In addition to the Honeycrisp, Daybreak Fuji, Royal Gala and Red Cortland which we have had for the past week or so there will be at least three varieties to be picked in the next week.

     Grimes Golden is considered an heirloom variety, found on a Pennsylvania farm in the 1830s and is the probable parent of Golden Delicious. The apple is firmer than a gold and perhaps not as sweet, but has a terrific flavor. We grow only a few of these so this weekend will be your only opportunity to get a couple, and be able to taste what your great grandparents loved.

     Golden Delicious will also be ready to pick next week. Often overlooked I'd like to put in a few good words about this fine variety, fine if it is picked right and held properly. When fresh off the tree a good gold is actually not the least bit ordinary. Ours are actually very crisp, sweet but slightly tangy and incredibly juicy. I like them a bit less than "dead ripe" as they are crisper and sharper. Juila Child pretty much used them for almost every recipe that called for apples, so don't pass them up; at least try a sample.

     Quite the opposite is the new variety named Crimson Crisp, as with the Grimes Golden we will only have a few bushels to sell. Our planting is too young to produce much fruit; with tree fruit patience is required. I don't want to talk up this fabulous new variety too much as you'll all be really ticked off when they only make one appearance
     Empire is just about ready to be picked, but won't make it down to our markets until after the weekend. The story is that the New York State Agricultural Experimental Station of Cornell University, developed the apple in response to a request from the Waldorf Astoria management that they breed an apple which would be crisp, tangy-sweet and most especially would not brown, as it was to be used in their famous Waldorf Salad. The apple is a cross between McIntosh and Red Delicious (don't hold that against it!) and was released about thirty years ago. The bit about the Waldorf Hotel may just be an "urban myth" but I have believed it for many years, so who knows?      

     The apple is crisp, at least in the first few weeks, very white fleshed and doesn't oxidize (i.e. turn brown); it has a sweet flavor but with that McIntosh tanginess that sets it off from most sweet eating apples, making it one of the best baking apples you will find in the next few weeks. It once won a pie bake off in search of the best pie apple, using the same basic recipe, but with different apple varieties. It proved to hold its shape and a nice firm texture while retaining the sweet-tangy quality prized in a baking apple. The variety is good for plain snacking, and goes great in a lunch box.

     The guys are out digging potatoes as I type this; they'll wash and grade them to make their way on to trucks, starting this weekend. Lyn, my wife and editor (She who must be obeyed!), just walked in the door with a box of potato bags; its the second time this week that our UPS driver has insisted on giving her a ride up the hill after she walked down to get the mail; walked down intentionally for the exercise. Oh well, we don't want to "tick off" the driver by refusing a lift; he's testy enough already.

     I'm going to start this with carrots, even though we will have some fantastic Sugar Snacks at markets this weekend, but probably not beyond, at least for a month or so. We dug the current supply last week and it only came to a very few bushels. We will bag all of them and send some to each location. The good news is that there is a much larger patch which I'll let you know about when it is ready, in probably a month or so.

     Brussels Sprouts are just on the horizon, though; and Arturo thinks they will be ready to start picking the bottom sprouts by next week, perhaps in time for the weekend. Many of you have asked about them, perhaps remembering our disastrous crop last year; between flooded fields and a bad plant disease all 3,000 plants were wiped out. This year they are looking good!

     Kaleidoscope Greens, introduced last year, will be ready to start cutting in a bit over a week; many of you have also asked about this cool weather crop, having gotten addicted to it last year. More on the crop in a week or so.

We've got a lot of nice, but small, Red "Mercury" Onions, and it was suggested to me by a Mt. Vernon customer, that I try using our small ones, left whole, but peeled and cored at the root end, in the recipe that follows, which she promises is "addictive".