My Childhood is in my Shopping Cart

Today has been profitable. I spoke to my aunt,and she gave me the lowdown on my grandmother’s country hams. Now I know what to put on a ham, if I decide to try curing one. She also told me the correct name for June apples. They are Yellow Transparent apples, and believe it or not, they come from Russia. How they got to Kentucky is anyone’s guess.

I found a website–this is beyond belief–that will ship me a bushel of apples for $17.00 plus UPS charges. I can’t do it until next year, but I’m amazed that it can be done at all. I can’t come close to that price at my local grocery. I probably can’t touch it at Costco. And if I could, the apples would be Granny Smiths, which are not as good.

My aunt also said she would email me another aunt’s recipe for dried apple pies. The aunt who made the pies succumbed to lung cancer in 1994. She made exquisite fried pies. She used lard, according to what I was told years ago.

I’ve given up on drying apples for now. I can buy dried apples from Kentucky for six bucks per pound, and it would probably cost me over twice that much for dried apples made from scratch. Granny Smiths cost at least $1.50 per pound, and that’s before you throw out the core and peel and let the water evaporate. I’ll bet a pound of fresh apples turns into less than a pound of dried ones. I’d have to get apples for almost nothing in order to beat six bucks per pound.

I ordered some dried apples, and I could not resist ordering jowl bacon and apple butter. I plan to try to make my dad an apple stack cake for Christmas. I’ll bet he hasn’t seen one since my grandmother died.