Apple Fest 2025: A ‘Lil Taste’ of Land-Grant at CSU Homecoming

Central State University’s 2025 Homecoming featured “A Lil Taste of LG,” a vibrant Apple Fest celebrating CSU’s Land-Grant mission. The event blended education, flavor, and community spirit, drawing around 200 attendees to its tent on Oct. 11. 

The 4-H Youth Development program energized the crowd with caramel apples and spiral snacks, while prompting reflection with questions about land use and sustainability as part of their Beyond Ready initiative. 

Image

The Agricultural Research and Development Program led with caramel apple popcorn, showcasing CSU’s support for small businesses and plans for its own signature popcorn. The Nutrigenomics Lab promoted “Food as Medicine,” using natural spices in apple salsa to highlight health benefits. The Bee Research Lab emphasized honey’s value and the role of pollinators in food systems.  

Family and Consumer Science served Centralian Cajun Apple Slaw and shared apple-based recipes for nutritious, affordable meals. The Agricultural and Natural Resources program offered hot and chilled apple cider in addition to demonstrating composting with apple scraps, featuring live worms from CSU’s Seed to Bloom Botanical and Community Garden. 

CSU Extension’s Community and Economic Development program highlighted sustainability with fresh bread and homemade apple butter, showing how value-added products can support income and food security. 

Jose Toledo, Ph.D., Vice President for Research and Economic Development, and Director of 1890 Land-Grant Programs, joined the team at the Extension and Research tent after participating in the Homecoming parade as part of CSU President Morakinyo A. O. Kuti’s leadership. 

Image

To close the day, guests created Simmering Spice Potpourri sachets with cinnamon, apples, and cloves—a fragrant autumn keepsake. Apple Fest 2025 was a joyful showcase of CSU’s commitment to research, innovation, and outreach. 

CSU’s 1890 Land-Grant Programs' participation in the colorful parade was one of the highlights of a vibrant, exciting Homecoming weekend that reunited families and alumni from several decades and generations on the Wilberforce campus. The parade started from the Lionel H. Newsom Administration Building parking lot and proceeded through Brush Row Road, snaking around the Norman E. Ward Center’s front, around the Sunken Garden, in front of the Hallie Q. Memorial Brown Library, ending in the William Patrick McPherson Memorial Stadium.