Colony Days - Tent City - ALPS "Caladero" Tent

October 21, 2017

For the 11th year ALPS celebrated the founding of our city by participating in the Colony Days Tent City, the reenactment of Atascadero’s founding days.  The ALPS tent has a tradition of providing fresh apple cider (juice) to it's guests.  The cider is made fresh on site with the use of a grinder and press.  The kids have great fun turning the grinder and tightening the press and watching the apple juice flow.  The best part is getting to taste the fresh squeezed juice!!

The ALPS tent represents the history of the Caladero Products Company (a subsidiary of the Colony Holding Corporation) that operated a large fruit and vegetable processing plant and dehydrating facility from 1918 through the mid 1920’s.  The tent has many articles and pictures of the processing plant along with planting maps for the colony.  The Caladero Products Company processed by dehydrating, canning and preserving, all of the output of the 4,000 acres of orchards and the vegetable and berry growers of Atascadero and the surrounding country.  The United States government became interested in the process and gave large contracts for dehydrated vegetables and fruits to the company. The dehydrated food was used by our armed forces then engaged in World War I.  The plant was highly mechanized with electric lights and motors to drive conveyor belts, washing, slicing, peeling and grinding machines - very modern for the time.  The plant produced many products from canned peaches to dehydrated pumpkin flour.