour of venues.
Last year, 2024 was a great success with over 1700 APPLE LOVERS touring the island enjoy amazing apples, good food, Salt Spring cider, Salt Spring diversity and Salt Spring treasures.
FEATURE 1)
The Apple Collection at Fulford Hall is the HEARTBEAT of the Apple Festival. In 2023, we displayed 489 varieties (a RECORD for Salt Spring). In 2024, we only displayed 272 varieties (with one farm, not able to pick all their varieties due to a labour shortage)1)
The Apple Display at Fulford Hall is in the middle of the hall, while about 20 vendors of Salt Spring Treasures will fill the perimeter of the hall. In 2025, we are hoping to display about 450 varieties, but will not know until the evening before the festival.
These apples are for display only. All tasting happens on each HOST farm. The apple labels on the display at Fulford Hall will indicate which farm grows each variety, so you should be able to trace down any variety you wish that is on display and go to the farm that grows it. This APPLE DISPLAY is FOR SALE to the highest bidder on the day after the Apple Festival.
FEATURE 2)
To see a photo of each of every apple variety in the Apple Display for every year, use the link below.
http://saltspringapplefestival.org/fulford-apple-display/2018-display/
Display History
❤️ – 2022, we displayed 330 varieties (in a year with a cool spring and poor pollination)
❤️ – 2023, we displayed 489 varieties (a RECORD for Salt Spring)
❤️ – 2024, we displayed 272 varieties ((with one farm, not able to pick all their varieties due to a labour shortage))
You can buy the entire apple collection from Fulford Hall, on Monday, Sept 29th (the day after the Apple Festival), and create your own apple celebration. This big apple collection will be sold to the highest bidder in Canada. We will deliver the collection to Victoria and then the purchaser is responsible for shipping from Victoria. To support the local growers, who work so hard to collect all these amazing Apple varieties, Apple Festival pays the 5 main growers a total of $1500 each year. It is our way of saying, A BIG THANK YOU to them for all the work required to grow and collect all these apple varieties. By selling the collection, we simply are trying to recover some of those funds. Contact: Harry Burton at 250-653-2007 or harryburton@shaw.ca if you are interested.
Below is a Time Lapse from 2010 of the marvellous job that volunteers do to get all those apple varieties set up in ALPHABETIC ORDER. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWCIt4Dbhx0
FEATURE 3)
Each of the 15 venues on the self guided tour will feature their specialties, touring the orchards or tasting of the best apples they grow, Below is an overhead of the Tasting Table at Apple Luscious Organic Orchard, with 80 TASTING varieties, arranged alphabetically, from our 200 varieties. You can then get taken to the tree growing your Favourite variety and pick apples from the tree. Website: appleluscious.com
NOTE: You can also track down any desired apple varieties, by noting the coloured GROWER stickers on the label at the Fulford Hall display.
FEATURE 4)
The amazing Salt Spring Pie Ladies, who are celebrated their 100th anniversary in 2020, baked 260 apple pies for the 2024 Apple Festival and were sold out by 1145 AM. They identify the apple variety used in each pie, so you can research your favourite baking apple, by eating apple pies.
Here is their Apple Pie variety selection from 2018 at the Fulford Hall.
FEATURE 5)
Enjoy the Best CIDER from 2 great Salt Spring Cideries, Ciderworks and Salt Spring Wild Cider.
a) From CiderWorks, (at the Salt Spring Apple Company), an all ORGANIC Estate Grown cidery offering (from the left), Firkin, Red Rebel and Serious Cider. Website: https://www.saltspringapplecompany.com/
b) Salt Spring Wild Cider strives to create quality cider using blends from 100-year-old heritage trees, from organic orchards, and from wild apple trees that live in farmers’ fields on Salt Spring Island. Website: http://www.saltspringwildcider.com/
FEATURE 6)
Most venues will have lunches created by our fabulous Salt Spring chefs. You can eat right on the farm you are visiting.
Then finish off with delicious desserts also. A culinary delight.
