Apples and More Apples

Today, I stayed home and played with apples. I brought back so many varieties of apples from my day of videotaping Thursday at the U Mass Cold Spring Orchard. It was really interesting to learn about the research and the techniques that they are using to try to grow better apples with less use of chemicals. One thing that really surprised me is how even organic apple growers usually use some chemicals because there are so many bugs and fungi that love apples as much as we do. I keep reminding my daughter to never eat an apple without washing it first.

So, I baked some pies and made an apple/carrot salad for the horses for a treat. I’ve been using this nutritional supplement called Platinum Performance. I sprinkle it over a little mix of low-carb grain, Triple Crown Lite, and a scoop of Fiberpsyll by Select. Add a dash of cinnamon because Siete doesn’t like the taste of the Platinum Performance and mix in a few apple chunks and carrot bits. It makes up for the fact that it’s so rainy and windy today.

Inside the house, I’ve got the fire blazing and the oven going. I used an apple pie recipe that was my father’s favorite. It was given to me by an old family friend, Ginny Carey, who used to live in Belchertown, Massachusetts. By amazing co-incidence, that’s where I went to shoot at Cold Spring Orchard. All the way home, I’ve been dreaming about making Ginny’s pie recipe. I’ve mixed in Rome, Granny Smith, a Golden Delicious and a couple of Honey Crisps.

I took a snooze in front of the fire while the pies baked. I’ve got some French Vanilla ice cream and some caramel sauce that I made, which I’ll warm up and drizzle on top. Can you hear Lyle Lovett singing in the background? Feels like Heaven to me!