ATIP Haliburton’s Carmen Galea is predicting it’ll be a fruitful year for the County-wide apple blossom tour, which returned this month.
The second-annual event will feature more than 40 locations – including privatelyowned orchards, apple trees thriving on municipal land, and businesses that carry apple-based products. It’s a big increase from the inaugural event in 2023, when ATIP promoted 15 tour stops.
Galea said trees started to blossom this week, painting the County with hues of delicate pinks and whites.
“We are very much at the whim of the apple trees… last year, they were in full force by May 20 – this year is a little earlier,” Galea said.
A map has been published online, with Galea saying printed versions are also available. Tour information can also be found on ATIP Haliburton’s new website: appletreeshaliburton.ca.
This will be Galea’s first involvement with the tour since joining the ATIP Haliburton team last summer. The recent Toronto Metropolitan University graduate said she was home one evening last June when founder, Luba Cargill, showed up wanting to learn more about apple trees she had spotted on the property.
Within a week, Galea was registered with U-Links Centre for Community-based Research to lead an apple tree identification project within Haliburton County.
Cargill is passionate about the role apples can play in society, and the social and economic benefits that come with cultivating them. Galea said she immediately connected with ATIP Haliburton’s mandate.
“One of my guiding forces and reasons for getting involved has been to identify resilient and existing food resources in the area. There is a lot of poverty in Haliburton County, 12.9 per cent of our population is classified as low-income. Having an apple tree is one way to help feed your family,” Galea, a sixthgeneration homesteader, said.
She believes promoting Haliburton County as an apple-growing community could also help with local tourism. She believes the apple blossom tour could grow to be as popular as the County’s annual maple fest and arts studio tours.
“There’s a lot of history here. People don’t know Haliburton County has this rich apple legacy,” Galea said. “We were a homestead community. People trying to be resilient in the face of a hard frontier. They recognized the enduring value apple trees had on being self-sufficient.”
Steve Hill, former curator at the Haliburton Highlands Museum, proved the existence of native Haliburton apples late in 2023 after unearthing an 1890 edition of The Canadian Horticulturalist that described the Highlands fruit as medium in size, pale-yellow in colour, and tart to the taste.
While many of the farmers who cultivated the apples left the County when the Victoria Railway arrived in the late 1800s, the trees remained.
“People really love learning the history about the different locations,” Galea said. She reminded people that several apple tree spots are on private property and can only be viewed from the side of the road. Galea confirmed there are several tour loops covering all corners of the County.
Symposium a ‘major event’
An ‘All About Apples’ symposium coming to the Haliburton Legion May 16 and 17 will have something for everyone, Galea said.
The two-day event will bring some of the continent’s top apple identifiers and researchers to the community, while also featuring a selection of local speakers who will provide information on how to grow apple trees on harsh land and properly harvest them.
North Carolina’s Tom Brown, a renowned ‘apple hunter’, will discuss how to recover lost heritage apple tree orchards; author Helen Humphries will discuss her book The Ghost Orchard, which focuses on historical apple tree cultivation in North America; while Brian Husband, a professor from the University of Guelph, will share his knowledge on the makeup of the County’s apple trees, based on DNA testing he’s done in the area.
While there’s lots for academics to sink their teeth into, Galea said those with a more practical mind will learn a lot.
“This is a major event for Haliburton County, there’s going to be lots of great information shared. This is a chance for people to learn about something completely new,” Galea said.
