An excellent weekend at Apple Fest!

Every year, the UBC Botanical Garden hosts a family-friendly, two-day celebration of Malus domestica and its biodiversity.  Last weekend’s Apple Festival was an enormous success, and many of the unique varieties of apples sold out on the first day!  Steve Whysall has written an article in the Vancouver Sun describing why the event is so popular.  We also think it’s pretty awesome that the organizers offered bike valet service to encourage visitors to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. Congrats to the Botanical Gardens for hosting such a wonderful event!

We were pleased to be invited to host a booth at Apple Fest again this year, and the UBC Farm table had some great volunteer assistance from Land and Food Systems Community Service-Learning students as well as Friends of the UBC Farm.  To complement the festivities taking place at the UBC Botanical Garden, we hosted tours of the UBC Farm Heritage Apple Orchard throughout the day.  Started in 2005, our orchard was designed, grafted and planted as part of of a student Directed Study.  It includes 75 apple varieties and 120 trees, and 2010 was our second year of significant harvest.  Here are a few photos from the Festival!

At the end of the day when I dropped by the farm, I found this ladybug resting on – fittingly – an apple tree branch!

Read Full Post »

Autumn walkabout

Some plants wait until the drizzly, overcast days of autumn when leaves turn to rich mush at their feet before they finally divulge the gorgeous pigments that they had been hiding all along.

Read Full Post »

Spartans and Pippins and Winesaps, Oh My!

it's harvest... it's harvest time!

In the dark, cold, exam-filled winter of 2005/2006 I huddled in the UBC Farm Centre kitchen, surrounded by grafting knives, tape, bundles of unlikely looking twiggy things and mugs of hot tea.  Keen students and volunteers joined me, and thus began the UBC Farm Heritage Orchard!

We grafted 155 trees, including 60 different apple cultivars – over 50% of which  originated between 1600-1899 A.D.  (Very very old.  Very very cool).

I held my breath through till the spring when, miraculously, the buds on the unlikely little twiggy things (which were stored in pots  in an outdoor  shelter) began to break… Bright green leaves, which unfurled into perfect little flags of life. We cared for them over the summer, planted them into the UBC Farm soil in the rainy fall of 2006, established irrigation and trellising, pruned them, trained them, talked to them (at least I did) and weeded them.  And now, nearly three years later, we are harvesting gorgeous fruits from these  un-twig-like, lovely trees.  I fully admit my bias – but I think they are ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!!

AND NOW FOR THE EVENTS!! This weekend the UBC Farm is participating in the UBC Botanical Garden’s AppleFest, Oct 17-18.  AND!!!  On Saturday October 17 - you are cordially invited to join me (Sarah Belanger) on one of three tours of the UBC Farm Heritage Orchard: 10am, 12pm, 2pm. We will meet at the UBC Farm gates and, though it may rain, it will be a lovely time.  A great outing for those interested in apple production and culture! For a little more info, please check out the UBC Farm Website.

the first apple harvested: 2008

walking through the orchard you can read about all the varieties

our new labels give: name, country of origin, date of origin, use, harvest date and rootstock

it’s harvest… it’s harvest time!

cedar posts reclaimed from a forest fire

a 2008 applefest tour!

katy helping with harvest

a prettier apple could not be found

blossom thinning this spring helped the trees grow lovely, big fruits

cox’s orange pippins (england, circa 1825): foodies have been known to fight over these lads. seriously.

best name ever: peasgood nonsuch (england, circa 1850)

chehalis (USA, 1937): delicious, crisp, tart and sweet…

two rows of free standing trees, and three rows of trellis…

early season harvest: transparents (russia, circa 1800)

apprentices hard at work!

little trees in 2008

Read Full Post »

Apple Fest Success!

The Annual UBC Apple Festival was last weekend (Oct 18/19) and it was WONDERFUL! We had sunshine, and amazing volunteers, and GIANT APPLE COSTUMES…. and we had a super supportive reception from all the Apple Fest crowd.  (Thanks UBC Bot Gardens!!)

We raised ~ $1300 for the UBC Farm through sales and encouraged ~1700 petition signatures in two days!! AMAZING!!  Also, 28 enthusiastic folks joined our tours of the new(ish) UBC Farm Heritage orchard ~ launching its career as an urban agricultural education site.  Overall, a huge success.

Thanks to all who came out and supported the UBC Farm and the Bot Gardens…. see you again next year!

Read Full Post »

Tours of the UBC Farm Heritage Orchard: UBC Apple Festival!

This weekend the UBC Botanical Gardens is hosting their annual Apple Festival. Come on out and

• Taste test different apple cultivars
• Munch on caramel apples
• Buy an apple tree to plant
• Check out the Bot Gardens
• Buy some apples to take home!
• Visit the Friends of the UBC Farm/UBC Farm booth where folks will be wearing GIANT APPLE COSTUMES!!!! Maybe they’ll let you wear one too….

AND!!!!! JOIN A TOUR OF THE UBC FARM HERITAGE ORCHARD!!

The UBC Farm Heritage Orchard was designed, grafted and planted as a student Directed Studies project beginning in 2005. A sanctuary for apple culture, the orchard is composed of nearly 140 trees, including 60 varieties of apples and a handful of plums.

Come visit this urban agricultural gem for tours with the orchard’s founder Sarah Belanger on SATURDAY October 18: 12pm, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm at the UBC Farm! Unfortunately shuttle service is not available this year, but bicycles, foot and car traffic are welcome!

Read Full Post »