By Ashley Lodato
If I say “Winter Banana,” what is the first thing that comes to mind? (OK, maybe the second thing.) Unless you’re an heirloom apple aficionado, you probably didn’t think “big, juicy, yellow apple.” I certainly didn’t, but when I heard that Don McIvor had recently won a bronze medal for his Winter Banana cider entry in the Great Lakes International Cider and Perry Competition (in the New World Cider-Modern division), I learned that the Winter Banana is indeed a variety of heirloom apple that reportedly carries a hint of banana.
Don, however, who gleaned his apples from friends and neighbors, says that he could only detect a banana flavor note in about one of every 10 apples. Which is probably for the best, since we’re talking about apple cider here.
Working off a tip from Don that the Methow Valley Ciderhouse had also won some medals in the GLINTCAP competition, I called the Ciderhouse’s Richard Wasson to get the scoop. “What?” Richard said, when I asked him about his entries. It turns out that Richard has been so busy getting the Ciderhouse ready for its May 9 opening that he hadn’t even heard that his Honey Bear won a silver medal in the Mead division and his Pinnacle Goat won a bronze in the English Cider division.
Concerned that I had made a mistake, I went to the GLINTCAP website and was relieved to see the results verified in print. It is a rare event for this gossip columnist to be on the breaking news side of things and I tell you, sometimes a little fact checking actually pays off.
Just when you were breathing a sigh of relief that the Lewis Butte Hillclimb series was over, the folks at Cascades Outdoor Store had to go and schedule another event, this one for the “tough and foolhardy,” as they put it. The Bowen Mountain Hill Climb is only 1.25 miles but it’s a grueling 1,600 feet of elevation gain in that short distance. There are no prizes and no aid stations. Also, there is no trail. But hey, it’s free!
There are enough exercise nuts out there in the valley to whom this probably sounds like a super fun event, or maybe even just a warm-up before the rest of the weekend’s workouts. For the rest of you, if you start today you have three days to get in shape before the hill climb, which takes place this Saturday morning (May 2). Visit the store’s website for more information.
