Apple season means pies and nobody knows that better than baker Nicole Rucker of Fat & Flour. Looking to develop a late-summer apple pie, she wanted to avoid cinnamon and spice. She experimented with fig leaf, which turned out to be a delightful and unexpected flavor pairing that complemented the tart fruit. Rucker relies on that combo in her second collaboration with Rose Delights, an edible company using an ingredient-flavor approach.
Mike Cirone of Cirone Farms brings 20 varieties of apples to the farmers market from See Canyon near San Luis Obispo. A drought followed by heavy rainfall has made for a bumper crop this year. Gold Rush is Cirone's personal favorite variety and will be picked later in the season. Sun Crisp and Criterion are denser gold varieties that are tart without being sour. Quince and pear are also on his table at the farmers market.