“Why do we need so many kinds of apples? Because there are so many folks. A person has a right to gratify his legitimate tastes. If he wants twenty or forty kinds of apples for his personal use, running from Early Harvest to Roxbury Russet, he should be accorded the privilege. Some place should be provided where he may obtain trees or scions. There is merit in variety itself. It provides more points of contact with life, and leads away from uniformity and monotony.” Liberty Hyde Bailey from The Apple Tree (1922)
People often ask us what our favorite apple is, and John always replys, “during what week of the year and for what purpose?” He doesn’t mean to be evasive; he just has the luxury of a huge palette of varieties from which to choose. Our preferences evolve as each week passes and new trees ripen. They change depending on whether we are snacking, baking or pressing cider. They come and go from year to year as the flavor profiles and juiciness of the fruit varies with the weather conditions of the season. We even have the good fortune (and perhaps nerdiness) to be able to chose our favorites based on where they were grown - the terroir. This year the Chestnut Crab from Super Chilly Farm tasted wildly different from any we tasted from other orchards around the state.
Nearly a century ago, the USDA decided that this kind of diversity wasn’t important - that consumers and growers would be best served by only six or seven apples, and so they encouraged farmers to eliminate the small mixed-variety orchards and plant the hillsides with row after row of a few varieties. Somewhere it was decided that we all love apples that are sweet, crisp and juicy, a self-fulfilling prophesy when that is all that is offered in the supermarkets across the country. I suppose we can’t really complain about the lack of choice in apples when we are only offered one variety of banana, mango and avocado despite the fact that there are hundreds of others. Instead the food industry has decided to offer us 33 kinds of toaster pastries, 193 types of salad dressing, and 124 different mac ‘n cheese products. Go figure.
Out on a Limb CSA is our chance to fight back against apple monotony. The more you and your friends appreciate and seek out the diverse flavors of apples, the more commercial orchardists in Maine will take notice and answer the call. We’re reminded every year how the apples that we overlook or disparage are oftentimes the favorites of our shareholders. There really is an apple for every taste preference, and we hope we have found a match or two for yours.
Picks of the week:
(Click each variety for more info)
The days and nights are finally starting to feel like fall, the leaves on the trees are beginning to color up and the apples are coming into their glory month. There are suddenly so many to chose from that we had a difficult time deciding what to pick. But since Share #2 was full of crabs, we decided to GO BIG this week and include some of our favorite show-stopping, monster apples. They are far too big to bite into (though a donkey or horse could probably manage it) so grab a knife and start slicing.
At the bottom of your share bag you will find the two apples that everyone who comes to John’s apple displays has to pick up. “Look at this!! Can you believe it’s an apple? It’s the size of a coconut!! ” Wolf River and Twenty Ounce might have knocked Sir Issac Newton unconscious if either of them had been the apple that famously dropped on his head. Fortunately they fell instead into the hands of some 19th century cooks who realized that it wouldn’t take very many of these apples to fill their pie crusts. Although Wolf River originated in Wisconsin, it became a favorite all over Maine when returning loggers brought it back east with them. Just this week our neighbor stopped by when he saw us loading crates of Wolf River into our cooler to reminisce about the Wolf River trees of his childhood. The flesh of Wolf River is fairly dry so it is excellent for hand pies and other baked goods that need a firmer fruit. They also are a favorite variety for dried apples. Twenty Ounce, which has been known to grow as big as a baby’s head, is delightfully tart and makes a good sauce. We often use it on apple and cheddar pizzas.
WATERCORE MAKES THE SKIN AND FLESH LOOK TRANSLUCENT.
Ok, so Deane isn’t quite in the league of the other apple giants (it has the diminutive moniker “Nine Ounce”), but we’re excited to have it in the CSA for the first time. Deane is a Maine native that was discovered by Cyrus Deane in Temple (Franklin County) in 1858. This all-purpose apple looks like a cross between Duchess and Northern Spy which could be lurking somewhere in its parentage. We haven’t had much of an opportunity to get to know this apple yet, so let us know what you think of it.
Another oldie in your share bag that tips the apple scale to the large side is the King of Tompkins County. This dense-fleshed apple is sweet and spicy and easy to eat fresh or in sauce. It also is excellent in cider. Don’t be suprised if you discover that the insides of some of the KTC’s looks translucent or glassy. That’s watercore and the KTC seem to have a lot of it this season. It results from a nutrient imbalance that causes the air spaces between the cells in the apple to fill with water and sorbitol. The apples are fine to eat; in Japan apples with watercore are highly prized for their sweetness. But they don’t store well so eat them soon.
