By Jennesa Regios
BOXFORD — The night before the annual Boxford Apple Festival, the town fills with a sweet, familiar scent of fall, the smell of hundreds of baking apple pies. Dozens of volunteers arrive at the Holyoke-French House early Friday morning to pick up the unbaked pies, brimming with apples from Ingaldsby Farm, preparing for the festival.
The warm apple pies and crisps are served with local Benson's ice cream, a combination "that just can't be beat," said Brian Gregory, board member of the Boxford Historical Society, which has coordinated the festival since the early 1970s.
If ice cream and sticky caramel apples aren't enough, kids will surely be attracted to the clanging of the hammer at the blacksmith demonstration, a popular attraction that has been absent from the last few festivals. The demonstration will be given by blacksmith Jonathan Rummel of Hand Forged works in North Andover. Rummel, assisted by two students from Andover, will be creating decorative household items and a coat rack.
Rummel hopes the demonstration will show younger people that blacksmithing, an ancient craft, is still very much alive.
"Our world is high-production, low-cost, and a lot of what we create is soulless," Rummel said. "We're taking a giant step back from that and digging to the roots."
The festival, which attracts up to 4,000 people, will be a fun-filled day for families. There will be live music, local artists selling handmade crafts, tours of the Holyoke-French House and lots of food.
"I'm looking forward to working the grill and flipping burgers," Gregory said. "And it's always great to see families eating apple pies while sitting on hay bales, and kids on dads' shoulders."
IF YOU GO
What: Boxford Apple Festival
When: Tomorrow, 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (Rain date Sunday)
Music: Don't Call Me Shirley performing from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: Elm Street, East Boxford Village
