On Wild Apples

Almost all wild apples are handsome. They cannot be too gnarly and crabbed and rusty to look at. 

                           

                                                                     -  Henry David Thoreau

                                                                        "Wild Apples"

                                                                        The Atlantic

                                                                        November 1862

Right now is apple season in Mid-Michigan.  An apple can be stored for 16 months or more (but that doesn't mean they should be).  A stored apple loses its flavor, dries out, and becomes "mealy".  Fresh, local apples can be found from late-July through late-October or even into November.  They are fresh, juicy, crisp, and perfect.

Go to the store and get some apples.

Better yet.  Go to the farmers market.

Even better, visit the orchard and pick some up.

Best of all, pick your own.  It's too late to plant apple trees now, but if you plant them in the Spring you can be enjoying your own apples within two or three years.

Try a variety that you are not familiar with.  There are so many apple varieties beyond Red Delicious, Macintosh, and Honey Crisp.  I like Braeburn, Matsu, Pink Lady, and Ginger Gold.

My favorite apples are from trees that I find growing along roadsides or in the woods.  Trees that were self-seeded or planted in orchards long ago and then abandoned.  The apples found on these abandoned or wild trees will not be "perfect".  They might have rust, scabs, or worm holes.  They will probably be small.  They are usually lumpy and misshapen.

To continue the above quote from Thoreau:

The gnarliest will have some redeeming traits even to the eye. You will discover some evening redness dashed or sprinkled on some protuberance or in some cavity. It is rare that the summer lets an apple go without streaking or spotting it on some part of its sphere. It will have some red stains, commemorating the mornings and evenings it has witnessed; some dark and rusty blotches, in memory of the clouds and foggy, mildewy days that have passed over it; and a spacious field of green reflecting the general face of Nature,—green even as the fields; or a yellow ground, which implies a milder flavor,—yellow as the harvest, or russet as the hills.

But what these wild apples lack in classic looks, they more than make up for in flavor! The best apples that I have ever eaten were from an abandoned farm near Sleeping Bear Dunes.  I don't have any idea what kind they are, but they are crisp, sweet and tart, and juicy.  My second favorite apples grow on a tree in a local park.  Thoreau addresses the taste of wild apples in another section of his essay

These apples have hung in the wind and frost and rain till they have absorbed the qualities of the weather or season, and thus are highly seasoned, and they pierce and sting and permeate us with their spirit. They must be eaten in season, accordingly,—that is, out-of-doors.

Yesterday I picked and ate one of the apples shown in the picture above and they stuck an idea into my head that has been working around for a few weeks.  Wild apples are wonderful fresh, but they are even better pressed into cider.  The cider that you can buy in stores usually lacks dimensions of flavor as it has been created to ensure a consistent flavor.  The cider from wild apples is often as wild as the apples themselves - tart, acidic, sweet?  You never know until it's made.

It looks like I'm pressing cider this year.  I can't wait to see how it turns out!