Apples again! 2 weeks ago I went with my hiking club to Primrose River, Boyne Trail about 20 km north of Orangeville.
While everyone marvelled at the level 2 intermediate hike, I kept eying apples on the trees. Tiny, sometimes red, sometimes green, always pretty. They were also strewn on the trail. Yeah, luckily the farmers don’t care for these. They don’t even bother to spray said an experienced hiker. That’s all I needed. I loaded up on these tiny apples. Soon my backpack was full not with hiking gear but these delicious apples, I know they were delicious, coz’ of course I bit into one and ate it as a mid afternoon snack.
It took me a whole week of work to get around to making the apple chutney. I taught yoga on Toronto island last Saturday. The hostess loves my food so much 🙂 she asked me to cook a meal along with teaching a yoga class. What better gift this time than apple chutney? I was planning to make poha, recipe here. Apple chutney would hit all the right notes as a perfect complement.
| Ingredients 2 cups apples, gala or any tart apples |
Spice Mix 2 inches cinnamon stick ½ cup dried cranberries pinch cayenne pepper 2 tsp brown sugar 1 tbsp coconut oil Salt to taste 2 cloves |
Method
• Wash & dry apples. As these were unsprayed apples, a light wash is all that’s needed.
• Remove seeds and slice and dice apples into small cubes.
• Heat oil in pan. Add cayenne and sauté. Quickly add cinnamon stick, cloves and then & cranberries to pan.
• Add salt and sugar and sauté till apples get soft.
• Serve with poha. This is the best combination. But if you don’t have the ingredients handy for poha, don’t worry. This chutney is great on so many things, picture it on some multigrain bread or with pakora.
When I ate these apples, I felt all bright & had a spring in my step. Organic apples (purely by accident) like this one I had to touch 🙂 are the best.. 
I wish farmers would leave the apples be 🙂 Yes, they don’t grow too big, but they pack such an amazing flavour punch. Besides I read that apples are routinely sprayed with a pesticide with a possible link to Parkinson’s disease. I don’t go buy everything organic but this sort of impact on our health makes me pause & reflect. Shouldn’t we be concerned about what goes inside our bodies, and the long term impact of sprayed foods. I’ll leave you with one more picture of our magnificent nature hike..
–charuyoga–
charuyoga 