FEATURE 7)
Your self guided tour of all the 15 or so farms on the tour, will demonstrate the DIVERSITY and UNIQUENESS of each Apple Festival Venue. In 1872, Samuel Beddis planted 40 varieties of apples as a survival strategy, on this waterfront homestead. 147 years later, this Beddis Castle (shown below) still has some original apple trees, but now is a manicured waterfront castle, where the deer roam freely all year long, but the public only gets to visit one day a year – on Apple Festival Day. Note that the photographer below is leaning on an old apple tree.
The Apple Festival diversity is profound, including also
- Apple Luscious Organic Orchard, a wild, Certified Organic permaculture orchard with 200+ tasty apple varieties, where chickens roam the whole orchard or
- the Salt Spring Apple Company, taking ‘An Apple a Day’ to a whole new level with 365+ Heritage, Connoisseur and Cider varieties.
- Whims Farm, where Bob Weeden grows only Heritage apple varieties.
FEATURE 8)
This is your chance to learn about Organic Apple Growing directly from the farmers, who will all be at their farm and eager to share knowledge. You will be exposed to many different concepts and farming methods. Below is Bob Weeden, who grows 138 Heritage apple varieties on his historical Whims Farm. His apple varieties must be from before 1920.
FEATURE 9)
You will get to explore rare apple varieties, many of which do not exist anywhere else in Canada, and are being preserved by the Salt Spring growers.
FEATURE 10)
At Apple Luscious Organic Orchard explore about 60 of the best tasting Red Flesh apple varieties in the world. Harry calls these apples THE APPLES OF THE FUTURE. The pink colour is due to antioxidants, which give a great sweet-tart taste and are highly sought after by chefs also as they bake up pink, with great flavor. Below is Pink Delight.
FEATURE 11)
Even adults can become a Kid for a Day, with an opportunity to get your Face Painted for FREE. Note the young lady below also has a pink fleshed, Hidden Rose apple in her hand.
I also have a challenge for Adults. Let’s see if we can get more adults to get their face painted this year. Let that KID IN YOU ESCAPE FOR A DAY.
FEATURE 12)
A great chance to learn all you can about Honey Bees and Orchard Bees, the main pollinators of apple. Virtually all apples need to be pollinated, so bees and insects are necessary. Plus, since bees are facing some survival pressures these days, learn how to help optimize their numbers. Below is an orchard bee (Mason Bee) set up at Apple Luscious Organic Orchard.
FEATURE 13)
Bring in any Unknown Apple and getting it ID’d by our APPLE ID experts, Lori Brakken on the left, from Seattle and Ann Aylard, on the right, from Sidney, BC. If they can’t get all apples ID’d during Apple Festival Day, they will take your unknown apples away in a paper bag (with your contact info written on the bag) as homework and report back to you on the variety name.
FEATURE 14)
Every year, local artists create beautiful posters and artwork for the Apple Festival. All posters below will be for sale, with proceeds going to a local NGO (SOLID) which works in Lesotho, Africa.
In 2025, we have 2 artists creating 2 totally different Apple Festival posters that will be For Sale at Apple Festival 2025.
Below is the AMAZING Briony Penn 2019 Apple Festival Poster
It names about 350 Salt Spring apple varieties (from the list of 430 that were displayed at the 2018 Apple Festival) in the shape of Salt Spring Island.
All names are in layers, like a tasty baklava dessert. Then there are apple history anecdotes on the border and in the shape of apples.
In 2025, we have posters being created by Naoko Saito and Meghan Zook Brown.
Each poster, plus past posters will be for sale at Fulford Hall.
Funds from this Poster sales will be directed to the artist’s choice of charity.
FEATURE 15)
Apple Festival also delights in showing off of our Great Salt Spring artists, such as Amarah Gabriel, shown below, with her beautiful apple paintings.
We always ask a local artist to display 24 of their creations at the back of the apple table display, such as shown below.
FEATURE 16)
Disbersements.
The Salt Spring Apple Festival always happens on the Sunday of the 4th weekend after Labour Day, (so late Sept or early Oct). On Apple Festival Sunday, about 1500 apple lovers roam the island, connecting with apples and the apple growers, enjoying fabulous lunches or discovering each of 15 or so amazing venues open to them. BLISS and PEACE fill the island. What a lovely atmosphere fills the island.
Every year, profit from the Apple Festival is spread out, on Salt Spring and around the world helping make the world a better place. We call these
Disbursements or Apple Ripples.
