14 October 2015

Pommes de l'air — par terre


Pommes de l'air are fruits as opposed to vegetables like pommes de terre  (potatoes). Other famous pommes are la pomme d'Adam, la pomme de Newton, la pomme de Guillaume Tell, la pomme d'amour (tomato), la pomme de pin (pine cone), la pomme de douche (shower head), and then, last but not least, ma pomme (my face).

I'm not really talking about all those others here.

There are almost as many kinds of pommes as there are pommes in our back yard right now — even though a lot of them blew down in a wind storm a few weeks ago, and even though Walt has raked up and picked up thousands of them over the past few months.





And that's without even mentioning Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Fuji, Reinette, or Gala. Pomme à cidre (cider apples). Pomme à couteau (eating apples). Pomme à cuire (cooking apples). French Wikipedia article lists a hundred or more apple varieties, including probably 25 different kinds of reinettes. And that's just for France.

9 comments:

  1. France knows its apples....
    and they are, almost, all different.

    "la pomme de Newton"....
    we grow Newton's Wonder... very nice apple...
    and also...
    Winter Banana... Pauline liked the name...
    and the books said "good flavour and good keeper"...
    it is both!

    We've just planted two more trees in the verger...
    both French varieties... Patte de Loup... C18th... apparently a very good flavoured apple...
    and a pear... Le Curé... fruits are meant to be small and sweet when ripe...
    but also a cooker if picked young...
    we'll just have to wait and see!

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    1. More apples!?!?! How do you deal with them all?

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    2. They aren't producing more than a trug-full at the moment...
      some less than that..
      too young...
      it is only the Reinette Blanche that was already here that produces quantity...
      and being in the bottom of the valley, all our production is patchy, "cause" frosts.

      The keepers are stored in varicose places until ready...
      we daren't leave them on the tree...
      too many others want to dine on the same thing...
      the less able to survive are turned into compote...
      often mixed with jams that didn't set properly...
      even a "lemon&lime marmalade" one...
      and that one is superb...
      superb to the point where we will be making more of this marmalade...
      especially for making compote.

      As for preparation, we peel and core 'heavy'...
      not worrying about slightly bad bits...
      they come off with a knife...
      we've chickens and a four-bay compost system...
      that both need feeding.

      And the compost feeds the potager...
      pomme-tiddly-om-pomme-pomme!!

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  2. Ken, we're catching up on your blog. There's a lot to absorb and enjoy.

    There's a verger conservatoire near Veigne where we saw many varieties of older apple trees, but Patte de Loup is the only one I remember. It's also probably the only apple I could identify by sight, since it has those distinctive scratch marks.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Carolyn, I don't know that variety (Patte de Loup) but I found photos of it here.

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  3. Ambrosias are my favorites right now.

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  4. Apple varieties have such wonderful names (at least in this country for heritage varieties that aren't commercial for supermarkets). Do they have as many in France? And what sort of pomme is it in "chipé pour la pomme"..?

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  5. My freezer here is full of apples, some from you and some from Gaynor, sliced, part cooked and ready for an almost instant crumble or pie. Lovely!

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