Apple cider flowed like clear dark gold at the annual autumn Apple Cider Fest, held at the Sekiu Community Center, Saturday, October 4.
Presented by the West End Youth and Community Club, the event included an old-fashioned apple pressing, taco soup buffet, and silent auction. Proceeds went to support and upkeep of the handsome refurbished Community Center, formerly the town school.
People doing business all over Clallam Bay and Sekiu were eager to get done and run up to the cider press before the bounty ran out. But there was little chance of their missing out. The west end has bloomed lavishly with fruit and flowers this summer, bringing in bumper crops, and apples were no exception.
Apple contributors included Eddie Bowlby, Don Hamerquist and Janine Porter, John and Karolyn Burdick, Terri Chapman, Emil and Evylyn Person, and Carol Schultz.
Schultz said, “We had so many bees and they were so happy. The bees were still working everything.”
Old-world bees are essential to the pollination of many domestic fruit crops. The Olympic Peninsula enjoys the existence of a hardy local strain, the Olympic Gray, run wild from 19th-century homesteader hives, later evolving to withstand the damp of the coastal forests and mountains.
One old tree on Schultz’s land includes red-skinned apples that make pink applesauce (much like the commercial “Spartan” apple), which contributed to the burnished warm golden-brown color of this pressing’s cider.
John Burdick estimated the club had collected sixty five-gallon buckets of apples. Apples came from as far away as west of Sequim.
“John went to get them,” said Iris Rucker, one of the apple-peeling crew that included Carol Schultz and Karolyn Burdick. “He and Karolyn have been gathering apples all week.”
Schultz’s son, Logan, was visiting from Boseman, Montana, and came along with his mom to pitch in and learn from John Burdick how to use the apple press.
The press, owned by Burdick, was made and sold to him by Herb Balch, former shop teacher at the Clallam Bay School.
The buffet included a wealth of homemade apple and berry pies, baked flakey by local contributors. A particular treat was Karin Ashton’s little apple/blueberry/rhubarb pie, freshly delicious without the addition of any sugar, and still warm from the oven. A little whipped topping made it even better.
The silent auction included art by June Bowlby, homemade jams, and even an electronic keyboard, contributed by Colton Grafstrom.
