Hay Creek Apple Festival and Flea Market

Hay Creek Apple Festival offers Baking Contest

Granny Smith, Macintosh, Jonathan, Winesap – these are just a few of the many delicious baking apples available each fall in Berks County. Traditionally grandma would use these well-known varieties to bake her heavenly pies and dumplings, while today there are many new juicy apple varieties that add to our favorite apple recipes.

The Hay Creek Apple Festival invites you to “pick” your own variety of apple and enter your famed creation into our annual apple dessert contest.

The contest has five (5) Apple Categories: Breads/Cakes, Cookies, Pies, Miscellaneous, and a Youth category for our bakers under 18.

To participate in the apple dessert contest, simply bring your homemade entry to the Hay Creek Apple Festival between 8 am and 9 am on Saturday, October 12th along with a copy of the complete recipe.

Entries will be judged at 10 am and the winners will be announced during the day. All baked items will be sold at the festival with the proceeds going toward the Joanna Furnace restoration efforts.

For more information about the contest, contact Ruth at 484-437-2801.

Apple Festival Prizes

First Place winners in each apple category will receive $30.00. A non-cash prize will be awarded to our youth category winner.

These family events include scarecrow building, pumpkin painting, early American games, hay and pony rides. The children will especially love a ride on the Apple Barrel Express.

Volunteers have been busy this year sewing and patching shirts and pants for our scarecrow-making booth! Here, visitors can create their very own scarecrow or purchase a ‘scarecrow kit’ to build their friend at home. Each scarecrow kit includes a wooden “t” frame, pants, shirt, head, string, and a small amount of straw. Homebuilders can stuff their scarecrow with newspaper or grocery store bags.

Visitors can also shop at the flea market area that offers over 100 vendors with crafts, flowers, fall items and an array of unexpected items for anyone’s interest. For more information about participating as a flea market vendor, please call Kathleen at 610.914.8152. Vendor set-up starts at 12 noon on Friday, October 11th. Click below to download our registration form:

• Flea Market Registration Form

Six historic Joanna Furnace buildings will be open with garbed interpreters telling the historical story of the 19^th-century ironworks and village. The Blacksmith Shop complete with the working blacksmith; The Casting House with molders and workers demonstrating the casting process; The Office/Store with the Storekeeper who will be selling traditional products such as the Joanna Furnace metal castings, pottery, brooms, etc.; and the Charcoal Barn Museum with interpreters showing the process of charcoal making, actual Joanna Furnace stoves and products and recovered archaeological artifacts. Visitors can also watch a 22-minute Joanna Furnace history video in the Charcoal Barn. In addition, the Joanna Furnace Wheelwright Shop will be open with interpretation, and visitors can see a brand new exhibit in the Blowing Engine House. This exhibit focuses on the Joanna Furnace hot-blast system, which was installed in 1888, where a blast of air was sent into the furnace utilizing a 15’ Weimer blowing engine.