Week 18 Newsletter

Week #18 - Week of September 28th

Hi! Michelle here. I’m fairly new to Ecolibrium, it’s been about 2 months now since I started working here…you’ve probably seen me around the store if you’ve come to pick up your CSA :) 

I am mourning the long days of summer, however, the transition between the summer & fall seasons is one of my favorite times of the year. When the days are still sunny, the air is crisp and the leaves are starting to turn. Sweater season is finally upon us! Growing up on the east coast, everyone always bragged about the east coast being the best destination for leaf peeping. It’s true, the fall foliage in the rolling hills of the Catskills is magical. But after being in western Washington for 6 years now, I think we bring some serious competition, especially with the larches set against epic mountainscapes and alpine lakes (by the way, it’s prime larch season right now!).

Another sign of fall is peak apple season! Having now spent all of my adult life in the two largest apple producing states in the country (New York & Washington), I can now call myself an apple expert, right? Or at least somehow I’ve convinced Alex that this is true. To be honest, I grew up thinking apples were one of the most boring fruits. My mom would always cut up a grocery store apple that tasted like…well, an apple. It wasn’t until I went to college in upstate New York that I started to think, “huh, apples are actually pretty cool”. People were apple crazy over there. I went to my first apple festival and tried apples I had never heard of before, discovered that there are thousands of varieties of apples and learned that there are research centers dedicated to studying and breeding apple varieties! Washington actually produces over 60% of the country’s apple crop, more than every other state combined. That’s a lot of apples, about 12 billion apples each year. Fun fact: domesticated apples are actually native to Central Asia, known as Kazakhstan today, and the only indigenous apples native to North America are wild crabapples.

If you’ve been in the store in the past 2 weeks, you’ve probably heard me talking about apples in some capacity. Suzanne and I have been sampling the varieties to come up with tasting & quality notes: floral, honey-like, wine-like, spicy, juicy, snappy, crisp, tender…just to name a few. I’ve been having a ton of fun with it. My favorites in the store right now are the King David (an heirloom variety from the 1800s!) and the Crimson Crisp. Both are firm and crisp with that snappy crunch. The King David is a bit more tart and tannic than the Crimson Crisp, with spicy, complex wine-like qualities. The Crimson Crisp has a sharp, sweet-tart flavor that’s deliciously juicy. I’m excited to continue discovering new apple varieties and sharing my learnings with you all!

Here are some of my favorite apple pairings / uses to try:

·       Grating fresh apple into curry for a balanced sweetness (especially Japanese curry!)

·       Pairing a sweet/tart, crisp apple with an aged gouda cheese like L’Amuse & a little honey

·       Making homemade pectin with apple scraps (cores and peels are great for this)

·       Adding apples to potato salad, chicken salad, grilled cheese and turkey sandwiches

Happy Fall!