“Hosts” of the Wellesley Apple Butter & Cheese Festival: Fritz Kasebrochken & Annie Appleschnitz. They hope visitors will enjoy the old-fashioned rural atmosphere of Wellesley.
It’s an abc fact that...
Every dollar you spend on an apple fritter or sausage at the Apple Butter & Cheese Festival goes towards community projects. Over the past 48 years, the Apple Butter & Cheese Festival has funded many community improvements! for help finding your way around today, see map on page 6
Welcome from the mayor joe nowak
The annual Apple Butter and Cheese Festival marks its 48th year on Saturday, September 28. The entire community comes together for this one-day event showing commitment and generosity through their selfless efforts to make this festival a success year after year.
All proceeds are directed to major projects in Wellesley village from funding laptops for Wellesley Public School, to helping to fund the splash pad and accessible playground.
Come early and enjoy the pancake breakfast starting at the crack of dawn on the “main street” followed with traditional Festival yummy foods on the Queen’s Bush Road Food Mall. Visit the arena and see many homemade crafts.
Our team at the Wilmot-Tavistock Gazette is thrilled to participate in the 48th annual Wellesley Apple Butter and Cheese Festival through the production of this year’s program. I would like to thank the organizing committee for working with us on this project and congratulate them on another well-organized Festival.
Just as the Apple Butter and Cheese Festival is only possible thanks to the contributions of so many people, similarly this program exists thanks to the efforts of many. We’ve had an expanded team work on this year’s guide, and I’d like to thank editor Galen Simmons, advertising representative Sharon Leis, graphic designer
Stay for children’s entertainment, enjoy free wagon rides, tours and let’s not forget the apple butter and cheese available from local vendors.
Bring your family and friends and join me and my family for a day of good food and friendly atmosphere. It’s fun for everyone.
Erin Parsons, and journalists Mercedes Kay Gold, Gary West, Connor Luczka, Julia Paul, and Emily Stewart for their valuable contributions towards this year’s program. We hope everyone enjoys reading it!
This year’s guide would also not be possible without the community-minded businesses whose advertisements funded the project, so please pay special attention to their contributions within this program.
We look forward to seeing everyone in Wellesley on September 28th for this year’s event.
Stewart Grant Publisher, Wilmot-Tavistock Gazette
Wellesley Mayor Joe Nowak
wellesley Apple Butter & Cheese festival
LEGEND
Festival Hours 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Festival Events and Attractions
The Wellesley Apple Butter and Cheese Festival offers events and entertainment for all ages. The day starts at 7:00 a.m. with our Pancake Breakfast. Our craft and food market opens at 8:00 a.m. and the festival runs all day until 4:00 p.m.
We offer free parking and admission and we have free tractor wagons running all day to transport people throughout the festival.
PANCAKE BREAKFAST
Downtown Street Mall
- from 7 a.m.
ANTIQUE CARS AND TRACTOR PARADE
Parade through town - from 12 p.m.
HORSeshOE TOURNAMENT
Arena Grounds
- from 9 a.m.
CRAFT CIDER TASTING
In Arena from 9 a.m.
Come sample some of the finest locally produced craft ciders
MINI-TRACTOR PULL
Queen’s Bush Road
- 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Contest is open to children 10 years and under, with a minimal charge to enter.Trophies will be awarded. Contestants must have signed consent from parents. Forms available at the main street information booth.
WELLESLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Wellesley Library
- 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Drop by the Historcal Room during the Apple Butter and Cheese Festival to see our displays.
TAE KWON DO DEMONSTRATION
10 a. m. – 1 p.m.
Our local tae Kwon Do group will be putting on performances
PUPPET SHOW
Across from arena on Brown Street
- from 10 a.m.
Young children are invited to watch the puppet show at 64 Brown Street, opposite the arena grounds. The show runs 10 minutes at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., noon, 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.
ANTIQUE CARS DISPLAY
Library Grounds
Visitors are welcome to see the antique and classic cars that will be arriving. At noon, there will be a parade around the Village by the classic cars.
ANTIQUE JOHN DEERE TRACTOR DISPLAY
Brown Street behind the arena
Enjoy a bit of agricultural history and see a collection of antique farm equipment.
THE CRAFT AND VENDOR MARKETPLACE
Wellesley Arena
8 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Come & check out the many quality artisan craft and food vendors
MODERN DAIRY FARM TOUR
Buses will be running back and forth to the farm all day, loading passengers in the Wellesley Auto Care parking lot on Nafziger Road.
QUEEN’s bush Rd FOOD MALL
Enjoy the food treats that are the specialities of the Festival including caramel apples, apple fritters, apple cider and other beverages; sausage on a bun & french fries; and schnitzel on a bun.
DOWNTOWN STREET MALL ENTERTAINMENT
At the east (upper) end of the mall on Queen’s Bush Road, visitors are welcome to relax and enjoy local entertainers performing at various times during the day.
Mainstage Entertainment Line up 2024
9:30am - Erick Traplin Children’s Entertainment
10:30am - Kyle Geraghty
11:15 - The Chord Spinners
11:45 - Allister Bradley
12:30pm - Jampree with Jonny Sauder
1:15pm - Folklore Junction
CRAFT/VENDOR MARKET ENTERAINMENT
Between Arena & Community Centre
Listen to the sounds of Turning Corners Band throughout the day.
All about the apples
By Mercedes Kay Gold
Since 1975, the Wellesley Apple Butter and Cheese Festival has marked the arrival of autumn on the last Saturday of September and the tradition continues. Whether you start the day with a belly full of pancakes and sausages, awesome apple fritters or a wedge of handcrafted cheese, flavourful food fare dominates the day!
