Apples to Apples Primer

Sweet, crisp and juicy, apples have long been a fall favorite of many. Although today apples appear in stores year round, historically it's the cooler days and nights of autumn that signal an earnest start to the apple season. California is the first to hustle out of the starting apple gate with Washington and British Columbia close behind.

With over 7,000 varieties of apples cultivated worldwide, you could taste a different one every day for more than 19 years and never eat the same kind twice — now that's variety! Every season, we typically offer about twenty different types of apples — ranging in color, shape, crispness and sweetness — all of which are perfect for eating out of hand or serving in your favorite fall dish. In this guide, we explore this sweet world of apples.

Selecting

No matter which variety you choose, look for firm, fragrant, bruise-free fruit. Apples are available year-round because of their impressive lasting-power, but this cold-hardy fruit is best from summer's end through late fall.

Storage

Apples ripen quickly at room temperature. If you plan to eat them within a day or two, they'll be fine on the counter. Otherwise, store them, unrinsed, in a perforated plastic bag in the refrigerator's crisper. As apples ripen, they give off ethylene gas, which shortens the storage life of some other vegetables — so keep them in their own compartment. For the same reason, you can actually use apples to ripen avocados and bananas more quickly. Just place a ripe apple in a bag with unripe bananas or avocados and they should soften within a day or two. To extend peak apple enjoyment long past peak season, slice and freeze apples in a single layer on a sheet tray, and transfer them to a bag for use in baking or sauces. Golden Delicious and McIntosh don't hold up in the freezer, so it's best to eat them in season.

Nutrition

One medium-size, unpeeled apple has only 80 calories, and no fat, cholesterol or sodium. Apples are uncommonly rich in flavonoids and other polyphenols and have about four grams of fiber each. They are high in pectin, a soluble dietary fiber that encourages the growth of beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract and has been shown to promote healthy cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Eating raw apples also gives the gums a massage and cleans the teeth.

Eating

With refreshingly crisp, succulently sweet flesh, a fragrant, edible peel, and five small seeds tucked securely in the core, apples are the ideal fruit for eating out of hand. When raw, their crisp sweetness lends interest to salads and sweetens smoothies naturally.

Likely Flavor Combinations
Apples blend well with the flavors of vanilla, spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, mace, cardamom and clove, and also rosemary, sage, honey and lemon. They complement pork, squash and bitter greens. They also offset a range of cheeses, particularly aged cow's milk cheeses, pungent washed rind cheeses and many blue cheeses.

Apple Pie
Which is the best apple for baking? It's really a matter of opinion. Traditional baking apples are ones that tend to hold their structure when cooked. Here are a few popular baking favorites: Crispin, Golden Delicious, Jonagold and Winesap, or for a tarter pie, try Cortland or Granny Smith.

Apple Sauce
Sauce apples are tart and sweet and have a loose structure which allows them to fall apart when cooked. Some popular saucing apples are Braeburn, Fuji, Macoun, Melrose and McIntosh.

Salads
Apples provide bursts of sweetness to savory salads. Golden delicious and Cortland apples resist browning the longest, which make them a popular salad option. Brushing or spritzing sliced apples with lemon juice also works to delay browning.

Apples from A to Z

Some apples lend themselves wonderfully well to eating out of hand, while others have softer textures which may not be as appealing fresh, but are transformed into something heavenly when baked. Here's a handy chart of some of the more popular apple varieties, and the uses that best show off their attributes. If you have further inquiries about our apple offerings, please ask one of our Produce Team Members.

Variety	Characteristics	Eating	Pie	Baked	Sauce	Cider
Braeburn	Very crisp, firm and barrel-shaped; sweet, tart and spicy; long lasting.	Excellent	Good	Fair	Good	Good
Cameo	Sweet-tart flavor and firm texture; color is striped red over a creamy background; born in Washington State as a chance seedling.	Excellent	Excellent	Fair	Excellent	Fair
Criterion	Crisp, firm and juicy; mild and sweet, with a touch of tartness	Excellent	Good	Good	Good	Good
Empire	Soft, juicy and sweet; developed in NY State as a Macintosh/Red Delicious hybrid.	Very Good	Good	Fair	Fair	Fair
Fuji	Extra crisp, sweet and tart; comes in a wide range of sizes.	Excellent	Fair	Fair	Fair	Good
Gala	Mildly sweet, fruity, fragrant and thin skinned; strikingly attractive with its vibrant yellow skin dappled with red.	Excellent	Good	Poor	Good	Good
Gingergold	A chance seedling with the mild sweetness of its probable Golden Delicious parent.	Excellent	Excellent	Fair	Excellent	Excellent
Golden Delicious	Firm, very sweet and juicy; choose pale yellow for perfect ripeness; keep best when refrigerated.	Very Good	Excellent	Fair	Excellent	Excellent
Granny Smith	Crunchy, tart, juicy and long lasting. There really was a Granny Smith. Mrs. Thomas Smith discovered this tart green apple growing on her Australian spread in the 1860's.	Very Good	Excellent	Good	Very Good	Fair
Gravenstein	Crisp, sweet-tart flavor; the perfect sauce apple.	Excellent	Very Good	Fair	Excellent	Fair
Jonagold	Tart, crisp and juicy; creamy yellow flesh; a cross between tart Jonathans and sweet Golden Delicious.	Excellent	Very Good	Very Good	Fair	Good
Macintosh	Tender, sweet, mild and fragrant; red with green marbling on the outside and a delicate white flesh.	Excellent	Good	Poor	Very Good	Good
Mutsu (Cripsin)	Mildly sweet, firm but creamy.	Good	Good	Fair	Fair	Fair
Pink Lady® brand	Firm, crisp, and sweet-tart taste; skin is pink blush over yellow.	Excellent	Good	Good	Fair	Fair
Pippin	Crisp, tart with a sweet finish; smaller sized green apple.	Good	Excellent	Excellent	Fair	Fair
Red Delicious	Grainy, juicy, very sweet and thick-skinned; long lasting; America's favorite apple.	Very Good	Poor	Poor	Fair	Poor
Rome	Grainy, soft, juicy and sweet; from the Rome Township, Ohio in the early 1800's.	Fair	Very Good	Excellent	Good	Fair
Sierra Beauty	Crisp and slightly tart; greenish-yellow in color.	Excellent	Good	Good	Good	Fair
Winesap	Firm, slightly tart and thick skinned; yellow flesh is firm, very juicy, with a powerful sweet-sour contrast.	Good	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent

The Apple of My Eye

Many charms are associated with apples. In the past, an autumn ritual for unmarried young people called for fastening an apple on a string and twirling it around before a hot fire. The person whose apple fell off first would be the first to marry. Legend has it that if an apple is peeled in one long strip, and the strip thrown backwards over the left shoulder, it will land in the shape of the initial of the future wife or husband. In a variation on this practice, the stem is twisted. With each twist, a letter of the alphabet is recited. The letter spoken when the stem breaks is the first initial of the future loved one.

Five Fun Apple Facts

Washington State grows over one half of the fresh apples Americans buy in stores each year.
On average, Europeans consume over one hundred thirty apples per capita each year, while Americans eat slightly less than sixty-five apples.
The apple originated in Kazakhstan and is not native to the Americas.
Apples float in water because twenty-five percent of their volume is air.
The apple variety "Delicious" is the most widely grown in the United States, making up over forty percent of the roughly nine billion pounds of apples brought to market each year.

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