Eating seasonally is one of the joys of gardening which is of course relative to the extent of your garden or your gardening activities. In winter, for me, while my outdoor gardening activities are on hiatus, eating seasonally means what the local farmers market has to offer. A staple is apples and pears. I both look forward to the season when it begins and when it gets really wintry as it does now and the choice of other vegetables starts to become limited, I actually increase my consumption of them , trying all kinds of ways to use them.
This week my favorite type- Braeburns could not be found so I substituted with Fujis and one I haven't tried before called Newton Pippin. I was pleased to learn that its an heirloom apple originally found in Newton, Long Island. Can't find a connection but it might have some relation to my favorite apple when I lived in England Cox's Pippin.
Another similarity to the Cox's Pippin is the visual- its kind of gnarly, they're all different, uneven sizes, a world apart from a supermarket apple. I love these imperfections and the lack of standardization, it's something I notice in old still life paintings like this one by Cezanne where they are marked, bruised and a variety of sizes. The other fruit are Bartlett pears- I love their color.
