I didn’t go to Apple Fest last year because I’d thought it wouldn’t be worth it. I thought, I could get some apple cider, which I could easily get in a dining hall, or I could finish my work. And of course, I chose my work. But this year I chose to go. And I didn’t just see apple cider. I witnessed the apple’s essential contribution to the local economy. From apple pizza to funnel cake, people came from all over to show off what they could do with an apple. There were plates and plates of slices of many different kinds of apples to try. It was interesting to see how much effort goes into innovating something that is so often ignored, something that you only think about for a few seconds when you plop it in a paper-bag lunch. I also got to hear about the incentives behind RubyFrost and SnapDragon. I learned not only why they were named but also how their names relate to their function. Take RubyFrost, for example. The goal of making RubyFrost was to create an apple that wouldn’t brown when you cut it into slices. No one wants to open their paper-bag lunch to see some brown apple slices. It seems like a simple fix, but it targets a problem that spans a large audience. That’s what makes it technologically innovative. So yes, turns out there’s a lot more to Apple Fest than just apple cider. I can’t wait to go back.