Weekend rains and a muddy field couldn’t keep thousands of visitors away from the annual LaFayette Apple Festival.  

The annual event — this was its 46th — was held on the grounds of a former apple farm on Rowland Road, hosting more than 400 artisans and craftspeople from across New York state. 

Visitors entered the festival through a barn housing the festival gift shop and the cider mill. The mill, which is the only mill in the state authorized to distribute unprocessed apple cider, stood out among the crowd. While it can’t sell the apple cider, free samples were available for visitors.  

Connie Chapman, whose family operates the LaFayette Apple Festival Cider Mill, said the unprocessed cider is noted for its fresher taste. 

“No one makes cider like this anymore,” Chapman said. 

The 46th annual LaFayette Apple Festival drew huge crowds this past weekend at Tully Farms, hosting more than 400 craftspeople and local products. Jessie Zhai | Contributing Photographer

Chapman’s family has been running the mill for more than 20 years, and her niece Sarah has been working at the mill since she was a little girl. The mill uses different batches of apples to make the cider, and Chapman said each apple type brings a slightly different flavor to the cider. She said Galas are sweeter and great for eating, whereas McIntosh apples are more tart, but great for cider. 

“You can pretty much use any kind of an apple to make cider, but I’ve heard that the best cider comes when you mix up a bunch of apples and use their juices for cider,” Chapman said. 

Just down the path from the Cider Mill was another barn, which featured The Church of the Nativity at Saint Joseph’s apple fritter booth. The apple fritters, pies and turnovers all support the church operations, said volunteer Cathy Nagel. 

“St. Joe’s was one of the first groups to get involved in the apple festival,” Nagel said. “The baked goods all support the church. It’s the only fundraiser we do all year.” 

Many volunteers, including Boy Scout troops, helped to make the church’s pies, which sold for $12 each at the stand. The apple fritters, though, were made on site. The bite-sized treats take about 10 minutes to cook, said chef Brant Fagan, who supervised St. Joseph’s fritter kitchen. 

Saint Joseph’s apple fritter booth featured the Church of the Nativity, which is partly supported by revenues from the baked goods at this annual fundraiser. Jessie Zhai | Contributing Photographer

“We’ve got a machine in the back that helps to core the apples when they start out whole,” Fagan said. “Then we slice them, coat them in donut batter, drop them in the fryer for about five minutes, coat them in powdered sugar and cinnamon and serve them up.” 

Fagan said the church used about 15,000 apples and 1,600 pounds of donut mix to make the fritters for both days of the festival. The booth had a line stretching all the way around the building. 

Apples themselves could be bought by the pack or the pound at numerous booths around the festival, which also featured standard fair food such as burgers, mozzarella sticks and soft pretzels. The apples all came from local New York farms such as Deer Run Farms Apple Orchard. Many organizations such as the Lafayette Lancers’ Yearbook offered apple-themed treats, including apple oatmeal cookies, apple popcorn and caramel apples in every variety.  

Other artisans at the fair sold a variety of products, including clothing, handmade soaps and blown-glass figurines. One stand was home to 1000 Islands River Rat Cheese, a cheese store from Clayton. Stand worker Rachel Scudera said that River Rat had come all the way to Lafayette for the Apple Festival for nearly 20 years. 

“We offer New York state cheddar and fresh cheese curds,” Scudera said. “All our cheese comes from our factory near the store.” 

The festival made changes to accommodate the crowds, placing stone on roadways to help walkers and adding an additional lane of traffic on Tully Farms Road to allow faster access to the festival fairgrounds. To people like Chapman, the changes will help more people understand the spirit of the Apple Festival. 

“We’ve been coming down here for almost 50 years now,” she said. “The more people who come down to try our cider and our apples, the better.” 

Published on October 7, 2018 at 10:54 pm