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["Ward Barnes" <ward_p_barnes@hotmail.com>]

From The Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal, Thursday, December 11, 2003

 

Article written by Betty Wrenn Day.

 

How often have we heard the saying, "An apple a day will keep the doctor away"?  Well, if this be true, then the second annual Apple Happleing Cooking Contest, sponsored by the Middlesex County (VA) Public Library under the direction of Sherry Inabinet, helped to keep the doctor away for all of the lucky tasters.

 

Held last month at the Deltaville (VA) Branch Library, the contest included five categories;  Apple Pies, Apple Cakes, Apple Desserts, Apple Main Dishes, and Apple Breads.  When all the tasting, re-tasting and comments were over, the judges awarded the grand prize to Dot Edwards of Locust Hill (VA) for her Apple Quiche.

 

No one knows exactly where apple trees first appeared, although it is believed to be near the area between the Black and Caspian seas.  The ancient Greeks were growing several varieties of apples by the late 300's B.C>, and the ancient Romans also loved and grew the fruit.  Researchers have found the charred remains of apples in a Stone Age village in Switzerland.  The earliest recorded history in China, Egypt and Babylonia all mention apples, telling us that man understood the art of budding and grafting 20 centuries ago.

 

When Caesar's Roman legions invaded Britain, they brought the apple with them and it has been grown in the British Isles ever since.  The Roman Cato wrote of seven varieties of apples in the 3rd century B.C.  Three centuries later, Pliny named 36 varieties of apples.  Pomology, the science of apple growing, has flourished to where today there are 10,000 different varieties of apples grown in the world.

 

European settlers brought apple seeds and trees with them to the New World.  Records from the Massachusetts Bay Company indicate the apples were being grown in New England as early as 1630.  In 1796 in Ontario, Canada, John McIntosh discovered a variety of apple, which is today enjoyed by people around the world - the McIntosh.

 

So where did this favorite fruit get the name "apple?"  Most likely from the Latin word abelia, the name of a Campanian town that was renowned for its orchards and whose fruits were likely taken to the Roman frontier in England.  Subsequently it became the Old English aeppel, which meant fruit, eyeball, anything round.

 

FRESH CAROLINA APPLE QUICHE

 

10 - Inch unbaked pie curst

1/2 lb. pork sausage

1/2 c. chopped onion

1/4 tsp. thyme

1 Tbs. lemon juice

1 Tbs. sugar

1 1/2 c. tart firm apples peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubs

1 c. shredded Cheddar cheese

3 well-beaten eggs

1 1/2 c. half and half

 

Crumble sausage into large skillet.  Add onion and thyme.  Cook over medium heat until sausage is brown and onion is tender.  Remove from heat drain.  In a large bowl, toss lemon juice and apples. 
Add sausage mixture and cheese.  Blend eggs with half and half.  Pour into apple/sausage mixture;  mix well. Pour apple mixture carefully into piecrust.  Bake in lower third of oven at 425 degrees F. for 15 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350 degrees F. and continue baking 30 minutes or until custard is set.  May be served hot or cold.

 

Submitted by,
Ward Barnes

Wake, VA

 

Note:  The first Apple Happleing Cooking Contest was held after Ken Haedrich, author of "Apple Pie Perfect", made a presentation at the Christ Church School in 2002.

 

Ward.

 

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