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In Season Locally: Apples

Apple Harvest in Northern Michigan

Northwest Michigan’s best known fruit may be cherries, but our region also abounds with apple orchards. Apples, in fact, are Michigan’s largest fruit crop. According to Michigan Apples, there are over family 950 orchards in the northern lower peninsula, covering over 37,000 acres.

One of the many great things about living in northwest Michigan is the wide variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables. Who needs that supermarket bag of apples shipped from across the country when you can go directly to your local orchard, fruit stand or farmers market.

A place we love is Kilcherman’s Christmas Cove Farm in Northport. They have 240 varieties of apples, with some varietals dating back to the 1600′s. This is a must-do family fall road trip!

No matter from where you get your local apples, now is the time to take advantage of our abundance. During October, some some of the best cooking apples are being harvested: Empire, Jonagold, Fuji, Gala and Northern Spy.

Use Honeycrisp or Gala apples to start your meal with an Apple Pear Gorgonzola Salad.
Fuji apples are featured in this Apple Pork Pie with Caramelized Onion Crust.
Finish off any meal with this Apple Cake in an Iron Skillet that calls for Granny Smith apples. We suspect that Northern Spys would also work well.
A great way to preserve any apple is by making an compote – Apple Compote with Rosewater.
For those of us who love breakfast (and who doesn’t really?), try Apple-Bacon Pancakes.
Apple Cinnamon Bread makes for great comfort food on brisk autumn days

Our friends at Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate have created a fantastic apple treat – Chocolate Dipped Apple Slices. They take gourmet dried apple slices from our neighbors at Friske Orchards and give them a generous dip in sustainably grown 70% cacao dark chocolate. The result is a perfect balance of sweet apple and bold dark chocolate.