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magidRosh Hashana is "early" this year (ie, at the same time in the Jewish, lunar calendar, but earlier than it usually is on the solar, secular calendar), and I did not have time to go apple-picking. It's rather early in the season, too.
So I got apples at the supermarket last night, and it feels like cheating, somehow. I got Pink Lady apples, just for the name, and they looked nice, and some others. I tried one of the Pink Ladies this morning, and it was disappointing, far too mealy to make my top list. I prefer an apple with a lot of crunch. Flavor, too, but without the crunch, flavor isn't enough. So I suppose these will be cooking apples, and I'll use the others for apples-and-honey (which I've always found a bit of an odd combination, just because apples aren't that sweet a fruit, so there's great contrast between the fruit and the honey).
When I was little, I liked red Delicious apples (I don't remember even seeing a yellow one until much later), until I finally realized that despite those cute curves on the bottom, and the nice dark red skin, the ones we got were usually utter disappointment, not crisp at all. So I changed allegiance, finding that Granny Smiths were much more reliable for crunch. However, in recent years, they've gotten popular in supermarkets, and seem to have lost any flavor at all. So I end up looking again. Fujis tend to be pretty good. But I've decided that my favorite apple is the one I've picked at an orchard, fresh and crisp and flavorful. Not that there haven't been any duds this way, but they've been few and far between. And I get to have so many favorites, MacIntoshes, and Jonagolds, and Macouns, and bunches more with interesting names, though all of them red. I don't know if yellow/green apples don't grow around here, or if I've just not managed to find where. And there's the advantages of supporting local agriculture, seeing where the food comes from, knowing just how fresh it is, eating local food in season.
[I wonder how my mom chose her favorite apple, the MacIntosh (named before the computer or the Jason were on the scene), which is grown at all the local orchards, including the one in Brookfield that we always went to when I was young. It's a nice tart apple, though sometimes too much so for me (never for her).]
So now I start to think of how to use the apples I still want to pick sometime this fall, even if not in time for the holiday. Applesauce, of course. Apple crisp, apple brown betty, apple cake. Cran-apple relish. Apples'n'onions with chicken. Baked apples. Apples sliced into spinach salad, with almonds.
Not in fruit salad, though. I've decided that apples and pears just don't belong in fruit salad. The texture is all wrong, somehow.
So I got apples at the supermarket last night, and it feels like cheating, somehow. I got Pink Lady apples, just for the name, and they looked nice, and some others. I tried one of the Pink Ladies this morning, and it was disappointing, far too mealy to make my top list. I prefer an apple with a lot of crunch. Flavor, too, but without the crunch, flavor isn't enough. So I suppose these will be cooking apples, and I'll use the others for apples-and-honey (which I've always found a bit of an odd combination, just because apples aren't that sweet a fruit, so there's great contrast between the fruit and the honey).
When I was little, I liked red Delicious apples (I don't remember even seeing a yellow one until much later), until I finally realized that despite those cute curves on the bottom, and the nice dark red skin, the ones we got were usually utter disappointment, not crisp at all. So I changed allegiance, finding that Granny Smiths were much more reliable for crunch. However, in recent years, they've gotten popular in supermarkets, and seem to have lost any flavor at all. So I end up looking again. Fujis tend to be pretty good. But I've decided that my favorite apple is the one I've picked at an orchard, fresh and crisp and flavorful. Not that there haven't been any duds this way, but they've been few and far between. And I get to have so many favorites, MacIntoshes, and Jonagolds, and Macouns, and bunches more with interesting names, though all of them red. I don't know if yellow/green apples don't grow around here, or if I've just not managed to find where. And there's the advantages of supporting local agriculture, seeing where the food comes from, knowing just how fresh it is, eating local food in season.
[I wonder how my mom chose her favorite apple, the MacIntosh (named before the computer or the Jason were on the scene), which is grown at all the local orchards, including the one in Brookfield that we always went to when I was young. It's a nice tart apple, though sometimes too much so for me (never for her).]
So now I start to think of how to use the apples I still want to pick sometime this fall, even if not in time for the holiday. Applesauce, of course. Apple crisp, apple brown betty, apple cake. Cran-apple relish. Apples'n'onions with chicken. Baked apples. Apples sliced into spinach salad, with almonds.
Not in fruit salad, though. I've decided that apples and pears just don't belong in fruit salad. The texture is all wrong, somehow.