Yes, there’s tractors, a horseshoe tournament, an antique-car parade, farm tours, shopping and endless entertainment, but the festival is fabulously fun for foodies!
This year welcomes a new addition to the awesome, apple-designated day. Apple cider lovers, get ready because this Sept. 28, festival goers aged 19 and over can sample and purchase a wide variety of alcoholic, craft ciders.
The festival name and snazzy symbol are a super shoutout the power-packed, all-star apple and the tiny town of Wellesley, Ont.
This holistic nutritionist brings the goodness of a gateau that can be baked at home by even the busiest bees. Let’s bake a gluten-, dairy- and nut-free, super-moist cake for any occasion. Wellesley’s applesauce and sweetened apple cider bring the wow. In lieu of icing, the phenomenal flavour and dreamy decadence are courtesy of their perfect pumpkin apple butter.
Old-fashioned apple spice cake
Ingredients:
• ½ cup spring water
• 1 large egg
• ½ cup Wellesley Apple Sauce
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• ½ cup maple sugar
• 1 tbsp Wellesley Sweet Apple Cider
• 1 ½ cups oat flour
• ½ tsp Himalayan Sea salt
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• ¾ tsp baking soda
Celebrate Wellesley Apple Butter and Cheese Festival by making this delicious, old-fashioned apple spice cake at home using ingredients produced right here in Wellesley.Top it with Wellesley pumpkin apple butter to cram even more local goodness into this apple spice cake. Photos by Mercedes Kay Gold
• ½ cup raisins
• ½ tsp Ceylon cinnamon
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Whisk water, eggs, vanilla, applesauce and cider.
3. Combine dry ingredients.
4. Mix dry with the wet and stir well.
5. Soak ½ cup raisins in boiling water for 5 minutes to plump. Drain and add to the batter.
6. Pour into a parchment-lined or lightly greased 8-inch pan.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes in the center of the oven or until an inserted toothpick comes clean.
It’s all about the apple! Skip icing and smear with Wellesley Pumpkin Apple Butter and Wellesley Sweet Apple Cider.
Mercedes Kay Gold is a Certified Holistic Nutritionist, Certified Personal Trainer & a published writer who loves helping others live their best life when not spending time with her children and grandson, Theodore.
Soups on, Wellesley
By Mercedes Kay Gold
Nothing says autumn like a superb soup full of fall favourites. In honour of the yearly festival, naturally, the amazing apple was the all-star in the recipe. Wellesley has been manufacturing naturally sweetened quality apple products to families for over 75 years. The finest ingredients go into their time-tested recipes, and this stupendous soup features Wellesley’s Sparkling Sweet Cider.
Everybody loves the crunch of an orchard-fresh apple. Ontario is home to heaps of varieties from Royal Gala to Mcintosh to Empire and the awesome Ambrosia. Apples are nutrient dense and contain a multitude of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
They are full of insoluble and soluble fibre, increasing transit time and a bulkier bowel movement. Elimination is key to helping rid the body of toxins, so enjoy the pectin-packed peel, too! Apples do keep the doctor away thanks to immune-boosting vitamin C content. Apples are packed with potassium, your link to normal blood pressure.
As a holistic nutritionist, this recipe creator loves a huge harvest and added another autumn all-star. Slurp on soup and reap the benefits of rock-star root veggie, the carrot. This simple soup is savoury and a smidge sweet and superb to say so long to summer!
All-star Apple Soup
Ingredients:
• 2 Tbsp. butter or olive oil (I used butter)
• 2 celery stalks
• 3 large carrots
• 1 large white onion
• 3 pounds apples (I used Royal Gala)
• 1 litre of chicken or vegetable broth (I used chicken)
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 2 tsp. Ceylon cinnamon
• 1 and ½ cups Wellesley Sparkling Sweet Apple Cider
• 1 tsp. Himalayan pink salt
Directions:
1. In a large stock pot, melt 2 Tbsp. butter.
2. Wash and dice onion, celery and carrot.
3. Add salt and sauté until softened.
4. Wash, core and dice apples.
5. Add apples and sauté until softened.
6. Pour in the chicken stock, Wellesley’s Sweet Apple Cider and maple syrup
7. Stir in the cinnamon.
8. Cover and bring to a boil. Turn down to minimum and cook another 20-30 minutes ensuring all is soft.
9. Let it cool and blend using an immersion blender. The soup is a standalone meal with bread or sidekick to pork and lamb. Serve and enjoy!
This apple soup is packed with nutrients and local ingredients. Photo by Mercedes Kay Gold
One of the star ingredients that make the flavours in this soup shine is Wellesley Sweet Apple Cider. Photo by Mercedes Kay Gold
Claire Birrell named Wellesley Township’s 2024 Citizen of the Year
By Gary West
Some have called her Mrs. Wellesley Township, and some just call her a positive spotlight in the Wellesley community.
Any way you look at it, Claire Birrell makes Wellesley a better place to live and she puts a spotlight on the community in a very positive way. She has volunteered in many roles, including coordinating the Wellesley Public School Scholastic book fair for 14 years alongside a group of parent volunteers.
Birrell also spends many hours planning an event and, at the same time, raising an incredible amount of money for the school.
She promotes it with so much enthusiasm, energy and creativity that it becomes more than a fundraiser.
Along with her many lists of activities, she is also an executive member, registrar and trainer with the twin centre Hericanes hockey club. She assists with team fundraising endeavours in which kids are escorted around the entire village for porch pick-ups of beer cans, making it easy for anyone to donate.
Birrell always makes sure there is a Hericane club presence in local parades.
Her friends will say she expends an incredible amount of energy, making sure kids and adults are having fun and feel included at hockey.
