As I had said before I believe there is treasure everywhere, even if it is a cold rainy day with no redeeming qualities, there's certainly something good to be found. The local apples are coming into season. There are several farms that are now growing heritage varieties. Though the apples command a premium price the venture is a huge risk for most orchards. Most Americans have been raised on only a few commercially popular types.
The old saying goes "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree"; that may be true but each apple seed is genetically different from every other seed. The seeds from your favorite apple are more than likely to produce a tree that bares fruit that's nothing like the original apple. Some how people discovered if you take branches from one kind of apple tree and graft them on to another apple tree. I knew one farmer who had at least half a dozen different kinds of apples all on one tree. It was his way of showing off. This is also how apples varieties are commercially propagated, they are all clones that over generations can be traced back to one tree.
At one time most apples where grown for apple cider and not the kind of sweet cider sold in supermarkets, most apple cider a century ago was made to be fermented. Each seed is a genetic throw of the dice and the vast majority of apples are unpalatable but many apples that where too tart to eat made the best hard cider. Maybe only one out of a hundred apple trees grown from seed had fruit that was tasty or cooked well but because of the wide diversity of apples and relative isolation of farming communities, just about every town had developed its own special variety of apple.
I am told some of the best apple orchards in the world are in England and France where they have always made hard cider. In American the apple growers had to change everything because of Prohibition when the sale of alcohol was illegal and many cider orchards were destroyed.
Not far from my home is Hopewell Furnace state park. It's a preserved iron foundry and worker's village from the early 1800's. On the grounds is a heritage orchard from the 1930's. You can pick your own apples there, the park supplies every thing you'll need and the price per pound is more than reasonable. In their little orchard alone they have 32 different kinds of apples.
All that fruit does attract insects including bees, wasps and hornets. The bugs don't usually show up on cold and rainy days.
These are Baldwin apples. They are not pretty (maybe why you don't see them in the supermarkets) but they are good. I ate a couple of them before we even got home, this was what apples tasted like when I was a child. Back then there were still a few small orchards near my home. Fresh from the tree is so much better than a product that spent the last two weeks being shipped and sitting on a shelf.
This is the pie my wife made from the Baldwin apples. It is cooling as I type. Pie crust has its own controversy. Vegetable shortening is consider bad for your health, lard is seen as unholy and my Vegan friends won't touch a thing with butter in it (well that's their loss).
Since it is Autumn you might want to make your own hard cider. I know a simple college dorm room method that works really well. Making hard cider is that easy but you might want to do a little research first to make a quality cider. Ginger beer is also in season. Also cheap and easy to make and goes so well on dreary Autumn afternoon.
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