The 34th annual Johnny Appleseed Festival at Mapleside Farms in Brunswick will be held Saturday & Sunday, September 15 & 16. The event commemorates the birthday of Johnny Appleseed and is the official kick-off to the fall apple harvest season. The festival will take place on top of the hill overlooking 4,000 apple trees in the valley.
There's always plenty of fun for the whole family at the festival. This year, festival presenting sponsor, the Kia Summer of Surprises Tour/Drivin' Movie, brings $20 gas cards to those taking a brief test drive, a chance to win a new Kia Optima, and at dusk on Saturday, a free family showing of 2006's Charlotte's Web on the Midwest's LARGEST outdoor movie screen (35' x 70'!!!).
More for the kids includes taking on the high seas adventures at the Pirates of the Apple Orchard Corn Maze where they follow the twists and turns of the paths in the corn stalks to search for hidden treasures. There are also horse drawn wagon rides through the apple orchards, pony rides, kid's crafts, face painting and fun in the Harvest Hideout Playland.
Eighty crafters will be exhibiting their hand-made crafts in a variety of mediums. Entertainment will include country music from "Little Rock" and Kenny Clark and the Birmingham Band, and Conestoga, along with the fifties sound of Rock-N-Remember. There will also be local dance troupes, performing as well as country dancers and cloggers.
There's always plenty of great food at the Johnny Appleseed Festival. An outdoor barbeque will feature ribs smothered in Mapleside's apple butter barbeque sauce, grilled chicken, hamburgers, and BBQ pork sandwiches. And of course, there will be plenty of home baked apple pie, giant apple fritters, caramel apples, apple dumplings and apple cider.
Admission is $3 for adults, $1 for children ages 7 thru 12 and free for children 6 years old and younger. Some activities require an additional charge. Parking is free. For more information, call 330-225-5577, visit www.mapleside.com -- or call 248-233-8128 for more information on the Kia Summer of Surprises Tour/Drivin' Movie.
Mapleside Farms is a working apple farm that features a rustic Farm Market & Bakery, Restaurant, Gift Shop, Deli & Cafe and Ice Cream Parlor, all located at 294 Pearl Rd. in Brunswick, OH, just four miles from Interstate 71 and Rte. 82.
Mapleside's Johnny Appleseed Festival started in 1974 to commemorate the 200th birthday of Johnny Appleseed. He was a well-known agriculturalist, who traveled from the east through Ohio and Indiana planting apple seeds so that settlers moving to the territory would have fruit waiting for them when they arrived. Mapleside Farms has a branch from an original Johnny Appleseed tree that is grafted onto a rootstock. Some years it produces apples, some years it doesn't.
