Apples Best For Eating Or Cooking

There is truly no season that is best for apples.  In this day and age, the supermarkets carry a vast variety of apples year round.  The season for apples is only determined by what area is growing them at this time of year.

In the Northeast, the Fall is the best time to harvest apples.  The crop is at it's peak and falling off the trees.

Local farmers then gather them into bushels and take them to farmer's markets to sell.  But in today's world you don't have to wait for Fall to get the best variety of apples.  They are all at the supermarket.

There are many varieties to choose from and each has it's own texture and taste.  When I am putting up apples for the winter, I normally bring home a bushel of three different kinds to get a special taste for my winter baking and my applesauce.

My mother loved McIntosh Apples and ate them plain or cut them up into her Waldorf Salad.

The skin on this apple is red and green and it has a tart flavor.  The flesh is white and it ripens in late September.  Because it tends to mush up while baking, this one is not a good one for an apple pie.

My favorite to munching is a Gala which I only recently found in the supermarkets.

This one has a mild and sweet flavor.  I normally cut them up into slices after I core them for snacking.  The peel on this one is a bit tough so I usually peel the slices before I eat them.  This is one of my selections for my three apple mixture in my canning.

The next apple I look for is the granny smith.

This one is an all around apple for eating, baking or just about any recipe.  The flesh on this apple is normally a bit more crisp and it holds up well in recipes.  It is definitely one of my thee for canning.

I have always used a Northern Spy Apple to finish out the canning mix.

This variety has been a long time favorite of mine and is becoming more and more hard to find.  The supermarkets tend to carry different brands rather than waiting for this one.  I like it because it has the flavor that you find in the Gala and the crunch that you find in the Granny Smith.  It is a good one for baking pies and other recipes that call for baking or cooking.

I have tried Cortland Apples

I picked this one up because it looked like a Northern Spy with it's flecked skin.  That was my indicator that it would have good flavor and the crispness I was looking for.  It's texture is better for snaking and that ever popular Waldorf Salad.

This is all I have on apples for this fall.  I have spent many a fall hour coring and peeling apples for my winter canning.  We normally had between 12 and 18 jars of apple slices and an equal amount of my family's favorite apple sauce which I lovingly called mountain sauce because of all the cinnamon I put into it.