Apples

“The heat of autumn is different than the heat of summer. One ripens apples, the other turns them to cider.”- Jane Hirshfield

 

When the rest of the fruits have reached their end … When the warm days that once ripened and yielded the citrus and the melons and the berries and the vine-fruit have come to an end and the cold air begins to blow in … When the fresh greens of the trees and the bright colors of the flowers have turned to browns … it’s the apple that remains. While present in the summer, it’s not the star, yet it doesn’t retreat. It holds steady in the trees … waiting to ease us into the dead of winter with its firm but sweet flesh. Decorating the autumn landscape with its colorful skin, it hangs like mini globes high in the trees.

Few fruits have as many varieties, carry as much versatility and hold as signature a- stance in any given season, as the apple does in the fall. Bake them, can them, eat them off the tree; turn them into sauce, slaw, pies, cakes and cider… there’s nothing you can’t do with an apple.

Other fruits hold bolder flavors and carry a more sought-after status, with shorter seasons and higher price tags; but the apple is humble. It is an ordinary fruit but it is consistent and reliable. Indulging in the exotic flavors that other fruits have to offer is a vacation for the palate. The pairing of grapes and berries with cheese and wine are a decadent treat, and pineapples and mangos are a tropical escape; but the apple is the home that you come back to. 

If I could be a fruit … I would want to be the apple – the sweetness that eases sadness and prepares for darker days. Consistent and reliable and versatile … I’d want to be the one they fall back on … the oldie but goodie, not the newest rage or the taste of month. I want a core that is firm, bruises that are cut out easily and a colorful exterior that doesn’t fade easily into the background. The trees that would hold me are humble in size but steady- not towering like the nut trees, not wimpy like the vines, but solid and always present no matter the season. And when my days in the sun are over, I’d be the juice that runs down the face of babes … and my seeds of knowledge would fall to the earth and be reborn.  

Below are some simple apple-inspired cocktails that are perfect for the season and require very few ingredients and very little prep.

• Fire-cider – apple cider and Fireball whiskey – mixed to taste and slightly warmed
• Spiced Cider – apple cider and Captain Morgan spiced rum – mixed to taste and slightly warmed
• Crown Royal Apple – crown royal and apple vodka – mixed to taste, served on the rocks (Crown also makes “Crown Apple”- serve on the rocks minus the apple vodka)
• Apple infused Bourbon – one apple chopped, 2 cinnamon sticks and 3 cloves – in a mason jar, fill with bourbon and let sit 2-3 days or more. Serve on the rocks.
• Apple spritzer – Moscato, green apple vodka and Sprite – mixed to taste, serve cold
• Caramel apple martini – 2 parts apple pucker, 1 part vodka, 1 part butterscotch schnapps, rim glass with caramel and cinnamon-sugar