The Canadian Apple Season is Here!

Along with colourful, falling leaves and bulbous pumpkins, ripe, crisp, juicy apples tell us that fall is finally here.  With names such as Pink Lady, Gala, Fuji, Spartan, and Golden Delicious, there’s a Canadian apple variety for all of your apple pie, apple butter, or applesauce needs.

An apple a day
As well as being just plain delicious, apples have great nutritional value. They contain high levels of dietary fibre, particularly pectin, which seems to bind to substances in the digestive tract and add bulk. Research has shown pectin to lower total and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels while leaving HDL (good) cholesterol levels unchanged. Further, apples are packed with free radical-fighting vitamin C—in fact, one medium apple contains 10 percent of our daily recommended intake (take that, oranges!).

Apple uses
When it comes to cooking with apples, not all varieties can be used interchangeably. The following will help you determine what to do with your locally picked apples.

• Applesauce: Braeburn, Cortland, Jonagold, Jonathon, McIntosh, Newtown
• Apple pie: Cortland, Jonagold, Newtown
• Baking: Fuji, Granny Smith, McIntosh
• Cider: Gala, Newtown, McIntosh
• Dried: Gala

Get cooking
Visit your local apple orchard and pick up some tasty Canadian apple varieties. For recipe ideas, check out the following alive recipes featuring this “forbidden fruit”:

• Baked Apples with Roses
• Apple and Cranberry Stuffed Acorn Squash
• Apple Crumble
• Fruited Mead Soup
• Ploughman’s Salad
• Sweet Potato, Parsnip, and Apple Bisque
• Cheesy Cinnamon Apple Slices
• Golden Applesauce