Heirloom Thursday: Northern Spy Apples

And now for some Southern discomfort...at least the name isn't too likely to engender the favor of your typical Atlantan (or Atlantean, for that matter!)  I'm well aware that there are something like 4,000 varieties of apples in the world.  Even if I only wrote about the commercial varieties on a weekly basis, it would take the better part of a year to cover the fifty frequently encountered.  So what, I'm still going to write about this rarely found regional variety, which has made an appearance at the Brookline farmer's market these past few weeks.

The Northern Spy apple is a somewhat lumpy bumpy variety that is especially good for pies.  The name is interesting but is unlikely to be a Civil War reference, because this apple was established around 1800, after its discovery in an orchard near Rochester, New York.  It may have originally been called the Northern Pie apple, with the name morphing as a result of mispronunciation.  These apples are tart and full of flavor.

Relevant Blog: The Slow Food USA Blog: Well this is not exactly timely, since their scavenger hunt ends today.  But if you read the post early you may still be able to enter!

Adapted from original post (October 1st, 2008):

History: Apples have of course been around for eons, and are thought to be the first domesticated tree fruit.  The original home of the apple is eastern Turkey.  They arrived in North America by way of Massachusetts sometime in the early 1600's.

Growing: Apples need water, and a lot of pesticide. They have enough natural pests to earn them a separate Wikipedia entry, and are not surprisingly one of the twelve most contaminated vegetables. Apples do need a nitrogen based fertilizer. They are pollinated most often by honey bees which may become a serious problem in places where the honey bee is threatened.

Harvesting: Who hasn't picked an apple?  And for the most part, industrial apple orchards are harvested the same way, by hand.  The problem with machines, especially those that shake the tree, is that too many apples will fall and get bruised.  Fallen apples do make up a large part of the harvest, however.  Depending on the variety, harvest starts as early as late August and can go through the winter into February.  The trees themselves are long lived, with a life expectancy of around 100 years.

Processing: The majority of apples are eaten "out of hand," a.k.a. fresh.  In 2007, 2/3 of the total apple crop in the United States was purchased fresh.  The rest of the apples were processed, with almost half (42%) going to juice and cider.  35% were canned, i.e. made into apple sauce.  Smaller amounts are frozen, dried, made into baby food, and vinegar.  Amazingly, 7% of these processed apples were cut and sold as "fresh slices" (in plastic packages, of course) - c'mon people!  What happens to the 23% of the processed apple (half skin, and half stem/core) that becomes waste?  Anybody's guess...

Are They Healthy? Would I be a doctor if I didn't tell you to eat an apple a day? In terms of nutrition, the apple is a middling performer, with a modest amount of fiber and vitamin C. I think the real benefit of apples, though, is that they are filling without a big caloric load: 1 cup has 65 Calories. Even more than that, they take effort and time to eat, which leads to a perception of fullness. As long as you don't slab them with cheese or swathe them with peanut butter, they are going to be a winner every time.

Sustainability: There are two big issues with apples.  One is the heavy use of pesticides and fertilizers, which can be remedied by buying organic.  The other is that demand for fresh apples is so high that far flung countries - especially New Zealand, Chile, and Argentina - are shipping more and more fruit during the off- and on- season.  While this is lower impact than berries flown in, the carbon emissions are considerable.

Bottom Line: An all-around winner, best experienced local and organic.

References:
1. Wikpedia
2. Pesticides in Apples
3. How to harvest an apple tree, from eHow.com
4. Facts from the Apple Products Research & Education Council
5. Apple Nutrition Facts
6. Image from P Keigan, via Creative Commons