My body has traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved

Monday, November 16, 2009

This is new

A friend and former co-worker of mine runs a decent size orchard nearby. Last count around 125acres of apples, pears and peaches.
Tho not just any fruit, some of the best varieties you can find. He used to bring it into work for orders though neither of us works there now. Now I catch up with him at the local farmers market on the weekend.
He grows pears, apples, nectarines and peaches (my favorite? Ambrosia. A large white fleshed variety that smells like purfume).
One more great thing about Michigan is the variety of fruit in the fall. The area we live in is one of the two largest areas in Michigan for apples and grapes and Michigan is one of the top producers of Apples and Cherries in the country.
And if you haven't had a HoneyCrisp apple, you are really missing out on a treat. Brian turned me on to these during a particualarly good year when his were bigger than softballs (it seems HoneyCrisp trees have 1/2 year harvests, One year is great, the next will automatically be lean).
The next thing he turned me on to are Asian pears, long before they or HoneyCrisps were in vogue.
And Brian grows around 8 varieties.
The great thing about Asian pears is they eat like an apple (staying crisp)and keep for twice as long, just getting better with age. I've kept some for three months in the crisper. My favorite variety has a clove smell that just gets stronger the riper it gets and the juice turns into honey.
So last week I was surprised (I shouldn't be) to see something new (and not a variety of something, if it's new, he'll have it first) from him.

Pear Cider!
Not cheap, $3 for 1/2 gallon but it's not like you can shop around.
And that's something else about Brian's stuff, it's not the cheapest but you can be certain it's always the best.
For his, I'm willing to pay.

Great cider by the way, a very unique taste.


2 comments:

Randy said...

Wow, that sounds quite good. I will have to try it some time.

Because of the longer post, Your shoulder must be feeling better. I hope so.(Roberta must of helped you on the last one or it took you all day to write it,hehehe)

steve-vh said...

Actually, I took several days to write this one.
But as of today I can start weaning out of the sling during the day. Man I am so happy.

I'm still having good and bad days. One day I do too much and pay for it the next day.
But still far better than last time.