She has her finger on every issue and is quick to take whatever responsibility comes her way, and pays great attention to detail.
Away from hockey, Birrell assisted in running a contest for the best-dressed house at Christmas time in Wellesley, which ended before the pandemic.
She was a program administrator for My Community, a community initiative that sent out welcome packages for all newcomers, weddings, new babies and anniversaries sponsored by local shops and businesses.
Besides being a top-notch volunteer, Birrell is a frontline hospital nurse and during the pandemic, she sup-
ported not only patients, but also her coworkers by gathering and gifting them handsewn personal protective equipment (PPE) during the first wave of COVID-19.
Her passion for both sports and education has a positive impact on the lives of many within the Wellesley Township area. Her dedication and commitment has inspired others to get involved and make a difference in the Wellesley area.
While managing to volunteer all this time, she continues to work as a full-time nurse at Grand River Hospital and is a mother of four growing children.
Her peers say she goes above and beyond to help people in need, and she is always looking at ways to make the village of Wellesley and the township a better place to live.
Claire Birrell has been named Wellesley Township’s Citizen of the Year for 2024. Contributed photo
Barbara Nowak named Wellesley Township’s 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award winner
By Gary West
The Wellesley Township Lifetime Achievement Award winner for 2024 is Barbara Nowak.
Residents in the Wellesley Township area know Nowak as someone with a dry, quiet and often unique sense of humour who is very easy to like. She gathers community wherever she goes and assists in whatever needs to be done.
In the last few years, Nowak is recognized and widely known in Wellesley Township for her work and creation of the Wellesley Township Poppy Project.
Her passion to honour veterans, her father included, and to make sure they are never forgotten, led her to initiate the Wellesley Township Poppy Project, through which she promotes, researches and organizes the Veteran Banner program and works hard to get the poppy displays mounted around the township.
Besides this, she is also very involved in the Algonquin Regiment, keeping in touch with the families of men who fought in that Regiment. She has commandeered different visual displays in Wellesley, Linwood and St. Clements.
In St. Clements, she has worked with two women associated with the Paradise Lake District Lions Club to take over this task for that town, recognizing the excep-
tional work the two have done in the past.
Linwood has long had a banner program to honour their veterans, and Nowak is working with the Legion and Township to get as many personal banners on the streets of Wellesley Township to honour neighbours and family members who fought for everyone’s freedom.
For many years, Nowak has been the superintendent of the children’s exhibits at the Wellesley Fall Fair.
She works very hard to create new programs and update classes each year, and
Barbara Nowak has been named Wellesley Township’s Lifetime Achievement Award winner for 2024. Contributed photo
she helps out wherever she is needed such as staffing the market, helping with fundraisers, lending her artistic talents to the crochet square project each year and helping out with the setup and tear down of the fall fair itself.
When it comes to helping out the Ukrainian refugees, Nowak has been involved in collecting items they need and driving them to and from appointments. She also reaches out and helps to integrate newcomers to Wellesley into the community.
She has been a member volunteer of the Wellesley Horticultural Society and a member of St. Marks Lutheran Church, where she served multiple terms on church council.
She also assists at church gatherings like the soup lunches, strawberry socials and other activities that currently raise funds to support the Wellesley Food Cupboard.
Those in the community who are on the local Facebook community pages also know that Nowak monitors and tries very hard to correct misinformation and to direct residents to the appropriate sites when they are seeking information. This takes much time, but Nowak takes this seriously and does it to keep disagreements
from escalating, hoping to genuinely help people out in the community.
There were many heroes during the pandemic and Nowak was one of them as she volunteered at vaccination clinics held in Wellesley Village over a period of six months.
She has been a strong supporter of community events and encourages and practises buying local to support businesses and shops in the town and area.
She also accompanies her husband, Mayor Joe Nowak, to almost every public event that she is able.
Many students from the past, remember Barb Nowak for the many years she spent as a respected educator in the community and, to this day, she always enjoys a chat with her former students. She never shies away from an opportunity to help anyone in need and her charismatic and disarming nature puts people at ease.
The Township of Wellesley is lucky to have such a vibrant and generous member of the community, and a very deserving Wellesley Lifetime Achievement Award winner for 2024.
Katie Musselman named Wellesley Township’s Junior Citizen of the year
By Gary West
Wellesley’s Katie Musselman has been named Wellesley Township’s Junior Citizen Of The Year for 2024.
Musselman, for as young as she is, writes an extremely impressive biography.
Her abilities do not just enhance Wellesley Township, but go beyond to also impact other townships in the Waterloo Region.
Most have seen her commitment, sincerity and genuine enthusiasm, serving in various ways and at different events and venues.
The teenager has always volunteered with many organizations to fundraise and provide meaningful opportunities for people of all ages in Wellesley Township communities.
Musselman is a reliable and relentless person who has shown ambition, compassion and creativity.
Her peers say the list of Musselman‘s commitments and contributions is a lengthy one for someone as young as she is.
This year, she joined the Wellesley Agricultural Society and created the junior ambassador program after competing in the program herself.
She hopes to help young teens develop leadership skills and learn the value of volunteering and getting involved in the community.
Residents in the Wellesley area and at Waterloo-Oxford District Secondary School say she is a kind, caring, organized and responsible self-driven teen.
This summer, she is balancing three part-time jobs at Herrle’s Country Farm market near St. Agatha, Cookridge Dairy Farm near Wellesley, and helping with yard work and other duties for a local family.
For the past two summers, Musselman applied for and was accepted into the Female Fighters in Training (FFIT) program in Kitchener.
