APPLES

MEMORY LANE
BY R. AUBREY LA FOY

APPLES
Apples and fall seem to go together. The ripe apples are a joy to eat especially if one had some dip to enhance the taste. A favorite dessert at our house is apple crisp. The recipe used is one handed down in the family. It is most often served with ice cream but rich cream will also enhance the flavor. In the fall of the year apples are abundant so it follows that we have a lot of different ways of serving and eating apples. Remember the old saying, “An apple a day will keep the doctor away.” Other proverbs are:
“Eat an apple on going to bed, and you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread.
Whoever has bitten a sour apple will enjoy a sweet one all the more.
The ripe apple falls off itself.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and
One rotten apple spoils the others.” Apples have been around forever as even Eve persuaded Adam to eat an apple.
Apple trees are great for climbing, as the branches are low. What kid, upon seeing an apple tree, doesn’t start to climb? It is a perfect and natural inclination for kids to climb, climb and climb that tree. In the spring of the year apple tree blossoms have such a fragrance it is a temptation to bring a bouquet into the house.
Many a mother has been surprised and delighted when her child presented her with apple blossoms. But Mother also knows that when the twigs with the blossoms are picked there will be no apples, but what the heck, it is the thought that counts. Many stayed away from the blossoming apple trees as the bees also like them and more than one youngster has been stung.
People who plant apple trees have their eyes to the future and hopefully get to harvest delicious treats year after year. Many of you can remember the story of “Johnny Appleseed” going through the countryside planting apple seeds.
One of the most difficult things about growing up with apple trees on your farm or lot is to not pick them too early. Many of us heard the warning when we were young that if we ate green apples “they will give you a bellyache.” It was always tempting to try eating one but after one bite of that bitter green apple that was enough. It is always important to inspect apples before eating because it takes the joy out of the operation if after biting into the apple you discover half a worm.
Peeling apples is an art. One fellow of my acquaintance loved to take out his jack knife and peel the apple to get just one long continuous peel. One of the few early machines found on farms and homes years ago was a mechanical apple peeler. Remember you stuck the apple on the prongs and turned the handle and the knife blade did the job. It was fun for awhile but many a kid got more of that than they wanted especially when Mother was going to can some apples or make apple butter.
If you had chickens they loved those apple peels. Sometimes when a gadget removed the core of the apple the pigs got those leavings. Baked apples covered with brown sugar and cinnamon are tasty but for some reason or other not served very often, especially in the “fast food” operations. Let’s not forget those great apple pies that cooks took particular pride in producing lattice arrangements with the crusts.
Apples are prepared in many different ways besides just eating them. Apple jelly or apple butter is great on toast. Many people love apple cider to start their day. The old timers could make apple jack which we understand had quite a kick being almost 100% alcohol. Canned apples and applesauce in the winter are great. People used to wrap nice ripe apples in newspaper or tissue paper and store them in the fruit cellar. The tissue paper was saved from the lug boxes of canning pears and peaches. A nice apple was great eating on a cold snowy day in January. Many apples were stored in barrels and that is where the old proverb comes from that “a spoiled apple will ruin the lot.”
Probably there are several things about apple trees that are not so good. We remember one prolific tree in our yard that produced and produced. At that time we were living in town and one has only so many friends and neighbors to give apples to before that avenue ceases to exist in getting rid of the surplus. We of course had apple crisp, apple pie, and applesauce, baked apples and apples to eat. If the surplus apples were not picked up as they fell off the tree the area became a great place for flies to gather and other unwanted pests. Not only that but we had a neighbor across the street who had a walnut tree. Our home was on the path of many pupils going to and from school and there were many days upon arriving home our yard was devoid of apples but full of walnuts and our neighbor across the street had apples but no walnuts. If one lived on a farm that was not a problem. Picking up fallen apples is a time consuming task but the livestock loved them.
As a youngster it was fun watching apples grow from the blossoms to the fully-grown item. Sometimes it seemed that apples took forever to develop but eventually after school started in the fall and maybe after the first frost they were ready to eat.
Apples figure in many of our conversations in many different ways. Many parents look at their offspring and say; “He (or she) is the apple of my eye.” Today there are so many more varieties of apples and all for the good. Sinking your teeth into a good apple is one of life’s pleasures.