When young children are asked “How many different kinds of apples are there?”, they might say, “Three: red, yellow, and green”.  Wander through a farmers’ market and you’ll see that those colors are just the tip of the iceberg.  There are roughly 24 farms and orchards that sell at apples at the New York City and Brooklyn Greenmarkets and most of these farms sell multiple varieties.  The leader in varieties is Samascott Orchards, with over 60 varieties.  Locust Grove Farms comes in second with over 30 varieties of apples.

New York, home of the BIG apple, is the second largest grower of apples in the country, preceded by Washington State and followed by Michigan and Pennsylvania.

In selecting an apple, knowing where to begin can be a daunting task!  Which apples are best for a particular recipe?  How will I remember what a certain apple tastes like?  Most of the farmers have descriptions displayed beside each variety, detailing tasting notes and potential uses.  In addition, the farmers usually have plates of cut apples available for you to taste and compare.  If you are truly confused or just need advice, don’t hesitate to ask the farmer.  According to Jake Samascott, of Samascott Orchards, ‘a lot of people try different varieties each week’ or ask ‘what’s good for baking’.

Softer apples are best for applesauce, while firmer apples are best for baking and making pies.  You can increase the sweetness or acidity of the product by adding sugar or a few drops of lemon juice to the recipe.

Good for Baking

Golden Delicious: “Known as the all-purpose baking apple”, this apple is semi-firm, with thin skin. Its sweet flavor is perfect for baking, applesauce or pies.

McIntosh: Tart and soft, this apple makes a delicious filling for apple pies or a pretty sauce.

Granny Smith: The tart flavor of this apple actually increases when the apple is baked or sautéed.

Jonagold: These apples are sweet and tend to hold their shape well when baked (Samascott uses them in their pies.).

Mutsu & Winesap:  These varieties also have a sweeter taste.

Cortland, Empire, Idared, Northern Spy or Rome: These apples result in a more tart taste and a stronger apple flavor.

Sources:  Recipes.com, Samascott Orchards

Good for Salads

Cortland, Golden Delicious, Empire, Gala, Red Delicious, Fuji, Winesap, Criterion, Pink Lady

Good for Snacking

Gala, Fuji, Mutsu, Jonathan, Cameo, Golden Delicious, Cortland, Empire, Red Delicious, McIntosh, Braeburn, Winesap, Pink Lady, Sundowner

Source: Pick Your Own

Local Chefs frequently take advantage of the wealth of produce, including apples, available to them from the Greenmarkets.  Both Bill Telepan of Telepan Restaurant and Alex Guarnaschelli of Butter use Macoun apples at their restaurants, often from Locust Grove Farms.

Feel inspired?  Try out The Green Table’s Apple Sauerkraut or Dan Barber’s Sweet Potato and Apple Gratin. 

The farmers do not bring all apple varieties to the market at once.  To get a better idea of when certain varieties of apples are harvested and available, use Red Jacket Orchards’ Apple Harvest Calendar.

Happy Marketing!

-Meaghin

Samascott Orchards is one of the Greenmarket ‘originals’, selling at the NYC Greenmarkets since its opening in 1978.  A working farm since the early 1900s, Samascott Orchards demonstrates an understanding of its customers and an ability to change with the times, while maintaining a seasonal connection to the land.  Today, the orchards are a third generation family-run farm, with the entire Samascott family working together.

Last week, I had a chance to talk with Jake Samascott, head owner Gary Samascott’s son, while we were both huddled near a heater at the Union Square Market.

Jake’s grandfather helped turn Samascott Orchards into what it is today.  The land was originally used for both a dairy farm and orchards, before Jake’s grandfather decided to focus solely on the orchards.   In forty years, the orchards have gone from selling five varieties of apples to over sixty!

Apples are Samascott’s biggest crop, taking up 100 acres of the 1,000 acre farm.  But there’s no need to feel too overwhelmed:  all 60 varieties never make an appearance at the market at once. Instead, the Samascotts rotate varieties in and out depending on the time of year.  The varieties that you’ve seen during these chilly winter months will be here throughout the rest of winter.  These apples were harvested in the late Fall and are put in cold storage throughout the winter to preserve their freshness.

Samascott Orchards “does a little bit of everything… blueberries, sweet and sour cherries, strawberries, lots of vegetables [like] tomatoes, peppers, sweet corn”. The first new produce of 2010 will be May’s asparagus.  Besides apples, there are many other fruits and vegetables to choose from including potatoes, pears, and butternut squash.  For a complete list of what Samascott sells, check out their website and What is Fresh’s list.

Samascott has diversified from a relatively small orchard when it first began to a large multi-crop producing farm, with plans to continue to diversify (beef and eggs could be future additions to their market stand!) While Jake didn’t use the word ‘biodynamic’ to describe the farm and orchards, the orchard clearly recognizes the relationship between soil, plants, and animals.  They use animals for fertilizer and they try to limit spraying their crops as much as they can.  “A lot of the vegetables we can get away with not spraying too much; we try to keep things as natural as possible.”  

No farm is immune to the unpredictability of nature.  Jake told me that in the past few years, “there have been some pretty bad hail storms where all the apple trees got cut and sliced and then the apples weren’t very ‘marketable’”.  When asked how the orchard handled the situation, he explained that they picked through the crop and focused on reassuring the customers that the taste was the same.  “The benefit of being at a market is that you can explain to [customers] why an apple looks the way it does.  Once they taste them, we sell them.”

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Q: Can you offer advice on how to select an apple (or any product with multiple options), if a customer is overwhelmed by the selection?

Jake Samascott: “[It] depends on what the customer is looking for; a lot of people will spend a lot of time reading all of the descriptions.  They’ll ask what’s good for baking.  Some people want a soft apple; some people want a sweet apple.… A lot of people aren’t aware that there are this many red apples.   A lot of people try different varieties each week.”

Q: With the increasing focus on single crop mega-farms and government subsidies, what is the future of family farms?

J.S.: “We do a lot of pick your own and get a lot of local people coming in to pick.  The best way to sustain the farm is catering to the local community and [being at] the market.  For sustainable agriculture it’s really hard to grow just one crop—you’ve really got to diversify and have some animals and manure and keep everything in a system…cows, goats, chickens.”

Q: What is the best part about selling at farmers’ markets?

J.S.: “Seeing all the people; it’s good to talk to them.  People like to know where their food is coming from:  I can explain it better and show them what it is and where it came from.”

Q: It’s been said that you can tell a lot about a person by looking in their fridge and on their bookshelf. So, what’s in your fridge and what’s on your bookshelf?

J.S.: “Not much…I’m not home very often!  I’m in New York City a couple days a week.  [I’m reading] ‘Food Inc’; I’m almost done w/the book and will have to check out the movie:  it’s interesting to see what other people are learning about.”

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When and Where: Click HERE for their Market Schedule;  Beth’s Farm Kitchen’s jam

Restaurants: Gramercy Tavern, Blue Hill, Union Square Café, Craft (to name a few)

Farm Address: 5 Sunset Avenue  Kinderhook, NY 12106

Happy Marketing!

-Meaghin