In Poland many people seem to be proud of their apples; I've heard people say: "Our apples are some of the best." Of course, I come from the States, where we have really good apples, so I had to be convinced.
We tried different kinds of Polish apples, and we recognized some of the varieties we buy at home. In Zakopane we were able to buy Mutsus. Here in Warsaw we've found the Ligol to be our favorite.
I'm not sure why apples are so important to me, and to my family. Maybe because I love to bake pies; maybe because we make applesauce in the old-fashioned food mill every year. In fact, some of our biggest fights are over how to make applesauce. I insist on the food mill I inherited from my grandmother, but my husband wants to use the Cuisinart and keep the applesauce chunky. He claims my applesauce is too smooth... Regardless, we now make a batch on the wood stove and serve it hot for Thanksgiving dinner, and when we can find the time we make up a huge quantity and can it to give as gifts and eat throughout the year.
As important as the apple, though, is the apple supplier. I have to have my own "apple man." When we lived in Columbus, we bought apples in season every Saturday morning at the North Market from a guy who had given up a career teaching science to raise apples. He was fascinating -- we went out to his "orchard" in Pickerington, and he explained that he had bought some land in the 1980s during one of the periodic American housing busts, and thus the orchard was smack in the middle of a housing development. I can't quite recall if there were cul-de-sacs involved, but it certainly was an odd location.
It was the North Market apple guy who introduced us to espaliered orchards.
My childhood involved step ladders that we dragged between the trees, trying to reach those apples on the tops of the trees, as well as many brown grocery bags of "windfalls," apples that my grandmother picked up under her friends' trees. We would cut out the bruises and other bad parts and cook it all up into vats of applesauce in her basement. Those were the orchards of the past; espaliered orchards, with all the apples within reach of the picker, are the orchards of the future.
Science makes apple production better, I'm sure, but I was surprised to see the orchard in Pickerington -- rows and rows of trees that looked contorted. Nothing like the apple trees of my childhood.
Where we now live in Yellow Springs we are friendly with John of Peifer Orchards. Our kids go to school together, and play soccer together, and we buy apples -- both regular and "seconds" for our applesauce and pies -- through January. Eating apples, cooking apples, "apple pie mix." Yum. John has created an oasis along Rt. 68: great for gifts from OH when that is what's needed, but also for raspberries in season, apple cider, squashes and pumpkins, and of course apple cider slushies for the kids.
In Clark Park in the summer we wait for the North Star orchard to show up. There are other apple vendors, and North Star doesn't have an "apple guy" with whom I have a relationship, but their apples are clearly the best: crisp, crunchy, just what I need. I often buy a half-bushel to take home to Ohio in late August, even though I know I'm headed back to apple country.
It was therefore with great relief when I arrived in Warsaw and found a Polish apple guy. I mentioned him in a previous post. Every Tuesday and Friday he comes with his truck to ul. Chełmska and I try to stop by: often he has great lettuce, great tomatoes, even dill or green onions now, but in winter we bought onions, potatoes, garlic and apples. Twarde jabłki. That's how he knows me -- the woman who likes to buy 4-5 hard crisp apples once or twice a week. My husband is often with me, but was hugely offended the day he went by himself and the apple man didn't recognize him... By now my apple man knows me.
The day I took his picture he wasn't that happy, but I explained that we were headed back to the States at the end of this week, and he grinned.
"Take me with you," he said.
We tried different kinds of Polish apples, and we recognized some of the varieties we buy at home. In Zakopane we were able to buy Mutsus. Here in Warsaw we've found the Ligol to be our favorite.I'm not sure why apples are so important to me, and to my family. Maybe because I love to bake pies; maybe because we make applesauce in the old-fashioned food mill every year. In fact, some of our biggest fights are over how to make applesauce. I insist on the food mill I inherited from my grandmother, but my husband wants to use the Cuisinart and keep the applesauce chunky. He claims my applesauce is too smooth... Regardless, we now make a batch on the wood stove and serve it hot for Thanksgiving dinner, and when we can find the time we make up a huge quantity and can it to give as gifts and eat throughout the year.
As important as the apple, though, is the apple supplier. I have to have my own "apple man." When we lived in Columbus, we bought apples in season every Saturday morning at the North Market from a guy who had given up a career teaching science to raise apples. He was fascinating -- we went out to his "orchard" in Pickerington, and he explained that he had bought some land in the 1980s during one of the periodic American housing busts, and thus the orchard was smack in the middle of a housing development. I can't quite recall if there were cul-de-sacs involved, but it certainly was an odd location.
It was the North Market apple guy who introduced us to espaliered orchards.
Science makes apple production better, I'm sure, but I was surprised to see the orchard in Pickerington -- rows and rows of trees that looked contorted. Nothing like the apple trees of my childhood.
Where we now live in Yellow Springs we are friendly with John of Peifer Orchards. Our kids go to school together, and play soccer together, and we buy apples -- both regular and "seconds" for our applesauce and pies -- through January. Eating apples, cooking apples, "apple pie mix." Yum. John has created an oasis along Rt. 68: great for gifts from OH when that is what's needed, but also for raspberries in season, apple cider, squashes and pumpkins, and of course apple cider slushies for the kids.In Clark Park in the summer we wait for the North Star orchard to show up. There are other apple vendors, and North Star doesn't have an "apple guy" with whom I have a relationship, but their apples are clearly the best: crisp, crunchy, just what I need. I often buy a half-bushel to take home to Ohio in late August, even though I know I'm headed back to apple country.
It was therefore with great relief when I arrived in Warsaw and found a Polish apple guy. I mentioned him in a previous post. Every Tuesday and Friday he comes with his truck to ul. Chełmska and I try to stop by: often he has great lettuce, great tomatoes, even dill or green onions now, but in winter we bought onions, potatoes, garlic and apples. Twarde jabłki. That's how he knows me -- the woman who likes to buy 4-5 hard crisp apples once or twice a week. My husband is often with me, but was hugely offended the day he went by himself and the apple man didn't recognize him... By now my apple man knows me.
The day I took his picture he wasn't that happy, but I explained that we were headed back to the States at the end of this week, and he grinned.
"Take me with you," he said.
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