Fall is prime season for picking fresh apples, but three Southern companies are preserving the fruit for us to enjoy year-round.
Apple chips from Nadi
Nina Tickaradze, a native of Tbilisi, the capital of the country of Georgia, now lives in Atlanta. In 2017, she and a friend in Tbilisi decided to begin making and bottling the traditional Georgian rosehip drink their mothers and grandmothers made for them as children. Not long after, they created Happy Hearts apple chips, modeled after another childhood snack — dried fruit treats called “chiri.” The chips are available in two varieties: Ida Red and Granny Smith, and they are the thinnest, crispiest apple chips we’ve tried. The chips satisfy that urge to crunch while also tasting of rich, sweet apple. They’re addictive, but at 100 calories a bag, and only one ingredient, that’s an addiction we can live with.
$2.99 is the suggested retail price per 1.06-ounce bag. Available at Alon’s Bakery and Market, Bistro 191, Buford Highway Farmers Market, Candler Park Market, Goodness Grocery, Health Unlimited, and at Amazon and Walmart.com. Also available for $19.99 per pack of six bags at getnadi.com.
Credit: Dana Pitts
Credit: Dana Pitts
Applesauce and apple cider vinegar from Them Apples
Is there some irony in a doctor creating a line of apple products and reminding us of the old saying about eating an apple a day? David Pitts is a practicing physician who works in Johns Creek and lives in Dawsonville. Living in an area of North Georgia rich in apple orchards, he was able to satisfy both his love of the fruit, as well as his scientific curiosity, by dreaming up things to make with apples. Pressing apple cider not only provided fresh cider, but also the means to make apple cider vinegar. The pulp from making cider gave him the raw material for applesauce (both traditionally sweetened with sugar, or sugar-free and sweetened with stevia) and apple butter. We tried the applesauce (love the thick texture and the bit of cinnamon in the mix) and the vinegar. The vinegar smells of fresh apples, with a hint of the yeast that turns the cider into vinegar. It would be delicious in a brine for lightly pickling vegetables, and is just right for stews, like that batch of birria you might be making this weekend.
$7.99 per 16-ounce jar of applesauce or 16-ounce bottle of vinegar. Available at the Saturday morning Alpharetta Farmers Market and at themappleproducts.com.
Credit: PETER TAYLOR
Credit: PETER TAYLOR
Apple shrub from Old North Shrub
Jamie Swofford is a chef-turned-farmer who works on third-generation family land in Shelby, North Carolina, growing produce he sells to restaurants and foraging for ingredients he provides to local breweries. A request from a brewery to create a nonalcoholic beverage turned his attention to shrubs, a beverage with a history dating from Colonial days. The name for his line of shrubs, Old North Shrub, fittingly comes from the early 1700s nickname for North Carolina, the Old North State. Shrubs are drinking vinegars, usually cut with water — we like ours with sparkling water or seltzer. They are tart, but also a bit sweet. He produces five varieties of shrubs, made from farmed and wildcrafted ingredients. We tried the Pink Lady, made from Pink Lady apples, organic apple cider vinegar, apple molasses and spiced with ginger, bay laurel and spicebush berry. There’s nothing sugary sweet about this shrub. Check the website for cocktail recipes, including combining this shrub with rye whiskey, bourbon or brandy. We can’t wait to try his Pine & Dandy next.
$13 per 8-ounce bottle. $22 per 16-ounce bottle. $6 shipping for three bottles or more. Available at oldnorthshrub.com.
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