Move over Washington, Texas does have apples

It's fall. The Texas sun is dropping lower into the southern sky, and the vinyl seats in my truck are no longer hot enough to cook quesadillas. And although I'm months away from feeling an urge to put on socks (which is just fine because I hate socks), I'm thinking about turning on the oven and baking some apples. Texas apples. My new favorite way to say "so long" to summer.

I'm not talking about scrawny, lumpy, mealy apple wannabes. Have you been to any of the farmers' markets around town lately? Big tart/sweet juicy Fujis and crisp sweet Galas from Llano. Tangy Crispins and Jonathans from Medina. And Honeycrisps from Bertram that are so sweet they might make you cry. OK, so maybe I'm exaggerating, but only a little. Most of the apples I've been buying for the past few weeks are so fresh and crisp, with flavors so complex, that I can't help running up to friends and co-workers with samples: "Here. Taste this. It was grown in Bertram, Texas. In clay soil. Can you believe it?!"

And the response is usually something along the lines of: "Mmm, that's good. Where's Bertram? I didn't think you could grow good apples around here. Isn't it too hot and humid?"

Well, that's what I thought too, but boy was I wrong. I also thought deep clay alkaline soils would surely be a deal-breaker for an apple grower. Wrong again. And I also thought that a list of apples that could be grown successfully in Texas would be a very short list of disease-resistant, low-chill apples I'd never tasted before - like Annas and Dorsett Golden. Really wrong.

After several chats and e-mail exchanges with a handful of Texas apple growers, I got a good education about growing apples, and I also got a couple of recipes. Did you know that it's no more difficult to grow a good apple in Texas than it is to grow a good peach? But don't get me wrong - growing apples is not a leisurely stroll along Lady Bird Lake, and neither is growing peaches.

If you're a gardener, you've probably already figured out that Central Texas is not exactly the Garden of Eden when it comes to growing fruits and vegetables; the soils tend to be either too thin and rocky or too heavy and gummy. Late-spring freezes are not uncommon, and they can kill your whole crop. Periods of drought come and go, which puts a lot of stress on plants, and when it rains, it pours - and pours - which can suffocate roots growing in heavy soils. And then there are the bugs, worms and fungal diseases. Get the picture? (For more about Texas apples, including tips on how to grow your own healthy apple tree, visit my blog at statesman.com/go/reneesroots.)

So I think the apple growers around the state deserve a round of applause. They're committed to an enterprise that isn't easy, doesn't have a high profit margin and doesn't receive a lot of attention. Maybe there's some truth to the ancient legends that portray the succulent fruit as the irresistible symbol of beauty, youth and temptation (the Bible story of Adam and Eve, and the Greek legend of Aphrodite and Helen of Troy, just to name two). At the very least, it seems that once you've tasted the fruit, and you know it's good, you might find it hard to resist planting a tree or two, no matter how crummy your growing conditions are. I have no desire to resist the temptation. I'm already scoping out a spot for a couple of apple trees in my yard. After all, it's fall. The perfect time to plant a tree. And if I had more land, I just might plant a small orchard.

Fresh Apple Cake with Drizzle

Cake:

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

½ cup canola oil

1 cup applesauce

¼ cup apple cider

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. cinnamon

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

4 cups peeled and chopped apples

1 cup walnut pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray the bottom of an 8-by-131/2-inch pan with nonstick spray.

In a large bowl, combine sugar, eggs, oil, applesauce and apple cider. Fold in flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add vanilla. Mix batter and then stir apples and walnuts into the batter.

Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake in preheated oven until a tester comes out clean, approximately one hour. When cake is almost finished cooking, prepare the drizzle.