Sunday September 24, 2023 | SOOKE, BC [Updated September 25, 2023 – 8:10 pm]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends | FOOD SECURITY NEWS
The Sooke Apple Festival is back in full swing. Organized by the Sooke Region Food CHI Society, the 2023 event was outdoors at Sunriver Community Orchard today, seeing over 800 people show up over five hours.
There were apples and other produce to buy, shrubs and trees for sale, and live music by Gord Phillips during the 10 am to 3 pm event.
People wandered about looking around in the gardens, visiting vendor booths, and chatting with friends.
The live auction of pies and other goodies was a quick fundraiser. The coffee and baked goods for sale were an additional revenue-generator, as well as donations optional at the main entrance. Sooke Region Food CHI President Ellen Lewers led the pie auction and told the crowd that long-time Sooke historian Elida Peers, now age 93, baked many of the pies. “Other baked-pie donors were Doug McFarlane’s granddaughter, Anne Butler. and many other great community minded folks in Sooke and Metchosin,” says Sooke Region Food CHI President Ellen Lewers.
Sooke Region Food CHI uses funds for various initiatives in support of agriculture in the Sooke region. Long-time Sooke Region Food CHI organizers Pheobe Dunbar and Glen Thelin were on hand for the big day.
The weather forecast may have included some rain, but despite the grey cloudy skies, rain didn’t happen.
The long-devoted Sooke agricultural crowd had booths and displays with produce and information. The focus was locally produced food and plants. No animals or other farm things.
Comeback crowd:
This was the seventh Apple Festival since the idea got going. A few years were missed during the pandemic, and last year was low-key at the museum grounds location.
Organizers say the Sooke Apple Festival is “a day celebrating the town’s agricultural heritage and distinctive apple varieties”. Donated apples were for sale at $1.50/lb.
As events go, this one was extremely well organized, with a range of volunteers, activities, refreshments, good signage, and something for all ages. Relaxed and fun.
The apples were handpicked by Glen Thelin from a variety of trees in the area — hand-picked with care so they wouldn’t be bruised. Other vendors were selling their locally-grown produce including carrots, potatoes and garlic.
Indeed, setting the stage for the event was the large Sunriver Community Garden itself, through which people walked to reach the Apple Festival entrance. With our 60 garden plots, there was a wide range of harvest-ready vegetables and flowers to meander through.
The Kids Playzone was popular.
The heavily-attended event saw people parking their vehicles in the Sunriver Garden parking lot, along Phillips Road, and beyond.
Who was there:
Among the folks attending were District of Sooke Councillors Jeff Bateman and Tony St-Pierre, Sooke School District Vice-Chair Ebony Logins (with her baby son Derek), and long-time food community organizers like Ellen Lewers (President of Sooke Region Food CHI), Glen Thelin, Anita Wasiuta, Stephen Hindrichs, and Teresa Sahlstrom.
Anne Boquist (in charge of the children’s activity), Candace Linde, and Phoebe Dunbar were also in attendance.
A supplier of maples and other trees drove all the way from Aldergrove in the Fraser Valley (on the mainland) to bring her trees and shrubs for sale. Today’s crowd seemed to enjoy the range of plants by Gloucester Green Nursery as a featured vendor — about 50 garden-ready plants were sold to new homes.
About Sooke Food CHI:
Sooke Region Food CHI (Food CHI) is working to create vibrant, sustainable food systems for the Sooke region which includes the Sooke District, Otter Point, East Sooke, Shirley and Port Renfrew areas, is rooted in viable local production, historical and First Nations knowledge and environmental stewardship. Concerned individuals, producers and consumers have joined together to foster the knowledge of growing food. Directory of markets and farmers: Find Local Food
Food CHI acknowledges the T`Sou-ke First Nation and the Pacheedaht First Nation, on whose traditional territories the organization’s activities take place.
The Sooke Region Food CHI Society AGM was held earlier this year where they discussed a possible new community garden in East Sooke, as well as the need for more permanent farmer’s market space in-town Sooke.
===== ABOUT ISLAND SOCIAL TRENDS:
Covering news of the Sooke region since 2008. Daily news posts at IslandSocialTrends.ca. Island Social Trends is independent journalism — advertising and subscribers welcome. | Formerly MapleLine Magazine (2008-2010), Sooke Voice News (2011-2013), and West Shore Voice News (2014-2020) — print editions archived at the Sooke Region Museum.
Founder, Editor & Publisher of that full series of publications is Mary P Brooke, B.Sc., Cert PR. Ms Brooke gives public presentations on urban food resilience, promoting the notion of everyone growing a bit of food in their own backyard or in patio pots.
This year Mary P Brooke was nominated for a Jack Webster Foundation award for a woman who contributes to her community through journalism. Ms Brooke now reports with the BC Legislative Press Gallery. Her home-based publishing business is located in Langford, BC. In 2022, Mary Brooke ran for school trustee in SD62 (Belmont Zone – Langford, Colwood, Metchosin, Highlands).
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