Apples Tasting 101, Part 1

A couple weeks ago, my friend Sarah and I were out and about at the West Seattle Farmers Market.  We ran into our friends Will and Carolyn, who were making their weekly trek to the Market with their daughters Clara and Annabelle.  As we chatted in front of one of the stands featuring some lovely apples, Carolyn had the fantastic idea that we should have an apple tasting.  

And so today, apple taste we did!  Fourteen in all!  Will picked up some great cheese for us at Pacific Food Importers and Sarah brought along some delicious crusty bread from the Columbia City Bakery.  There were nine of us there for the tasting; it was a good size group for the variety and quantity of apples that we had.

The tasting was tons of fun and we were inspired to try similar tastings with other foodstuffs. I have so much trouble retaining information related to how things taste or how they compare to one another that this format was exceptionally helpful.  Will had us all keep notes on our thoughts about the taste and ideas for what to do with each individual type, and actually articulating and sharing comments I think might possibly help me retain the information better.  

I’ll have some more details about the individual apple varieties that we tried in a bit, but in the meantime, here are some tasty-sounding apple recipes I’ve run across recently, and a not-so-beautiful picture of some the beautiful apples.  I know it’s a poor craftsman who blames his tools, but for reals: my camera sux.

Recipes:

• Whiskey-Apple Crumble Pie
• Big Apple Pancake
• Apple Crumb Squares with Apple Cider Sauce

 

 

 Check out the helpful labels Will and Carolyn provided!