a summer solstice apple?

a spectacular applesauce

“summer transparency,” my mother called ‘em,

“June apple,” I’ve also heard,

late in June and early in July

some trees finish their fruit early--

a light clean green over tender flesh,

so touchy it won’t ship,

so we go to the orchard

and buy them fresh from the trees,

we cut them up, discarding a bit of each end,

and slowly simmer them with a little water,

stirring and stirring for hours,

when the last chunks dissolve into the darkening green slurry,

it’s time for the “Foley Food Press,” as Mother called it,
"Foley Food Mill" is how it's marketed now,







turning and turning that magical contraption

which reduces a half-bushel into a couple of gallons of sauced apples,

maybe only two cups of skin and seed to discard,

flavorful as can be but so tart

it’s as if the tree spent so much energy on flavor

it could not invest any sugar in its fruit,

the apples a product of spring 

that is harvested before summer adds its gifts,

we add far more sugar than seems right,


tasting and tasting, and arguing, till we get what tastes right,

and we are left with an applesauce that is spectacularly delicious.

by Henry H. Walker

July 10, ’13