Another one of the six applesauce’s I made on Monday was with the Empire apple.  Empire’s are my husband, Jared’s, favorite apple.  It cooked into a nice chunky sauce – tart, but not too tart.  The empire sauce had a good apple flavor.  I had a few skins that I cooked with it – I thought maybe it would turn the sauce pink since they have such beautiful color.  They didn’t and they really didn’t cook down at all.  I would recommend definitely peeling these apples completely for sauce or if not – running them through a food mill to get the skins out prior to eating.


Past Apple Tests:

• Baker’s Mix - August
• Baker's Mix - October
• Braeburn
• Cameo
• Cortland
• Dandee Red
• Fireside
• Fuji
• Gala
• Ginger Gold
• Golden Delicious
• Granny Smith
• Jonagold
• Jonathan
• MacIntosh
• NW Greening
• Paulared
• Scarlet
• Silken
• Snow Sweet
• Spartan
• Sweet 16
• Tolman Sweet
• Valstar
• Zestar

This comes directly from the Wisconsin Apple Grower Association Cookbook.

One of the newest apple varieties, Empire is a cross between a McIntosh and Red Delicious [I never would have guessed that!], was developed at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva and unveiled to the public in 1966.

It’s a medium-sized, attractive, dark red apple that’s an all-around winner in flavor, use and post-harvest storage.

A blend of sweet and tart, this juicy, crisp apple has a creamy white flesh. It’s as well suited for eating fresh and salad use as it is for use in baking, sauce and pies.

Because of its sweetness, Empires are often added to cider blends. Pack small Empires in school lunches. Kids love Empire’s sweet-tart taste and super crunchy texture. Harvest in Wisconsin is from September 25 through October 10, but apples are typically available from September through July.

Yesterday morning I drove our van over to the orchard. My husband and Cedi had picked a few bushels of apples the previous night and I had them in the back. He had told me that there was one bushel of snow sweets in the back. Now, keep in mind, this is only the second year that we have ever had the snow sweet trees produce any apples. So, three of the bushels 'looked' like Fireside, two cortlands, and the other ?...we assumed snow sweet (remember we've been busy and sleep doesn't come frequently in long stretches...).

Once the group of the day was over, Diane, figured she'd get the 'snow sweets' on the shelves. She sorted them and weighed them into 3lb bags (we're only going to have one bushel of snow sweet apples this year). We started to get more people in the afternoon so I started sampling them. One lady had already tried two apples and didn't have room for a third...so I tried it for her...wow, was it TART! Why would they call that a snow sweet? I sampled to others and I think one person bought a bag after trying a sample of the 'snow sweet'.

Here's where things get interesting. Frank and Jared got back from there second round of picking and the fireside are sitting in there designated pile to be sorted (they do this for me...I'm the one that usually gets the apples confused!) He looks at the bushel on the top and says, "These are not Fireside." After a few taste tests and confusion...we agree. I go in the store, take a closer look at our "snow sweet" samples and ask my husband if there had a been a bushel of empires in the van this morning. The answer, "Yes." Mystery solved.

So, after all of that, we (Diane) accidently sorted a bushel of empires, thinking they were snow sweets and put them on the shelves. Once we realized this we took them off, sorted the correct bushel and quickly fixed our problem. Now, I'm pretty sure that I only sold bags to people that had previously sampled the apples...but if you happened to get a bag of 'snow sweets' that look suspiciously like an empire, (deep dark red, with red stems) please let us know.

Once we figured out our problem we had to have a good laugh about it. Good thing Frank noticed that the 'fireside' looked a little off!

Things are going very well at the orchard! We have been keeping busy at the store and in the orchard. Jared managed to get off for a partial day yesterday so I went over to pick with him. I found some honeycrisp that are literally the size of softballs! Amazing! My parents have also been here for the past few days helping with the girls and picking. The cooler is starting to fill up and things are getting done! Jared also has off today so things should really get going. I found him an empire (his favorite) to try yesterday and he is going to be picking some for me today. We'll see if he has any other new variety for us today...

We have our second group coming to the orchard this morning. I'm sure they'll have fun! I'm heading to the DeForest Farmer's Market this evening with more apples than last week. I don't want to run out again (well, at least not until 7!)

I would write in more detail but I have to get moving....it's apple season!