Last summer, she worked as a camp counsellor at Hidden Acres Mennonite Camp northwest of New Hamburg and demonstrated such care and compassion in this role that she was asked to return this year as
The Big Picture
Katie Musselman is Wellesley Township’s 2024 Junior Citizen of the Year. Contributed photo
intake facilitator for inclusive campers.
At Waterloo-Oxford, she was involved in the Best Buddies program where she spent break time helping special-needs children. She took an active part in the Student Activities Council (SAC) for the past two years.
Last year, she was in charge of the school’s Barnyard Bash and brought her own barnyard animals to school for the day.
This year, she was chosen by her school to represent the special high skills major program as the agriculture ambassador for W-O, where she accompanied Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce and other delegates around the school to offer information regarding their unique program.
In June, she volunteered for the third year in a row at a farm-safety day, again leading a group of children in farm-safety awareness and activities on the farm.
In past years, she has volunteered at the Lion’s club team dances as a chaperone. She was accepted into Fleming and Lambton college firefighting programs, but has chosen to study at Conestoga College, taking advanced pro-health sciences so she can be close to home as she gets the junior ambassador program underway,
one which she is very passionate about.
She plans to attend Lambton College in Sarnia in September 2025 in the firefighting program to become a full-time firefighter in the future, a career she feels will again give back to her community.
In selecting Musselman for junior citizen of the year, a committee of her peers said they were highly impressed by the contributions she has made willingly to Wellesley township and beyond, and they look forward to seeing what she will do with her gifts of compassion and creative, ambitious ideas in the future.
crab-apple-harvesting demo by Wellesley Appleflats for Chartwell Anne Hathaway residents in Stratford
By Galen Simmons
The residents of Chartwell Anne Hathaway Retirement Residence in Stratford now know a little more about harvesting crab apples and what the often-forgotten and tart fruit can be used in thanks to a recent demonstration by Wellesley’s Appleflats.
Appleflats operates a 1.5-acre crab-apple orchard on Carmel Koch Road in Wellesley, where the company also produces a wide range of crab-apple flavoured jellies, sodas, cocktail mixers and ciders. In 2018, after amassing demand for their products from more than 250 grocery stores, brothers Glen and Alex Smyth embraced the practice of urban harvesting, offering to use their equipment to harvest crab apples from trees on private and business properties throughout the region that would otherwise fall off those trees and become a nuisance to groundskeepers.
“We harvest about 650 sites,” Glen Smyth said. “We’re picking about 2,500 trees now across southwestern Ontario. I don’t know of anyone else doing an urban harvest like this of this scale.”
In August, Chartwell Anne Hathaway retirement living consultant Kaitlin Carnegie was looking at ways to forge connections between local businesses and retirement home residents. Having noticed the abundance of crab apples from four trees in the retirement residence’s backyard, Carnegie made a post on social media inviting locals to come and pick those crab apples.
“We didn’t want any of them to go to waste because I understand crab-apple jelly is a big hit in Stratford,” said Chylynne Clements, general manager at Chartwell Anne Hathaway. “So, one of our residents’ family members had seen the post and contacted Glen, the owner at Appleflats in Wellesley, about coming in to shake the trees, and then in the same week without us knowing, we had also contacted Glen about doing an accessible tour of the crab-apple orchard there for our residents.”
“We harvest a number of other trees in Stratford,” Glen Smyth said. “We have seven sites in Stratford that we’re currently harvesting. Normally what we do is we’ll get tips from customers. We sell currently into Sobeys, so if we’re doing a farmers’ market, a pop-up show or a food show, people come and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got crab
apples. Would you be interested in coming to harvest them?’ Most of the time, they’re not the crab apples that we’re normally hunting for, but sometimes they are.”
One of Appleflats’ customers has a parent living at Chartwell Anne Hathaway, so when they saw the post, they passed it along to Glen and Alex Smyth.
When they arrived, the Smyths found all four of the retirement home’s trees to be in good shape and, as luck would have it, three of the four trees were Heritage crab apple trees – a variety of tree that grows the crab apples Appleflats uses to make its jellies and sodas. The fourth tree was the much-more common variety, a Mongolian ornamental tree that does not produce the variety of crab apple the Smyths are after.
As the residents watched, Glen and Alex Smyth used their patent-pending harvesting machine – an attachment that fits inside a reticulating saw, loops onto a branch and uses the power of the saw to shake off the fruit – to pick the apples off all four trees.
The Smyth brothers, Glen and Alex, of Appleflats orchard in Wellesley recently harvested fruit from four crab-apple trees at Chartwell Anne Hathaway Retirement Residence in Stratford. Photo courtesy of Chartwell Anne Hathaway Retirement Residence
crab-apple-harvesting demo by Wellesley Appleflats for Chartwell Anne Hathaway residents in Stratford
The brothers also spent time visiting with residents and staff, answering their questions about crab apples and offering samples of their peach-crab apple soda. After the harvest, staff at the retirement home also cooked up some crab-apple jelly for the residents to try and they worked to arrange a visit to the Appleflats orchard in September.
“They thought it was fantastic,” said Clements of the residents’ reaction to the crab-apple-harvesting demonstration. “ … They were like, ‘This was such an incredible experience. Thank you so much for doing this for us.’ It’s something that hadn’t been done here before, so we’re looking forward to creating a partnership that happens every single year; they’ll come back and do the whole thing again for our residents.”
Glen Smyth said he and his brother are hopeful for the future of urban harvesting as a standard practice in agriculture. By partnering with orchards like his, Glen Smyth said individuals or small collectives of people living in urban environments can start their own agricultural businesses without the need for huge plots of land. In addition, he said urban-harvesting businesses would be able to employ locals as harvesters and producers could even partner with local food banks to provide local products like apple juice at a reduced cost.
