The UBC Apple Festival returned in-person this weekend, after two years of pandemic-forced closure — but as the climate changes, B.C.'s apples are changing too.
While excitement was palpable at the event, this year’s festival was impacted by the climate change-induced weather changes of the last year.
Linda Wright, a volunteer for the BC Fruit Testers Association, said the weather this year has made growing apples very hard. She said she only has two trees in her backyard, but she saw “sun scald” on her apples — essentially a sunburn due to high temperatures.
“Temperature has really affected a lot of fruit,” Wright said. “Display apples are much smaller than they’ve been in other years. It has been really a bad year. I guess it’s going to get worse from the sounds of it.”
Markus Keller owns Worrenberg Farms in Keremeos, BC. He was at the festival this weekend selling his apples and apple juice.
Keller said growing apples was “quite different” this year. He said the wet spring delayed everything, meaning his apples were about 14 days behind schedule.
The “strange” weather this year meant that Keller had fewer issues with scabs (a form of fungus) and insects, but an “unbelievable” aphid problem earlier this year.
Keller said that the climate crisis is “shifting” the agricultural scene in BC. “Grapes are coming in like crazy,” he said, explaining that people are buying up apple orchards in Mission Hill B.C., and planting grapes instead.
Keller said apples need cool nights to turn red, but due to the heat, ambrosia apples stayed yellow. They’re the same apple, Keller said, but the trouble is, the consumer doesn’t necessarily know that.
“I grow mostly cider apples — a little bit of an ugly apple — so [the appearance] doesn’t matter to me,” he said.
Pam Sinclair, a UBC Friends of the Garden volunteer, said one benefit of the delayed apple season is that the apples at the festival are “fresher than fresh” as many of them had been picked in the last week.
Sinclair said it was “amazing” to see the popularity of the festival, despite the previous cancellations. This year’s festival featured music, vendors selling apple and fall-themed goodies and 36 types of apples and 4 types of pears for sale.
“It’s wonderful to see everybody out,” she said.
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