farmers' market: post-frost
It was chilly enough this morning that the cats objected rather vocally to my getting out of bed (it's amazing how easy it is to translate certain sequences of cat sounds into the appropriate English - in this case, "hey! hot water bottle! we did not give you permission to get up, and if you do get up we want our breakfast!"). I didn't quite need gloves and scarf at the market, but might next week.
Fairly light haul today, since I picked up five pounds of lovely butternut squash at Tuesday's market and am plotting to make a giant pot of squash curry, which I always start craving when the weather turns chilly, and the leftovers from which I will be happily eating for a good deal of the week. But I did pick up onions (red and white), salad greens (to go with the last of Tuesday's tomatoes), cooking greens (a mix of arugula, chard, mustard greens, tat soi, bok choi, and mizuna), mushrooms, a big bag of slightly frostbitten red bell peppers that are just begging to be made into soup, some chevre, a giant bunch of kale and some hot green chilis to put in dal, and, of course, apples. The Mollie's Delicious are over, to my chagrin, and I decided to put the Cox's Orange Pippin off for another week, but I got a nice range of apples all the same.
This week's apples, in order from sweet to tart:
Macoun: originated 1923 at the New York State Agricultural Experiment station; it's a cross between McIntosh and Jersey Black. Dark red, very firm and almost too juicy to be called crisp. This is the kind of apple I think of as a breakfast apple, which is why I'm eating one right now; I love tart apples, but I prefer to eat them after lunch.
Montgomery Ward McIntosh: originated around 1810 in Canada. As one would expect from a McIntosh varietal, it's red, juicy, and more sweet than not. For all I've learned about apple varieties in the past couple of years, I grew up eating mostly supermarket apples, so when I think "apple" this is still the style of apple that first comes to mind. It's not quite like the Macs grown for shipping, though; the skin's thinner and the flesh, though crisp, is less hard.
Jonagrimes: originated in the 1920's, probably as another Ag experiment though I don't know where; as the name suggests, it's a Jonathan/Grimes Golden cross. Tart but not puckeringly so, crisp like a Jonathan and with the honey-like aroma (and to some extent flavor) of a Grimes. Yellow-green with a red cheek. I hear it's good for applesauce, which I haven't tried, but I can vouch for its excellence in apple crisp.
Smokehouse: originated 1837 in Lancaster County, PA, near William Gibbons' smokehouse. Small bright green apple with a red cheek. Crisp and juicy, with rather hard flesh but a relatively thin skin.
Pink Pearl: originated 1944 in California. Yellow with a pink blush, and the inside's quite pink as well (hence the name). The orchard people insist that it's got a hint of grapefruit in the taste, which I'd disagree with, but it's certainly very tart, and remarkably aromatic; it's one of those apples where you bite into it and are suddenly overwhelmed by the scent.
And now I need to go to the co-op to pick up tofu for my squash curry, dish soap for my dishes, and other necessities.
Fairly light haul today, since I picked up five pounds of lovely butternut squash at Tuesday's market and am plotting to make a giant pot of squash curry, which I always start craving when the weather turns chilly, and the leftovers from which I will be happily eating for a good deal of the week. But I did pick up onions (red and white), salad greens (to go with the last of Tuesday's tomatoes), cooking greens (a mix of arugula, chard, mustard greens, tat soi, bok choi, and mizuna), mushrooms, a big bag of slightly frostbitten red bell peppers that are just begging to be made into soup, some chevre, a giant bunch of kale and some hot green chilis to put in dal, and, of course, apples. The Mollie's Delicious are over, to my chagrin, and I decided to put the Cox's Orange Pippin off for another week, but I got a nice range of apples all the same.
This week's apples, in order from sweet to tart:
Macoun: originated 1923 at the New York State Agricultural Experiment station; it's a cross between McIntosh and Jersey Black. Dark red, very firm and almost too juicy to be called crisp. This is the kind of apple I think of as a breakfast apple, which is why I'm eating one right now; I love tart apples, but I prefer to eat them after lunch.
Montgomery Ward McIntosh: originated around 1810 in Canada. As one would expect from a McIntosh varietal, it's red, juicy, and more sweet than not. For all I've learned about apple varieties in the past couple of years, I grew up eating mostly supermarket apples, so when I think "apple" this is still the style of apple that first comes to mind. It's not quite like the Macs grown for shipping, though; the skin's thinner and the flesh, though crisp, is less hard.
Jonagrimes: originated in the 1920's, probably as another Ag experiment though I don't know where; as the name suggests, it's a Jonathan/Grimes Golden cross. Tart but not puckeringly so, crisp like a Jonathan and with the honey-like aroma (and to some extent flavor) of a Grimes. Yellow-green with a red cheek. I hear it's good for applesauce, which I haven't tried, but I can vouch for its excellence in apple crisp.
Smokehouse: originated 1837 in Lancaster County, PA, near William Gibbons' smokehouse. Small bright green apple with a red cheek. Crisp and juicy, with rather hard flesh but a relatively thin skin.
Pink Pearl: originated 1944 in California. Yellow with a pink blush, and the inside's quite pink as well (hence the name). The orchard people insist that it's got a hint of grapefruit in the taste, which I'd disagree with, but it's certainly very tart, and remarkably aromatic; it's one of those apples where you bite into it and are suddenly overwhelmed by the scent.
And now I need to go to the co-op to pick up tofu for my squash curry, dish soap for my dishes, and other necessities.