Tastes – Apple Tips

My children spent their school days years a beautiful country Connecticut village know as Woodstock, the apple capital of the Northeast. Our local farmers, Bishop and Joy, let us pick all the apples we could eat from their trees. The Healeys invited us into there barn at any time to sip homemade sweet cider. Woodstock is that kind of place. I returned last Thanksgiving to find Joys stand, Healeys farm and Bishops orchards still going strong.

I learned a few basics about apples, although the names can change in different regions:

Red Delicious – with smooth, dark crimson skin, are best eaten fresh or cut up in salad.

Granny Smith – with smooth, bright green skin, are tart and crunchy. These are my favorite to enjoy with a wedge of cheddar, and for apple pies and applesauce. The pie that usually won the 4H contest at the annual Woodstock Fair was made with Granny Smiths. I was surprised to learn that food network chef Guy, of Triple D and Guy’s Big Bite, likes diced Granny Smiths (skins on) in his buttery Yukon Gold mashed (skins on).

Fugi apples are beautiful in a fruit bowl with their red, gold and yellow-green skin. They are juicy, tangy and sweet. Fugis are good in crisps, cobblers, Brown Betty’s, pancakes and pies.

Honey Crisps, love the name, golden brushed with deep red, are also sweet and juicy. Like red delicious, a good eating apple for picnics and lunch boxes.

Tips:

The Hill Team enjoyed one of the best French Apple tarts they ever tasted, even in France, lovingly prepared by Captain Ken Barnes at the Captain Lindsay House in Rockland, Maine.

We would love to hear YOUR apple ideas:

Please send us some dishes, and recipes to publish, where adding a few handfuls of chopped apples will add to flavor and crunch. Some of our add-ins are, turkey stuffing, couscous, chicken wraps, and apple pancakes with apple sausages.