The final two apples in your share are nothing like the four that have come before - they are small to medium in size, deep red to purple in color, dessert fruits best for fresh eating, modern introductions from the University of Minnesota, and wildly flavored like no other apples. When you take your first bites of Frostbite and Sweet 16, let go of any old notions of what an apple should taste like. They will take you on a taste journey - try to identify all the flavors. Pair them with a piece of cheese or put them in a salad. We love love love these two apples and hope you will too. One fun fact to mull over as you bite in - Frostbite, a decendent of Siberian Crabapple, is the parent of Sweet 16 and Keepsake and the grandparent of Honeycrisp.
Our apples come to you straight from the tree, so, as with all fresh produce, please be sure to wash them thoroughly before eating. Some of the apples are grown using Integrated Pest Management by the orchards we collaborate with throughout Maine, and some are organically grown here on Super Chilly Farm.
Recipe of the Week
For years I have been searching for an apple scone recipe to include in the newsletter. I’ve tried lots of different ones that I thought they were too heavy, too bread-like or sadly tasteless. I even tried to add apples to my favorite, never-fail, berry scone recipe, and the results were disastrous. Always ready for a baking challenge, Lydia P. brought a basket of apple scones to our last CSA packing day that she made with Summer Rambo. Although the hungry OOAL crew was happy to eat them, they seemed more like muffins trying to pass themselves off as scones. I can almost hear Prue and Paul calling them too dense, under-baked, and over-mixed to earn the title of “scon” or however the Brits pronounce it. But finally, I think I have found (with a bit of help from our daughter, Tracy) a recipe that might be worthy of The Great British Bake Off. It comes from the website Smittenkitchen.com and is adapted from a recipe by Bill Yosses. The apple and cheddar make a perfect pair; and because you bake the apple first, the dough stays rather dry and crumbly like a good scone should. I made them with both 20 Ounce and Wolf River; the Wolf River made for a drier and chewier scone while the 20 Ounce scone was moister and showed off more of the apple flavor. John thought I should have added even more apples.
Apple and Cheddar Scones
Ingredients:
2 firm, tart apples (1 lb) - peeled and cored
1½ cups all-purpose flour (6.75 oz)
1/4 cup granulated sugar plus 1½ Tbs for sprinkling (2.2 oz total)
½ Tbs baking powder (7 gr)
½ tsp salt (3 gr) plus additional for egg wash
6 Tbs (3 oz) unsalted butter - chilled and cut into ½” cubes
½ cup (2.25 oz) extra sharp cheddar - shredded (white is recommended)
1/4 cup heavy cream (2 oz)
2 large eggs
Directions:
Position rack in the center of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with butter.
Cut the apples in half horizontally, and then cut each half into 8 even-sized chunks. Place them in a single layer on the lined baking sheet. Bake them until they begin to brown and feel dry to the touch. This should take about 20 minutes. They should still be firm and only half-baked.
Let the apples cool completely. If you are in a hurry, you can put them in the fridge. (In a rare moment of planning ahead, I baked the apples the night before so they were cooled and ready to turn into scones for breakfast.)
When the apples are cool, turn the oven back on to 375°. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
If you have an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, place the butter in the bowl of the mixer along with the apples, cheese, cream and one egg. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the top. Mix on low speed just until the dough comes together. Don’t overmix.
Since I don’t have a stand mixer, I rubbed the butter into the flour mixture with my fingers and a pastry blender, chopped the apples into bits with a knife, and mixed in the rest of the ingredients with a wooden spoon until combined. This is more work, but there is less chance of overmixing.
Coat your counter top with flour, and scrape the dough onto it. Sprinkle more flour on top. Use your hands to pat the dough into a 6” circle that is 11/4” thick. Cut into 6 wedges. Transfer onto the parchment lined baking sheet. Leave 2” between the scones - they are going to spread out as they bake.
Beat the remaining egg in a small bowl with a pinch of salt. Brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash, and sprinkle them with the remaining 1½ Tbs of sugar. (I think less sugar topping would be fine.) Bake 30 minutes until they are golden brown.
Cool the scones on a wire rack for 10 minutes before eating.
You can make these ahead and freeze them unbaked. When you remove them from the freezer brush them with the egg wash, sprinkle with sugar and put them directly in the oven. They will only need a few extra minutes to bake when they are frozen. This way, if you want them for brunch, you can still sleep in and impress your guests.
Eat these the day they are baked.
Here’s a suggestion from shareholder, Stacey, on how to revive your day-old scones. “It requires a microwave, small pyrex or other microwave-safe bowl, hot water and a microwave plate/splatter cover. Put some hot water (1/4 cup or so) in the pyrex dish and place it on the turntable in the microwave. Put a scone on a small microwave-safe plate and also put it on the turntable in the microwave. Cover both the pyrex dish and the plate with the scone in it with a microwave plate/splatter cover so it covers both dishes at once (or at least as much of both dishes together as you can). Set your microwave for 30 seconds on full power (our microwave uses 1000 watts) and start. The scone comes out fluffy, and not dry at all. The flavor of the apples also comes more to the front like it had when just freshly cooked. ”