Too Many Apples, Too Little Time

I started off the weekend thinking that I’d review two apples for this episode of American Apple. There were only two new varieties at the orchard on Friday when I stopped in. But I swung by again Saturday afternoon and there were four more that I hadn’t yet tried! Ack! I selected two of the four. Here are the varieties I ended up working with this weekend:

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Welcome back to American Apple! What a contest we have this week! My trip to the orchard yesterday netted us two new antique apple varieties to try: Wolf River and Carnation, also known as Carpentin. The immediately noticeable thing about the two of them as they sat side-by-side on the scale was the difference in their sizes. Wolf River apples are gargantuan Goliaths. Really, really huge! And Carnations are diminutive little Davids. I felt like I was working with walnuts as I prepared them for pie pan. So the question this week is, will David slay Goliath? Or will Goliath’s flavor match its size?

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Japanese Apple Akane In Competition Too

Welcome to episode 2 of American Apple! The dogs and I drove into Appleberry Farm in Cross Plains, Wisconsin, this morning to see what has ripened since our last visit. While Cricket barked at the kids heading out to the orchard to pick their own fruit (she is, after all, in charge of security), I selected four apple varieties to try. I bagged an international group. In addition to heirloom apples from England, Canada and California, I grabbed a Japanese apple new to me — Akane. Akane really is too young to qualify for this competition, but what the hell, we let her in anyway.
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