Encouraging Moms at Home

Tips, Tricks and Tools for the #MomWin

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Brand Inquiries
    • Full Disclosure
    • Our Writing Team
  • Homemaking
    • Cleaning
    • Essential Oils
    • Recipes
      • Instant Pot
      • Gluten Free Dairy Free
      • Using Produce
      • Cooking with Pumpkin
    • Nutrition
    • Food Preservation
  • Homeschooling
    • Homeschool Encouragement
    • Homeschool High School
    • Special Needs
    • Homeschooling Art
    • Homeschool STEM
    • Homeschool Technology
    • Teen and Tween Writers
  • Teaching Ideas
    • Free Printables
    • MInecraft
    • LEGO
    • Fine Motor Skills
  • Family Life
    • Gift Guides
    • Kid’s Activities
    • Summer Fun
    • Hiking
    • Moving
    • Christian Life
      • Christian Family Activities
      • Scripture Memory
      • Poetry
      • Creation
      • Advent and Christmas
      • Thanksgiving
  • Moms
    • Encouragement
    • Budget And Finances
    • Mom Fashion
    • Date Your Spouse
    • Work At Home
  • Shop
    • My Account

How to Pick the Best Apples this Fall

by Amy Blevins Leave a comment

Posts contain affiliate links. This means, if you choose to make a purchase, I will make a commission at no extra cost to you. For more information please see our full disclosure.
9shares
  • Pinterest9
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Food Lion. All opinions are 100% mine.

Nothing makes me happier in Fall than the smell, site and taste of nice ripe apple, a bite of hot apple crisp with melting ice cream or a sweet glass of apple cider. Apples are Fall, and Fall is my favorite time of year! Apples are versatile, portable, inexpensive, and unlike a lot of other fruit, they keep really well. That makes apples the perfect solution for all the snacking things for your family. The question is how to pick the best apple for the job.

Apples only have about 90 calories, and are packed with soluble fiber, a high water content, vitamins, antioxidants and other phytonutrients we don’t fully understand. This means that the benefits of eating an apple far outweigh the sugar content that sometimes gives apples a bad reputation as a snack. Turns out they are actually the perfect healthy snack for your kids and so easy to grab on the go.

One of my favorite fun Fall activities is apple picking and we go almost every year to the nearest apple farm to enjoy picking apples, eating cider donuts, and riding the hay wagon. If you’re looking for a fun fall activity you can do with the whole family on a crisp and sunny day in September or October, try apple picking. It’s a fun way to get everyone out of the house and in the fresh air.

That being said, I also love to stock up on all kinds of apples at our local grocery store while they are in season and full of flavor. Fall is when apples really come into their own.

You can find the tastiest, freshest apples from September through November and you can find some great Weekly deals.

When you head to a well-stocked grocery store, you’ll find all sorts of different and interesting apple varieties. Some are perfect for eating as is, while others lend themselves to baking, cooking with, making apple sauce and the likes. Of course some varieties store better than others. Here is a great list of apple varieties and their characteristics you can use as a guide for how to pick the best apple for the job you have in mind. You should be able to get a good idea about flavor, firmness, what the apples are best used for (eating apples vs. baking apples for example), and how long they can be stored. This list will help you plan what varieties you want to purchase and in what quantity.

Fuji Apples

Fuji apples are very sweet, very juicy, nicely crisp and a pretty pink color. They are a snacking favorite at this house and also work well in a baking blend of apple varieties.

Gala Apples

Gala apples are great for eating and to make apple sauce. Don’t try to bake with these apples. They tend to fall apart when you cook them. My kids love gala apples for snacking!

Golden Delicious

Golden Delicious apples keep their shape well during baking, making them perfect for pies. They are also delicious eating apples that store well.

Granny Smith

Granny smith apples are one of the best apples for baking. They hold up well in pies and crisps, and add a nice tartness to any dish. We like to use Granny Smith in cooking one dish meals as well, and surprisingly some of my kids also like to snack on these despite the tart flavor.

