It’s fall and there’s lots of reason to celebrate. It’s harvest time. The weather is beautiful. And also we’re coming up to the joyful Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana – The Jewish New Year. It’s traditional during Rosh Hashana to enjoy apples dipped in honey, a treat that symbolizes a sweet new year. So our local business improvement association, The Upper Village BIA, decided to have a Rosh Hashana Market in our local park and invited the whole community to participate and enjoy this wonderful holiday together.

For the volunteers of The Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard, this was also a really fun opportunity to educate the public about the many different apple cultivars that you can grow locally and we did that through an apple tasting event. Ontario Apple Growers supplied us with 5 different types of apples for the public to taste. Then we asked park visitors to vote on their favorite by putting a bean in the mason jar for their favorite cultivar.

We had five types of apples for the public to taste – some are old favorites and some are newer introductions. Here is a list of the apples for tasting:

• McIntosh – This apple was discovered by John McIntosh, a farmer in Ontario in the early 19th century, and he and his family became involved in propagating the variety.
• Gala – This variety can be grown with good quality results in both temperate and warm apple-growing regions. In 2018 it surpassed Red Delicious as the most grown apple in the USA according to the US Apple Association.
• Honeycrisp – This variety was developed in the 1960s and launched in the 1990s by the University of Minnesota Breeding Program.
• Silken – This variety was introduced in 1999 by the Summerland Research Center in the Okanagan valley.
• Ginger Gold – This variety was discovered as a chance seedling growing near a Golden Delicious orchard in Virginia in the 1960s. 

People of all ages came to taste and vote for their favorite variety. It was wonderful for us all to see how different each apple cultivar is in terms of appearance, flavour and texture. At the end of the two-day event we counted the beans in each jar to discover which apple was the favourite. Here are the results:

• Silken was the winner with 94 beans in the jar. This apple is sweet and crunchy. Few tasters had ever heard of this variety before but many loved it.
• Honeycrisp took second place with 66 beans. Many tasters who came to the table said Honeycrisp had been their favorite apple, but once they tasted Silken they changed their minds!
• Ginger Gold got 58 beans. Gala got 25 beans. And way down at the bottom was McIntosh, with just 14 beans. John McIntosh would be horrified!

During the Rosh Hashana market, there were lots of fantastic activities for kids of all ages. Susan and Janina, both orchard volunteers, may have been older than most of the youngsters that had their faces painted…but who can resist having a sunflower or an apple painted on your cheek?

There were lots of other amazing activities during the event including a booth where event attendees could interact with animals including rabbits, turtles, and snakes. Other activities including a crafts booth and nail painting booth for kids. The live music was terrific and the market vendors sold beautiful hand-made jewelry, baked goods, honey and gifts.

Susan and Janina, when not goofing around and getting their faces painted, spent time leading orchard tours. Tour attendees learned about the history of our community orchard and they learned about the joys and challenges involved in growing fruit trees in public spaces.

In the video clip below you can see a tiny bit of the tour, and you’ll learn why all the volunteers in Ben Nobleman Orchard are superheros in their own way.

Many volunteers were involved in preparing for this two-day event. Sherry and Lynn spent three hours washing five bushels of apples for the apple tasting. Others were involved in decorating, laying the straw mulch around the trees, and manning our apple tasting table. Thank you to Lynn, Sherry, Annie, Giselle, Marilyn, Susan, Janina, and Ruth (who also helped lead one of the orchard tours). Everyone did a fantastic job!

In sum, the whole team had lots of fun participating in the Rosh Hashana Market this year and we hope this will become and annual event in some way. Thanks so much to the members of The Upper Village BIA for organizing it and for inviting us to participate.

It’s so wonderful to share our park and our passion for fruit trees with other people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds. We also love having the opportunity to get to know the amazing people who own and operate our local businesses.

In years to come, we hope to continue building relationships with members of our community. And there is no better place to do that than in our much loved orchard park. Learn more about what we do at www.communityorchard.ca. And if you want to become a volunteer and join us in the orchard, send an email to Lynn at growingforgreen (at) gmail.com. See you soon in the orchard!

Susan Poizner is the coordinator of The Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard. She’s the author of the award-winning fruit tree care book Growing Urban Orchards and the creator of the fruit tree care training website at www.orchardpeople.com/workshops. Susan is also the host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast. Susan is an ISA Certified Arborist.