Saturday, October 7, 2023

The Big Apple in Colborne lays claim to having the largest apple shaped structure in the world. However, there’s a lot more to this attraction than just the structure. The site was created by George Boycott who immigrated to Canada in 1976 from Australia. He had been a pizza shop owner before moving to Canada and sold all six of his shops to finance his new enterprise. Based on The Big Pineapple near Queensland, he devised The Big Apple. He chose Colborne to settle in because it was one of the biggest apple producing regions in Ontario. In fact, it is the fourth largest apple growing area with over 3,000 acres under cultivation. Construction began in 1983 and the site was ready to open in 1987.

There has been a great deal of effort made to ensure that visitors have plenty to do aside from just buying apples. They have a small pond with a fountain and there’s a short nature trail that you can walk that goes around it.

There are many attractions designed to entertain children and the mini-golf course is just one of them.

During the peak season in the summer there’s rides for the children to enjoy. This includes a train ride and access to the ping pong tables.

There’s also an old fire truck and an old police van to stir their active imaginations.

The Big Apple structure is affectionately known as Mr. Applehead. It is hollow inside and there’s a set of stairs that leads to an observation deck on the top. The apple is 40 feet tall and provides views across the surrounding countryside. Mr. Applehead weighs 42 tonnes and can hold 650,000 apples. In 2013 the cartoon face that can be seen in the cover photo was painted onto the highway side of the apple. It was covered with a facemask in 2020 as a show of support for front-line workers and hundreds of apple pies were donated to hospital workers.

There is an interesting gift shop where all kinds of collectibles can be purchased. Much of the goods in the store are geared toward making your garden unique. For the adults, there’s also a brewery which specializes in various ciders.

Other shops include a candy store, a sit down restaurant and a place to buy apples and pastries. They sell over 2,000 apple pies every week and you can watch them being made through a glass window. They do everything in house for the freshest, tastiest pies you can find anywhere. According to the sign on the side of the highway, they have sold over 6.2 million pies, and counting.

A petting zoo is included for the little ones to get an opportunity to see a selection of farm animals. You can buy little plastic containers full of animal food so that you can feed them a nutritional snack. It’s a lot of fun for the children and it lets the guests pay for the animal feeding which helps keep the costs of running the petting zoo under control.

One of the fun things is this sign post that show how The Big Apple is in the centre of everything. The distance in kilometres is given to 56 places around the world.

The Big Apple may be 14,750 kilometers from the South Pole but it’s only 130 kilometers from Midtown Toronto. It’s a great place to spend some time with the children or just a fun stop as you make your way along Highway 401. And, best of all, it’s free to enjoy (unless you start buying some of those yummy things that you’re going to see).

Associated Stories: Abandoned Farm Market

Google Maps Link: The Big Apple

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