The Taste of Honey

When I was in Creemore over Thankgsiving weekend I visited my favourite apple factory in Glen Huron. Grandma Giffin is world famous or at least locally famous for her incredible pies, butter tarts, and muffins. I used to buy her pies to serve at the art retreat centre I cooked at and when the vegetarians of the group oohed and aahed over her pies I thought keeping the lard factor a secret wouldn't really hurt anyone (especially those vegetarians who were lactose/gluten/sugar intolerant and allergic to garlic AND onions which obviously made my life absolute hell). There were huge wooden boxes of apples and each bushel was $5 with the second bushel FREE.

I bought 1/2 bushels of Mutsu/Crispin, Honeycrisp, and Spy apples. The honeycrisps are smallish in size (perfect for a child) and a total balance between sweet and tart with a reddish skin and a firm crisp flesh. Mom and I first came across this new hybrid apple a few years ago (it's the offspring of the Macoun and the Honeygold Apple and was first cross-pollinated at the University of Minnesota in the 60s) and it's quickly become a favourite. In fact it's so popular that fruit growers in Nova Scotia are ripping out the traditional McIntosh orchards and replacing them with the more lucrative Honeycrisp trees according to CBC news.

Comments

[Randi]

I just discovered those honeycrisps and i love them. Do you think they would be good to cook with or just eat?

[PC_Kim]

I tried the Honeycrisp for the first time this fall. Mixed them up with some other varieties to make applesauce. Quartered and cored them but left the skins on and then popped them in my new generation pressure cooker (if you aren’t familiar with new generation pressure cookers, check out http://fastcooking.ca ). In a couple minutes, had pureed applesauce. Then picked the apple skins out. The skins seem to add a lot of flavour. Really great applesauce.