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One of my favorite things about cooking is the seasonality of ingredients.  Who doesn’t love asparagus in the spring, fresh tomatoes in the summer or, my personal favorite, apples in the fall?  Maybe, I am biased though - I mean I did grow up in New England.  Apple picking in the fall is tradition.  Of course, when you have 5 crates of apples you get pretty creative in how you use them.  We put them in everything - apple crisp, apple fritters, apple pancakes, apple pie, apple cake, etc.  Apples have a really long shelf-life, but there is nothing like a fresh from the tree Mac.  When August rolls around I have all I can do to wait for early season apples. 

So here’s some interesting factoids about my favorite fall fruit.

• One medium apple has approximately 80 calories.
• Apples are part of the pome family.  Another member of the pome family is the rose.
• Trees take 4 to 5 years to fruit.
• Most apples are still picked by hand.
• China is the leading producer of apples.
• One final fact from my own personal experience - it’s very difficult to find a Mac (not the computer) in Oregon.