οἶον τὸ γλυκύμαλον ἐρεύθεται ἄκρῳ ἐπ᾿ ὔσδῳ
The apple-picking was a success! It was conducted at Shelburne Farm in Stow, which does not require a three-hour round trip to get to; it took about forty-five minutes in the car with ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
gaudior and Fox, at the end of which we met skygiants, genarti, and a friend of theirs whose social media I don't know, plus a lot of small children scooting around on pedal tractors, a bouncy pumpkin castle, several goats and alpacas, and about fifty acres of apple trees, among which we wandered with either peck or half-bushel bags while I did not even bother trying to keep the score for Guys and Dolls out of my head. We started with the Autumn Crisp and the Shizuka, which were off behind a windmill and several groves roped off from picking—which did not prevent Fox from enacting myth immemorial and detaching a forbidden fruit—and then moved on to the warring clans of the McIntosh and Macoun, with detours through various other cultivars like Cortland, Honeycrisp, there were Galas somewhere but I didn't pick any, I'm not sure we we ever actually found the Empire apple. The Autumn Crisp itself is glossy as a sucker and almost candy-grape sweet, so much so that I'm not sure I should even cook it. I am slightly afraid of the Crimson Crisp, a small, round, brilliantly photogenic apple which looked like it was auditioning for a starring role in a fairy tale. The Snow had a fine bright flavor but an extraordinarily strange mouthfeel, so dry it was like eating the prickly side of Velcro; it must be a cooking apple, which seems a waste of its china-white flesh. I tried a Red Delicious off the tree to see what it was like when not grocery-buffed past an inch of its life and the answer was, unfortunately, "a perfectly decent boring apple." It was grey and damp but not raw or raining. We split the party several times and were miraculously not lost in an unending apple maze. Every now and then tractor-drawn hayrides would rumble past. Afterward we repaired to the farm store for cider donuts, which were so good they did not even require rolling in cinnamon sugar; the plain kind were live-steam hot, cider-fragrant, and addictive. I had promised rushthatspeaks that I would get them at least one weird cultivar, so I went with the Chenango Strawberry, which is supposed to taste like strawberries, and a handful of Firecrackers, which sound like some vaguely hazardous Hogwarts snack food and are actually sort of crabapple-y with pink-red flesh resembling stone fruit. I have a peck of most of the varieties named above and plan to make a lot of pies, although not this second as all of today's stamina seems to have gone toward the apple-getting. Hooray for autumn.
gaudior and Fox, at the end of which we met skygiants, genarti, and a friend of theirs whose social media I don't know, plus a lot of small children scooting around on pedal tractors, a bouncy pumpkin castle, several goats and alpacas, and about fifty acres of apple trees, among which we wandered with either peck or half-bushel bags while I did not even bother trying to keep the score for Guys and Dolls out of my head. We started with the Autumn Crisp and the Shizuka, which were off behind a windmill and several groves roped off from picking—which did not prevent Fox from enacting myth immemorial and detaching a forbidden fruit—and then moved on to the warring clans of the McIntosh and Macoun, with detours through various other cultivars like Cortland, Honeycrisp, there were Galas somewhere but I didn't pick any, I'm not sure we we ever actually found the Empire apple. The Autumn Crisp itself is glossy as a sucker and almost candy-grape sweet, so much so that I'm not sure I should even cook it. I am slightly afraid of the Crimson Crisp, a small, round, brilliantly photogenic apple which looked like it was auditioning for a starring role in a fairy tale. The Snow had a fine bright flavor but an extraordinarily strange mouthfeel, so dry it was like eating the prickly side of Velcro; it must be a cooking apple, which seems a waste of its china-white flesh. I tried a Red Delicious off the tree to see what it was like when not grocery-buffed past an inch of its life and the answer was, unfortunately, "a perfectly decent boring apple." It was grey and damp but not raw or raining. We split the party several times and were miraculously not lost in an unending apple maze. Every now and then tractor-drawn hayrides would rumble past. Afterward we repaired to the farm store for cider donuts, which were so good they did not even require rolling in cinnamon sugar; the plain kind were live-steam hot, cider-fragrant, and addictive. I had promised rushthatspeaks that I would get them at least one weird cultivar, so I went with the Chenango Strawberry, which is supposed to taste like strawberries, and a handful of Firecrackers, which sound like some vaguely hazardous Hogwarts snack food and are actually sort of crabapple-y with pink-red flesh resembling stone fruit. I have a peck of most of the varieties named above and plan to make a lot of pies, although not this second as all of today's stamina seems to have gone toward the apple-getting. Hooray for autumn.
