Today in the orchard
Today I woke up on the shores of Great Pond in Belgrade, ME. It’s the place I call the center of the Universe. (Move over, Sun.) It’s also the location of the Annual Belgrade Pie Taste-off, an event where we serve three specially curated, single-variety apple pies to a large group of friends who sample the entries and then vote on their favorites. It’s a wild and fun evening. You eat a thin slice of one pie and you think it’s an apple pie. You eat two and you notice, “Hey, these are different.” You eat three and a favorite inevitably emerges. All apples have different flavors and textures. Some won’t cook in an hour, the time it takes to bake the perfect crust. Others turn into soup (think Macs). Some have intense flavors while others lose their flavors. Some are great pie apples while others should never see an oven. Every variety is—of course—unique.
I start early in the day making the three crusts right after breakfast. I leave them to chill for a few hours and then assemble the pies later in the afternoon. This year's three apples were Red China, Charlamoff and Somerset of Maine. Charlamoff and Somerset are both beautiful fruit on the table. The brightly-colored red-fleshed “Red China” was the most tart of the three apples before baking. It retained that tartness, but its flavors loved the oven. When the votes were tabulated, it was the resounding winner. Perhaps it was the intense red-color, or maybe it was the tart flavor. Whatever it was, the Belgrade taste-off crowd loved it.
Red China is also becoming popular with sauce-makers. Look for it in your supermarket apple display sometime soon?