Now that the summer fruit and vegetable crops have waned a bit, Ohio apple season is in full bloom. Sure, you can score plenty of fresh-picked apples around the state, they’ll be predictably crisp and sweet (or tart, if that’s more your game). That said, those fresh-picked apples aren’t going to yield the comforting joys of applesauce all by themselves. If cold-weather comfort is what you’re after, it’s going to require hours of peeling and stewing. That’s work.
Or just go buy some Ohio Applesauce. It’s got all the integrity of “local,” without the labor of picking and cooking. That’s a win.
For such an occasion, there is Sunny Slope Orchard Applesauce. It comes in a giant jar, so it’s a large commitment, but it’s a commitment worth making. Sunny Slope’s applesauce also comes in different flavors, and by “flavors” we mean “gene pools.” You know the breed of apple before you commit to the whole jar: the options include Jonagold, Delicious, or the version used in the test-drive, Macintosh.
While most big box apple sauces have a texture that’s closer to a gritty slushie, the Macintosh sauce is uncommonly smooth -ticklishly smooth, in fact. The applesauce is like something homemade and grandma-style. It’s sweet too, courtesy the sugar mentioned in the ingredient list. The rest of the ingredients are pretty simple, apples and ascorbic acid (the acid is a non-scary, commonly used agent to prevent browning -sort of like lemon juice). Also worth noting is the fact that unlike big box sauce, the Mac version tastes like actual apples.
While you can find Sunny Slope’s applesauce in local gourmet grocers, Sunny Slope Orchard itself is a picking place up in Navarre, Ohio. It offers apples, pumpkins, weird gourds and in the spring it has strawberries too. According to social media posts, it also offers up loads of Ohio products including deli meats, cheeses and Velvet Ice Cream.
For more information, visit www.marketplaceohio.com.