One of my grandmother's favorite activities this time of year was picking apples. My grandfather or my mother would take her to Lynd Fruit Farm in Pataskala nearly every week of the harvest season. My grandmother went through the orchard carefully inspecting apples for size and appearance, picking only the best. But being selective didn't restrict the amount of apples she picked. She would invariably fill the trunk with paper bushel-bags of whatever varieties were available for picking that week.
The early apple varieties — like Red Delicious and Golden Delicious — were mostly for eating fresh. The later varieties — such as Stayman Winesap and Rome Beauty — were for cooking and baking. Indeed, the Rome Beauty is the variety par excellence for baked apples.
My favorite variety both for eating fresh, and for cooking and baking, is the Stayman Winesap. I like tart apples, and Winesaps have that lip-puckering taste that for me is the essence of apple flavor.
My grandmother made applesauce twice a week during the fall and winter. She made two varieties: traditional applesauce using sugar which was for us grandkids, and low-calorie applesauce for herself, which she sweetened with — believe it or not — Faygo Diet Redpop. The diet version had the iridescent Redpop color and a rather unusual flavor for applesauce, but my grandmother ate it.
I haven't been able to make it out to Lynd's this year, but my mother has, and she brought over a selection of Stayman Winesaps and Rome Beauties, which now reside in the fruit bins at the bottom of the refrigerator.