Honeycrisp

Honeycrisp apples are my absolute favorite. Honeycrisp apples are the perfect blend of sweet and trt and have the perfect crunch as well. I like to hide them in the fridge crisper to chill for a couple hours and come back later for a tasty snack. (If I don’t hide at least one, I won’t get any as my family devours these apples.) 

Jazz

Jazz apples are a nice snacking apple with a blend of sweet and sharpness and a firm texture. Jazz apples also work well in baking.

Jonagold

These apples are a blend of Jonathan and Golden Delicious apples. They are best eaten fresh or used in apple sauce.

Jonathan

Jonathan apples are anther variety that’s perfect for baking pies and cakes. They hold their shape well and have a nice crisp flavor.

McIntosh

McIntosh apples are best eaten fresh from the tree. They don’t hold up well to baking, but make delicious apple sauce.

Pink Lady

Pink Lady apples have a naturally sweet crunch described as zippy. These apples work great for snacking! Pink ladies also brown more slowly after slicing, making them perfect for salads, fruit trays or any fresh preparation.

Red Delicious

While I am not a fan of this vintage apple variety from my childhood, it remains a favorite of my kids for snacking, and if I take them with me to Food Lion this is inevitably what they will pick.

Once you get home with a pile of apples — and inevitably I come home with more than I know what to do with because they all look so tasty — its time to figure out how to store them. The first thing I like to do is go through my apples and check again for bruises or nicks since it seems like some of those always slip into my bag. I slice those up right away and set a tray out on the kitchen counter for hungry kids. My crew is used to me cutting up and setting out fruits and vegetables that need eaten.

Next I sort apples by variety, and then by size. Larger apples will go bad faster than others and different apple varieties have different shelf lives. You want the family to eat and use the apples that will go bad faster first. Keep the smaller apples of long lasting varieties with thick skins for last by putting those in the bottom of the basket.

Speaking of baskets, don’t store your apples in plastic. Instead choose crates or baskets that allow the fruit to breath. Apples emit ethylene, a gas that helps ripen fruit. You want the air to flow around your apples and allow excess ethylene to escape otherwise your apples will ripen and rot much faster. 

If you are only storing a small amount of apples, the crisper drawer in your fridge is another good option.

If you stock up on apples the next time you use Online Shopping with pick up or delivery, its so nice to make applesauce fresh for dinner, make a jar or two of apple butter or serve diced apples, onions and pork as an easy one pot meal for your family. We also enjoy apple quick bread, apple crisp, apples in salad, and baked whole apples with ice cream. Apples are the perfect addition to dinner or snack time throughout the Fall months and with this handy guide you can pick the perfect apple for any of these delicious ideas!

Visit Sponsors Site

9shares
  • Pinterest9
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Disclosure

Leave a comment
Food Preservation, Homemaking

About Amy Blevins

Amy lives with her husband and six beautiful children in Northern Virginia. Besides blogging, Amy enjoys homeschooling, hiking, reading, singing, teaching, and serving Jesus above all. Welcome.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search

Our Favorite Essential Oils

Essential Oil blend for Concentration and Focus

Keep In Touch

  • Shop
  • Contact Us
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • About Encouraging Moms at Home
  • Brand Inquiries
  • Full Disclosure with Privacy Policy
  • Our Writing Team

