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Apple Fest

Apple Pies. Apple Cookies. Apple Cakes. Apple Butter......But The Apple Fest Has More Than Just Apples

Kathy Waters/Highlands Today

Volunteer Marcel Miranda prices craft items on Monday in preparation for the Palms annual Apple Festival.

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By Douglas  Carman | Highlands Today

Published: September 25, 2007

SEBRING — The recreation room at the Palms of Sebring looked more like a craftsman's workshop Monday morning, as the residents and volunteers got their hand-made blankets, towels and napkin holders together. The pictures of apples, the wooden apple models and the fall leaves overhead share a theme.

Lester Kesselring and the 60-plus volunteers have until Thursday to get the recreation room ready for the 11th annual Apple Festival, and it's still too soon to cook the food. The consultant at the Palms and the chief organizer of the festival said they have been at it the past eight weeks.

When the days come, some of them would churn out 90 jars of hand-made apple jelly, 90 half-pint containers of apple butter, a hundred hand-made apple pies, dozens upon dozens of apple cookies (think of an oatmeal cookie with some apple bits among the raisins) and about 75 apple cakes.

"It is big," Kesselring chuckled as the work went on all around him. "It's a year-long effort. As soon as one's done, we're starting another. Not at the pace that we're going the past six to eight weeks but we begin to buy for the next one."

As he said this, a loader began carting in 70 boxes of apple dumplings, the top-selling goodie at the festival. As if the apple theme wasn't prevalent enough, the loader, Joe France, bragged that he came from Fort Wayne, Ind., the location of the legendary Johnny Appleseed's grave.

A Northern Seed

The festival began after Kesselring took a trip up north, where he said he ran into several people from Highlands County.

The Palms wanted to create an event, so he thought he should bring a piece of the north down here. The resulting Apple Fest started as both a crafts show and a sale for all kinds of food made from apples.

The residents stitched their own blankets, towels, handbags and other things that went for sale along with the food.

Both Kesselring and Carol Kline, the Palms' activities director, said they realized the crafts were grabbing most of the attention from the visitors. Even last year, Kesselring said they were left with less than six boxes off goods after the festival ended.

Nowadays, "this becomes a humongous crafts show," Kline said. Kesselring, who's semi-retired, takes frequent trips up north from Virginia and Pennsylvania to Illinois, bringing back a lot of the oddities on display inside the rec hall.

The residents and volunteers hand-craft about 30 percent of the items there. Some of the food's also baked from scratch, but the heavy-selling apple dumplings are pre-packaged and shipped in. In her office, Kline does have a book of odd apple recipes that pop up in the festival.

The Apple Festival begins Thursday and will run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Palms of Sebring . It's open to the public. For more information, call 385-0161.

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