Fake Festival Rant

toxcrusadr

toxcrusadr

Omelette au Fromage
I just gotta rant about how fake things have gotten.

Mrs. Tox and I went to an old river town called Weston, north of KC, last weekend for their "Apple Festival." It's a great old town that has preserved its historic architecture and apparently survives and thrives by having a lot of festivals. We went to an Irish thing a couple years ago centered around a historic brewery that is now a pub, including very cool underground beer caves turned into bar rooms.

Unfortunately, this Apple Fest was pretty fake. Here's what I sent to the Chamber of Commerce.

To Whom It May Concern:

My wife and I visited lovely Weston last Saturday to attend the Apple Festival. We were surprised at the big crowds but impressed by the excellent bus service. Numerous vendors offered a huge variety of wonderful products. We had a good time looking at the town’s wonderful architecture.

However, in 2-3 hours of walking from one end of town to the other, we did not see any apples for sale. No wagons of apples, no bushels of apples, no pecks or tote bags. Someone said they saw a table offering cider but we must have missed it. The only apple I saw was the $5 apple dumpling (which I freely admit was delicious, if small).

One would think an Apple Festival would have some apples. We were drawn there simply based on the name of the event, and were disappointed. Growing up in apple country, I picked apples as a kid, saw the big cider press at the orchard and drank free cider out of 1-cent paper cups. I was expecting APPLES. Instead we found pottery, jewelry and overscented soap.

We were referred to the Red Barn store outside town, which did have a few apples for sale amongst the novelty rubber chickens and country motif tea towels. I was severely disappointed to see that their jugs of ‘cider’ contained nothing but apple juice made from concentrate with an Ohio address.

Is this what we’ve come to?

We still like Weston but will not be attending another Apple Fraudstival.

Best Regards, etc.
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:tears: Things ain't what they useta be. :tears:
 
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Tracy used to have a "Bean Festival", that was in part started twenty someodd years ago by the bean warehouse where I used to work.

Now, it's more of a glorified flea market.
 
Waverly,Mo apple jubilee is the one I used to go to. There wasnt alot of apples for sale but there are tons of apple orchords around there. If I remember right they would auction off bushel baskets of apples off for hundreds of dollars. Mostly bussinesses would buy them for advertisment.
I had alot of fun at those things a close friends family was from there.
Here in Shawnee Ks. every weekend has some kind of jassack festival I think its just to get people to come to downtown Shawnee. BBQ contest is good and Old Shawnee Days does ok but now we got the scarecrow fest, and some kind of Christmas fest, car show,of couse St. Pattys day,Octoberfest and god knows what else they can think up.Eric
 
Waverly is on a lot of the bags of apples you can get at the grocery stores around here in the fall. Maybe we'll hit Waverly next fall. But what if there's no sickly sweet handmade soap?
 
I run a fall festival. Your experience at the apple festival would be like my festival without pumpkins and squash. Pretty lame.
 
Why does this sort of thing always stem from a serious thread? All it takes is the first one and everyone follows.

One

rotten

apple

spoils the whole bunch.

:D

OHighway: and to think the apple juice came from OH! But I know you don't export the good stuff, you keep it for yourselves. :D
 
You should go to my erstwhile hometown, Harvard, MA and attend "our" (OK, their) Apple Blossom Festival in the spring... and the town fall fleamarket... which is this Saturday!!!

:-)

The apples around here are superb - indeed, the historical Johnny Appleseed was from Leominster, MA, just a hoot 'n' a holler west of Harvard.

http://www.harvardfallfestival.com/
http://www.harvardfleamarket.com/

(EDIT: PS I am eating a Harvard-grown Cortland apple as I type this...)
 
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Ohighway said:
"Apple Fraudstival".... lol....

Tox you're too much. :thmbsp::thmbsp:
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I agree.
And I'll add another festival rant; blues/jazz festivals loaded with washed-up classic rock acts. If you are booking a blues or jazz festival, here's a tip: Molly Hatchet and 38 Special have no place being the "closing act".:no:
 
toxcrusadr said:
Why does this sort of thing always stem from a serious thread? All it takes is the first one and everyone follows.

One

rotten

apple

spoils the whole bunch.

:D

OHighway: and to think the apple juice came from OH! But I know you don't export the good stuff, you keep it for yourselves. :D
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Don't try and worm your way out of this one .
 
mhardy6647 said:
(EDIT: PS I am eating a Harvard-grown Cortland apple as I type this...)
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Ahh, the venerable Cortland! :thmbsp: What are they, six, eight bucks a pop up there in the Northeast? :D

KrisM said:
I agree.
And I'll add another festival rant; blues/jazz festivals loaded with washed-up classic rock acts. If you are booking a blues or jazz festival, here's a tip: Molly Hatchet and 38 Special have no place being the "closing act".:no:
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Oooh, that's bad. I feel your pain.

zebra03 said:
Don't try and worm your way out of this one .
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Not even gonna dignify this with a response. :no: :D

Wigwam Jones said:
Come to Michigan. Festivals every weekend somewhere, and they're all excellent.

http://mfea.org/browse-events/

http://www.michigan.org/events/
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Ann Arbor born, Ypsilanti raised Michigan apple eater. The orchard and mill we used to go to was in Dexter. :thmbsp:
 
Anyone have a favorite old-timey apple variety? My dad (who grew up in Lansing MI) grew dwarf apples at every house he owned. He'd find the interesting ones like Northern Spy, Black Twig, etc. He used to have a tree with 5 different varieties grafted onto it. I learned recently that some fruit 'collectors' have dozens of varieties grafted onto the same tree. They're as nutty as vinyl collectors. I mean that in a good way.

You don't find a whole lot at the groceries anymore. The Romes and Winesaps have about disappeared. I do like a fresh crispy juicy and tart Jonathan for eatin'.

Edit: Hey, McIntosh's don't grow on trees! Or we sure wish they did.
 
Maybe next time hit Louisburg Cider Mill for their annual festival south of KC. Not as adult oriented as Weston but I'm sure you'd find an apple or two, ...most likely on their way to being pressed into cider though. Caramel apples I've see, yes, but the real reason to go are the fresh hot cider doughnuts. Yum.

http://www.louisburgcidermill.com/?page_id=1705
 
Holy cripes, the Dexter Cider Mill is still there, and they're still using the same hydraulic cider press I remember from almost a half century ago.

5.jpg


:thmbsp::thmbsp:

http://www.dextercidermill.com/index.htm

They used to make fresh cake donuts with cinnamon sugar on them, for 10 cents to go with all the free cider you could drink.
 
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