Community enjoys apples and berries and grapes—yes, grapes—at annual harvest day

According to old wisdom, an apple a day is pretty darn good for you, so it’s no wonder that the fifth annual Apple Picking Festival on August 23 drew many local families to Huntsville’s Orchard Park. There, they plucked tasty fruit from the century-old trees and some surprising new additions to the park—including grape vines.

The public orchard, which is located next to Hunters Bay off Airport Road, had become overgrown after decades of unuse but has been carefully restored in recent years and is now a Town of Huntsville park.

Lori and Peeter Sild are the organizers of the Huntsville Orchard Project which began maintaining the historic apple trees and planting new fruit trees and berry bushes in 2014. The project was originally started by Transition Huntsville.

Last year, the Huntsville Orchard Project planted some new apple and crabapple trees, currant and haskap berry bushes, and Valiant grapes.

The grapes make excellent juice, says Lori.

Apple Picking Festival regular Jane Wolfe, who brought along the young charges from her dayhome to help, says the apples are fantastic for making applesauce. She says she throws them into a Vitamix, core and all, and the kids gobble up the resulting goodness. All six of them did quality control, sampling as they picked.

“I believe people need to know how to grow their own food. This is an example that it is possible, it’s a bit of a struggle but it is possible, to grow fruit trees here. It’s an education project, really,” says Lori. “The price of food is going to do nothing but go up. It’s especially important for lower income families who can’t just go and purchase what they want at the grocery store—to have an apple or a plum tree in your yard is valuable.”

For more information about the Huntsville Orchard Project, visit their Facebook group page where you’ll also find details about future events and calls for volunteers.