The fall has come with a chill and the signs for "Pick Your Own Apples" have expoded across the state.

MacIntosh
Granny Smith
Empire
Rome
Fugi
Gala
Red Delicious
Golden Delicious
Jonathan
Heirloom
Braeburn

And most of these are already have in my fridge. i and for one felt like i found my old friends when i saw some of the names and met them again for the first time since last winter. And some old aquaintences who i meet with a chill glance (you know who you are, Red and Golden delicious).

But both the juice-worthy, and the teeth-friendly apples are back, and i was curious as to who else loves apples, and which are their favorites?

Yes, I join you in the celebration of the apple harvest!!!!
I'm usually the first one picking at my favorite apple farms
upstate. I love the photo of your angel and the poetic words!

For me, I live for golden delicious, gala, and fuji. The
nuances of flavor in each one are more apparent now that I'm
on the raw diet. Spheres of heaven.

So glad there's another with my passion for apples! Cheers. (:

I also join you in the Apple Celebration! So does my daughter!! She is 3 years old and has at least one, if not two, every day. Right now, her favorites are granny smith! My husband and I have always loved gala's the best. Yummy!!! My husband grew up on an apple orchard - how lucky is he???

Check out this article on the apple forests of Kazakhstan:

[www.mongabay.com]

Brome, what an enlightening read, thank you!
I never even thought of the origin of apples.
Wonderful to know they're from Kazakhstan and
that all the varieties stem from Red Delicious
and Golden Delicious.

Mama Cass

Is that a panda that your little baby has abandoned in the right upper corner?
I love fuji apples.
Thanks for reminding me.
I just got 3 Red Delicious yesterday.
I feel happy today.

Thanks all!

i have to repent, Red and Golden delicious- i found these incredible golden globes with a rosy hint on one side, and took them home to investigate, and they were smooth, crisp, bursts of light.

the the reds i've had in the past, mealy, tasteless little creatures packed with school lunches, or found in hospital cafeterias, they are nothing like the burgandy colored, thick-skinned, porcelain fleshed beasties i had ignored since i bought them.

i'm a fugi fan, hardcore, they inspired this thread when i saw them again. anyone tried, i think it's Honeysweet? they're pricier than the rest, so i don't buy them, but they look yummy.

la veronique- i think it's a panda, we call it the panda-dog, it's a puppet/washcloth someone gave us. it was better than the five-headed cow-beast washcloth...

Brome- thanks for that article! i'm glad to know (contrary to what i've heard) that there are some unmodified fruit trees out there. and interesting as to where they come from, huh? different than where we try to grow apples now...

yogamama- i turned my friend's kids onto apples. actually, she only fed them food that came in kid-friendly packaging, and then i took care of them for a while. one day her 3 year old came up to me and said "Mrs Friz, can i please have one of your apples." he had just eaten, but he liked that i enjoyed feeding him apples, and he loved the varieties i had. even oranges and pears got eaten. she was floored, her kids had never eaten fruit voluntarily before. now she buys it and keeps it out as a open snack bar. granny smith were popular with them. they hurt my teeth, so i usually juice them, which is wonderful. growing up in an apple orchard? sounds so poetic, and romantic...

zohra- now that i've met a different golden delicious than i knew before, i think my list is going to look a lot like yours, with braeburn on the list.

peace-
Mama Cass

mama cass -

d'you mean honeycrisp? if so, and you haven't tried them, TRY THEM. by which i mean run don't walk. they're my favoritest, and displaced fujis and braeburns to get there.

Mama Cass

I notice also the difference in taste when that
pink hue graces golden delicious skin. It's
the shade I look for when I'm picking at the
orchard.

It's wonderful how being raw hones your intuition
about the best produce to choose! It seems
certain pieces of glow more than others if you
look at a carton of them.

Enjoy...

that's what i was afraid you were going to say, zohra-
you're right, there's something familiar about fruits that are healthy
and beckoning to be held and enjoyed.

oh, like those delicious pears that look slightly sunburned on their sides and sweet yellow everywhere else.

i've always had a great sense of smell, but it's improved lately, and i've been enjoying sniffing every fruit. my husband laughs at me, honeydew to nose in the store and sneering at it. but sometimes, it's better than eating. i wander through the orchards and just sniff each variety of apple....

so fragrant.

Thanks, Mama Cass
Yes, the pears are gorgeous! The Asian pears can be
tricky. Seems key to get the deep ochre colored ones..
the lighter golden still has great crisp but minus
the honey sweetness that bursts from the ones with
more color.

What I enjoy most about finding the good apples is
the glisten of the ones most densely compact -- a
kind of edible diamond. And the subtle variations
in crisp texture from granny smith to honey crisp
(yes, tried it once!) to braeburn...

