Wednesday, 23 September 2009 at 08:57 PM There is time to try a lot of apples
"When I was a little girl, I picked these for like three hours when we were on vacation at the lake."
"I took them to my mom, who was smoking with the other moms — because that's what they did in those days."
"And she and the other moms just sat there smoking and eating them."
"Like it was nothing?"
"Like it was nothing."
There was a matter-of-fact melancholy about the way she told the story.
But she seemed pleased to find the fraises des bois.
* * *
"So, you know those two melons you've got in your hands? We don't know what they are. They're mystery melons."
"Yes, well. I know what they are."
"You do? Really?"
"Yes."
"Well, great. Then you're a few steps ahead of us."
* * *
It would be good if people let go of the notion that there is only one apple that will satisfy them — one ideal apple for their sauce, one ideal apple for their pie, one ideal apple for their snack.
I see people starting to crack under the pressure — wracked with indecision when faced with so many apples — and I desperately want them to be OK.
Well. I want me to be OK, too. And it's closely related.
At any rate, I swear to you: It's going to be OK.
Apple season is a solid two months, at least. There is time to try a lot of apples.
It's never enough time, I'll grant you.
But there is time.
* * *
That's a Melrouge in the photograph at the top of this post. It's a cross between [shudder!] a Red Delicious and [squeal!] a Jonathan.
I scored it off another orchard.
apples, cider, fraises des bois, green city market, lincoln square market, melons, peaches
Reader Comments (4)
And yet they're so disppointed with only 1 type of tomato on the table: "Are these just organized by...size?" "Yes. They're all italian reds." "That's it?" "Yes. They're still really good."
Bought a couple Wolf River apples yesterday, just because you wrote about them. Had to see them for myself, I guess. All day, people commented on the size of the apples sitting on my table. Thanks!
I share your antipathy to Red Delicious, but feel a little guilty about that sometimes. It's as though R Delish had been an abused child, monstrously distorted by market forces and the crushing love of the masses.
It was originally an apple called Hawkeye. No reason Hawkeye's genome can't yield up something good someday, though Melrose doesn't do anything special for me personally.
See, I don't understand this indecision around apple varieties. I'm happy to eat any kind of apple you have on offer. Actually, now that I think about it, I would apply that principle more generally to...well, all food.
Suddenly inundated with apples! Bought some at your stand, my hubby brought some back from Goshen, cow-orker brought some from a you-pick she went to in Indiana. I foresee pie....