Happy Thanksgiving to all Canadian readers. Canadian Thanksgiving was instituted in 1957 by the Canadian Parliament as a day of general thanksgiving for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed. This post is about the celebration of the harvest of apples.

The second annual Applepalooza took place at the Gilbert Road Community Garden at the south end of Gilbert Road and Dyke Road. This is also the location for the South Dyke Sharing Farm where the apple orchard is.

It was a bright sunny fall day which was a blessing.

There were lots of activities for the family. It’s a great event to celebrate the fall harvest, particularly apples.

The apple trees were planted in 2008 and they are already yielding a good harvest.

Among the apples is one mystery apple which has yet to be identified. It’s green in colour but not as tart as Granny Smith? It will be great if someone can identify the mystery apple.

Here are some of the products that the canning workshops produced this summer. The above were Apple Ginger Chutney,  Tomatillo Salsa and Pickled Green Beans.

Ian Lai prepared big pots of chilli and corn on the cob for lunch. I did not stay for lunch and I missed to taste the hearty chilli.

I bought some items back for the boys to try; apple pie, apple ginger chutney and winter banana apples. The winter banana apple is very crisp with a slight tangy flavour. Karen told me that the winter banana keeps really well.