Apples and Hickory Nuts

Evening temps have dropped and the days grow shorter. It's October, after all, and one of the markers of the season besides finding stink bugs and beetles tucked away in warm corners of the house is the harvest of apples and hickory nuts from yards, orchards, and at field edges. If you come upon a Shagbark Hickory tree, check the ground for thick, quartered, brownish, green husks containing pale, hard nuts. This resilient, native tree produces large amounts of tasty fruit/nuts every few years, is closely related to the pecan tree, has an average lifespan of 200 years, is a favorite larval host of the Luna moth, and makes delicious chocolate chip hickory nut cookies.

It's also apple season, and there are great local options to source all the varieties your heart desires. At Peach Hill Orchard, apples are bought in 22 bushels at a time from local orchards and across the state. Apples labeled, "local", are sourced within a 30-mile radius. They stock a large variety of uses including pies, applesauce, and snacking. They also sell many value-added items including apple butter, apple pies & dumplings, apple cider vinegar, and their most popular item - fresh-pressed apple cider, which they make fresh into March. A few miles down the road at Bridenbaugh Farm Market, some of the stocked apple varieties include Honeycrisp, Mutsu, Mcintosh, Gala, Northern Spy, Empire, Cortland, Fuji, and Jonagold. Under each variety name tag, there are brief descriptions of the taste and quality of the apple, to aid in your decision process. Both Bridenbaugh and Peach Hill source from local orchards including Boyer Orchards and Kensinger.

In New Paris, Boyer Orchards ships most of their apples to Hess Brothers out of Lancaster and the remainder goes to other local stores as well as Boyer's farm store, where they sell many varieties of their apples, plus pears, winter squash, pumpkins, and their apple butter. Over the past 10 years, they've worked to replace many of their trees to meet the demand for popular varieties like honey crisp, gala, and fuji. They also grow many other varieties including Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Stayman Winesap, and Cortland - their most popular cooking apple. Overall, this year's apple harvest is going well, and the intense heat and drought in the middle of the summer seem to have mostly affected peach yields. It's a beautiful fall week in the Cove, bookended by the first frost and winter yet to come, and a perfect time to snack on an apple, sip some cider or crack into the smoky sweetness of a Shagbark Hickory nut.