Saturday, October 28, 2006

Pete loves apples

http://www.producepete.com/shows/apples.html

"I love apple season. There are few things better than a good apple eaten out of hand. Whether the flesh is mild and swweet or tart, and winey, when you bite into it, a fresh-picked apple will make a crisp cracking sound and you'll get a spurt of juice. "

Monday, October 16, 2006

Nobody respects the York Apple

Its a hard apple, like a Winesap but not tart at all. They are difficult to grow, being finicky about pruning and spraying. The man told me it was their first good crop in years. But when you get it right , you know it. The bite is hard, like its not ripe but then with persistent chewing the smooth taste like its been spiked with cream and butterscotch comes out. Appropriately its a desert apple.

Route 29 north somewhere near Lynchburg. Its called the apple shed and the very knowledgable man also gave me a fresh Winesap just for the sampling. That one was tart as rhubarb and also a wonder.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Cider Days are upon us...


Cider Days is coming up: http://www.ciderday.org/

Actually it's weeks away but I'm counting down. This year the Franklin County, Massachusetts Cider Days festival falls on November 4th & 5th. I'm hoping to visit at least part of it this year.

What I want is to find an orchard that sells untreated cider. They pasturize almost everything these days so that nobody dies of E-Coli poisoning somthing they don't do with Spinach. Of course originally cider meant HARD cider which was alcoholic. Its only recently yankees began to favor beer over cider. Like beer, cider has under six or seven percent alcohol and tastes best with some sparkle

The fest is for all who love apples, fresh or hard cider, apple cuisine, apple orchards or just being in New England in the fall. There is a small charge for some of the activities but there is no admission for the self-guided tour of orchards.

Orchards have given food and drink to New England for centuries. It is here that apples grow flavorful and juicy. Among those apple varieties Baldwin, Newton Pippin, Roxbury Russet were bred here.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

The Fuji.

Red Delicious + Ralls Janet, an unexpected combination... The Red Delicious is grainy and mealy and all in all a poor excuse for an apple.

The Ralls Janet however is an ancient apple pre 1800 from France. It's a greenish-yellow, covered with pinkish red, dark red striping medium to large; yellowish flesh, fine-grained, crisp and juicy; excellent keeper. It's a late season apple and I've never had one.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Survival of the Crispest

Mara Zepeda and I don't know each other, but we should.
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=13133

"My apple-eating experience usually unfolds in seven distinct stages: 1) extended and thoroughly useless examination of product; 2) blind hope; 3) tentative sampling; 4) assessment; 5) verdict—mealy; 6) disgust, revulsion, disavowal of all apples; 7) three-month apple hiatus. Repeat."

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Eli Kochalka picks an Apple

Another reason to read Kochalka every day.
www.americanelf.com

The Honeycrisp.

They claim it's a Honey Gold + Macoun... but that's not what they say in Minneapolis. Supposedly it came from a bag of junk seeds. Ther eis a certain ammount of random breeding allowed at the orchards... things left to chance. This was one of them. Fact is, it was introduced in 1991 by the University of Minnesota breeders at Excelsior, MN.

Thsi blogger likes them too:
http://www.drunkenblog.com/drunkenblog-archives/000331.html