Dining

AppleFest 2020: Maintaining Tradition Through It All

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AppleFest, an Ithaca tradition, looked slightly different this year. Usually, the event boasts about 200 vendors with carnival games and every sort of apple-flavored treat imaginable. This year the event drastically reduced its capacity to reduce risk of COVID-19 transmission and spread. Instead of the normal massive festival, Downtown Ithaca organized an “Apple and Cider Trail” as well as a small open air market. The trail directed attendees to different participating local businesses who were selling apple themed foods, drinks and gifts.

Apple Harvest Festival

Apple Harvest Festival: A Snapshot of Life Upstate

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In true Ithaca fashion, Apple Harvest Festival is something caught between a nostalgic, agrarian county fair and an eclectic, trendy Brooklyn food festival. It’s a celebration of all things apple — apple pies, apple cider and candied apples — but more than that, it’s a celebration of the Finger Lakes area and the people who shape it. With millions of acres of farmland (52,000 of which are devoted exclusively to apple orchards), Upstate New York is a mecca for farmers, chefs, bakers and wine makers who come together one weekend in late September to share their passion for food with the masses.

Apple Harvest Festival

Dining Department Goes to the Apple Harvest Festival

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This past weekend, the Sun dining department’s writers ventured out to the 37th Annual Apple Harvest Festival to experience one of the most iconic food festivals Ithaca has to offer. We’ve recounted some of our most memorable moments and favorite delectable delights from the event, noting local favorites and treats from farmers far and wide.

AppleFest

Ithaca’s Annual Apple Harvest Festival Arrives at the Commons This Weekend

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Tompkins County’s iteration of the time-honored Upstate New York fall tradition, the Ithaca Apple Harvest Festival, will open this Friday in Downtown Ithaca at noon and continue until Sunday, Sept. 29. The three-day festival celebrates one of upstate New York’s most iconic and valuable agricultural exports — trailing only Washington in production, the state produces 30 million bushels of apples annually, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. “The idea is to help share the story and the strong, rich agriculture economy that we have in the county and the greater Finger Lakes. With apples being the prime crop in New York State, we are in the prime apple region,” Allison Graffin, marketing director of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance, told the Ithaca Times.

AppleFest

AppleFest: Ithaca’s Thirty-Third Annual Apple Harvest Festival

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Elizabeth Gorman ’18 went into AppleFest weekend with goals: to go all three days and try every apple-esque product available. Sample every apple variety I could sink my teeth into. Turn into an apple. Although I didn’t actually achieve any of these ambitious goals, she discovers why she loves AppleFest so much.