Fall fun at Circle J's annual Apple Fest

The annual Apple Fest at the Circle J Ranch near Ten Sleep will be this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

According to Jackie Denison, the camp coordinator, Apple Fest this year will be focused on family fun. They plan on having plenty of children’s games, as well as vendors from across the state, food and music.

Apple Fest, which started more than 10 years ago, has provided the surrounding communities with an opportunity to come together every autumn and celebrate the ranch’s harvest for the year. It is also a chance for the Circle J Ranch to fundraise for ongoing projects. This year, Denison stated that the ranch is focused on building a new, commercial grade playground.

This year’s festival is following work that was completed by the NOMADS group, who recently spent three weeks at Circle J. This group of volunteers from the Methodist Church travel around the country completing projects, and Denison stated that she is grateful that they continue to come to Circle J. The NOMADS completed cement work, painting and various other tasks around the ranch.

Although fruit has been growing later than usual, according to Denison, Circle J still anticipates having plenty of fruit to sell at Apple Fest, and they will continue to harvest and take orders following Apple Fest if they sell out. Denison stated that this delay in the fruit growing can be attributed to a cool spring and that, “every year has its challenges and its learning curve, but this year, we’re going to have a real good harvest.”

Fruit will be sold by the pound, and buyers will be able to either select which varieties they’d like or buy presorted boxes. Denison additionally stated that if people are hoping to buy fruit at Apple Fest, they should get there earlier rather than later in case they do sell out.

In addition to having more fruit than last year, Apple Fest this year will have an increase infood, pies and vendors attending compared to last year. They will also be having multiple raffles for items including a knife set and art pieces.

By having Apple Fest a week earlier than usual, rather than the first weekend of October, Denison stated that there are tradeoffs. If Apple Fest was held at its typical time, they would have more fruit ready. However, they’d also be competing with community events held in Worland, risk having worse weather and less vendors would be available. Because of this change, Denison is hoping to see plenty of community members there, and she hopes that “every person that comes on the grounds of Circle J will experience Jesus and be impacted by Him in one way or another.”