NEWS

Summer is gone, but apples are on

Iris Eppley

Maybe it’s because we didn’t have a lot of hot weather this summer or maybe it’s because time seems to go faster as we get older, but summer is gone. It seems that just overnight the green fields of corn and soybeans turned brown and harvesting began.

We planted a Jonathan apple tree in our yard several years ago to have blossoms in the spring and a Jonathan is my favorite apple. This year the tree was loaded with apples. We had done no spraying to help the quality of the apples, but I have had enough apples to make applesauce for the freezer. I also like summer apples for sauce and pies. For those folks who need to be on a low-fat diet, applesauce is a good substitute for oil or butter in cake recipes. I recently made an applesauce cake and a chocolate zucchini cake using applesauce instead of shortening. Both were very good.

There was a time when many farms had their own orchards with apple and other kinds of fruit trees to supply their own needs and to sell the surplus.

The Melrose apple was developed in the 1940’s at the Ohio State Agricultural Experiment Station in Wooster. The apple was a cross of the Jonathan and Red Delicious apple. The Melrose apple is the official apple of Ohio.

Iris Eppley is a member of the Farm Bureau Council.