So.
Remember the apples?
I brought home about 45 pounds of them and have hardly mentioned them since?
Yeah, those apples.
I’ll be honest, my favorite way to eat apples is whole and raw, so I don’t actually use them in many “recipes”. But I decided this year that, in order to ensure none went to waste, I would cook some down to make something I could use as a breakfast, a snack, a side, or a gift: applesauce!
Once upon a time, in a time not so long ago, a boy and a girl dreamed of eating hot, homemade breakfast every day. They did not hate the yummy but mundane breakfasts they had grown accustomed to, but as the season grew colder, the yogurt and oatmeal of summer days excited them less and less.
One day, while replenishing their stores at ye olde supermarket, the boy decided to see what treasures were held in the depths of the frozen breakfast aisle.
“Alas!” said the boy, upon gazing at the scroll of ingredients, “Even the scribes don’t know these words!” Indeed, the script upon the package seemed to suggest the meal was more chemical than food.
Suddenly, the girl had an idea.
“What if, instead of wasting all this packaging and filling our bellies with low quality food, we make our own frozen breakfasts?”
The boy’s eyes lit up at the thought, and they escaped the chilly aisles before succumbing to the tempting packages within.
The first step, they knew, was to procure some containers that were just the right size. So they rode their chariot to the Pyrex outlet to round up a dozen 1-cup containers, each one made of glass and accompanied by an airtight lid. They were safe for the freezer, the microwave, and their incredible dish-washing machine. A perfect find!
The time has come:
For apples!
After a few weeks of rather slim pickings of fruit at the farmers market, I’m happy to say I am now set for months, with a fridge full of the fresh, juicy apples. For breakfasts, for lunches, for sauce, for pie, for crisp, for… everything!
Obtaining these apples is so much more fun than the grocery store, or even my other pick-your-own adventures. Rather than making an early morning solo march into a strawberry field or a blueberry patch, I worked a drive to a Maryland apple orchard into my whirlwind trip to DC to visit friends.
And it’s actually becoming a bit of a tradition. For three years running, anywhere from two to four of us have made our way out to Homestead Farm in Poolesville, Maryland for apple picking.
And we could not have asked for a more perfect day! Blue skies, pleasant sunshine, and a cool autumn breeze set the scene as we arrived.
For most people, a weekly grocery run may not seem like something to look forward to. I, on the other hand, anticipate my Saturday trip to the farmer’s market as much as any other weekend activity I might have planned.
My college roommate recently informed me that she has discovered a farmer’s market near her home (yay!) and asked if I had any tips for first-timers. Halfway through my response to her, I realized that info might be useful for a wider audience as well.
As I’ve alluded to before, I decided a couple of years ago that I wanted to spend my food dollars as locally as possible and have been striving toward that goal ever since. I’ve been fortunate to live in areas that support vibrant networks of farms and farmer’s markets, and I’ve shopped some of them regularly, some of them as an occasional change of pace. I’ve even taken to visiting markets in new cities when I go on vacation (doesn’t everyone?), and the variety amongst them is both astonishing and refreshing.
So for Sarah, and for anyone else out there who might be thinking about trying out your local farmer’s market, here’s what I’ve learned:
