Farmer's Market

I didn't need much at the Farmer's Market today--just the bacon I couldn't find last week and apples. I also grabbed a couple of tamales to take home for lunch and some yummy juice. While there were just 2 things on my list (bacon and apples) I ended up making bigger purchases than usual.

Last week Curtis asked Dan, the apple guy, to set aside some Granny Smith apples for his pie making experiments. Dan said he'd set aside a box. Thus, I picked up a box (not a full box, but 20 pounds worth!) of apples for Curtis.

Apples have been a little hard to come by this year---at least the seconds I like for applesauce and the "hard" apples Curtis prefers for apple pies. From our visit to the apple orchard in Medina last year, I learned a little bit about apples. There are basically two different types of apples--hard and soft. Soft apples tend to the be beautifully red, very sweet apples. They are soft because they have a high sugar content and when cooked, they turn to mush quite quickly. Soft apples aren't good for pies or other baked goods like apple cakes. They are great for applesauce because they don't need to cook for very long before being a mushy mess in the pan. They also make the best eating apples (in my humble opinion) because of their sweetness.

Hard apples are the green apples. Conversely, they don't have as much sugar and therefore hold their shape better for baking. These are the apples that make wonderful pies and cakes. They are sometimes too tart for eating according to some people's tastes. A few of the hard apples are usually pretty good thrown into the applesauce made with soft apples because it gives a little more depth to the flavor. In our family, the favorite apples for pies are Crispin's early in the season and Granny Smith's later in the season (here, apple season is from July!! through October).

You also may find unpasteurized cider at the Farmer's Market. At our Farmer's Market, if you bring your own container, you can buy a 1 quart or 1/2 gallon of cider. The orchards don't bottle their own cider to sell because of pasteurization laws (which currently is why Goodflow Juice here in town isn't being sold currently). Again, according to the orchard we visited, the pasteurization laws were put into place to protect consumers from the massive, commerical orchards that used machinery to scoop apples off the ground to make into cider. (Warning, the following is rather disgusting in my mind, so skip ahead if you have a weak stomach). Sometimes these machines would scoop up mice in their apple gathering and the mice would get processed with the apples. The pasteurization makes sure that no E-coli may have seeped it to the cider. E-coli is spread through feces, thus the mice/vermin are the problem. No animals, no e-coli. That makes me thankful the laws are in place. However, for smaller orchards that pick the apples for cider by hand, that isn't a problem and they don't invest in the expensive equipment to pasteurize and seal their own containers. They don't feel their consumers are at risk because they know that no stray animals have wandered into their cider. The way around the law for them is to bring cider to sell by the cup or let the consumers bring their own containers to take the cider home in.

I hope we can use our 20 lbs of apples before I need to figure out how to fit all 20 lbs into the refrigerator. I am looking forward to making a Jewish Apple Cake....I just need to find some people to feed it to (our family can't eat a whole cake by ourselves!). I am guessing our apple peeler, corer, slicer will be a good investment by the time Curtis makes all of his pies!