Bushel of fun
Howard Powell of Chartiers Township helps take the bread from the oven to be bagged and sold at the Hickory Apple Festival Saturday. The bread stand, headed up by Beverly Campbell of Hickory, has been a family affair at the festival for 25 years. The fresh bread stand did more than 1,000 loaves last year at the festival and expects about the same this year.
Ryan Hebbert, 6, of South Fayette Township, and Peyton Miller, 8, of Washington, compete in the apple pie-eating contest at the Hickory Apple Festival Saturday. Miller came out the clear winner.
Isaiah Richardson, 3, of South Fayette Township, gets some help from his grandmother, Beverly Richardson, also of South Fayette, to chow down during the apple pie-eating contest. Richardson and other contestants raced to be the first person to finish the pie first without using hands.
Bill Campbell of Hickory pulls out freshly baked bread from the oven to serve at the Hickory Apple Festival Saturday. The bread booth is known for having a line about every half an hour when the fresh bread comes out for purchase.
Lisa McGraw of Hickory measures the dough to be formed into loaves at the bread stand at the Hickory Apple Festival.
HICKORY – If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, then a trip to the Hickory Apple Festival should 2ensure a year of good health.
About 155 bushels of apples were used to bake the pies and apple crisps alone. And that isn’t counting all the fresh fruit used to make apple dumplings, apple-topped funnel cakes, hand-churned apple butter, candy and caramel apples, and steaming cider.
The festival, which continues today along Route 50 in Hickory, attracts about 20,000 people each year. Attendees braved the rainy, 50-degree weather Saturday, the coldest day since early spring, to get their fix of food and fun.
“People show up every year, regardless of the weather,” said John Wurtzer, a volunteer with Mt. Pleasant Township Volunteer Fire Department, which collects all proceeds from the two-day event. “This is the best festival in Western Pennsylvania.”
Rita Bongiorni, of Hickory, has helped bake pies for about 25 years. She said she gets “lots of help,” though; a busload of senior citizens from Strabane Woods of Washington comes each year to slice the apples in advance.
Volunteers had a setback this year when a 15-door freezer used to store the pies stopped functioning, but they still managed to bake 2,028 pies.
“We had to scramble to find places to freeze them,” said event organizer Gary Farner.
“The pies have been doing really well for the weather,” Bongiorni said of pie sales.
Getting rid of the pies was an easier task than storing them. During an apple pie-eating contest, youngsters dove headfirst into miniature apple pies. The more voracious eaters left with blue ribbons, but all left with crumb-covered mouths and sticky noses.
One boy dropped his pie on the ground, picked it up and continued to munch away, which earned him a second-place ribbon, despite the upturned noses in the crowd.
For those who aren’t too keen on apples, the festival’s menu also includes pierogies, kielbasa and sauerkraut, fair food, bean soup and fresh-baked bread. Entertainment includes small carnival rides, a petting zoo and various crafters.
Today’s festival starts at 7 a.m. with a pancake breakfast in the fire hall, followed by activities and musical performances between 8:30 a.m. and 5:15 p.m. Admission is free, and shuttles are provided.