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The October 2004 Harvest Festival was a great success in all respects. Perfect weather brought large inquisitive crouds inside where they saw our terrific displays of fruit.
 We put on a terrific show, probably the best ever. Highlights included having nearly 120 different apple varieties on display and for tasting! We had a chance to demonstrate our three year old apple cider press. It worked flawlessly. The public seemed to particularly welcome the cider press, which generated a continuous crowd waiting to sample the free cider.
Like last year, we had some pawpaws which we cut up. This gave many who visited us the opportunity to taste this unusual and easily gown fruit.
There was a lot to see. We had a demonstration of apple dehydrating, and samples were given out. American persimmons and Asian pears were on display and also available for tasting, as were black walnuts and wild hazelnuts. Other displays included many different European and Asian pear varieties. Visitors could taste a slice of an heirloom apple. MidFEx volunteers were always on hand and answered many gardening-related questions.
Perfect 75 degree weather with clear blues skies brought out huge crouds to our show. Our weekend's sales where very brisk. We had carefully chosen 15 varities of apples to sell, and some of the best Asian pears you've ever tasted.  We sold out all the apples, Asian pears, Seckel pears, and cider. Also, we enrolled several new members this year.
2005 promises to be much better as we continually add new items and improve on existing displays.
Below is last year's announcement to whet your appetite.
Last October's Harvest Festival Announcement
Have questions about growing fruit in your yard, have a problem deciding which variety to plant? Be sure to join us at our annual Harvest Festival. Everyone is welcome and it's free. Club members will show well over a hundred different varieties of locally grown apples. This includes many superior antique and classic apples not available at the local grocers. Members also plan to show Asian pears, paw-paws, plums, black walnuts and more.
Starting at 1:00 pm on Sunday, the second day of the show, every fruit on display will be cut up so you can sample its taste. Throughout the show individual gourmet and antique apples will be on sale.
Watch us use our apple press to produce cider throughout the show. Samples will be available for tasting, and fresh apple cider will be available for sale.
If weather and nature cooperates, we plan on having small cut-up samples of pawpaws for tasting both days of the show!
Also this year is a demonstration of fruit dehydrating.
There's more! The club will present educational displays and pamphlets of interest to local gardeners to help them successfully grow fruit in this area; and of course our members will be on hand to answer your questions. You may even want to join MidFEx!
 For those folks who only want to enjoy the end result, the club will have some great apple varieties in quantity for sale. The varities are chosen by a panel of MidFex members after carefully judging the taste of this year's harvest. The final selections won’t be known until early October. Last year we sold Cortland, Empire, Gala, Gold Coast, Grimes Golden, Holiday, Honeycrisp, Jonagold, Jonathan, King David, Melrose, Mutsu, Raratan, Swiss Gourmet, Yataka and others. We will also be selling individual antique apples, fresh apple cider, taffy apples, apple butter, peach butter and more.
 October 16 - 17, 2004 (Saturday & Sunday) from 10 AM to 4:30 PM at the Chicago Botanic Garden, 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, Illinois. Our show will be in the multipurpose room in the “Educational Center” building.
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