an apple a day

This is my favorite season for fruit - and that's because apples are my favorite fruit. I love apples - but I'm picky about them. I like Galas and Pink Ladys and Fujis. Now you'll note that all of these apples have a couple of things in common.

All of these apples are sweet and crisp and hard. And they're all - at least partly - red.

My favorite apples of all, the apples I love, are Ambrosias. They have all the qualities of the other apples times ten. And they're gorgeous as well. Small, sweet, crisp apples, they smell like heaven. They combine a pale yellow with streaks of red - they look just like an apple should look. And they're sweet.

This week I tried a new apple that I'd heard about on the radio - the Aurora Golden Delicious. You'll have guessed that Delicious apples probably aren't high on my list - they're sweet, yes, but they're soft and I don't like that. And Golden Delicious? Well, they're not red are they? The Aurora Golden Delicious is supposed to combine the solidity, the crispness of the Aurora with the flavor of the Golden Delicious. Maybe it does - it was sweet, but it's gold, and it's not hard enough for me. It wasn't a success, at least for me.

But those Ambrosias? I love them. I've been eating them every day since they showed up at the market and I'll eat them every single day until they're gone. They don't seem to grow them - at least in export quantities - anywhere except in British Columbia so I don't get to have them out of season.

When Ambrosias are out of season, I move out to Fujis or Galas - they're grown in all sorts of other places so I can eat them all year round. But honestly? They're only a substitute for the Ambrosias I love.

Do you have a favorite apple?

Kate