Encompassing Designs
  • Home
  • Shop
    • Kits
    • Patterns >
      • Christine Little >
        • Signature Designs
        • New Designs
        • Seasonal Designs
      • Deborah Sweet
      • Susan Leslie
      • Patricia Perry
      • William Morris
    • Supplies >
      • Backings
      • Frames
      • Hooks
      • Books
      • Extra
    • Wool >
      • Abrashed
      • Custom Dyeing
      • Dyed Bundles
      • Dyed Curly Mohair
      • Dyed Spots
      • Dyed Values
      • Dyed Yarn
      • Jacquard Dice Dyes
      • Natural & Colours
      • Plaids & Textures
      • Dye Books & Swatches
  • Ordering
  • Blog
  • Workshops
  • Our Story
  • Contact Us

The apple of my eye is actually an apple!

9/20/2013

7 Comments

 
PictureThe perfect ripeness!
It's my favourite time of year!  Yes, it's cooler for sleeping nights but the main buzz is for the gravenstein apple harvest!   My god, is there any apple more perfect?  Shapely and round, tart with crisp, light yellow flesh makes this apple the perfect eating specimen or the filling for a pie?

I've been hooked on these apples since I was a wee lass.  Today, I can hardly wait for the coming of fall and then I'm hefting bags of them to my abode to covet and devour them behind closed doors. Due to their very short growing season, I buy bags apon bags for the fridge so I can keep them as long as possible.  We don't have a root cellar or that would be stocked as well.  If an apple a day keeps the doc away, well, I'll be writing up a credit for a many months to come.   

No other apple comes close.  The Granny Smith is a sloppy second and if I crave for an apple during the winter I would choose it begrudgingly.  Others go wild over the different varieties of apples, the Honey Crisp being the golden child of the last few years, I gave it a shot but it was blah. I like a tart apple with some toe curling zing.  The acid burns the back of your throat!  Halleluiah!  Also my other pet peeve, any apple that tastes remotely like a pear is a thumbs down for me, if I want pears I'll eat them, don't be messing around with the apple genetics to create ones that taste like another fruit, how stupid is that?  


When the gravensteins first hit the shelves, you bring them home and let them rest for about a week, a bit less if the temperatures are warm.  They are picked way too soon and need time to ripen.  As the days go by you will start to smell them and what a sweet perfume it is.  They have permeated my house, it smells like an apple bin and the fruit flies agree!  Each day my precious apples get closer to being devoured.  You can tell by the touch of their skin how ripe they are. The hard smoothness and sheen turns to a rubbery, sticky kind of dull look.  Like most apples, I believe they are covered with something to preserve them as long as possible.  Years ago the solution came from beetle wax but they probably have a synthetic today.  The smell is driving me crazy, it's like catnip to  a kitten.       

The funny thing is, these objects of my desire don't like me.  I have some sort of reaction when I eat them.  I get swollen glands and a puffy face.  But I'll take it and suffer, you betcha.  It's worth the bloated neck and give me more!  I look like I have a case of the mumps and if I was  single girl I might be concerned but I have my guy and I haven't scared him off yet.   


Gravensteins are a memory from my childhood.  We had an old, gnarly tree in our back yard that dripped pure gold every September.  In the spring the apple blossoms would be heavy laden, filling the air with their essence to signify the coming of a good crop..  I'd watch the little apples appear and grow on the branch, counting them by the hundreds and rubbing my hands together in anticipation.  I start eating them so early they threatened to break my teeth so I devised a method to speed up their aging.  It was an accidental discover.  I'd use a long stick to beat them down off the tree and realized the bruised areas were juicy and sweet, so that taught me to pound them with the back of a large metal spoon until they softened into into sweet pulp.  Almost like apple sauce without all the sugar.  I'd eat dozens until my stomach was so full it leveled out in my esophagus.  Never got the crappers either.  My mom used to holler from the back door for me to stop eating the green apples, warning I'd get the poops but it never happened.  I would eat them on the sly and throw the cores into the neighbour's yard.

I was obsessed with the taste, would have chosen it over candy and I panicked because as the apples ripened on the tree the worms moved in and I lost most of the crop.  The tree was an accident that grew in the backyard, probably planted by a bird dropping seed.  It was never sprayed and used as a fruit source so the worms could attack with abandon and rival my attempts to claim them all!   As the top apples that I couldn't reach, ripened and fell from the tree, I'd have to cut around the brown holes to get my fix.  No worm was going to cheat me of my apples!  I don't know why I was so connected with this particular fruit, but as far back as I can remember, I've been gravenstein crazy and unless nature decides to retire that species, I'll be front and center hauling the bags home and making a pig of myself.  All other fruits pale next to this apple and I'm not the only one that loves them.  I see they have festivals in various areas to honour this apple and I'll bet the gravenstein was the tree in the Garden of Eden...sort of explains the temptation. thing, although I don't know why they were given to Adam, if I was Eve I would have eaten them all myself. 

