Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/118161
ON THE FIRST SATURDAY OF OCTOBER, THE O N THE FIRST S UNDAY OF O CTOBER , THE pickups start arriving at Salt Spring's Fulford Hall, and Apple Festival volunteers begin unloading bags of fruit that are then organized alphabetically on indoor tables by a bunch of energetic kids. The Cox's Orange Pippins go on "C" table. The Rhode Island Greenings on "R." The Belle de Boskoops on "B." There's a woman setting up her display of heritage tomatoes and rare vegetables and another vendor arranging his locally grown olives, loquats and lemons, a third hanging her apple paintings. Downstairs, the Women's Institute "Pie Ladies" are baking scores of apple pies for the following day's festival. In assembly-line fashion, the operation begins with Salt Spring resident Evelyn Lee, a grey-haired apple peeler who admits she has been making pies for more than 85 years. Burton comes in for a sniff as pies exit the oven. Amid laughter, wrists are slapped at any attempt at nibbling. It's this sense of camaraderie that often defines island life and provokes reflection on why Salt Spring, unusually rich in activists such as Burton, sits at the pointy tip of a growing global revolution. Seated outdoors on a forested Salt Spring ridgetop – beneath a blue neon sign in a nearby window that reads "Poetry" – sixty-yearold Brian Brett, author of 2010's B.C. Book Prizewinning Trauma Farm, reflects on the possibility of a very scary future. He then explains how Burton's Apple Festival, the growth of community gardening, Ganges farmers' market, Salt Spring Dollars and the islanders' sharing of their fall harvest are examples of the societal changes needed to avoid an apocalyptic 21st century. "Local is the answer," says Brett, gesturing around his four-hectare farm. There are apple trees, chickens, nut and tea plants, sheep, spices, grapes and a huge vegetable crop that, when eaten or bartered or canned, provide his family with most of their year's food. "If everyone in Vancouver turned their backyard into a garden . . . Imagine!" and he holds his hands palms up. "It will be essential in the future – urban farming. There's a rebellion underway against old attitudes – against poor nutrition, processed food and globalization." morning air is redolent with apple and the line at the Women's Institute pie counter within Fulford Hall is 40 people long. Nearby, the hundreds of different local apples – of shapes and colours beyond belief – are now displayed on doilies, with Burton's detailed histories beside each. The big Gloria Mundi, says one label, were hugely popular 200 years ago, but are now virtually unknown. And the Arkansas Black are, well, black. Beyond the hall, the festival's outdoor tour follows meandering roads to mapped locations such as Wave Hill Farm, where Salt Spring's earliest settler planted the island's first apples – called Wolf Rivers – in 1862, and where these softball-sized fruit, along with servings of roast lamb and apple strudel, are on sale today. At Beddis Castle, an arboretumsurrounded waterfront mansion, there is free apple cider and tree branches sagging under loads of ripe fruit. There are also a dozen types of woodfire-baked breads at the Bread Lady's hilltop oven overlooking the Gulf Islands, soft bries at Moonstruck Organic Cheese and Apple Pie fruit wine at Salt Spring Vineyards. Back at Burton's own orchard, now crowded with the festival's afternoon visitors, 80 varieties of sampling apples are arrayed on long tables and quickly reduced to cores as visitors pare them for tasting. Burton sits on a hay bale beside his pile of abandoned shovels and talks about the origins of apples: how they travelled from central Asia thousands of years ago and spread around the Earth; how they diverged into 7,500 or so species, and how they entered mythologies as varied as Johnny Appleseed and the Garden of Eden. How they are, by far, the planet's most ubiquitous fruit. He answers visitors' questions, discusses the virtues of this or that apple and picks a Gravenstein from a nearby branch. It's clear from his expression that his enjoyment of the taste hasn't diminished since those days, almost a lifetime ago, pilfering Mrs. Roscoe's forbidden fruit. apple support Plot a course Pick up road maps and, for more Gulf Islands background info, a copy of the Islands Guide — at your nearest BCAA sales centre. www.bcaa.com BC Ferries services the island from three directions: Tsawwassen, Swartz Bay and Crofton; reservations essential on autumn weekends. bcferries.com Shuck these sheets A number of campgrounds, B&Bs and hotels dot the largest and most populous (12,000) of B.C.'s Southern Gulf Islands (saltspring tourism.com). But for ultimate luxury, consider Hastings House Country House on the Ganges waterfront — one of Canada's premier boutique hotels (hastingshouse.com). The juicy bits ■ For details on the 13th annual, early October Apple Festival that begins at Fulford Hall (2591 Fulford-Ganges Road) and extends to tours of a dozen or so local orchards, vineyards and artisan food producers: appleluscious.com ■ The Salt Spring Saturday Market in Ganges features scores of island craftspeople and artists, fruit and produce vendors, local artisan cheeses, breads, jams and pickles and a glimpse of island social life. April through October. saltspringmarket.com ■ Salt Spring's two best walks are along the seven km of shoreline trails within 529-hectare Ruckle Provincial Park; and at the top of the steep drive (gravel road) to the 602-metre summit of Mount Maxwell, with cliffside views of the surrounding archipelago. Homework Brian Brett's award-winning Trauma Farm is a wise and provocative look at daily life on a small Salt Spring acreage. (2009, D&M; $19.95) Surf zone saltspringtourism.com Onsite, the island's visitor centre has tourist brochures, maps of local hiking trails, a map/guide to the year-round studio tour of 34 working artisans, as well as Salt Spring Dollars (negotiable at many local stores/banks). 121 Lower Ganges Road, in the main village of Ganges. Experimenting with the science of "the perfect apple" at Summerland's Pacific Agri-food Research Centre: www.bcaa.com/apples WESTWORLD p28-31_SaltSpring.indd 31 >> FA L L 2 0 1 1 31 8/17/11 12:19:02 PM