Life can be sweet, or it can be sour — if you don’t mind a little bit of both, then Niagara-on-the-Lake’s annual cherry festival has you covered.
The season of summer fruits continues this July with St. Mark’s Cherry Festival, set for Saturday, July 4, offering up a bounty of fresh cherries and cherry desserts for all.
St. Mark’s Church will be selling 700 of its homemade cherry pies, made by the women of the church, plus 160 quarts of fresh cherries, grown at Quiet Acres on Lakeshore Road. The pies, meanwhile, are baked with sour cherries from Cherry Lane in Vineland.
Alongside fresh cherries and whole pies, the church will be selling cherry pie by the slice with ice cream, ice cream floats, cherry jam, cherry tea brand and lots of other homemade baked goods.
The yearly cherry festival, which proceeds the strawberry festival in June, is a staple of summer in Niagara and has been going on for dozens of years.
“This is the biggest event for St. Mark’s, and everyone looks forward to participating,” said Jo-Anne Hill, festival chair. “It’s also a time to engage with the whole NOTL community and show our warm hospitality to visitors from far and wide.”
Proceeds from the festival support the maintenance and upkeep of St. Mark’s Church, which has called Byron Street home for well over 200 years.
Volunteers have been hard at work for the past six months getting ready for the festival: making the pies and jams, pricing and displaying the church emporium — china, clothing, linen, purses and more will be sold — and collecting and organizing the books that will be sold.
Alongside the emporium and book sales, there will be a barbecue area with hamburgers, hot dogs, peameal bacon on a bun and vegan options.
“We encourage visitors to bring their family and enjoy the children’s area, and our historic church will also be open for tours and reflection,” Hill said.
The festival gates open at 9 a.m. Hill said the lineup typically starts around 7:30 a.m. and whole pies tend to sell out around 11:30 a.m. Attendance is free.
