Bloomington Community Orchard will host its 15th annual Ciderfest from 1 p.m.- 4 p.m. Oct. 28 at 2120 S. Highland Ave.
According to the Bloomington Community Orchard’s website, the orchard is an all-volunteer nonprofit focusing on growing fruit trees and other agriculture, while also teaching orcharding skills.
The food from the orchard is available to the community for free, Josh David, vice chair of the Bloomington Community Orchard Board said. Admission to Ciderfest is also free.
The orchard does not sell anything besides merchandise. Rather than selling their food, David said they want to focus on providing public resources.
“Ultimately, we are trying to create a model of how public spaces can be used to actually grow resources in the form of food,” David said.
The Bloomington Community Orchard will debut their Orchard Propagation Station at the Ciderfest, giving visitors elderberry and thornless blackberry starters for visitors to start their own orchards.
“The Orchard Propagation Station is basically, kind of like, a garden bench with all the materials you need to potentially dig a start,” David said.
The church is opening their doors as a meeting space for various different groups.
David said the orchard, which used to be one acre of public park space, serves as an edible orchard and educational laboratory.
The orchard strives to teach people what they can grow in Bloomington and how, David said.
“We feel that the more people that can be growing food within a community, more food resources will be available and more knowledge to help each other, creating a more interconnected community of people who can both grow food for themselves and help share with others who may need it,” David said.
According to the Ciderfest event posting on Facebook, Ciderfest allows for participants to join in pumpkin and face painting, haiku writing and other games.
The Bloomington Community Orchard will provide apple cider to guests as long as they bring their own mug. The event will also offer locally baked apple treats from Rainbow Bakery in Bloomington
Attendees can expect opening announcements at 1:00 p.m., a bee/hive demonstration at 2:00 p.m. and a raffle drawing at 3:30 p.m. Entry into the raffle is free with attendance. According to David, the winner will be given Bloomington Community Orchard merchandise such as a tee shirt or tote bag.