Enjoying natural scents is such joy for me. I also
sniff everywhere. When one's sense of smell is keen
it's a feast just noticing the symphony of scents and
the relation between the scent of something and its
flavor. Like an 'ugli' fruit, one of the most perfumed
I've experienced... or a honey dew.. or a really ripe
white peach.. When I first picked at one orchard the
first days of September, there were just three white
peaches left on the trees. The owner said there were
none left so imagine my excitment in finding them..
so ripe they almost fell into my hand... a flood of golden
and pink nectar exploding from each one. Quite a moment
it was, the whole sunny place to myself and the owner who
was gathering the falling plums and peaches for jam. At
that moment I wished a tree of these for every hungry
person everywhere.

I was just in Sedona, Arizona and never smelled air like
that before. As soon as I opened the car door, wafts of
thick juniper scent.. healing and energizing. There also
several kinds of wild sage weaving with the juniper.
Discovering them on a hike was wonderful, rubbing the
leaves of each weed.. a new hidden treasure of aroma in
each unassuming plant. If you ever have a chance do visit
there.. magical place.

Here's a link to more wild fruits of Central Asia, an astounding variety:

[www.hort.purdue.edu]

My family loves apples and we recently moved to an apple growing town in a very cold climate. When the first weekend of apple season came, my husband and teenage daughter and myself hopped on our bikes and rode over to an orchard near us to see if the honeycrisps were ready to pick. The owner took us out to the trees and let us be the first to pick the honeycrisps. On the way he let us eat some of the gingergolds, which are really crisp and juicy too, probably a near favorite.

What a great experience it was to ring in the fall. We payed a small price for them and then stuffed the apples into our pockets and rode home. Luckily my husband had some big baggy cargo shorts on with big pockets. Another good apple is the Paula Red. It has a slight cinnamon flavor after taste, in my opinion. Guess these are hybrids but I can't help but love them. My hubby is just warming up to being vegan after being married to raw fooder for 6 years, so I got to let him and the kids do the best they can. So, hybrid apples it is. Does anyone know what the original heirloom apples would be. Probably Granny Smith or maybe Macintosh? I don't know. Any apple experts out there?

P.S. Mac's make for a killer raw apple pie.

My family and I just went to the orchard and picked some apples today. We like Fuji and we picked some honeycrisp, too. Yumm! Our 2 1/2-year-old is crazy about apples and our 11-month-old son loves them, too. Oh so much fun, we had to hike up the hill a ways to get the fuji, but it was fun in the crisp air.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2006 02:36AM by shep252.

more pics of that baby please.

too touching

i eat in the exact same position

I picked golden delicous and royal gala apples off of nearbye trees today; they were right next to the concord grape vines.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2006 11:16AM by wild-aloe.

mamma cass

i luv your description of apples
it makes me just want to eat nothing BUT apples
HA HA

actually i more enjoy smelling the fragrance of apples
and looking at them
than i do eating them

i can't say the same for other things
but its true

i guess i just ate sooo many apples in the past
that now i just enjoy smelling them

pretty funny
i know

I LOVE THIS THREAD!!!

apppppppPPPPPPPLLLLLLeEEEZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!

la veronique-

i love smelling EVERYTHING, and it's so wonderfully satisfying. for me, sometimes more than eating!

i boil cinnamon and apple cores on the stove to make my house smell delish- the husband thinks its strange (instead of buying potpurri like a midwestern housewife) i tell him POTpurri is what it is!

totally love the orchard stories, all! will be going out this afternoon.

and i tried the honeycrisp- my absolute favorite now!

and the cortlands are wonderful at one local place.

does anyone here, who isn't anti-sweetner,
ever chop up a huge bowl with raisins,
cinnamon
and a slender drizzle of local honey?
maybe some walnuts?
it's my latest version of apple pie that is so simple
sweet
and filling

"Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold"

Mama Cass

Cinnamon might as well be my middle name. I make the same
potpourri!! Sometimes I add orange or lemon peels, cloves..

The pie sounds glorious. When I was eating cooked I once
made 8 granny smith pies from scratch in the middle of the
middle of the night for a pot luck breakfast. To think I
lost a night's sleep when I could've made heavenly raw pies
in minutes.

La V, that's so interesting. Smelling is a feast in itself,
indeed.

I have a thing for apples, too. I can't remember the last day that went by without at least one apple.

My favorites are pink lady, empire, gala, and braeburn.

I've been doing the "apple pie" thing, too. I blend dates, water, lemon juice and a dash of salt and some cinnamon. Mix it up with the sliced apples (don't peel them) and plop them in a plate and put them into the dehydrator. It makes the house smell soooo good! Share them with my hubby later in the evening. No need for crust or fat or icky things!

Life Is Good!

alive!