The Smyths hope sharing stories like this one will help people see the value in their crab-apple trees and perhaps encourage others to plant trees like the Heritage crab apple to ensure this practice continues strong into the future.
Residents of Chartwell Anne Hathaway Retirement Residence in Stratford watch as Glen and Alex Smyth of Appleflats harvest crab apples in the backyard of the retirement home property. Photo courtesy of Chartwell
Anne Hathaway Retirement Residence
Staff and residents had the opportunity to try Appleflats’ peach-crab apple soda after the harvesting demonstration. Photo courtesy of Chartwell
Anne Hathaway Retirement Residence
Antique Car Show returns to Apple Butter and Cheese Festival in Wellesley
By Julia Paul
A great way to start off the Apple, Butter and Cheese (ABC) Festival is by visiting the historic Antique Car Show where car enthusiasts from far and wide bring their old-fashioned vehicles from the ‘20s through to the ‘60s for event goers to admire.
“The antique car show has been going as long as I can remember” said Jamie Reid, chairman of the ABC Festival. “I assume (it began) one of the first year’s the festival ran.”
A staple of the ABC Festival, the Antique Car Show has been running since the ‘70s.
“The biggest draw to the car show is that it’s part of the ABC Festival,” said Andrew Martin, event coordinator. “There is something for everyone!”
Free of charge for those who bring antique cars to display and those who attend, expect to see hundreds of classic cars and pickup trucks parked along the Wellesley Library at 1137 Henry St.
Visitors to the festival will be driven by tractor and dropped at the tractor stop, just outside the library, where they can view the collection of cars and converse with other car enthusiasts.
Antique automobile owners are encouraged to join the Antique Car Parade that will travel around the festival at noon.
“The antique car display is just one of the many attractions your entire family will enjoy at our festival,” says Reid. “We have plenty of food and events to keep everyone happy.
See you in September!”
There is always lots to see at the Apple Butter and Cheese Festival’s annual Antique Car Show, which has been going strong for longer than organizers can remember. Photos by Larry Kryski
Noah Nogueira’s ABC Festival debut to provide a variety of entertainment and joy
By Emily Stewart
Noah Nogueira of Guelph, Ont., incorporates many skills into his performance, including juggling, fire flow, magic and comedy.
His favourite part of performing, whether he’s roaming around a festival or performing on a stage, is making his audience smile and laugh.
“I always feel like I am performing and trying to connect with people,” Nogueira said. “So doing the magic and juggling is kind of an excuse to meet people and make friends and connect and laugh with people because I’m big on taking life not too serious and just having fun. I’m here to have a good time and my performances aim to allow other people to feel the same way and just have fun.”
Nogueira has been juggling for more than 10 years and performing magic for a little less than a decade. He practiced magic tricks at home after learning online. Nogueira came across a juggling video and told his mom that he wanted to learn how to juggle.
“At first, she was surprised and then she was like, ‘Alright, let’s do it,’ ” he said.
Nogueira and his mom took a private lesson from a juggler at the University of Guelph and then learned the basics. He stuck with the skill and continued to practice, learn from different mentors and attend juggling festivals to learn from other jugglers as he worked on his craft.
He said his performance routine usually depends on the type of event booked. He’ll do half-an-hour-long comedy juggling shows as well as roaming shows where he navigates through the crowd as he does his half-juggling, half-magic routine. Nogueira also divides his ticketed performances into part magic, part juggling.
“It kind of depends on what I’m hired for or what the environment is,” he said. “But it’s usually a mix of the juggling and the comedy or the magic and the comedy and just sharing that with people.”
Nogueira will be roaming the Wellesley Apple Butter and Cheese Festival and showing off his juggling and magic skills on Sept. 28. This will be the first time he performs
Noah Nogueira dazzles the crowd with his juggling skills during a performance. The Guelph, ON entertainer blends juggling, magic, and comedy to connect with his audience and share his philosophy of not taking life too seriously. Catch him at the Wellesley Apple Butter and Cheese Festival on Sept. 28. Minty Productions photo
at the beloved fall festival.
“I’m pretty excited. I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “Looking at the website and everything, it seems like it’s going to be a really big event so I’m hoping to entertain a lot of people and make some friends.
“It’s going to be a good time.”
More information about Nogueira can be found by visiting linktr.ee/noahperformer.
The Craft Market
Vendors are around the community centre and the upper baseball diamond
A treasure trove of handcrafted items including quilts, various styles of jewellery, candles, bath products, and a broad selection of home decor styles ranging from modern, shabby chic, country and primitive, plus much more can be found.
Vendors with food will stimulate your taste buds including a variety of local & domestic cheeses, Maple syrup, honey, pies, fresh hot coffee, cider, apple strudel, cotton candy, candy apples, pulled pork and old favourites like ice cream, burgers, hot dogs, sausage, poutine and french fries.
INside vendors
Rustic Builds
Home, garden and seasonal décor made from reclaimed product
Pulled Pork, Pulled Chicken, Sausage, Hot Dogs, Fries, Poutine
Stemmler Meats
Sausage on a Bun, Pepperstix, Jerky, and drinks
Streets Ahead Coffee Roasters
Bags of fresh roasted coffee beans and branded items
Sunsweet catering the Greek Chef
Hummus
The Green Frog
Solar and bird house posts, signs and metalware
The Sassy Lemon
Freshly Sqeezed Lemonade
The Strudel Lady
Fresh Baked Strudel
Things N Stuff
Chacuterie, epoxy borads, coasters, book nooks, apparel
Waxartistry
Beautiful scented soy candles in handpainted mason jars
Wilderleigh
Crochet loveys, crochet stuffies and crochet flowers/pillows
Remembering Linda Kennedy and the Apple Butter and Cheese Festival smorgasbord
By Galen Simmons
Though the enormous, all-you-can-eat community meal known as the smorgasbord hasn’t been part of Wellesley’s Apple Butter and Cheese (ABC) Festival for several years, memories of rolled ribs and pigtails and the people who worked every year to make the event a festival staple won’t soon be forgotten.
