It’s that wonderful time of year again! Apple season! Which means it’s OFRE’s cider season! Last year OFRE won a micro-grant from Next Gen’s

MEAET event and used that grant money to partner with Edmonton Bicycle Commuters (EBC) and turn our apple crusher into a pedal powered apple crusher!

We thought no better time to officially launch the pedal powered crusher than at our favourite cider event of the season: The Fruit Grower’s Festival! This pedal powered crusher was built with recycled, upcycled, and salvaged parts from bikes, wood shops, shopping carts, etc. Our volunteers worked hard over the winter designing and building this amazing custom apple crusher. Come to the University of Alberta Botanic Garden to learn about it and meet some of the people who helped build it and make it happen.

Here is a little video of a test run we had a couple weeks ago to make sure everything was working smoothly.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOkvbe-s3Ro]

The event runs from 11am-4pm. There is plenty of activities revolving around fruit to learn about what grows in a prairie climate. You might be surprised by what you find out! There will also be seminars on different topics throughout the day. Amy Beaith (OFRE Director & official canner of OFRE products) will be giving a talk on canning and other ways to preserve fruit.