APPLES!!!!!

Despite the very confusing East Coast weather these days, it is supposedly Autumn which means it is apple season. I've recently just had two very apple filled experiences which I'd like to share as both resulted in the consumption of a massive quantity of apple products and apples.

The first apple adventure was last weekend in Ithaca, NY at the Downtown Ithaca Apple Harvest Festival, now in it's 28th year. I had the opportunity to visit some friends and attend the festival with them, which was lovely but also challenging during the peak of the festival on Saturday. The entire commons area of the quaint little hippie town was so jammed with people that it was difficult to even walk. The food however, was delicious! I only managed to pick up one bag of apples for myself which included some hybrid apple that crossed a red delicious ( not usually my favorite) with another type of apple. I did snag some very delicious and filling Indian food and some cold cider.

We purchased a sizable few bags of apples to cook which through some team work and recipe alteration we turned into an absolutely mouth-watering apple crumb pie. Think apples, brown sugar, white sugar, butter, oatmeal and cinnamon in a pie crust. Yum!

When I came home from my Ithaca adventures my family was a little disappointed by the small bag of apples I returned with, however I got the opportunity to make it up to them this Friday with a trip up to Warwick NY to pick my own apples at Masker Orchards. Check them out.
I have to say, every apple we tasted was delicious. Since they literally came right off the tree and into our hands they were as fresh as physically possible. We got a whole variety including Cortlands, Jonagolds, Macintosh, Empire and some we weren't even sure what they were.

The Red Delicious also had the chance to redeem itself from the mealy, soft, boring quality that I normally experience in this apple. The ones that came off the tree didn't even resemble the typical "teacher apple" you normally see. The color was much more vibrant and the shape was much rounder, and the taste and texture far superior to any red delicious I've ever had the misfortune to eat. All in all the experience was a really nice one- walking through the orchards and choosing our own fruit. Now I need to find something else to cook involving a massive quantity of apples, although it seems almost a pity to cook these crisp apples into a mush. I'm extremely picky when it comes to apples, and if they aren't break your teeth crunchy, as my mom likes to say, then I don't want to eat them.

Here's the bag I brought home:

Apples actually are really fascinating, as I learned watching The Botany of Desire, based on Michael Pollan's book. Apparently if you plant an apple seed you don't get the same type of apple as the apple the seed came from. What?? There's a whole grafting process of putting the seed with an already growing branch in order to get back the same type of apple. Pretty crazy and awesome, but I find botany pretty cool in general.