I’m embarrassed to say that until I turned 18 I actually thought I didn’t like apples.  I grew up in Hawaii and almost only ate muchy, mealy  red delicious apples.  I hated them.  Bland, soggy, bleh.  It wasn’t until I moved to NY and experienced an apple picked straight from the tree that I really got it.  It was a gala apple, still my favorite pie apple to this day.  I’ll never forget to way that apple tasted and the way it made me feel.  I was in upstate NY at an apple picking party complete with hay ride and cider press.  I had never seen anything like that before.  Until the moment I ate that apple I thought the whole idea of an apple picking party seemed silly but in one bite I totally got it.

This is the season when every market and menu has an abundance of apples.  I love apple pie!  Not as much as Kyle, who has been known to eat a full pie in a day by himself, but I sure do look forward to apple pie time of the year.

But my favorite apple flavor isn’t the caramel-sugary goodness of apple pie…  It’s the tart, refreshing flavor of green apple.  I love green apples diced, made into sorbet, soda, chips.  You name it.  As long as it retains that crisp flavor.  In a new dessert at Birch and Barley I’ve combined all my favorite tart ingredients.  A baked-to-order lemon cake, green apple sorbet, diced green apples, yogurt panna cotta, passion fruit gelee and passion fruit curd.  In a time of year when everyone is focused on transitioning to rich winter food I wanted to keep it refreshing and light.