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Nine
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I don't know if it was one of the ones they took home or ate while picking! (It was a good orchard for eating while picking.) I'll have to ask
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(My local cider doughnut people, at Langwater Farm, automatically put the cinnamon sugar on, and today, there were a big ol' host of bees enjoying the sugar spread. They were very politely ignoring the doughnut person, and he seemed not at all phased by their presence. Made me feel better about the world, somehow.)
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Thank you!
They were very politely ignoring the doughnut person, and he seemed not at all phased by their presence. Made me feel better about the world, somehow.
I can see that. It sounds like a very cordial form of coexistence.
(Were you also apple-picking or just at a farm?)
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Indeed!
(Ghost apple!)
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I had been looking forward to it for a month and it was.
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I need to go apple picking, but I'm not sure I'm gonna make it happen this fall...
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!תפוחים
I need to go apple picking, but I'm not sure I'm gonna make it happen this fall...
I can commend you to Shelburne Farm, if you decide to go for it.
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I used to long to try cider donuts, but Trader Joe's has stocked them the past two autumns. I like them a lot, though I'm sure they're not as good as the freshly made ones.
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I like apples a lot.
I like them a lot, though I'm sure they're not as good as the freshly made ones.
Does California not have a cider tradition? Or just not in your area? (It never occurred to me to wonder!)
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I'm so amazed that regional food traditions managed to survive the twentieth century. It makes me happy, except for the part where there are no fresh cider donuts near you!
(Come to New England in autumn! The cider donuts will make up for the climate shock.)
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Nice!
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We actually have an apple tree in our back yard that produces a LOT of apples, but they usually fall before they are really ripe. For many years I was just ignoring it -- I don't know why, as if own apples were somehow not real -- but this year a friend came to visit and insisted on baking an apple pie. And it was delicious! She left me the recipe and I've baked it three or four times since. Yummy!
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She left me the recipe and I've baked it three or four times since. Yummy!
That's excellent! I am glad you have an apple tree and bake from it.
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It was a good time.
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No, I think cooking would wreck them. The catch is that I cannot eat very much raw apple at the moment, but the several bites I had yesterday do not appear to have done anything awful to me, so I am contemplating at least part of an Autumn Crisp. I am still a little concerned that the Crimson Crisp will cause one to sleep for a hundred years or some such.
- and I wonder if the Snow might be a cider apple?
Oh, that's a good point! The weird texture would be irrelevant and the dryness would serve a cider very well. I keep forgetting that specifically cider apples exist, as opposed to the process of making cider from apples at large.
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Thank you! It really was.
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We didn't do any apple picking, but I did buy a nice selection of the heirloom varieties in their shop.
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Next time you're even wondering, shout! I am sorry I didn't see you. Did you have a good hike?
We didn't do any apple picking, but I did buy a nice selection of the heirloom varieties in their shop.
Cool. Which ones?
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We did have a good hike - we went to a place not too far from Shelburne Farm called Mt. Misery. It's neither a mountain nor miserable, just a some gentle hilliness, woods, and fields.
For apples, I got Chenango Strawberry, Cox's Orange Pippin, Blue Pearmain, Grimes golden (I think), and one more that I can't remember.
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Yay!
- we went to a place not too far from Shelburne Farm called Mt. Misery. It's neither a mountain nor miserable, just a some gentle hilliness, woods, and fields.
That sounds really nice. I will keep it in mind for when my stamina returns from the Outer Antipodes.
For apples, I got Chenango Strawberry, Cox's Orange Pippin, Blue Pearmain, Grimes golden (I think), and one more that I can't remember.
I was really tempted by the Blue Pearmain, although mostly for the name. I hope it's good!
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Aw. I understand that!