Broccoli Rising and Picking the Right Apple
What was your favorite Halloween costume as a kid? I was Snow White for years running. Easy-peasy — blue blouse, long yellow skirt and my hair was (and still is) bobbed, dark and straight like Disney’s Snow White. And I carried an apple.
Maybe you remember all Seven Dwarfs, but do you remember the whole story? It involves a poisoned apple. Myths are filled with apples. Some are troublesome — Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit, the golden apple that started the Trojan War; others are so treasured they’re guarded by dragons. And here we are at apple season. So how do you pick the right apple?
Apples are one of the world’s oldest fruits. Bees love to pollinate them, and we humans have done our part too. It appears we ate apples back when we traded goods back in the days of the Silk Road. The seeds behind sprouted, grew and produced 25,000 different apple cultivars.
At least 17,00 varieties of them grew across North America at one time. Those still in existence we call heirlooms. Each has its own taste, size, and mouthfeel. A soft-fleshed sweet Grimes Golden from West Virginia tastes different from a tart, crunchy Newtown Pippin.What you’re tasting is terroir, the special combination of soil and climate unique to each region. Heirloom apples, like wine, are a delicious example of biodiversity.
You don’t get terroir in grocery store standards like Granny Smith and Red Delicious apples. They’re more corporate agriculture products than produce, monoculture monoliths build to last thanks to chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
With so many kinds of apples, why settle for one? Especially when you’re not the one who gets to decide which one it will be?
Sometimes you want tart snappy apples for cider, sometimes you want softer ones for applesauce. With heirlooms, you get to decide. You’re also choosing biodiversity. In her new book, The Nature of Nature environmental activist Vandana Shiva equates biodiversity with a resilient planet. Check out her Foodprint interview with Alicia Kennedy.
Diversity has always been a strength, in apples and in America. As pomologist — that’s apple historian — John Bunker has said, “The apple is, so to speak, our democratic fruit.”
Wanna be as American as apple pie? Make this apple pan dowdy from our founding mother Abigail Adams. I’m making two for Thanksgiving — that’s how good it is.
Apples add nuance to savory dishes too, like this autumnal curried sweet potato soup. A Broccoli Rising subscriber made it recently and reported back: “It was excellent.”
Apples like to slaw, especially in Bryant Terry’s recipe
Apples and cruciferous vegetables pair up again in my quick sauté
Fran Costigan, vegan pastry queen and Rouxbe’s Director of Vegan Pastry gives baked apples, that family favorite, a little dazzle
Easier than apple pie is my apple cake
And special for you, Broccoli Rising paid subscribers, a brand new recipe — applesauce raisin bread. It’s tender, quick and easy, and apple-sweet. Scroll down to grab this exclusive. Not a paid subscriber yet? Sign up now.
ICYMI
Got a favorite vegan restaurant? Support it while you can. Trending on IG — my VegNews article on challenges facing the vegan restaurant industry. Thank you, VegNews, and all my amazing sources, Souley Vegan, Minty Z, Joy Cafe, Chicago Diner, Burgerlords, and Happy Cow.
Last Wednesday was World Food Day. You missed it? No worries, I’ve got you covered. I’ve always wanted to have a manifesto, and it turns out the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Here it is: Good food is for everybody. By good, I mean delicious and plentiful, sustainable and accessible, nourishing and affordable. Not just for World Food Day, but every day of the year.
