(Lander, WY) – The Lander Pioneer Museum’s Apple Fest is set for September 18th from 1 to 3 pm. The event will feature apple cider pressing, crafts for kids, a petting zoo, an apple pie contest, a kid’s applesauce eating competition, hard cider from Jackson and more.
“Lander has a long history of apple orchards, and in the early days the community was known as ‘The Apple City,’” the museum shared. “A lucky combination of good water and soil, shelter from the wind, and farmers willing to experiment with many tree species to find ones that would grow well here, the Lander Valley developed many fine orchards.”
In honor of this history, the Pioneer Museum holds an Apple Fest, a fun family event that highlights the many aspects of apples and apple use in the valley.
“Apple Fest in 2019 was a huge success. Kids loved pressing, and drinking fresh cider,” said Museum Curator Randy Wise. “We’re having that, plus much more this year so people can have fun and learn about this important part of Lander’s history.”
Wise said that attempts are being made to bring back some of the historic orchards in the area.
Apple fest will include an apple pie contest with cash prizes for the top three pies. There is also a kid’s pie competition with those winners also getting prizes and ribbons.
“The Fremont County Pioneer Association, which supports the museum, has donated some nice prize money,” Wise said.
People are encouraged to get out their yummy family recipes. The rules are available at the museum, or online at the museum’s Facebook page or here.
Three lucky judges being tasting pies to find pick the winners at 11 am. At 1 pm, the pies will be cut up and slices sold to the audience with the money going to the museum.
Another fun event is an applesauce eating contest for kids. There will be three age groups and the kid who can eat their bowl of apple sauce the fastest will win a prize in each age group. The catch is they have to eat the apple sauce with a straw and can’t use their hands. There will also be kid’s crafts and local apple demonstrations and talks.
A highlight two years ago was the presence of Farmstead Wyoming and their samples of hard cider. Many of the apples the company from Jackson uses to make its cider come from the Lander area, and Farmstead will be back this year offering samples of its tart, tasty Wyoming-made drink.
People are encouraged to bring in their apples and crabapples by the bag, basket, or truckload for the company if they want to see the apples put to good use.
For information call the museum at (307) 332-3373.
