Mathonwy's posts

I also really miss a coffee brand called Hills Brothers. I remember that this was the one my parents bought.

I miss having cotton candy at the town fair. Incidentally, there is an apple variety called Candy Crisp.

Jonagold is a great one to try if you like Honeycrisp and Cosmic Crisp!

Speaking of refreshing drinks, I really like seltzer water. Water is great, too. There's nothing like a cold glass of nice water, but seltzer water is bubbly and fun! Also, you can have it so many flavors: like apple! =P

I love to press apple cider, too. One of my favorite combinations? Freshly picked Gala and McIntosh. I feel like any cider is wonderful cider, but there is something special about the two. I could REALLY go for some Gala/McIntosh cider right now.

I've been frustrated with leaf removal this year because it just seems worse than usual. I have a linden, three maples, a pine, and an oak to wrangle with besides the smaller apple trees, and I've cleared my yards four times already and now the oak and maple leaves have finished falling, stuff blew in from the neighbors on either side, etc. It might be possible that I've been too proactive this year. I usually wait until mid-November and do it all at once, but I'm not sure this is better!

Cornish Gilliflower is a great apple, not the least of which because it's Cornish! I'm a big fan of Cornwall. Cornish Gilliflower is nice and sweet and tender with a tart spiciness and a pleasantly floral quality that smells like apple blossoms. That might seem obvious, but not a lot of apples are particularly floral once they become pomes. McIntosh is very floral as I said above, and famously Cripps Pink (Pink Lady) is a nicely floral/subtly bitter variety that is beloved by many and found in grocery stores frequently. But there's something really magical about the qualities of the Cornish Gilliflower apple. I could eat a million of them!

Claygate Pearmain, how I love thee! Quite a nutty-flavored little apple, just an unsual experience. And they are so tiny! It's like almonds and apple.

Roxbury Russet is such a good apple. To be honest, it's a lot like Golden Delicious, but not quite as pretty. Nevertheless, it makes up for this by having a richer, stronger flavor. It's not much of a keeper though. You got to eat them pretty fast.

McIntosh is another delight. Off the tree, they are quite tart, and the skin is somewhat tough, but let this beauty rest for a couple of weeks and you will have soft flesh with a floral, rose-lile scent and a sweetened, vinous taste, like concord grape wine. She is the mother of Cortland and Empire, too, and many others.

Combine Cox's Orange Pippin and Golden Delicious and what do you get? Several of their daughters! Like Pinova and Rubinette, each having qualities of both. Pinova has that subacid, almost tangy sweetness of Golden Delicious, but Cox's Orange Pippin's spiciness. And Rubinette? Just perfect. My, they are tough to grow, though. Rubinette is a fussy damsel.

Golden Delicious is another classic. Off the tree it is subacid and candy sweet. That is, when it is actually yellow and not greenish. The texture is incredible, one of the best, not too dry or watery and just the right kind of crisp. The golden color is beautiful, the pomes are shapely, the lenticels bright, and a lovely russeting around the stem. She is the queen of apples, I say.

It seems like it would be nice to talk about some of the apples and other treats we all enjoy.

Cox's Orange Pippin is my favorite apple. It tastes very sharp and sweet, a little spicy, full of flavor, excellent skin and crisp texture, and it's beautiful.

@wildfire: I will do my best! =) I'm in full remission now, getting CT scans every 4 months. My next one is in January, and my oncologist thinks my chances are really good that the metastatic lesions won't recur. I was stage IIIc, so it was rough for a while last year with multiple surgeries and four cycles of platinum-based chemo. We were very aggressive with it, and I was fortunate enough to have a fairly treatable kind of cancer even though the treatments were tough. I'm really lucky though because I had family support. My housemate drove me five days a week back and forth to the hospital for infusions. I really hope it's over. It took such a toll on EVERYONE and I don't want to put anyone through that again, never mind myself.

I recommend you check out The Birthday Massacre! It's so rare for me to get excited about bands these days, so they feel special to me.

The ukulele beckons, mwah ha ha! XD