This week’s radio chat was all about apples: the which, why and how of eating, cooking and generally appreciating this wonderful and versatile fruit. Australians each eat about 9 kilograms of fresh apples per year but as you’ll hear, some people may be eating more than their share!
Enjoy the chat then dive into my apple info below!
There are around 7500 different varieties of apples, with new varieties being developed all the time. On the other hand, varieties also slip from favour and heirloom varieties can slip from obscurity to extinction.
You don’t really think about fruit as branded but they certainly are, with horticulturists and commercial growers working on new varieties that travel well, store well, look appealing in the store and don’t brown when cut. They are also seeking novelty: pink and red fleshed apples are going to gain more prominence. Many of these newer apple varieties can only be grown under license and some supermarkets also grab apples as exclusives: they use them as a drawcard just as they have done with cheap milk.
Victoria grows more apples than any other Australian state, producing around 43% of the nation’s apples, around 135,000 tonnes, worth more than $250 million. The biggest growing regions are the Goulburn Valley, Harcourt, the Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula and Gippsland.
Apples have a natural wax which is washed off when picking and packing. Then another wax is added to keep apples shiny, crisp and glossy. This wax is edible, made from shellac (beetles) or the leaves of a particular Brazilian palm tree.
Apples store well and cold storage has a long history, with French apples stored in limestone caves back in Roman times. These days, we have apples year-round thanks to refrigeration. They’re stored betwen 0 and 1°C with a humidity of 85%.
Here are some of my favourite apples, and the way I like to use them:
- Royal Gala and Golden Delicious: tarts, salads, eating
- Fuji: salads, sauces, eating
- Eve: slow to oxidise, great cut up for lunchboxes
- Granny Smith: baking, freezing, salads, slicing thinly and eating with a piece of cheddar
- Sundowner: baking
- Kanzi: eating
- Jazz: eating, eating, eating
One of my all time apple dishes is the famous Tarte Tatin.
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