If It's Fall It's Time For Apple Pie - A Food Review. Children Rally For Schools At City Hall. And, The Green Grape Report.

If you’ve been a regular reader of Monday’s food reviews, then you know that my favorite pie is Drunken Aunt Vivian’s Pecan Pie. The closest I’ve come to that delight was the pecan pie from Ohio’s Pies I bought at the Saturday Farmers Market. If Ohio’s Pies had a Key Lime Pie, I would have also bought it and compared it with Aunt Vivian’s. I don’t think she added whiskey to hers.

I was lucky that Aunt Vivian’s husband, Omer Mackey, worked for Minute Maid. I don’t know his exact title or role at the company. All I know is you wouldn’t go into a grove unless Uncle Omer gave permission. The punishment was never mentioned, but we all feared what it could be.

When I was older and living in Orlando, the back of our house bordered a hedgerow that blocked access to one of Uncle Omer’s groves. With permission, I eventually made a path through the thorns to the other side, where, as luck would have it, it opened into a section of the grove with oranges to my right and grapefruits to my left.

In season, we always kept orange juice and grapefruit juice in the refrigerator. I don’t remember how many small K-Mart juicers we broke under the constant strain of squeezing fresh juice to satisfy our craving for citrus. Perhaps the best part about having an uncle who worked for Minute Maid was his front yard, about a mile away through the grove and four miles on the roads, which had a small Persian lime grove.

Aunt Vivian eventually asked me what I was doing with so many limes, as I was there several times a week picking the fruit. I explained that I make a large pitcher of simple syrup and use it to make limeade by pouring fresh-squeezed lime juice over ice, then adding simple syrup and stirring the mixture to create a perfect sweet and tart summer drink.

I like to remember that she looked at me with envy, but since it was Aunt Vivian, it was more likely she just gave me one of her stares and then turned to walk away.

I don’t remember eating many pies as a kid. I do remember Key Lime pies because they were so rare. Key limes are small, don’t produce much juice, and, at the time, weren’t grown in large commercial groves. People would protect their lime sources and sometimes were just as defensive of the pie itself, hiding it at the back of the fridge.

When I went north after school, I started eating apple pies, none of which will ever compare to a Key Lime Pie, especially Aunt Vivian’s. But I learned to like them.

The best pie I ever had was one my wife made with shredded apples instead of sliced. The result was a pie where the flavors were completely mixed with the apples. I didn’t ask her about the process or the ingredients; I just ate the pie. I’m guessing the process was complicated because it wasn’t something we did often. He said it wasn’t her favorite recipe, and I suspect that was because of how complex it was to make, not because of the flavor or texture.

Then, last week, I had an Ohio Pie’s five-inch personal apple pie.

I knew I would be writing a review about it, so I slowly savored each bite, testing the lower pastry to see if it was still flaky, the upper pastry to see if it was overcooked or hard, the apples to see if they were still firm and not overcooked, and how well the apple’s tart flavor balanced with the sweet filling and its slight caramel notes. I also checked if it stayed together when cut into pieces.

Yes, no, yes, great, yes.

There was a time when large portions of Westerville’s farm lands were planted in apple orchards. According to an old handwritten map, the northeast corner of Spring and Walnut was a large apple orchard. Large sections of Annehurst were orchards, and there is a scattering of smaller orchards noted in old maps at the History Museum.

Rome, Winesap, and Black Amish apples were among the popular apples of the day. Grafting had just become the more popular way to grow apples, but most were harvested to make cider and applejack.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will trek through Westerville tasting apple pies to see if any are as good as Ohio Pie’s and the one my wife used to make. It’s a good excuse to eat someone else’s cooking.

School Rally Gets Student Support

Several hundred Westerville School students and their families carried homemade signs and gathered in front of City Hall on Sunday, urging voters to approve an income tax to fund the school system.

The crowd responded to the frequent honking of drivers passing on State Street with cheers and more activity with their signs.

Three Westerville Central students spoke in support of the tax, expressing their appreciation for the school system that provided them with more than just the basic requirements.

The Green Grape Report

Food Review by Gary Gardiner

Kroger – Maxtown Road

Brand – California Green Grapes
Price – $1.99 per pound
PLU Code – 4022

The Review
These are the grapes we wait for. Firm, juicy, crisp, averaging 10.4 grams per grape, 30x24mm size, and just sweet enough to feel like you’re getting away with something. They’re clean, consistent, and the kind of green that makes you suspicious of anything else in the fruit bowl. Sugar measured at 18.5%, not the highest of the season, but balanced. A grape that knows what it’s doing.

I picked up a bag without hesitation. Three stems in this bag, and only a few escaped grapes.

Price? $1.99 per pound, although the same grapes at Schrock Road are $2.49 as they are in the Major and Minor Triads. Which, depending on your mindset, is either a win or a reminder that grapes were cheaper last year.

The Long Start

Here’s what most shoppers don’t consider: from planting a green grapevine to harvesting the first profitable bunch takes three years. That’s three full seasons of pruning, trellising, training, watering, and hoping, before a single grape can be sold.

But once they start, they keep going. A productive vine can live 25 to 30 years, some even longer if the soil is kind and the grower knows what they’re doing. Some hearty ones can stretch to 50 years or more in ideal spots, such as the San Joaquin Valley. Sure, they could live 100+ years, like ancient wine vine relics, but growers replant sooner for maximum flavor and market edge. Why cling to a vine when fresher, juicier technology beckons?

That’s one of the reasons we got Cotton Candy Grapes!

So it’s fair to say, and not just as a figure of speech, that the grapes arriving in Westerville this week may come from plants older than the school children in the city, including Otterbein University.

Some of those vines were already bearing fruit when today’s kindergarteners were born. They’ve survived late frosts, hot harvests, labor shortages, and trade negotiations. And now they’re riding home in plastic bags in SUVs, pickups, hatchbacks, and Teslas, one snack at a time.

Suddenly, $1.99 a pound seems like the bare minimum.

The Westerville News is a reader-supported publication by Gary Gardiner, a lifelong journalist who believes hyper-local reporting is the future of news. This publication focuses exclusively on Westerville—its local news, influence on Central Ohio, and how surrounding areas shape the community.

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