Last Day of UBC Apple Festival 2011

We were happy to join again "Friends of the UBC Botanical Garden (FOGS)" for the last day of Apple Festival 2011, the organization who're in charge of organizing and coordinating this popular family event.

UBC Apple Festival 2011, vendors area

Sinta apples

 
Today we enjoyed the sun, volunteering in the apple sales area. Before opening the gates, we rearranged the apple bags on the tables and learned a little bit about the varieties from our area: Silken; Sinta; SPA 493; Spencer; Spigold; Splendour; Stayman Winesap; Sundance and Winter Banana.

Sundance apples

It was a new experience... dealing with a lot of strange questions about apples' taste (crisp or soft, mild, tar or sweet), usage (desert type or good for cooking), best storage conditions, the size and vigour of the apple trees or the differences between the apples grown conventionally and organically. We tried our best with the answers, but, believe me, it is really hard to explain what means a "sprightly and sweet"  taste or to convince people that, as example, the Spigold variety (a cross between a Northern Spy and Golden Delicios) has an "outstanding complex flavour" ;-)

Spigold - the last variety of apples available for sale

 



Anyhow... after two hours (around 1.00 p.m.) all the apples were sold, the last variety of apples being Spigold. So, unfortunately, the good weather did create a bigger crowd than normal which led to all the apples (and not only) being sold out before the festival was over. 

A full crop of apples at  UBC Botanical Garden

After we done our job, we went for 3 hours in the crowd walking through The Physic Garden; The food Garden (where people enjoyed to see a full crop of apples in the apple trees), The David C. Lam Asian Garden and the Alpine Garden; listening live concerts in UBC Botanical Garden Amphitheater; eating apple pies and fudges; and drinking apple juice.

UBC Botanical Garden - landscape close to the main entrance

We found it as an educational and fun event for us, who got there at the beginning and stay there till the end, and ... we are happy that helped make this successful fundraising event for UBC Botanical Garden.