I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I love the fall. I especially love fall in New England, with the stunning foliage and trips to pumpkin patches and apple orchards. (And you know we’re big fans of Apples in this household.)
On Sunday we paid a visit to a local apple orchard that has an apple tasting each year.
We’d been apple-picking at this orchard in previous years, but I wasn’t sure what to expect for the tasting. It turns out that it was a very low-key event, with not too many people. But there were a whole lot of apples.
Inside the barn/farmstand building, they had set up a long row of wooden bins, each with a different kind of apple. In front of each bin was a little bowl with apple slices, and attached to each bin was a tag with the name of the variety, and bits of information about the cultivar and its history. I felt like I should have taken notes. (For example, I wish I could remember to tell you which kind was the most popular apple in the US in 1900.)
I knew that the orchard claims to grow over 50 varieties of apples, but I thought they’d perhaps have a dozen or so available to taste. I was quite impressed that they had probably closer to 2 dozen kinds out on display with samples set out for tasting. It turns out the folks at the orchard store apples that are typically only available earlier in the season specifically for the tasting weekend.
In spite of all the varieties, I ended up choosing a couple of bags of some familar apples: Macouns (a Mac variety) and Empires (which I love for making applesauce). And now I should have plenty of apples to make an apple crisp.
The orchard has this gigantic walk-in refrigerator. I wish had someone in there for scale.
Apples of my eye.
Theo, post-smooch-from-Phoebe.
collecting tokens 
the big sunday farmers’ market in baltimore has a nice apple tasting from an orchard that sells a pretty amazing selection of apple varieties (though not 50 of them!). the only bad part was falling in love with varieties that are rather trickier to find!
Beautiful photos. I wish I could taste all those varieties of apple!
Fall is also my favorite season in New England. Scratch that. Fall was the only season I liked in New England. But I’d forgotten that fall in the Bay Area is also great: it’s our “Indian summer”. Typically September and October are warmer than July. I’ve been enjoying the sun as well as the bounty of the farmers’ market–which, incidentally, still has strawberries! Strawberry season lasted about 2 weeks at the farmers’ market in Boston as I recall. But yes, we are also getting some apples and pears (so I can try your roasted pear recipe!).
Yum! apples! [I just went back to read the Ththth on apples (and squid). This reminded me of how my mother said I had “apple cheeks” as a baby.]
As long as I’m free-associating about apples… My parents have an apple tree (we’re not sure, but the apples it gives might possibly be golden delicious? but if so, the apples are much better than any golden delicious apples I’ve ever bought), but this year it sadly only gave about 2 dozen apples total (hopefully because there’s been a drought, which will probably end this winter, and not because the tree is getting too old to produce fruit). So I’ll have to get apples at the farmers’ market for my annual apple pie. Sometime I should send you my mom’s stream-of-consciousness recipe for apple pie (since I don’t have a blog to post it on… cue Alejna’s usual “you should start a blog!”).
*happy sigh*
wonderful photos. and now i’m hungry. :)
Looks great. So you’ve got crisp fall weather already? Am still waiting for it to really cool down over here in Hong Kong!
Yummy! What’s your favorite for making pies?
That sounds like so much fun. Love your photos.
This sounds like heaven. I love apples. :)