Here are some examples of some Apple Ripples from the Apple Festival 2023 profits that has been redirected to good causes so far. Total Disbersement : $11,135
- Thank A Salt Springer Awards ($ 260 total)
- Random Acts of Kindness ($2630 )
- Support to Local Artists ($510 Total)
- 4) Poster Creation ($2509 Total)
- Projects Away ($100 Total )
- SOLID ($2235 Total )
- Local Community Efforts ($2180 Total )
- Rex Welland Memorial Bursary ($750 Total )
Past Example) Stainless Steel kitchen upgrade at Beaver Point Hall (shown below) ($1000)
FEATURE 17)
Apple Juice, in the Old Fashioned Method
During the Apple Festival you can experience apple juice pressing at Whims Farm, in the old fashioned method, where the variety of apple used is known, where you can see the apples being chipped and then watch the press being turned to squeeze out the juice. You hear it dripping into the container and then you get to taste the real thing. FRESH PRESSED APPLE JUICE, where you even get to know the apple variety used.
FEATURE 18)
Attend the Annual Apple Holics Anonymous Meeting (Salt Spring Chapter).
In case, you suspect you might be afflicted, here are the dreaded 12 Symptoms.
The 12 SYMPTOMS
- You have no control over acquisition of fruit trees. You have an uncontrollable, insatiable urge to always acquire more apple varieties
- At times, this ATAS (Apple Tree Acquistion Syndrome) habit has harmed others.
- You will buy a apple tree, even if you do not have a space to plant it. You know you will find a space somewhere.
- You spend money you DO NOT HAVE, to purchase a fruit tree.
- You will spend money that is designated for necessities, such as food, mortgages or utilities, to buy NEW FRUIT TREES.
- You will hide apple tree purchases from your partner.
- You are drawn to a large gathering of fruit tree growers in the spring, especially if there is going to be scionwood available. The magnetic forces of many scionwood varieties, is similar to the attraction of party animals to music.
- You belong to every apple organization that is possible, such as NAFEX (The North American Fruit Explorers), HOS (Home Orchard Society), SFTS (The Seattle Fruit Tree Society, WCFS (The Western Cascade Fruit Society), CRFG (California Rare Fruit Growers), BCFTA (British Columbia Fruit Tree Association), SFF Southern Fruit Fellowship and MIDFEX (Midwest Fruit Explorers).
- If you are planting apple trees, such as those on M111, requiring 16 foot spacing, you will shrink that spacing to 13 feet in order to fit in more trees.
- You are never satisfied and are always looking for new apple varieties.
- You are constantly tuning up your orchard, by removing some varieties, in order to fit in a new one.
- Your favourite excuse for not succeeding is always, “OH WELL. I WILL GET THAT RIGHT NEXT YEAR.”
NOW JUST RELAX. No meetings to attend. Since NO ONE HAS EVER BEEN CURED OF THIS AFFLICTION, we have given up trying to cure anyone. So just go to Apple Festival, enjoy every apple related experience you can, have a MEETING OF ONE (with yourself), and go on stoking your Apple Habit.
FEATURE 19)
Get Children connected to nature, farming and apples.
One of my greatest thrills at the Apple Festival last year, was to have many people, come to me at separate times and ask me to pick them some Cox Queen apples. They had been to the tasting table with about 80 apple varieties from Apple Luscious Organic Orchard (Website: appleluscious.com), and this small, not pretty apple was their best tasting apple.
Apple Festival is a great experience for everyone from 2 to 102, but in particular, it is great for KIDS, as shown in the photo below of Kids enjoying the apple display at Fulford Hall.
It will connect Kids with apples, growers, nature, farming and food.
FEATURE 20)
We have a team of roving entertainers that can be seen at random venues, adding to the magic of the day.
DATE: Sunday, Sept 28, 2025
TIME: 9 AM to 5 PM
LOCATION: Fulford Hall plus 15 venues
WEBSITE: saltspringapplefestival.org
TICKETS: Available after 9 AM on Sunday, Sept 28, 2025 only
BUY TICKETS: At Fulford Hall or outside Ganges Info Centre.
CONTACT INFO: Harry Burton 250-653-2007 harryburton@shaw.ca
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