So every year I suffer a bit with what I call an allergy and luckily as I grow older it does seem to lesson on the severity of the symptoms.  I try to eat just one a day and then drink lots of water to flush out my system but it still gets me.  It's already started and I'm only a half dozen in.   Of course with my blood sugars problems I can't eat them like I used too and they need to be accompanied with protein.  I love to fry up a pork chop and slice the gravenstein and saute them in the pan with the meat for a transference of flavour.  Apples and pork are a marriage made in heaven! 

The Gravenstein apple has a tart flavor. It is picked in July and August and is heavily used as a cooking apple, especially for apple sauce and apple cider.   It doesn't keep well, so it's available only in season. The skin is a delicately waxy yellow-green with crimson spots and reddish lines, but the apple may also occur in a classically red variation.

The red apples, commonly known as Red Gravensteins, are considered a sport rather than a true variety. The flesh is juicy, finely grained, and light yellow. Trees are among the largest of standard root varieties, with a strong branching structure; the wood is brownish-red and the leaves are large, shiny, and dark green. It grows best in moderate, damp, loamy soil with minimal soil drying during the summer months. Locations close to watercourses and edges of ponds are preferred. Gravensteins will not thrive in areas of high groundwater and require moderate protection against wind. The plant is a triploid variety. It requires pollination from another variety, but will not itself return the favour.

"It has often been said that if the Gravenstein could be had throughout the year, no other apple need be grown." In Canada it is widely grown on both coasts, although more in old farmstead orchards and backyards than in commercial orchards.


You haven't tasted apple pie until you've had a gravenstein one.  Cinnamon instead of nutmeg for me and a scoop of the best vanilla bean ice cream will send me into a tailspin.  If I close my eyes I can smell it, coming out of the oven and filling the room with its tantalizing aroma.  No matter how careful I am with my diabetes, I would not be able to resist a slice of pie with this  magnificent apple, I'd crawl naked over glass for a sliver.  Wouldn't you?

Picture
7 Comments
Shonnie
9/20/2013 05:35:53 am

I feel the same way about courtland apples, though gravs are my second favourite!

Reply
Christine
9/20/2013 12:31:46 pm

Yes, Cortlands are up there and make a decent pie! Now I'm hungry for pie!

Reply
Debbie Schrang
9/20/2013 05:48:32 am

I have never tasted a gravenstein apple - I wonder if they are available as far south as Florida, where I live. I'll have to watch for them, and try one if I can find them.

Reply
Christine
9/20/2013 12:33:57 pm

Not sure if they make it all the way to Florida! I walked into the grocery store tonight was there was a huge wooden crate filled with them....I wonder if I mailed one to you if it would make it in one piece?

Reply
Debbie Schrang
9/21/2013 02:39:17 am

Love the thoughtful gesture - but - considering it takes about 10 days for anything to reach me from your location, it would probably be more like applesauce than a crunchy apple! lol

Danielle
9/20/2013 06:58:32 am

Haha-you are a valley girl wannabe!
We have all the apples over here and I agree with you. The Gravs are da bomb.

Reply
Christine
9/20/2013 12:30:45 pm

I visited with Mary after work today. The view from her deck is priceless!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Christine Little has been ranked #5​ out of the 60 top rug hooking bloggers by Rug Hooking Magazine!

    Picture
    Picture
    Max Anderson, Australia, recipient of my Nova Scotia Treasures rug.  An award of excellence for promoting Canada through his writing.  
    Picture
    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    July 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    July 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012

    Picture
    Picture
    Gift Certificates are available for that special rug hooker in your life!  Any denomination, no expiry date! 

    Picture

    Categories
    (Click on the categories for past blogs)

    All
    Announcements
    Beginner Class
    Christmas
    Colour Planning
    Contests
    Copyright
    Coupon
    Customer Rugs
    Cutter Servicing
    Dyeing
    Equipment
    Featured Hooker
    Giveaway Draw
    Guest Blogger
    Guest Blogger
    Health & Fitness
    Home & Heart
    Hooked Rugs
    Hooking Groups
    Hook In Talk
    Initially Yours
    Jibber Jabber
    Just A Bit Of Fun!
    Life's Experiences
    Life's Experiences
    New Design
    New Ideas
    Pattern Of The Week
    Patterns Hooked
    Pets
    Rants
    Recipes
    Rememberingfbe7326ff7
    Rug Schools
    Show & Tell
    Show-tell
    The Rant
    Tips Technique
    Tips Techniquef0cd117ab4
    Visitors
    Workshops

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture





















    Picture
    We have a pot to "Fiz" in!

Shop Hours:
Monday - Friday 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM 
Saturdays 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM
We are closed during ice and snow storms
​so please call ahead.  If school is cancelled we probably are as well.  

Toll Free: 1-855-624-0370
Local: 1-902-624-0370​
encompassingdesigns@gmail.com

498 Main Street
P.O. Box 437
Mahone Bay, N.S.
Canada B0J 2E0

​Follow us and keep up to date
on our specials, new products
​and events!
Picture
Picture
Picture


Home
Shop
Ordering
Blog
Our Story
Workshops

Contact Us




​​​© Copyright 2023 Encompassing Designs. Website by SKYSAIL