I have never been an aficionado of apples. However, growing up we had two apple trees at the run down old home we lived in. My brother and I would pick them clean each year. My mother would make pies with them. We never lacked for apple pie. Frankly my mom wasn’t a very good cook in most respects. But she had apple pie nailed (and fudge...damn she could make fudge).
Oh, and don’t ask me what kind of apples they were. They were green and they went into pies. That’s all I know. :)
If they were green and went into pies, they were probably “Granny Smith”.
Especially if they were quite tart.
NY is known for its apples and we grow all kinds of varieties here and people in these parts are quite the connesuriers of apples.
From 1943 to 1955 as a child I lived in the original house on one acre of land that was part of an original Dutch land grant property 2 miles from New York City. Woods had grown up on 1/2 the land but there were some old pear trees there. I would gather the fruit as it fell and mom would trim and can it with cinnamon and clove. Fond memories. We also had original grapes, black raspberries, blackberries, an apple tree and rhubarb that were there when we moved in. Then my father plowed up most of the grass and we had a very large Victory Garden until we moved. I learned a lot about canning, gardening and hard work. My father did let me sell surplus, so I also learned how to earn money which I was allowed to keep.