Apples Apples Everywhere....

When you are shopping, you see all the different kinds of apples. What do they all mean? Here are just a few to help you make some decisions:

Crabapple: The Crabapple is a cute, small red apple. It has hard flesh that is not good for eating raw unless you really like sour apples. They can be great for making jelly and jam, as well as using in recipes with pork and poultry.

Criterion Apple: These are slightly tart apples that have bright red skin with green highlights. Criterion apples are good for baking and hand-eating.

Golden Delicious Apple: These apples are yellow to yellow-green with a sweet/bland flavor. The juicy and crisp flesh will resist browning, but this all purpose apple will lose some flavor when cooked. It is usually available September through June.

Granny Smith Apple: This crisp, juicy, freckled green skinned apple has sweetly tart flesh. The Granny Smith is excellent for hand-eating and cooking. This apple can be grown in New Zealand, Australia, California and Arizona so it is usually available year-round.

Gravenstein Apple: These crisp apples have a juice, sweet-tart, green-skin streaked with red, all-purpose for cooking but not whole, available mainly on the U.S. West coast from August to late September.

Jonathan Apple: These spicy, fragrant, juicey, sweet-tart flavor apples are good for all-purpose cooking. Whole Jonathan apples are good for hand-eating. They are usually available September through February.

McIntosh Apple: These are Medium-sized, crisp, tart-sweet, and have bright red skin sometimes tinged with green. They are an all-purpose apple, but they don't hold up to lengthy cooking. They can be available September through March.

Red Delicious Apple: These apples are generally large, brilliant red, and sometimes streaked with green. They have an elongated shape with five distinctive knobs at its base. They are juicy and sweet with no distinguishable tartness. Red Delicious apple is recommended for hand-eating but not for cooking. They are usually available from September through April.

Rome Beauty Apple: These apples have a deep red skin with some yellow speckling. It's off-white flesh ranges from tender to mealy. It is mildly tart to sweet and bland. The Rome Beauty holds its shape well when cooked and as such is good for baked apples or cooked dishes. It is usually available November through May.