Come and celebrate Tallong’s apple orchard past and experience a day of “she’ll be apples” entertainment.

This year’s Apple Festival has a fun-filled program and will be staged in the newly landscaped Memorial Park with the Big Apple as its centre piece.

You can drive into Tallong and be directed to designated off-street parking for a gold coin donation or catch the free shuttle bus from Marulan Caltex service station (where there is also directed gold coin parking) and be welcomed by the newly installed Big Apple signs.

Find information at www.tallongappleday.com and on Facebook -Tallong Apple Day Festival

A new addition to this year’s program is the Sydney Puppet Theatre Company’s free marionette puppet shows, themed around toy box characters like Elvis, Cher, and a gorgeous Giddy Girl Bird that give the show a rock and roll edge.

There are also several free puppet-making workshops scheduled throughout the day.

Another performance features medieval battles with participants dressed in full armour of the 13th century, to battle it out with real but non-lethal swords, poles and axes.

The popular Fleece to Garment competitions will have another Spin the Longest Thread, and introduce a Witch’s Brew Mega Weave.  

The return of the Canberra Hyatt chefs, Nitin Kumar, executive chef, and chef de cuisine, Shaji Veetil, will judge the Mrs T’s Bake Off, and give cooking demonstrations of tasty dishes that you can also sample.

Entries for the bake off can be submitted on Saturday afternoon and before 9.30 on Sunday.

The big question is who will be the champion Apple Pie Eater this year?

Do not miss our local wood choppers straight from the Royal Easter Show with their demonstrations of strength and skill, and bid through the silent auction for a load of firewood for the coming winter.

Other demonstrations include Whip Cracking, a Reptile Show and Matilda’s Farmyard Nursery for the children.

Pony Rides will be available on the Jim Watling Walk.

Adjacent to the Park there will be demonstrations of working Internal Combustion Engines and a Car Show, including Shannon’s Big Rig for the motoring enthusiasts.

Local organisations will offer food choices on the day. Tallong Rural Fire Brigade offers a variety of savoury pies and hot roast rolls with their outstanding large apple pies to take home or have a slice with cream.

The CWA offers Devonshire teas with homemade scones and apple slices, the Lions club will serve their popular barbecue.

Tallong P&C will have a cake stall with small  apple pies and toffee apples and the TCFG stall will have apple charlottes, crumbles and toffee apples and show bags as well as the famous Apple Cart with plenty of apples to take home.

A record number of stalls extend the food choices from jams, chutneys, ice cream, Turkish gozleme and cider to Korean BBQ and of course plenty of coffee outlets.

You will also be able to stroll through a large selection of variety stalls.

The 2018 Apple Festival begins at 9am and ends at 3pm. The entry fee is $5 for adults and children under 15 are free. Please save your Lucky Entry Ticket for a $200 prize drawn at 3pm.

Volunteers are supporting this apple draped community by carrying out vital roles that make village life unique.

At the recent AGM of the Tallong Rural Fire Brigade, retiring long serving members were farewelled and a new captain, Michael Trevisiol, and senior deputy captain Sean McNulty were appointed to the field team, while the administrative team headed by Jen McNulty as president and Lee-Anne Dalton as vice president welcomed a substantial number of new members applying to join this very experienced crew.

In the same week a meeting of the Memorial Hall Trust confirmed the appointments of chair Kerry Lawrence and vice chair Troy Brown and of secretary/treasurer Faye Danckwardt as local administrators of the Trust.