ADAMS TWP — One feature of the annual Mars Applefest has remained constant for all 32 years of the event's existence, and it sells out by 1 p.m.

The members of Old Union Presbyterian Church on Union Church Road in Adams Township have been making apple dumplings for the festival every fall, and this year is no exception.

The Rev. Peter de Vries has served on the peeling team since he began serving the church 23 years ago.

“We sell out every year,” said de Vries. “Even when it rains.”

According to de Vries, the Old Union team made 555 apple dumplings for last year's Applefest, and they were cleaned out just after lunch.

During the first step, he said, a load of Empire apples is purchased from a farm in New Wilmington, Lawrence County.

On the Friday before Applefest, which this year is on Saturday, the dough crew arrives at the church early in the morning to prepare the large amount of pie dough required in the effort.

The other crews arrive just before 9 a.m., and the process begins with de Vries' peeling team, who are not baking experts.

“It's a crew of guys who do that,” he said.

The apples are peeled and cored using a contraption clamped onto a table or countertop. Another team carefully trims any scraps of peel or core that remain on the apples.

Another crew separates the huge ball of dough into fist-sized pieces and rolls them out in preparation for the cored and peeled apples.

Mary McElhinny has been a member of Old Union for 59 years, and she has served as a “roller” every fall.

“You put the apple in the center of the dough, then you sprinkle on cinnamon and sugar that's already made up, then a dab of butter, and then you fold the dough up around the apple,” McElhinny said.

She said the rollers place their completed confections on a baking sheet. Each sheet holds about 20 apple dumplings.

While most of the dumplings are baked at the church, some members who live nearby take a sheet or two home to bake.

“We do have a fairly large oven at the church,” McElhinny said.

A few people remain at the church all afternoon to complete the baking process, taking finished baking sheets out of the oven and sliding new ones in, she said.

The flaky, aromatic dumplings are carefully transported to Applefest the next morning, and church members also man the booth from which they are rapidly sold.

Proceeds from this year's dumpling sale will go toward the church's building fund, de Vries said.

He said the church undertook a building project in 2008, and the economic crash that year caused Old Union to lose $150,000. The options were to leave the partially built addition sit idle until the church could afford to finish it, or increase the amount of the loan from $300,000 to $450,000.

The church officials chose the latter. About $100,000 is still owed on the loan.

In addition to raising funds, de Vries said the apple dumpling project is another reason for the close-knit church members to get together and work toward a common cause.

“It's also just a great time, spending the morning together,” de Vries said. “Everyone is really committed to one another.”

He said new and old church members work together on every church project, including the dumplings.

“We are a close family, but not a closed family,” de Vries said. “New members here get right into the activities.”

The pastor said he hopes the dumpling project continues as long as there is a Mars Applefest.

“It's just known that Old Union makes good dumplings,” de Vries said. “We've been making them for so long.”