Some of the recipes have changed over the last 50 years, but the volunteerism and community spirit of the Congregational Church of Salem’s Apple Festival hasn’t.

The festival, held annually the last weekend of October, began in 1970 as a fundraiser for the church. Judy Gadbois, one of the founding members, said she had been talking with other parishioners one Sunday after the service about ways they could pay for the church’s new education building. They had discussed hosting a fall harvest dinner with homemade pies as a fundraiser, and with apples as the inspiration and the help of some brainstorming among friends, the Apple Festival was born.

“Everything was peeled by hand. Now we use the apple corers and people do the handwork, but the ladies all sat around and peeled by hand,” she said. “When we first started, each lady did her own pie crust, whereas now it’s all measured and they’re all uniform.”

She added that the bakers also saved seeds from the apples to make pins, necklaces and other jewelry to sell during the festival.

Over the course of about five weeks, a few hundred volunteers give their time, even if it’s just an hour or two. Preparation begins the end of September — Gadbois said they used to start around Labor Day — with a few nights a week dedicated to peeling, slicing and transforming upwards of 75 bushels of apples from Scott’s Orchard in Glastonbury into pies, puddings, cakes and other baked goods.

Liz Householder, who runs the baked goods booth during the festival, said the crew will have made 600 pies to sell at the festival, most of which are frozen so festival guests can take them home and bake them later. Since the apples are an orchard run — they get whatever varieties Scott’s has available — each pie is a little different.

“The fun thing about doing this is that because we all take turns doing different parts of it ... you feel like you know how to do this,” she said, noting that she’s inspired to make her own pies after making them for the festival.

Gadbois said she’s done a little bit of everything over the years, but she feels most at home in the kitchen, especially testing new recipes for the festival. A former chair of the festival, she credited her mentors over the years helping her maintain finances and keep everything running smoothly as well as the general corps of volunteers who have been willing to help the cause and learn new skills along the way.

For the 50th anniversary, the festival will be selling a reprinted version of their 1970 cookbook; it features tidbits of Salem history, a fitting tribute in its bicentennial year. They also have a calendar of pictures from over the 50-year run, and they recently found aprons in the parsonage attic that had been used in the early days of the festival and had them dry-cleaned for use this year.

Gadbois said she’s most proud that they’ve been able to keep the festival going thanks to the willingness of the volunteers. She said it’s a great tribute to the church, especially in sticking to its roots.

Pastor Jonathan Chechile, who joined the congregation in August, said Applefest is a gift to the community by honoring the spirit of the town and its traditions. As a father of three, he helped add more kid-friendly activities to this year’s celebration, and he appreciated that the volunteers are getting kids like his 7-year-old daughter Amelie involved in the preparation too.

“You’ve got a 7-year-old and a 6-year-old with a little plastic knife cutting off the edging, and they’re sitting next to someone who’s 60 or 70,” he said. “They’re serving, they’re getting to know each other, and that cross-generational bridge is something you don’t see a lot of.”

He said the festival is a great way for neighbors to spend time together, and he plans to use the day to get to know the community and build relationships.

Even though it’s run by the church, the event draws from outside the parish; Gadbois said the church is known by out-of-towners as “the Applefest church.”

In addition to the homemade desserts, they also have a country store with apple-themed crafts and handiwork and a quilt exhibit.

“It’s a New England tradition more than a commercial venue,” she said. “Do we have a lot of stuff? No, but it’s a wonderful time of people getting together.”

“It’s what it should be,” Householder said.

The Apple Festival will be held on the Salem Town Green from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, though usually the food sells out early. Proceeds support the church’s missions and preservation of the historic property. For more information, call the Congregational Church of Salem at (860) 859-1211.

a.hutchinson@theday.com