Is there anyone who doesn’t like apples? With so many varieties and preparations, it seems like there’s an apple or an apple product for everyone.
Autumn Glory apples
Broccoli is broccoli. You buy it without knowing the first thing about what variety you’re eating. But, apples? They’re entirely different. We buy our apples by name. The sweet ones, the tart ones, those that are crisp and those that melt in your mouth, they all have their fans. The Autumn Glory is a super sweet apple that stays crisp for weeks in your kitchen. It’s grown in central Washington state, and the breeders, Domex Superfresh Growers, selected this apple for the spice in its flavor (do you taste caramel or cinnamon?) as well as its sweetness. We were impressed with how well it held up, staying crisp until we finished the last apple in a pretty good size batch. You should be able to find it in your grocery store into April.
Price varies per pound. Available at Walmart, Whole Foods Market, Aldi, Kroger, Trader Joe’s and Sam’s Club.
Apple gift box
For almost four decades, people have been traveling up to the foothills of the North Georgia mountains to visit with the Echols family and shop at their Jaemor Farms roadside market. Some come for the designated you-pick days, when customers can pick their own strawberries, peaches, apples or pumpkins, but the rest of the year you can shop at the big market, with fresh produce from the farm and lots of jams, jellies and other products made with local produce. Right now, they still have fresh Mutsu, Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Fuji and Pink Lady apples available, and all year long they sell an apple gift box with apple jelly, apple butter, apple cider, dried apples and cinnamon apple syrup. The dried apples are made at the farm stand, and the rest of the products are produced by Hillside Orchard Farms, just up the road in Lakemont. The Echols family was Hillside Orchard Farms’ first client 38 years ago and continues to work with them to produce the Jaemor Farms branded products they sell today.
$25.95 per apple gift box. Available at the farmstand, 5340 Cornelia Highway, Alto, or at jaemorfarms.com/store/our-markets/apple-gift-box.html.
Sparkling apple cider
We’ve always loved the sweet little apple-shaped bottles of Martinelli’s apple juice. Based in Watsonville, California, family-owned and -operated S. Martinelli and Co. celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2018. Hard apple cider was their very first product. Prohibition ended the hard cider production for a time, and they began making sparkling apple juice, and then apple juice blends. Their sparkling cider could be just what you’re craving this winter — a mellow blend of apples, with plenty of effervescence. We appreciate that it’s made with 100 percent juice, with no chemical preservatives or sweeteners, and from U.S.-grown apples. In the 1930s, their slogan was “Drink your apple a day.” We think that’s still good advice.
$2.99 per 25.4-ounce bottle. Available at CVS, Publix, Kroger and Rite Aid, or at martinellis.com.
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