Sunday, November 8, 2020

Baby Apples!

I like exotic foods, like purple potatoes and heirloom tomatoes. The fact that they look weird is half the fun. ("Heirloom" means the plant was grown by humans in the past but is not currently cultivated by modern industrial agriculture. Heirloom foods are healthier, tastier and more diverse than conventional produce which is bred for long-distance trucking and storage, features that benefit sellers but not us consumers.)

Shopping at an East End farm yesterday, I found tiny apples. Full-grown they are tiny. In case you can't tell from the first photo, the second shows their scale -- they are no bigger than a silver dollar coin.

Their technical name is Lady Apples, but I prefer to call them baby apples. Their flavor is full-bodied and often compared to wine; it's complex and pleasing. Plus, you can't eat just one.  :-)







14 comments:

  1. These tiny apples are adorable. It is great when you can buy ecologically grown fruit. I'm sometimes gifted fruits by relatives (as I have no garden of my own).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wish I had more friends like your gardening relatives!

      Delete
  2. Terrifically cute! I'm curious about their taste. Apples are one of the cooler variety options out there, from HUGE to tiny, green to red, sweet eating to cooking apples. Neat fruit!

    I love trying "weird" food options. Cruciferous veg is another fun one to try crossbreeds. Asian markets often have a huge variety of bok choys and broccoli types.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me, too. Sometimes when I visit ethnic grocery stores, I see fruits and veggies so weird-looking that I don't even know how to eat them. I need a cultural interpreter!

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. No. Never heard of 'em. Thanks!

      Delete
    2. They also have other grape "flavors" - Meghan likes "moon drops". The farms that grow the funky named grapes used to call one variety "witches tits" but once they started being carried in shops they called them "witches fingers" instead iirc.

      (Tbh they all just taste like grapes to me).

      Delete
  4. I agree Baby Apples is a much better name! I've never seen apples that tiny! xxx

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh, how cool - I have never seen apples like this (but I have seen baby mandarin oranges!).

    ReplyDelete
  6. These apples are adorable! And so wee!! I love to experiment with different fruits and vegetables and going to farmers markets is always a wonderful way to do just that!

    ReplyDelete
  7. How immensely charming and (literally) sweet. I'm a total sucker for unique, heirloom, or otherwise extra special foods as well.

    Speaking of which, I recently learned that pink pineapples are now a thing! (The flesh is the part of the fruit that's pink.)

    Autumn Zenith 🎃 Witchcrafted Life

    ReplyDelete
  8. Awww, they are super cute! I don't actually know how big your dollars are in terms of cm so I still can't judge how big they are. I DO like Heritage varieties (particularly tomatoes!) - it was really nice this year growing unusual varieties- I grew Black Russian tomatoes and San Marzano.
    Home grown Apples bring back memories for me of both my childhood home and my grandparents- I might write a blog post about them as they are important memories for me.
    We went for a great walk in July with my Mum, sister, niece and we foraged for apples from this tree in a public park and came home with about 20!

    ReplyDelete
  9. These little guys are so tiny and cute!

    -Ashley
    Le Stylo Rouge

    ReplyDelete
  10. OMG those are precious! I want them, I love anything mini! I remember one time I found some baby pineapples in the supermarket, they were so cute!

    ReplyDelete