This is one of the weekends I look forward to the most in October (besides Halloween). The UBC Apple Festival is an annual event held at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Botanical Gardens here in Vancouver. This is the 19th year and it is run by the Friends of the Garden. This year it was open from 11:00am to 4:00pm on Saturday October 17 and Sunday October 18, 2009. Admission is $2 and goes to support the Botanical Gardens.

There are over fifty local(ish) varieties of apples available to taste and purchase, as well as apple tree saplings for sale. Also, several vendors set up at the festival with apple-related goodies such as pie, cider, sauce, candied apples, dried apple chips, etc. There are also vendors with non-apple-related goodies like fudge, pickled canned goods, crepes, soup, sandwiches, and more.

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My dad tries to make it out to the Apple Festival every year, and so this year we went together on Saturday morning. Although the weather wasn’t the best, we still went to the apple tasting and then bought 11 bags of apples. They are a fantastic deal; you get 3 lbs of apples for $6 per variety. The only downside is you have to pick one type of apple per 3lb bag. We bought 11 bags of apples and I claimed the Sonata and Aurora for myself. Dad had a couple friends who wanted apples, so he did a “grab bag” of 9 different types. The Sonata apples (formerly Corail) I got are really nice dessert (eating) apples, and the Aurora Golden are good dessert and cooking apples. I plan to make some yummy apple breads with them from the Fall Festival Recipe Exchange.

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Happy volunteer, despite the weather

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All the apple trees growing in the Botanical Garden get labelled for the festival. That’s my dad in the dark blue coat striding away from me. I told him, “I take lots of photos, so you can’t walk super fast.” The photo before this one has him in the middle of the shot. *sigh*

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In the Apple Tasting Session. They let in about 50 people for 30 minutes to taste as many apples as they like. It only costs $3 more.