This is not the first time I’ve made applesauce out of Wolf River apples … it’s just the first time I’ve made time to write up the analysis – whoops! 

Anyway – I’m feeling much more determined to get some of these mid-season apples cooked into applesauce and analyzed for you all!

Wolf River … too big and soft to even put through the apple peeler/corer/slicer so I just cut it into chunks.

On a complete side note – it’s really interesting that the apple flesh started to brown pretty much as soon as it was exposed to air.

I cooked these babies up just like all the rest and it turned into applesauce a few hours later:

I have to say … not my favorite.  It was a sour, dry, almost paste-like texture for applesauce. I think one mixed in with others would create depth (maybe 2 or 3 if the batch is big enough) but I would never use these alone to make applesauce again.  Definitely not a high star rating in the applesauce department for my taste buds.

Many customers come in and ask us if we grow that apple that their grandmother’s told them you only need one apple for one pie – of course we do – the Wolf River. I’ll have to admit that we really don’t actually get apples the size for a pie (we think it has to do with the fact that we grow dwarf trees) but we do get them quite large…(yup, that one was 1.36 lbs) I’ve heard from a lot of people that they really how these Wolf River’s work when making applesauce and even one gentleman that swears by them for his apple butter. The guys picked quite a few bushels of these beautiful, large apples this year so this is definitely your chance to try them out!

A Little More Info:

Cooking Tips
Can be eaten fresh if they haven't been off the tree too long. Otherwise, use for baking , apple sauce or dried apple chips (we’ve never tried this…).
Storage
Does not store well.
History
A man named William Springer was emigrating from Quebec, Canada, to America. Along the way to Wisconsin, he bought apples, probably Alexander apples.
He planted seeds from the apples when he arrived at his new farm along the Wolf River in Fremont, Wisconsin. The Wolf River apple sprang from one of those seeds; he noticed the new tree sometime before 1881.

From Wikipedia:

Apple very large, some growing to size of large grapefruit. Red with yellow blush. Once very popular commercial apple in United States but presently relegated to upper Midwest if grown for profit. Occasionally can be found growing wild in backcountry thickets or abandoned land in Shenandoah Valley. Named for area where found. Feral trees can be brought back with care and pruning.

Stop by and check them out soon!

Unfortunately mother nature has determined that I will not be heading to the Sun Prairie's Farmer's Market this morning. I do apologize. It's just too rainy and it looks like it's going to continue to be that way for the rest of the morning and into the afternoon. I would like to note that the apple store is OPEN! So, feel free to take a short day trip up the orchard to pick up your apples (Honeycrisp, gala, cortland, mcintosh, wealthy, spartan, fuji, paulared, NW Greening and wolf rivers), cider, and caramel apples. We would love to see you there.

Hello Everyone! We saw a lot of familiar faces yesterday and it was very refreshing! We definately had a decent crowd of apple lovers at the store and the Sun Prairie Farmer's Market.

Well, the apples are finally starting to ripen. The boys picked some McIntosh, Cortland, Jonamac, Gala, and Wolf River yesterday. It is so nice to see our shelves filling up with APPLES! Because of this mixture of apples we are also know offering our Baker's Mix filled with Paulareds, McIntosh, and Cortland to give your baking a wonderful mixture of flavor and texture. Diane always bakes like this and trust me, her family is not disappointed.

My sister-in-law, Karma, just sent me this email that I found interstering and you may too:

Hi Kim. I was just reading my new Runner's World and it had an article on "fresh thinking" when it comes to eating. They talked about a "locavore" who tries to buy local and had some interesting facts... one study found that people are 10 times more likely to have a conversation at a farmers' market as they do at supermarkets. Another study found that local-based food systems used 17 times less fuel than conventional food systems. Thought you might like to hear those :) Karma

We're also starting to gear up for our upcoming garage sale next weekend. The garage has been cleaned and empty. Jared and I have started to deliver boxes of things to be sold. It is going to be a multi-family garage sale and for anyone who is a dedicated garage-saler, you know those are the best ones to hit.

Well, I have to go and make some caramel apples!