Fresh Fridays

Each Friday, we’ll focus on what foods are freshly available nearby and even throw in some suggestions for how to prepare them. Today’s entry is by Lisa Leslie Henderson, a local freelance writer, whose work regularly appears in Wellesley Weston Magazine and other local news outlets.

Of Gathering and Keeping Fruit
While sitting in the doctor's office this week, I happened upon a beautifully illustrated book: In and Out of the Garden by Sara Midda. Among the delightful drawings that capture details from the English gardens where Midda spent many a day in her childhood, I found the following advice from William Lawson:

Although it be an easier matter, when God shall send it to gather and keep fruit, yet are there certain things worthy your regard: you must gather your fruit when it is ripe and not before, else it will wither and be tough and sour. All fruits generally are ripe, when they begin to fall: For trees do as all other bearers do, when their young ones are ripe, they will warn them.


What's ripening this week? Apples—and lots of them: Cortlands, Golden Delicious, and Jonathans, which means shortly we'll have baked apples, apple sauce, pork chops and apples, and apple crisp, signs that fall is just around the corner. Somehow smelling the combination of apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar, simmering together on the stove, eases us into September even as we savor the last few precious days of summer.

Here's a recipe for apple crisp that will have your kitchen smelling delicious:

EASY APPLE CRISP

1 cup sugar
2 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup water
1 tsp. cinnamon
6 peeled and sliced large apples
3/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. butter

Combine 1/2 c. sugar, lemon juice, water and cinnamon in the bottom of small baking pan. Place peeled and sliced apples on top of the mixture. Blend the remaining 1/2 c. sugar, flour, salt and butter together until crumbly. Spread over apples and pat smooth.
Bake at 375°F. for 40-50 minutes, until apples are tender and crust is browned. Serve hot with ice cream or freshly whipped cream.

Have any good recipes for apples to share? Please do! And remember to check back here every Friday to see what's freshly available around town.