Kids Can Learn with LEGO Bricks

Our Latest Shenanigans

See these pretty little plants playing peekaboo? I See these pretty little plants playing peekaboo? I thought they were goners. See, my sister gave us the bulbs for Asiatic Lillies for Christmas last year, down in a bag full of dirt and told us to take them home and plant them in the cold so they would rest and come back next year. Or freeze them. I did neither. I knew we weren’t in our own home yet, and we were hoping to move into our forever home this summer, so I threw them in the closet and waited. They stayed dormant, and started to develop roots in the Spring, still in the bag in my closet. Come June 5, we moved into our new house, and I pulled out the bag around June 15 to plant them and found that the roots were turning to mush. The bulbs were starting to rot. I planted them anyway, but to make matters worse, I accidentally planted them upside down because I thought the roots were actually sprouts. Oops. Then, I hired my boys and their friends to weed the bed where these are planted and forgot to tell them to leave these alone. The “sprouts” disappeared. I thought they were gone forever. Here it is the middle of August, and a week or so ago, I found these baby Asiatic Lillies coming up. I texted a pic to my sis to ask if this was what they look like. Sure enough after all that trauma, this gift survived. I won’t have blooms this year, but I’m told they will come back next year and survive to bloom. What a sweet blessing that will be, God willing. And a sweet reminder to persevere under trials and hardship. God is doing something bigger, something hidden, something better than we can ever imagine. Hang in there! #momlife #momfierce #momforthewin #firmlyplanted
Today I’ve been sorting through some heavy stuff Today I’ve been sorting through some heavy stuff, especially the unmasking of pedophilia and it’s prominence in the US and in our backyards. This horrifies and frightens me. I am so grateful to know that God will prevail. In the end, He wins. Everything seems so dark here in the US and it’s because of the spiritual forces of evil — but I know God will prevail. His love never fails. I’m putting my hope in this truth. #loveneverfails #godwins #godisgreater #momlife #momfierce
I’m grateful to have prayer in my life. Worry st I’m grateful to have prayer in my life. Worry steals so much joy. 
I’ve also been grateful for the Pray Fierce Summit summit. You can listen free each day by looking for the preview buttons. 
#prayfierce
Join us in prayer? The link is in my profile. List Join us in prayer? The link is in my profile. Listen free each day by looking for the highlighted “preview” buttons. #praynow #prayfortheworld  #prayerchangesthings
⁣ ⁣I love this. In the ESV it says be Faithful ⁣
⁣I love this. In the ESV it says be Faithful in Prayer. That’s one of my goals in life! ⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣It’s also one of the goals of the Pray Fierce Summit - to help moms be faithful in prayer. ⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣It’s free to listen each day — I hope you will join us! ⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣You can listen free by clicking the preview buttons on the sessions labeled “watch free!” - find the clickable link in my bio!⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣https://mom-fierce.teachable.com/p/moms-pray-fierce-summit⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
#prayfierce #prayformoms #prayerrocks #prayer #pray #momfierce #momwins #momlife
Guess what showed up on my doorstep this morning? Guess what showed up on my doorstep this morning? Chicken for my freezer! I’ve been struggling to find meat at reasonable prices, so I was very glad to find this. If you want chicken Use code Farmer10 to get 10% off too. Use my #linkinprofile to support my #ladyboss business! #homelife #familylife #momlife #chicken #linkinbio
This is such a tough time for so many. Our hearts This is such a tough time for so many. Our hearts and prayers are with you if you are struggling today. Reach out if you have a need. You are loved. 💕
There are so many things I need to tell you about There are so many things I need to tell you about this picture. First #sheisloved campaign with @mercyhouseglobal and sheispriceless.org - check that out it’s important. Second - that cute bracelet came from @mercyhouseglobal about a month ago and *didn’t fit*. Today it’s loose enough to twist. I haven’t lost a lot of pounds according to the scale — I kinda stalled out three or four weeks ago at 17 pounds lost — but apparently I’m losing fat. That’s a victory. Third, my hands look like my moms and will some day look like my grandmas. I consider that a blessing.  Finally, it’s been a beautiful day😍 but I’m kinda sad it took me this long to find a red marker and share the love. If you have one handy, it’s not too late to jump on board with @wearethatfamily and be a world-changer! #worldchanger #momfierce #prayformoms #especiallyteenmomsinkenya #mymomrocks
How was Mother’s Day for you. It can be an incre How was Mother’s Day for you. It can be an incredible blessing or bring incredible pain. In whatever your circumstance, I will pray that you rest in God’s presence today. #mom #momlife #momwins #momfierce #momsofinstagram #2020mom
Follow on Instagram
Copyright ©2021, Encouraging Moms at Home. All Rights Reserved. Custom design by Pixel Me Designs