Harvest Festival at Wellwood

By Dylan Marsh
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
WEATHERSFIELD, Vt. — The Wellwood Orchard Harvest Festival returns this weekend on September 3, 2022.

The festival marks the beginning of the apple harvest season and is the most important and exciting time of the year for the orchard. This festival marks the orchard’s second annual harvest festival. Prior to 2020, Wellwood held customer appreciation day at the same time for the last 15 years.

Wellwood Orchard co-owner and event coordinator Linda Friedman stated that due to the COVID-19 pandemic the customer appreciation day was canceled and during that time she started to consider returning with something different. In an effort to shake things up, Friedman decided that the best way to return would be with a festival. Starting at 10 AM and going until 3 PM, Wellwood Orchard will be bustling with attendees who have come to pick their own apples.

Having the orchard be “pick-your-own” comes from co-owner and Friedman’s father who purchased the orchard in the early 1980’s. Roy Mark purchased the orchard from two men, Chapman and Wellwood, who had incorporated the orchard in 1954. A small portion of the orchard in the 1980s was pick your own apples, but mostly the apples were sold off wholesale. Mark found that the orchard, as it was, wasn’t sustainable and saw the popularity of people having the opportunity to come and pick their own apples. So in the late 1980’s, Mark threw away his ladders for good and pruned the apple trees so that they would all be a height that people could pick off of from the ground.

To celebrate the apple season, the Harvest Festival will feature plenty of family friendly activities including face painting, live music, apple picking, and a large petting zoo. Parking and entrance is completely free, and the petting zoo is just one dollar to enter. Keeping the costs of fruits affordable to customers has been difficult, but important for the orchard, especially while inflation affects the majority of facets of everyday life.

“At Wellwood we try to make a living not a killing. It’s really hard for us to raise our prices. It’s been really difficult with the cost of everything and increasing wages to not have to raise our prices but we bit the bullet and did what we had to do. I can safely say our fruit prices are still less expensive than anywhere around,” said Friedman.

Apple pickers young and old are invited to come enjoy live music from local musicians like Bill Brink, Jaded Ravens, and Of Conscious Mind. The festival will feature vendors, and attendees are invited to come take tractor pulled wagon rides through the orchards. The petting zoo features animals such as cows and goats, families are able to feed from their hands. In the barn, festival go-ers are also able to purchase seasonal items like apple donuts and cider.

The kind folks at Wellwood hope you, “bring your camera, and plan to enjoy the day. Leave your cellphones in your pocket and take the time to look around and really enjoy where you are and look around. Get out of your house and enjoy nature.”