I found myself last week in conversation with my wife uttering words I thought died with the Great (was it really?) Depression. While discussing the collapse of our economy and watching my elected leaders prove, once again, that my cat could run the country better, my wife reminded me that, in a pinch, we can sustain ourselves off the large fruit and vegetable garden in our back yard. (Only barely comforting.)

Not a first for my family. My grandparents spent the Great Depression in Oregon. They claimed they barely knew a Depression existed. They mostly lived off the land. They didn’t get out much.

Maybe my lineage has come full circle. 

 

To that end, I plan to complete a homework assignment this weekend — learning how to make cider with the apples from my trees. I’m headed to the Apple Squeeze Sunday in Steilacoom because, any day now when the banks seize up and everything turns sepia tone, cider may be dinner.

The apple

Ever since Johnny Appleseed pranced his way down the bunny trail scattering heirloom apple seeds across the then organic soils of America (side note: Johnny Appleseed may be a tall tale, but I still love the song), the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, a member of the rose family, has become synonymous in this country with purity, wholesomeness and motherhood — not a bad PR effort seeing the apple tree started out as the root of all evil, at least for nudists Adam and Eve. 

Today, the United States produces apples (7.5 percent of the world’s total) second to China (35 percent) — apropos considering the “wild” apple started in China millennia ago. Other leading apple producers include Turkey, France, Italy and Iran.

 

Today, 7,500 cultivars exist, accounting for 55 million tons grown annually valued around $10 billion.

They taste good, too.

A local story

Apples arrived in the Northwest through Fort Vancouver on the shores of the Columbia River, according to Cy Happy, a Lakewood historian and apple expert. He knows of a few trees more than 150 years old in Steilacoom.

 

In Dupont, near the site of the old Fort Nisqually built in the mid 1800s, several apple and pear trees stand at the edge of marshland still bearing small fruit. Happy says they’re likely leftovers from the DuPont Dynamite factory days during the 1930s to ’60s when the company leased land to local farmers.

Many trees planted in the 1930s and ’40s came from Buckley Nursery, a leading apple tree supplier of its day, Happy adds. 

 

The story doesn’t end there, however. Many folks across the South Sound have apple trees in their own yards, yet know little about them. As people move from house to house, the trees have remained bearing varieties that confound their owners. That’s where Bob Hartman of Hartman’s Fruit Tree Nursery in Puyallup enters the picture. 

 

Hartman welcomes people to bring their apples to his nursery for identification. He even offers folks taste tests of the apple trees he sells (of the fruit, not bark) — sort of a taste before you buy. 

His favorite tree?

 

“I like the Sweet Sixteen,” he says. He stores the fruit in sealed plastic bags in his refrigerator. 

“They’re still crisp after Christmas,” he adds.

 

Hartman will also be at the apple squeeze to identify your apples this weekend.

Yum

Few restaurants turn out sensational desserts in this town; therefore, narrowing it down to apple desserts (seeing I have a theme going here) you might as well forget it. Almost.

 

Brix 25 (7707 Pioneer Way) in Gig Harbor makes a stunning baked apple with crème Anglais — worthy of a drive to Gig Harbor (try the Beef Bourguignon too). DeCaterinas Market Grill and Bar (328 S. Meridian) in Puyallup offers a thick apple pie with all the right flavors. Finally, House of Donuts (9638 Gravelly Lake Dr. S.W.) in Lakewood produces a mega-moist and crisp apple fritter that puts 5 pounds on you just for looking at it.

 

Beyond sweets, try the apple peach soup with oatmeal calvados at Babblin’ Babs Bistro (2724 N. Proctor) in Tacoma where Chef Mueller always stretches the boundaries of flavor. Or take in the savory kick of Asado ( 2810 Sixth Ave.) in Tacoma. Its Pitu Puerco — a tender pork chop stuffed with goodness including apples, Cachaca cider jus and chorizo — is tasty.

Main squeeze

Now, back to our lead story. The sleepy little town of Steilacoom religiously ushers in the fall with a good old-fashioned apple pummeling. Known as the Steilacoom Apple Squeeze, the event runs downtown (you can’t miss it — look for the Sound) Sunday, Oct. 5 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It’s a celebration of the apple including 20 presses squeezing cider, apple products for sale and much more. While I am there, and depending on Congress’s actions today and tomorrow, I just may find an old timer who can also show me how to make hard apple cider. I, and the whole nation, just may need a belt of that.