DUMMERSTON — Churches normally don't encourage the worship of other deities, but on the Sunday of Columbus Day weekend Dummerston Congregational Church in Dummerston Center worships the apple, especially in its ultimate, divine form: apple pie.
Church volunteers and friends are baking more than 1,500 apple pies in the two-week run-up to this year's annual Dummerston Apple Pie Festival, Oct. 12.
Most pies will be sold whole to eager fans in front of the church; a nearby tent will offer hundreds of slices of apple pie, each of which is in line for toppings of ice cream or Vermont cheese.
Although apple pie dominates this day in Dummerston, the festival also offers a pancake breakfast at the Dummerston Center firehouse. Here, hundreds of hotcakes with maple syrup, sausages, biscuits and sausage gravy, and applesauce will move. Wash it down with coffee and apple cider.
A tag and craft sale will run at the nearby Evening Star Grange.
The festival has evolved over the past four decades from a small, local gathering to a southern Vermont foliage favorite. Motorists descend on the area from throughout the Northeast.
The pancake breakfast will be served from 7 to 11:30 a.m. at Dummerston Center firehouse. Tickets are $9 for adults and $4 for children.
The festival, at Dummerston Congregational Church at Middle and East-West roads, starts at 10 a.m. and runs until all pies are sold.
Events are clustered around Dummerston Center Common with ample free parking. Motorcyclists are welcome, and a parking area is set aside for them.