Favorite fall apple for pie is the Braeburn. Hearty taste, stands up well to a little nutmeg or cloves, begs to be served with a slice of cheddar. In Connecticut, there are a lot of local apple orchards. No enormous multi-acre fields planted with mono-culture trees here, so it's pretty common to have two varieties in each row. This leads to an impressive bunch of sort-of partial hybrids, as there is no guarantee that the Courtland over there was actually pollinated by another Courtland. Feel the firmness, sniff the apple, many orchards will not charge you if you chomp one of the apples on the tree to see how it came out this year, and then fill your bag when you find the right variety. As I chop my apples for the pie, I smell, taste, and test the consistency, and then I will alter my recipe (put in a little cornstarch with the sugar for juicy apples, add a little nutmeg or cloves or much-misunderstood 'pumpkin spice' to the cinnamon, etc.) to fit, so none of my apple pies really come out quite like the others.

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