Crowds Flock to Apple Festival All Day

The crowds kept coming to the Monroe Green Saturday because it was time for apple pies, candy apples, and bushels full of apples in true fall colors — the annual St. Peter's Apple Festival got underway.

St. Peter's Episcopal Church has been hosting an annual fall festival on the green for perhaps 70 years, said the Rev. Kurt Huber, pastor of the church, with 350 parishioners.

"Over the years as the parishioners have changed, it has changed names and we've changed what we've done, but we've always had some type of fall festival. For the last eight years it's been the apple festival," Huber said.

The festival attracted 70 craftspeople of all kinds, selling their wares including colorful knit goods, but the star of the show was anything focusing on apples.

"We have Gala, Cortland, Honeycrsip, Ida Red, Ginger Gold, and we also have apple cider," said Deidre Stelmak, treasurer of the church, who was in charge of the main apple booth. "We have apple candles, apple picture frames, apple bags, apple teapots, cookbooks, notepads, paper plates, anything that has the apple theme on it."

The apple represents different things, but mainly it is a symbol of fall, she said.

"It's the beginning of the fall and the end of the summer," Stelmak said.

The festival ran until 5 p.m. and was scheduled to continue Sunday Sept. 12 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free. For more information go to stpetersonthegreen.com.

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