An Apple Saga.

Or rather a tale of apple woe.

Apples, love them or hate them but eat them we do. Strange how we go through phases of likes and dislikes. I can be addicted to apples for literally years only to stop eating them from one day to the next.

Well, I haven't stopped eating them, especially since we live in an apple producing country and have our own apple trees in the garden. Of course having apple trees isn't a reliable way to eat them all year round. Storing apples is a lost art that the ' elders' in our village have honed to perfection and we have not yet succeeded in. One year they all turned rotten mere weeks after picking them despite having pride of place in our earth cellar.

Back to eating apples and the taste of them. Most of you will recall the absolutely divine taste of a proper Granny Smith, Red Delicious, or Royal Gala and inversely, most of us can attest to biting into a sour apple which in itself is at least a sign of flavour. Yes, apples need flavour because there is nothing worse than eating a good looking apple which has zero taste. Usually the cheap specials on offer.

The other day I went for the cheap special as they looked amazingly nice but now I am paying the price. Yikes, is there anything worse than eating a bland apple? In my case a bland apricot...yes, yes, fell for the cheap special yet again. A punnet of apricots that will need a pound of sugar to sweeten them!

Apples and for that matter any fruit should be bursting with flavour and wholesomeness but with the lure of a quick profit, they too are mass produced for volume sadly wanting for sweetness and flavour. It is my own fault by voting with my purchase of the cheap variety. Less is more and I have to get used to that.

As for our own homegrown apples ...at the moment they are still ripening on the trees and even if I have to make oodles of apple sauce or stewed apples, I will try and have our own apples for longer than before. At least they are without even a hint of chemical additives and should again taste out of this world. Hold thumbs that my culinary enthusiasm holds up!

Biggi