The apple – healthy, crunchy, tasty, versatile
The apple, which has the scientific name Malus, belongs to the pome fruit family like pears and quinces. There are approx. 20.000 apple varieties – old, new and cross-bred varieties. From sweet to sour, every apple has its own flavor. The apple is considered the favorite fruit of the Germans. It has reached this top position u.a. Due to its high health value, year-round availability and versatility.
The apple tastes good on its own as a raw food, in a lunch box as a snack for in between meals, as a crunchy ingredient in muesli. No fruit salad can do without the apple. You can make not only compote or applesauce from apples, but also apple chutney or apple mousse. Apples are delicious in sweet main dishes, such as an apple pancake, as an accompaniment to Kaiserschmarrn or in a casserole with apples and pears. Especially cinnamon and nuts harmonize perfectly with the apple, but also vanilla sauce. Try, for example, our recipe suggestion apple fritters with vanilla ice cream – simply delicious!
In winter, the baked apple is the absolute star among the delicacies with apple, while all year round apple can be baked in cakes, strudels or even in bread. Hearty classics with apple include red apple cabbage or stuffing with apple for Christmas goose. A more unusual, but no less delicious combination can be achieved if you gratinate apples with goat cheese. Together with grated carrots and lemon juice, apples make a juicy salad, which you can complement with pine nuts and feta, for example. The apple is also enjoyed in refreshing. Alcoholic beverages. These include not only apple juice, apple spritzer, and apple cider; there is also tea, punch, or mulled wine with apple. The variety of recipes with apple is limitless!
Apple – healthy fruit with protective function
"An apple a day keeps the doctor away" says a well-known saying. This reputation that the apple contributes to a healthy diet, it has rightly received, owes it to its wide range of nutritionally important ingredients. Fruit acids act like a biological toothbrush, malic acid is effective against rheumatism or gout. The fructose in apples promotes concentration. Keeps blood sugar levels constant. polyphenols and carotenoids in apples protect against cardiovascular disease and cancer. The pectin contained in the cell walls of apples has a cholesterol-lowering effect, and fiber regulates digestion. Since a large part of these ingredients are located in the skin of the apple, you should eat them as well. Clean the skin of the apple thoroughly beforehand, or buy organic apples.
Apples are the ideal companion on the road. Enjoyed during breaks at school, at work, or while traveling, they give us renewed strength and energy. In addition to a variety of vitamins. According to recent studies, minerals are above all also sog. secondary plant compounds are of particular importance for the health value of the fruits. These have the ability to neutralize certain harmful substances (free radicals) in the human body. Provide a natural defense against disease in this way.
Store apples properly and keep them fresh
Store apples properly and keep them freshApples ripen and release the gaseous plant hormone ethylene, which causes other fruits and vegetables to wilt more quickly. That is why apples should always be stored separately. Unless other types of fruit, such as bananas, are to ripen more quickly, then an enclosed apple is just the thing. By the way, a small piece of apple under the cheese cover also helps the cheese to stay nice and juicy and not to dry out. For long freshness, apples should be kept as cool as possible (approx. 7 degrees) and be stored at high humidity levels. For small quantities of apples, the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator is ideal; if you have more apples, they are best stored in the cellar. If you harvest your own apples, be aware that they have a shorter shelf life if they are picked from the tree when fully ripe. A cut apple turns brown very quickly. However, this enzymatic browning can be prevented by ascorbic acid, also called vitamin C. If you are cutting up apples for a fruit salad, pie, or for a crudites plate, you should immediately drizzle the pieces with a little lemon juice – this will keep the apple pieces fresh.
Apple varieties
Boskop: An apple with a fruity-sour taste, the flesh is firm, tangy, juicy, later crumbly. This apple is suitable for baking, stores well and tastes best from November to April.
Braeburn: Dessert apple with crunchy-sweet taste and firm flesh. It originates in New Zealand, but is now also grown in Germany.
Cox Orange: Spicy early autumn apple with fine acidity and firm flesh, which becomes pleasantly friable during storage. The small to medium sized apples are best from late September through March.
Elstar: The cross between Golden Delicious and Ingrid Marie has a finely acidic taste, plus juicy – crisp flesh of white – yellowish color. This apple is ready for consumption from the end of September to May.
Gala: One of the most popular apples. Just like the Royal Gala, it is very sweet, moderately juicy and aromatic. It is best to enjoy this apple very fresh (in March at the latest), because after acid reduction the apple quickly appears bland.
Gloster: The tart and moderately juicy cross between bell apple and Richard Delicious stores well, tastes best from November to May. The flesh of this apple is medium firm.
Golden Delicious: Initially, the flesh of this apple is firm and crisp, after some time slightly crumbly. The taste is sweet – aromatic, which makes the accidental seedling from the USA a popular dessert apple. This apple is best between October and July.
Idared: The USA – crossbreed is medium sized and good storable. The apple has pinkish-white flesh, little acidity and a weak aroma. It tastes good from January to July.
Jonagold: This apple was crossed in America from Golden Delicious and Jonathan. It tastes sweet and aromatic, has a fine acidity. This apple is ripe for consumption from October to July.
Gravensteiner: Belongs to the few "old varieties" that are still grown relatively often today. Its typical aroma with juicy flesh makes it a popular apple, which unfortunately is not suitable for storage and should be consumed by the end of the year after harvesting in September.
Old apple varieties:
Rotpassermaner, Kaiser Wilhelm, Geflammter Kardinal or Gestreifte Winterrenette – to whom do these apples still mean something today? They belong to the approximately 1500 apple varieties that still exist in Germany. However, for economic reasons, only a few dozen are coming onto the market – until now! The growing interest in organic products and ecological cultivation means that some "old varieties" are being increasingly cultivated again by associations or in fruit-growing trials. Also nurseries and garden – mail-order houses have more and more old-established apples in the offer.
A whole series of different apple varieties often grow in farm gardens or in meadow orchards. Due to the different harvest times there were always fresh apples from early summer until the next spring. One of the early apple varieties is the white clear apple, which is sensitive to prere and can only be kept for a short time. In contrast, the Ontario apple is not ripe for picking until early November. It can survive night frosts down to minus 5 degrees.
The specifics of Franconian apple growing…
are due, on the one hand, to the very wide range of services available. More than 40 different apple varieties are grown by Franconian fruit producers. In addition to well-known varieties such as z.B. Elstar, Jonagold or Boskoop, many farms offer other very good tasting specialties. Mild climate and many hours of sunshine also provide excellent conditions for growing tasty and healthy fruits. Apples from Franconia are produced in an environmentally friendly way according to strict guidelines, so that the skin can be eaten without hesitation.