A is for Apple

In spite of the plans, we didn't get to go apple picking this year. The orchard the group went to see stopped the pick-your-own early; another orchard employee elsewhere told me that a lot of orchards did that this year, due to the odd weather we've been having.

So...today I drove out to a local orchard that still has one (elderly but still producing) R.I. Greening apple tree. These--as I've said before--are my favorite apples. They're tart, crisp, and the best ever for cooking. I think that we'll be having pork and apple pie this week.

I don't have the recipe to hand, but in general: peel and core some sour apples; thinly slice some yellow onions; cook about a pound of ground pork with minced garlic, a bit of onion, some tomato paste, sage, red pepper flakes, sea salt, and black pepper; let the meat mixture cool.

Layer meat/apple/onion (and repeat to the top of the dish); cover with a pastry of your choice; I generally use cream cheese pastry, though Catherine's Pastry (see Fanny Farmer; it's a butter and lard pastry) is also very good.

Cut some slits for the steam to escape and bake at about 425 F until the juices bubble up and the crust is golden.

More ideas: applesauce, apple marmalade, cranberry applesauce, apple pie, Dutch apple cake.

Oh, and apple brownies aren't so bad, either.

Happy picking and eating.

Apples

By definition (overseas and everwhere but Vermont, I think), I'm a Yankee. Not born in New England, but upstate New York...and I grew up thinking Yankee, reading Yankee Magazine and devouring books on the Northeast and New England.

Part of that heritage is apples. When I was small we'd occasionally go apple-picking and to the cider mills in the area. From my early 20s to 2008, the only orchards I saw were the ones I drove past on my way to somewhere else.

Last year DH and I finally went apple-picking. We picked half a bushel of apples and I made apple marmalade and did quite a bit of baking.

The marmalade was an enormous success with everyone who tried it and I want to make at least twice as much this year. I'd also like to experiment a bit with apple pies...when we last visited Concord, MA I picked up a wonderful cookbook devoted entirely to baking apple pies (!) and am looking forward to trying some of the recipes soon.

Macintosh aren't in season any longer, so we'll be dealing with other varieties. The one variety that I have been searching for for most of my life--I kid you not--is called the Rhode Island Greening. Particularly appropriate now that I'm living in Rhode Island, isn't it?

I first read about it in a children's book set in the 1940s. The main character's mother decides she'll bake a pie to enter at the fair if she can find some of these heritage apples (they date at least to American Colonial times).

With the recent push for organic and heritage varieties of produce and meat I have high hopes, but we haven't found any yet.

It's entirely possible that I will simply have to buy my own tree. They are available, but it'll take up quite a lot of space in our small yard.

If anyone out there knows of a local orchard where I can find some, I'd be grateful!

And after I make the marmalade, I will post the recipe. As it happens, I found it in the (hardcover) Yankee cookbook, first published in 1939.

Knitting and apples

I've got lots of both.

We went apple picking last Saturday (on the most perfect fall day imaginable) and got half a bushel of apples. I have made four apple pies, 12 4 oz. jars of apple marmalade, and an apple bourbon cake. (Not to mention the apples we've eaten out of hand and the pork chops smothered in apples, red cabbage and carmelized onions). We still have about 12 apples left.

I also made DH a pair of socks from some Regia Silk color yarn. Within a week, no less, and have finished one of a pair for me, made from some wonderful cone yarn we bought the year I began to knit. It's ivory slub (wool) around a nylon core. I've made a few other pairs of socks, as well as a two piece 30s dress from the stuff. It's pretty and rustic, and it wears like iron. (I also have some in gray and in plum.)

It's good to be knitting again. And this particular yarn is inspirational. It looks so warm (because it is) and I'm thinking that a cabled cardigan in this stuff would be wonderful. Maybe on size 4 (American) needles. The socks I'm making right now are on size 2 needles. The gauge is great for socks.

(But I still wish I could find the Missing Yarn!)