Steilacoom Apple Squeeze

This was the third year that we went to the apple squeeze. It’s a fun family event full of people and small booths. This year they had pony rides as well, the previous year they had a little petting zoo. Our favorite are the apple cider ice cream floats! They are delicious! The apple pressing is fun too, BUT they run out of apples at lease an hour before the end of the event; all three years that we’ve gone. So. If you want to press your own apple cider, better be in line at 10 am. The other thing I kind of didn’t like, is that people bring their dogs of all sizes and they don’t keep them close. So people trip over them or they approach and startle the little ones. I love dogs, but think if they’re allowed to such events, the owners really need to keep them close and keep an eye on them. The food choices are that great either, so I’d recommend having lunch before heading to the Steilacoom apple squeeze. Overall, it is a fun event to attend. One more thing, they usually have live folk music.

For the town of Steilacoom, the apple squeeze is a big deal. The shut down the main road and various vendors come to sell their wares and almost anything apple related comes up for sale.
I was actually surprised by this event… pleasantly surprised. We got there early as we were told it’s good to get their early to get your ticket I press your apples. We got out ticket and walked around the downtown area until our designated time. While walking we came across a petting zoo with a big horse, a goat, cute baby chicks, & a turkey with attitude. They had a game center type set up with bouncy castles and face painting and ring toss type activities on the tennis court. There was also the historical museum, the general store, the wagon shop, the tribal museum, and other things to keep the kids busy as well as lots of other things and history to discover for the adults.
There weren’t a whole lot of food vendors but it was the typical carnival/​fair type food. I opted for boiled corn cob and an apple cider float. What… an apple cider float you ask… Well it’s a delicious treat that was kind of sorta invented by one of my friends who also opted to give me the VIP tour of the festivities of the Apple Squeeze.
Anyway, when it came time to press the apples we headed over to the presses. There is such a variety in the presses. Some are electric and others are manual so if you really want a taste of the old days, opt for the manual labor ones. Since I hadn’t carbed up prior to entering the press and didn’t feel like doing an manual labor we took my friend’s kid over to the electric press and when our time came my friend’s daughter tosses the apples in. There was also a good variety in the apples so that you get a good batch of cider. They have the apples shipped in due to issues with apple worms in the past when people brought their own apples. So you don’t have to worry as much about food born illness. You still have to boil the cider when you get home anyway to stave off the possibility of bacteria. I will say that when I got home, the cider is super sweet. I actually had to water it down a bit because I was expecting it to be more tart. It was still delicious though.
It was very nice to be able to see parts of Steilacoom that I never get to see since practically every business was open to the public. There was also live music for local musicians. The only that may have been more appropriate would have been like a swap meet or a rummage sale or something, but honestly what was there was sufficient enough for us to kill about 4 hours of time.