On the farm in Alcona, Co., Michigan we had a Wolf River apple tree. It
often produced apples so big that one of them made an 8" pie. Full! Most
often however it took 2 apples. It was a typical backyard apple variety that
never made it commercially because the fruit bruised easily and didn't store
well. How many such varieties of other fruits have we lost?

"Jessica V." > wrote in message
...
> Today was apple picking, a half bushel of sweet/tart MacIntosh apples. The
> orchard is one that friends of my parents owned when I was a child, lots
> of memories there, running down into the orchard to pick an apple for a
> snack, talking to the migrant Jamaican apple pickers, hide and seek, apple
> fights (ouch), my brother peeing on the electric fence...typical kid
> stuff. ;0) But what I remembered most about the orchard were a few trees
> with some unusual varieties of apples, sadly those trees are now gone.
> The tree that produced "cannonballs" apples weighing over 20 ounces each
> is gone too, two were enough for a pie.
>
> So far, I've made two apple crisps with my grandmother's recipe. Yeah,
> yeah, I know Macs are for eating not cooking, but I like how they cook up.
>
> There are still pies and pancakes to be made. Will make another trip for
> inexpensive utility apples for apple sauce and apple butter.
>
> I also intend to try an Apple Brownie recipe from _Cooking Downeast_,
> Marjorie Standish, 1969.
>
> 1 stick margarine
> 1 c sugar
> 1 egg
> 2 medium apples, pared, cored and chopped fine
> 1/2 c chopped nuts
> 1 c flour
> 1/2 t baking powder
> 1/2 t soda
> 1/4 t salt
> 1/2 t cinnamon
>
> Cream margarine. Add sugar gradually. Beat egg until light and beat into
> mixture until creamy. Mix in the chopped apples and nuts. Sift flour and
> measure. Sift together with powder, soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir lightly
> into apple mixture.
>
> Turn ital a buttered 7 by 11-inch pan and bake at 350 degrees for 40
> minutes. Cool, cut into bars.
>
> Jessica