The recent passings of Mike Kennedy on Dec. 27, 2021, and wife Linda Kennedy on March 25 of this year – the culinary power couple that was at the helm of Kennedy’s Restaurant and Catering in St. Agatha for four decades and two of the driving forces behind the ABC Festival smorgasbord – marks the end of an era.
“For more than 25 years, Linda did the cooking for the smorgasbord,” said Theresa Bisch, the current ABC Festival secretary/treasurer, who worked alongside Linda Kennedy on the community meal each year. “We don’t have it anymore, but the smorgasbord was an all-youcan-eat meal of usually roast beef, roast pork, pig tails, salads and hot vegetables, and of course pies. Kennedy’s (restaurant) cooked all the hot food for that event. No matter if they were catering other events the same day or not, they made sure that they did this and they didn’t charge us for any of their time.
“They were amazing. They’d come in there and just give us a hand. Basically, Linda ran the kitchen and Mike brought all the food back and forth from the restaurant. Everything we forgot, he’d bring to us.”
The Kennedys’ involvement with the Apple Butter and Cheese Festival dates way back nearly half a century ago when Mike Kennedy first attended a meeting of the festival’s fledgling organizing committee. At the time, the Kennedys owned the Queen’s Hotel restaurant in Wellesley and Mike Kennedy attended the committee meeting as a representative of the local Lions Club.
Mike and Linda Kennedy, of course, ultimately committed to organizing what became the smorgasbord, which grew over four decades to feed as many as 600-700 people thanks to a force of between 50 and 60 volunteers each year.
“Linda was famous for her cooking,” Bisch said. “She was famous for the pig tails. We ran out every year, so we’d send (people) over to Kennedy’s to buy them at the
Along with her husband, Mike Kennedy, Linda Kennedy was one of the driving forces behind the Apple Butter and Cheese Festival’s long-running smorgasbord. She passed earlier this year. Contributed photo
restaurant. She was just the kind of person who was always helping. She helped other service clubs. I know her and Mike helped with the Strawberry Fest in St. Agatha – they were driving forces behind that, too.”
While prepping and cooking food for upwards of 500 hungry people at the Apple Butter and Cheese Festival smorgasbord may seem like a daunting task, Linda Kennedy’s organizational skills and her eye towards consistency and top-quality food was what made the community meal work year after year.
Having worked with Linda Kennedy at Kennedy’s Restaurant for her first two decades at the restaurant, helping her boss and mentor prepare the smorgasbord food and equipment for many if not all of those years, Patty Tregonning said Linda Kennedy’s years of experience in the catering and food industry ensured the process was always a smooth one.
“There was a lot to it and then she and Mike would always go to the location to help serve,” Tregonning said. “Kennedy’s caters anywhere from six people to 3,000, so getting items together; I had a set list that I
used to prepare year to year. When Apple Butter and Cheese was coming up, there was certain things I knew I had to have in house as far as ordering in, and the people from Apple Butter and Cheese would send me their requirements. So, I would go over the menu and whatnot with Linda and then make sure we had all the prep work done and all the items in house we needed.
“We used to do sauerkraut, we did pig tails; I remember there was a lot of stuff we sent to that.”
Tregonning says she learned everything she knows about catering from Linda Kennedy, and she continues to use the prep list and schedules Linda Kennedy wrote out years ago to help her prepare for present-day catering events as part of the Kennedy’s Restaurant team, which is now run by Mike and Linda Kennedy’s son, Patrick.
“She and I would sit and we could discuss the menu planning and the ordering and the organization for it. Sometimes you want to try something different and change things up. I just miss that discussion (with Linda). I just miss her. … I’m still going on her schedules and whatnot that she set up with me to make sure these functions go as smoothly as possible,” Tregonning said. “Her son, Patrick, is amazing – he really is – as far as carrying on with the restaurant. He’s a testament to his mother and father.
“There’s still people who talk about Mike. He was the face of Kennedy’s; he was out on a lot of the functions, he was out in the restaurant. Linda, a lot of people didn’t realize her contribution as much because she was at the back of the house. She was the force at the back of the house ensuring the product stayed to the quality that she wanted.”
An article in 1997 Apple Butter and Cheese Festival program about Linda and Mike Kennedy’s involvement with the smorgasbord. Contributed image
Right, an article in the 1998 Apple Butter and Cheese Festival program about the smorgasbord written by a volunteer. Contributed image
Beloved children’s entertainer returns to Apple Butter and Cheese Festival
By Connor Luczka
Erick Traplin says it’s always a good time at the Wellesley Apple Butter and Cheese (ABC) Festival.
The local children’s musician, almost 75, has been performing for 35 years – and has been a staple of the ABC Festival for the last 15.
“I started there in 2009, 15 years minus a couple of COVID years,” Traplin said. “I always get a good audience there. It’s just a blast.
“They all have their own flavour,” Traplin went on to say about how the ABC Festival compares to other venues and festivals. “Because I’m just living outside of Wellesley, this is all my stomping grounds here. So, I always get a good crowd. … That’s what I like about this festival because people know me and they come out to see me.”
Born in Owen Sound, Traplin grew up in small southwestern Ontario towns before moving to the Kitchener-Waterloo area, where he has been ever since. Currently, he lives a stone’s throw away from Wellesley, in St. Clements.
