The Annual Apple Day event held Thanksgiving Weekend will wind up the tourist season October 14 at The Keremeos Grist Mill and Gardens.
The Grist Mill has been enjoying a successful season with attendance doubled from 2012 by the start of August and showing no sign of lagging through Labour Day as staff and volunteers were kept busy serving visitors in the tea room and conducting interpretive tours.
The mill has been open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. , seven days a week since Victoria Day and will continue on that schedule until the close of Thanksgiving Weekend, October 14.
October 14 is the annual Apple Day event, featuring the Apple Pie Baking Contest with ribbons and prizes awarded by a panel of local “experts”.
Also part of apple day are live music and the apple race.
The Apple Day heritage and heirloom apple presentation relies upon annual search for examples of old varieties grown here and there on the Similkameen and South Okanagan. As many as fifty different varieties have been brought in by volunteers in past years. Each year means a fresh search. Anyone with an old variety willing to share it an Apple Day display at the mill can call 250-499-5417.
Some of the old as well as newer special varieties may be available for purchase this Apple Day.
Cuyler Page, the resident mill restorer, has been on hand much of this season as he continues work to bring the millworks into the “clean, grind and sift” mode which constitutes full operation. The millworks are currently seen in daily motion with power from the huge backshot wooden water wheel.
The Grist Mill Heritage Club is rounding up volunteers to help out with Apple Day events. Call 250-499-5417.