Donate Apples & Fruit or Dedicate Your Entire Tree to the Celebration
Support the celebration
Have an apple tree that feeds more squirrels than people? Put it to work for your community. Whether you donate apples you’ve picked or dedicate your tree for the celebration each year, your fruit donations help power OFRE’s cider celebration. Pears and grapes also accepted. You’re pledging fruit, preserving food, and passing on real skills—one juicy jug at a time.
Each fall, we need 1,800+ pounds of apples. Your tree—or even one tote—helps keep the cider flowing and the celebration alive.
1,800+ lbs Annual pounds of apples needed
20 lbsApples per 25L tote
200-300 lbsApples per mature tree
We Need More Than Just Apples—We Need Apple Stewards.
Too Many Apples. Not Enough Hands.
Every fall, thousands of pounds of fruit go to waste across Edmonton—because there’s no one to pick, share, or press them. Meanwhile, OFRE’s youth focused cider events depend on apples to run. With your help, we can turn fruit that might rot into juice, learning, and joy.
Unpicked Fruit
Life’s full. Ladders are risky. And unless you’ve got a crew and a plan, apples often drop where they grow—unharvested, unused and not helping with apple maggots.
No Easy Way to Share
Not everyone has space for extra apples—but our community pressing events can turn even a single tote into something special.
Scrambling for Apples
When apples aren’t pledged in advance, our team scrambles to fill the gap—reducing time for what matters: cider, teaching, and community.
We’d love to help you put them to good use—if you can pick them, we’ll press them.
Our mission
Pledge Apples and Join the Celebration
Don’t have a tree? No problem. You can still make a difference by picking and pledging apples from a neighbour’s tree, a friend’s yard, or your own.
Whether it’s one tote or five, your fruit fuels the fun.
By pledging your apples in advance, you help us plan better and make sure every child gets a taste of the celebration.
Dedicate a Tree and Feed the Festival Every Fall
If you have a mature apple tree, you can turn it into something bigger than backyard fruit.
By dedicating your tree to OFRE’s annual celebration, you ensure a steady supply of apples that power youth workshops, food preservation demos, and community cider pressings.
We’re looking for 5 to 10 local tree owners willing to commit their harvest each fall.
You pick the apples—either solo or with a self-organized team—and we turn them into cider, food skills, and shared abundance.
Your tree becomes apple insurance for the entire festival.