Erick Traplin pictured at last year’s Apple Butter and Cheese Festival. Traplin has been performing for 35 years and has been coming to the Wellesley classic for the last 15. Photo courtesy of Wellesley Apple Butter and Cheese Festival
He has been making music nearly all his life after learning the ukulele and guitar when he was 15.
Today, Traplin sings, plays guitar, harmonica and “digital band.”
While he sings traditional kids’
songs, Traplin also has eight albums out and is working on a ninth at the moment. In the 35 years he’s been performing, he said a lot has changed when it comes to youth and their interests, but performing is the same rush it has always been.
“I just love what I do,” he said. “I love playing for the kids. I have a great time. I don’t know if I’m performing for the kids or I’m performing for me because I’m in such a happy space when I’m performing.”
Traplin is scheduled to hit the stage at 9:30 a.m. and those watching can expect a high-energy interactive show with movement, dance and participation from the crowd.
“I’ve got some songs that are just straight dance songs,” Traplin laughed. “I ask the kids, you know, get your mom and dad up dancing. And in a lot of cases, they do.
“I always feel blessed that I’m able to do this and have some fun with it – and I still got my health.
When asked whether or not his fans can expect him back next year, it was a resounding yes.
t e a m I c o u l d ’ ”
A s a n o n - a i r a n a l y s t , H o w i e w a s k n o w n t o b e b o t h e n -
t h u s i a s t i c a n d h o n e s t A n d w h e n I i n t e r v i e w e d h i m j u s t
a f t e r h i s b o o k , “ G o l l y G e e , I t ’ s M e ” w a s p u b l i s h e d i n
2 0 0 1 , h e w a s e q u a l l y f r a n k .
H e w a s s u p p o s e d t o b e p r o m o t i n g t h e b o o k – w h i c h
d i d s e l l , q u i t e w e l l – b u t h e w a s o p e n l y c r i t i c a l o f t h e
p r o c e s s , w h i c h i n c l u d e d w o r k i n g w i t h a c o - a u t h o r , C h a r -
l i e H o d g e . H o w i e t o l d m e , p o i n t - b l a n k , t h a t , “ I s h o u l d
h a v e b e e n t h e a u t h o r . I t w o u l d h a v e b e e n a h e c k o f a l o t
b e t t e r ”
H e q u a l i f i e d t h a t a b i t . “ C h a r l i e H o d g e , i n s o m e a r e a s ,
w a s e x c e p t i o n a l l y g o o d , ” h e s a i d “ B u t w e r a n o u t o f
t im e a n d w e r a n o u t o f p a g e s … . H a l f w a y t h r o u g h t h e
b o o k , I w e n t t o C h a r l i e a n d s a i d , ‘ I t ’ s g o t t o b e t w o
b o o k s ’ ” T h a t n e v e r t r a n s p i r e d W h i c h m e a n t a l o t o f
H o w i e M e e k e r s t o r i e s – a n d t h e r e a r e h u n d r e d s o f ‘ e m –
w e n t u n r e c o r d e d
S o m e o f t h o s e s t o r i e s h a v e t o d o w i t h t h e b r u t a l i t y o f
t h e g a m e , a t t i m e s , w h e n h e w a s l a c i n g t h e m u p f o r t h e
L e a f s H e t o l d m e , “ I n o u r d a y , i t w a s m u r d e r I p l a y e d
i n s o m e r e a l r o u g h , t o u g h , m e a n h o c k e y g a m e s . ”
T h a t d o e s n ’ t m e a n h e w a s a f a n o f a l l t h i n g s m o d e r n ,
i n h oc k e y , H o w i e a l s o d e p l o r e d a l l t h e a b o v e - t h e - w a i s t
s t i c k - w o r k t h a t h a d b e c o m e p a r t o f t h e g a m e , a t t h e
t i m e w e t a l k e d
A l t h o u g h b e s t k n o w n a s a p l a y e r , a n d t h e n a n a n a l y s t ,
H o w i e a l s o h a d t h e h e a r t o f a c o a c h . H e s a i d , i n 2 0 0 1 ,
“ I f t h e C a n a d i a n k i d s d o n ’ t l e a r n m e n t a l a n d p h y s i c a l
s k i l l s t o a u g m e n t t h a t e s s e n t i
ABC Festival says goodbye to its home after 49 years, but looks ahead to a bright future
By Connor Luczka
After nearly 50 years hosting a part of the festival within its doors, the Wellesley Apple Butter and Cheese (ABC) Festival will say goodbye to the old arena located at 1004 Catherine St. after this year.
Festival chairman Jamie Reid called it sad on one hand, but a necessary step.
“I’ve grown up in Wellesley. I’ve been here close to 50 years,” Reid said. “My first hockey game and my first time skating would have been on the ice in that arena. … It’s kind of the hub of our town.
“It’s the hub of our festival and it’s actually really sad to see that it’s not going to be used for what it’s always been used for. But we’re moving onto bigger and better things. Our new facility is phenomenal. It’s beautiful. It’s state of the art.”
The old arena is not operational; however, for this
September 28, 2024 Wellesley Apple Butter and Cheese Festival
519-669-2090
mike.harrisco@pc.ola.org
mikeharrismpp.ca
This year will be the last that the Apple Butter and Cheese Festival operates out of the old Wellesley Arena. Chairman Jamie Reid said next year will look different, absolutely, but how different remains to be seen.
Photo by Connor Luczka
year’s festival, the festival was permitted to operate out of the arena, though it will just be the shell of the building, according to Reid.
Still, Reid assured that vendors and patrons won’t notice any difference in quality from last year.
In late 2021, Wellesley Township council accepted a bid from Ball Construction for the new complex at 1401 Queen’s Bush Rd. and work began in the summer of 2022.
