Posted on 11/21/2012 11:59:47 AM PST by SE Mom
Sooo...today I'm making my annual Thanksgiving apple crisp, a labor intensive project (peel, core and slice 2-3 dozen apples).
I went to the store and bought 2 bags of Rome and Granny Smith with a few loose Mac's and Golden Delicious. I noticed none of them had that apple fragrance but brought them home and started peeling and slicing.
Wait a second...none of them have an apple scent even when I cut them open..wonder how they taste..sliced off a few bites from each variety and what do you know..they don't TASTE like apples. They LOOK gorgeous..but they taste ...like...cold, crispy, crunchy...nothing. NOTHING!!!!!
What the hell have they done to apples? Are they being genetically engineered now to look great but taste..blah? Did Michelle outlaw flavor in fruits to decrease our sweets intake? Is there a grinch somewhere who stole all the real apples?
Anyone else finding this happening with apples and/or other fruits?
lost a good percentage of the apple crop in the upper mid west due to early warm weather then late frost. It killed of many of the blossoms.
I haven’t bought any apples since summer and they were very tasty.
We never get ours from the store - we buy them from the orchard down the street.
They’re real - and they’re spectacular!
I learned the difference between store tomatoes (spit) and heirlooms when I started growing my own a few years back...what an incredible difference.
Get your hands on a 'Captain Lucky' tomato, served at the Boulevard in SF...I believe they won the James Beard award as 'America's Best Restaurant' recently.
So what are you trying to say?
Macouns rock, but there is NOTHING like a ‘Honey Crisp’ picked right off the tree...nom-a-licious!
The scary part is that most people think store-bought tomatoes and apples (and who knows what else) are supposed to taste like that...
We have a lot of old apple trees on our place here in Vermont. There were no apples at all this year, because there was a week of unseasonable 80 degree weather in March, so the trees bloomed early and then froze again.
I think that weather was pretty widespread in the Northeast.
I imagine that a lot of the standard sources of apples and cider got hit, so they had to buy them from elsewhere.
That also reminds me, last turkey day we made some calvados sorbet in the ice cream freezer - awesome.
um Ouderkirk? You only need to click on post ONCE ...You know it’s going if you see a wheel spinning at the top of your computer...next to “posting comment”.
We have an apple tree outside where I work. I have religiously picked the apples in their time, otherwise they would just fall to the ground and rot.
They do not look good on the outside, no chemicals or insecticides, just natural, but boy they taste good. I am lucky, where I live, I can pick apples in season just about anytime I want to, people grow apple trees and then ignore them.
I have a couple of gallons of hard cider fermenting in the cupboard, and a few gallons I already consumed.
BTW, I hate store bought applesauce.
Anything left over, I make into apple chips dehydrating them in the oven. Great snack.
All free most of the time.
Blessings, bobo
Thanks, Mom...politics has me ready to go off a cliff myself these days. Funny you should mention apples...I noticed that the organic Goldens I buy from the health food store for my homemade oatmeal have no flavor. However, the ones from the local farmers market are wonderful...only not organic and probably full of pesticides. :)
Spring freezes leave small crop, more questions
May need to substitute. ;)
Ha! I live in Houston, so it could take me week to get there, and about a week to get back, they had better be great..
I do understand the homegrown are far better than anything the are offered in stores.. But even if you pop for the best organic, vine ripened, it isn't anything like what we had in the past..
I'm a Chef, I know the differences, but I don't believe, aside from buying them directly at the farm the market forces just don't require true vine ripe any more..
I use tomatoes in bushels not just for salads, for a variety of soups, stews, and sauces, so my only alternative is canned, Imported whole tomatoes, from Italy..
I would like to put in a plug for people who live in warmer climes, such as south of the Mason-Dixon. There are now about half a dozen or more apple trees that thrive in hotter weather, are very prolific and produce tasty and flavorful apples.
They are still very nitrogen hungry, but the more nitrogen, the bigger and juicier the apples, so it’s worth it.
So even in a place like Phoenix, you can get bushels full of ripe apples.
Are you sure?
“I would like to put in a plug for people who live in warmer climes, such as south of the Mason-Dixon. There are now about half a dozen or more apple trees that thrive in hotter weather, are very prolific and produce tasty and flavorful apples.”
I agree, but it’s a shame that a late spring frost wiped out 80% of the NC crop this year.
They are likely frozen and thawed, perhaps even from last season. Freezing an apple seems to wash all the smell/flavor out of it.
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Thank you all :)
Just took the apple crisp out of the oven. The house SMELLS WONDERFUL...of cinnamon, clove and nutmeg. Apples? Not so much ;)
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