I’m sure I don’t have to tell you it’s officially apple season at the markets. Honeycrisps, gala, rambo, winesap, mutsu, braeburn, pink lady… — you may not find these names at the grocery store, but our local farmers markets offer an amazing variety of vintage varieties. And of course, we’ve been to orchards — picking at Crooked Run (Purcellville, Va.) and to the pumpkin patch at Butler’s Orchard (Germantown, Md.), where we picked up our most recent batch of honeycrisps.

Now that the weather is officially cold, there are few more comforting side dishes than skillet cornbread. Fortify it with (not-so-local) sausage and some of those apples, and it becomes practically a meal in itself. The base for this comes from a recipe recommended by Kristina at Tennessee Locavore. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my time living “in the South,” it’s to trust a Southerner when it comes to cornbread. The recipe comes from Crescent Dragonwagon, who has authored an entire cookbook on cornbread — so if you’re looking for more ways to play with cornmeal, you might find inspiration there.

Recipe: Apple Sausage Skillet Cornbread
Adapted from Dairy Hollow House Skillet-Sizzled Cornbread in Passionate Vegetarian by Crescent Dragonwagon

Ingredients:

2 links sausage,* such as Italian or chorizo
1 cup apple, diced
1 cup stone ground yellow cornmeal
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Instructions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Stir together dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, break the egg and add buttermilk and oil, whisking to combine. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet, stirring until the dry ingredients are moistened. Gently fold in apples. Set batter aside.

Heat skillet over medium high heat and cook sausage, breaking apart with your spoon, until browned. Spread cooked sausage evenly around the pan, and pour batter into the hot pan over the sausage. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until top is golden brown. Serve warm. Makes 8 servings. Top with a little butter and maple syrup, and enjoy!

* Note: I actually used a chunk of Soppressata di Calabria from Boccalone in San Francisco, diced small — but the husband thought the chunks were a little too chewy after being double-cooked. Next time I’ll stick with the fresh sausage.

What have you made with apples lately? Be sure to join in for Kids Cook Book Soup if you’ve made something apple-licious with your kids!

September is a wonderful month at our local markets, with tomatoes and peaches mingling with winter squash, sweet potatoes, the return of salad greens (arugula!), and sweet, crisp apples. Now that we’ve roasted, salsa-ed, gazpachoed, and preserved a gazillion tomatoes, we’re embracing fall and highlighting a few DC-area bloggers who are making the most of the season’s fresh produce.

SQUASH
One of my favorite squash vendors, Three Way Farm at the Del Ray Market, reports that summer zucchini is winding down fast with the shortening days. I shredded and froze a few more pounds today, and am ready to embrace butternuts, spaghetti, acorns and all the other winter squash that add serious heft to my fall market basket…

• The Arugula Files makes a Italian Sausage, Arugula & Squash Soup, with butternut squash.
• Dish-trict shares Brown Rice with Butternut Squash, Wild Mushrooms & Salami.
• And I made grilled butternut spears, getting the most out of our grill while it’s still warm.

APPLES
“Appy? appy” need an appy!” is a frequent refrain in our house these days. Aside from the stash of little delicious, honey crisp and such we keep on hand for snacking, I buy some of the bigger, tarter varieties for cooking. (Jonagold and Matsu this weekend, from D&S Farms at Del Ray.)

• Tiffany at The Garden Apartment perfects the Apple Pie, with Jonathan apples from Bigg Riggs.
• Capital Cooking’s Lauren shares an Apple Crisp recipe, for those who want to skip the crust.
• I made a savory Apple Celery Soup, with Bigg Riggs’ lovely Rambo apples.
• And for still more apple ideas, check out Everyday Food’s Apple Fest round-up.

MISCELLANY
Of course it’s not all squash and apples, check out a few other seasonal ideas.

• Sylvie, the Rappahannock Cook’s Upside Down Plum Spice Cake, with Italian blue plums.
• The Food Scribe’s Lemon Cucumbers & Beets, with fun heirloom cucumbers from Evensong Farm.
• Everyone seems to be pickling these days, and The Slow Cook offers Pickled Okra (one of quite a few pickle recipes he’s posted).
• Grape & Goat Cheese Pizza from Food Rockz Man.
• Speaking of grapes, Ramona at Houndstooth Gourmet made an eye-catching Gorgonzola Cheese Blintz with Concord Grape Sauce. Yum!

We will be participating in the Eat Local Challenge for the month of October, so check back for updates & we’ll see you October 24 for the next FarmFreshDC round-up.

We recently ventured out to Stribling Orchard’s Apple Festival to kick off fall with fresh-plucked apples. It didn’t feel particularly like fall as it was a scorching 95 degrees. Stribling is a sixth-generation family farm with a lovely view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The occasional train passing by below the orchard provided an added thrill for the kids.

The toddler picked a few apples, had some fun with the picking stick, and then we headed back to the shade of the country store to indulge in a caramel apple.

We got some beautiful young celery in our CSA bag last week, and I was planning to use it in some sort of soup when I had the thought to use some of our apples as well. This can be served hot or chilled, in case you also live somewhere where the weather and calendar aren’t always in sync.

Recipe: Creamy Apple Celery Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 T butter
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 4 large apples, peeled and chopped
• 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• black pepper to taste

Instructions: Melt butter in stock pot over medium low heat. Add onions and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add celery and cook 2 minutes more. Stir in apples and broth and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer over medium low heat for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and puree with immersion blender. Serve with freshly ground pepper warm, or chill for at least 1 hour to enjoy cold. Makes 4 servings.

Notes: This creamy soup is lower in fat than your traditional cream of celery, and the sweetness of the apples will appeal to kids and adults alike.