The new, 62,000-square-foot Wellesley Recreation Complex had its grand opening on June 22 of this year.
It includes a single-pad ice rink, walking track, storage for community groups, a youth centre, senior centre, a gymnasium that serves as a community centre, a commercial kitchen, a skate park, a multi-use court, an active outdoor play centre, meeting rooms, fitness rooms, two soccer fields and an outdoor walking trail.
Reid said that they are “in talks” about what next year’s festival will look like and where it will be held, but didn’t indicate whether it would be in the new recreation complex or not. Historically, the ABC Festival has always operated out of Wellesley’s downtown core.
“Things will definitely look different next year,” Reid said. “We’re just not exactly sure how different.”
The Wellesley Apple Butter and Cheese Festival has been running since 1975, after being formed by the members of the local board of trade.
The Elmira Syrup Festival and the New Hamburg Quilt Auction were brought into that first festival to implement their local flavour, but the festival was started in earnest to promote Wellesley and its major businesses, A.W. Jantzi & Sons Ltd. and the J.M. Schneider Cheese Factory.
The factory has since closed but A.W. Jantzi & Sons Ltd. is still operating from Wellesley Brand Apple Products located at 3800 Nafziger Rd.
“Really, we’re promoting our town,” Reid said. “Every dollar raised goes back into our town. Any bit of profit goes to help our community and everything our community stands for.”
The festival is put on through the township now, after years of being a non-profit, meaning the money raised goes to multiple large-scale projects that directly benefit the community.
For all its benefits, it’s a big endeavour to take on, with upwards of 30,000 people coming to visit the town in the space of eight hours, most of whom are from the southwestern Ontario region.
The festival would not be possible without the phenomenal group of volunteers that assists each and every year, Reid said.
“It takes a lot of time and all of our volunteers put in countless hours,” he said.
The impressive new Wellesley Recreation Complex at 1401 Queen’s Bush Rd. is a much-needed upgrade to the old arena, but historically the ABC Festival has always operated out of the downtown core. Photo by Connor Luczka
FALL FOR THESE FAVOURITES 2 PAIRS SINGLE VISION
Wellesley celebrates “two-year labour of love” with grand opening of recreation
complex
By Galen Simmons
Wellesley Township councillors, staff, volunteers and residents joined other local dignitaries to celebrate the result of a “two-year labour of love” at the official grand-opening celebrations for the new Wellesley Recreation Complex.
On June 22, the township hosted the grand-opening ceremony and barbecue at the new recreation complex, also called the Bill Gies Recreation Centre in honour of the complex’s first major donor. Hundreds of residents gathered to watch as Wellesley Mayor Joe Nowak cut the ribbon alongside local councillors, Kitchener-Conestoga MPP Mike Harris, Kitchener-Conestoga MP Tim Louis, chair of the Something 4 Everyone capital campaign Chris Martin, the township staff who worked day and night to see the recreation complex completed and other local dignitaries.
“As proud as I am of this magnificent accomplishment for our township, I’m equally proud of how this day has been made possible,” Nowak said, thanking all those who made the recreation complex a reality, including the Erb family for selling the 40-acre property to the township, eight acres of which was donated and has been established as the Erb Haven Trail, MPP Harris for helping to secure a $16.1-million grant from the province to support the rec-complex project, the Gies family for their million-dollar-donation catalyst at the onset of the project, and town staff who spent many days and sleepless nights ensuring the project was completed on time and on budget.
“Over the years, I’ve heard requests for many amenities, most of which were identified as needs in our recreation master plan. I can now confidently say that our recreation complex will address most of those requests. … This complex positions the Township of Wellesley to meet the needs of our growing communities for future generations. This larger, safer recreation complex has become a hub where township communities meet, compete and come together for healthy activities and comradeship. It is a source of pride for Wellesley Township residents.”
The new recreation complex came about after township council decided to build a new recreation facility with the help of provincial grant funding and community
Wellesley Mayor Joe Nowak cuts the ribbon alongside members of council, town staff and other local dignitaries at the grand opening of the new Wellesley Recreation Complex at 1401 Queens Bush Road. Photo by Galen Simmons
Members of Wellesley Township council and staff stand among the hundreds of residents who showed up for the grand-opening ceremony and barbecue at the Wellesley Recreation Complex.
How to make All-Day Apple Butter
By Terri, Allrecipes.com
This apple butter recipe cooks apples, sugar, and spices real slow but it’s well worth the wait. Depending on the sweetness of the apples used, the amount of sugar may be adjusted to taste.
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 11 hours
Servings: 128
Yield: 4 pints
Ingredients
• 5 ½ pounds applespeeled, cored and finely chopped
• 4 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• ¼ teaspoon salt
Directions
1. Place apples in a slow cooker. Mix sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and salt in a medium bowl; pour over apples and mix well.
2. Cover and cook on High for 1 hour.
3. Reduce heat to Low and cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture is thickened and dark brown, 9 to 11 hours.
4. Uncover and continue cooking on Low for 1 hour. Stir with a whisk to increase smoothness if desired.
5. Spoon mixture into sterile containers, cover, and refrigerate or freeze.
How to make Apple Pecan Salad
By Dara Michalski, Cookin’ Canuck
The ultimate fall salad! This apple pecan salad makes salad eating irresistibly good. Sweet apples, creamy goat cheese and maple pecans are tossed with fresh greens and your favourite apple cider vinaigrette. Turn it into a dinner by adding chicken, pork tenderloin or quinoa
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total time: 15 minutes
Servings: 6
Ingredients
• 8 cups mixed salad greens, such as spinach, arugula & red leaf lettuce
