apples

I’ve loved apples with wild and reckless abandonment since I had enough teeth to bite them. Actually, I must have been an apple fanatic when even before my teeth came in. My mom once told me that my favorite baby food was applesauce. Somehow I’m not surprised. Apples simply do it for me, and apparently they always have.

When I was contacted with an opportunity to sample a new apple (Lady Alice – is that a beautiful name or what?) for a review on my food blog, I jumped at the chance. Then I watched for the delivery with the same level of intensity of a hawk.

Lady Alice apples are, if we’re being completely honest, the best apples I’ve ever had. They are everything you want from an apple, and then some. My husband also declared it the best apple he’s ever had and, trust me, we have both had our fair share of apples.

History of Lady Alice

The Lady Alice brand apple was discovered as a chance seedling near Gleed, Washington. While cultivating the neglected orchard soil in 1979, a plow disc hit the base of a Red Delicious tree injuring its trunk. The damaged tree sent out a new shoot. The new shoot had a decidedly different appearance from the rest of the tree so it was allowed to grow and bear fruit. Since the new tree was discovered in an orchard with many different varieties of fruit trees scattered throughout, its parentage is unknown.

Over the next 25 years steps were taken to preserve and propagate the new variety. As with the first generation, all subsequent generations exhibited the same characteristics observed in the original tree. Rainier Fruit is the exclusive marketer of Lady Alice apples from Washington State.

Exclusively offered by Rainier Fruit Company, this new and distinct apple possesses unique and desirable characteristics:

• Lady Alice has a bright pink stripe over a creamy-yellow background that deepens to a banana-yellow after harvest.
• Lady Alice holds its texture when baking.  It is slow to brown after cutting which makes it excellent for eating fresh, cutting into salads or serving on fruit trays. This is an excellent all-purpose apple.
• Its heirloom dense flesh is sweet with a hint of tartness that lingers on the palate.

I’ve used Lady Alice in a lot of smoothies. I’ve made green smoothies with it as well as good old fashioned, delicious fruit smoothies.  Bananas are a mainstay in the green smoothies and fruit smoothies I make because it provides a great creamy consistency. I found that Lady Alice apples can be substituted for bananas to change things up.  They also compliment bananas beautifully.

I also added a cut up Lady Alice apple to my chocolate Slim Fast shake for extra creaminess, flavor, and nutritional punch.

Lady Alice apples are also PERFECT for making homemade applesauce (pictured above). I left the skins on because I wanted the reddish tinge.  If you peel them, you’d have the more traditional applesauce look.  They made amazing applesauce. I used the applesauce recipe found on the Nutri-Bullet blog.

These sweet apples have the perfect amount of crunch – they’re far from mushy but biting into them requires zero effort.

I’ve also found other ways to work Lady Alice apples into our day for healthy and delicious snacks.  In the picture below, you’ll see a few of my favorite co-stars for Lady Alice Apples.  I slice up a Lady Alice apple and add other healthy choices such as (from left to right):  Chia Seeds, Peanut Butter, and Jif Hazelnut Spread (similar to Nutella but with even more of an amazing Hazelnut flavor).

The Chia seeds cling beautifully and, in my opinion anyway, make a darn cute snack.

Lady Alice apples can be found in grocery stores around the country. Visit the Rainier Fruit website for more information on Lady Alice apples as well as a variety of other fruits.