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Nancy Leson Knows Her Apples, Including The Best Kind To Grow In The Northwest

Nancy Leson
Northern Spy apples and Nancy Leson's pie.

Nancy Leson now knows more about apples, thanks to her friend Bill Davis, who really knows his apples. Which is way more than I knew, never having bitten into one in my whole life. But even fruitophobic me learned plenty of interesting stuff this week, including the best kind to grow in the Pacific Northwest.

"If you're thinking about spring and what you might plant in your yard, I would suggest Raintree Nursery.  They grow dwarf stocks specifically for the Pacific Northwest," says Nance. Dwarf stock is especially nice for those who are quite rightly wary of heights. 

"You can get nice small apple trees. You don't have to get on a giant ladder to get them," Nancy says.

To taste some of the huge variety of apples available around here, Nancy suggests visiting one of the many festivals in the area all through the autumn.

"Do yourself a favor, go online and check out theWestern Cascade Fruit Society calendar," she says. 

And which apple's the  best to plant in these parts? 

"Bill said that if he was going to plant one apple that worked really well here in the Pacific Northwest he'd send you straight to get a Liberty apple," Nancy says. 

According to Raintree, the Liberty apple has a "dark, polished red skin and intense, sprightly flavor make this medium size, elongated apple a long-standing favorite. Trees that were bred in New York for high scab and mildew resistance thrive in the Pacific Northwest and throughout most of the nation." 

Sounds good to me. Or at least it would if I ate apples.

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch you must first create the universe."

– Carl Sagan

Dick Stein joined KNKX in January 1992. He retired in 2020 after three decades on air. During his storied radio career, he hosted the morning jazz show, co-hosted and produced "Food for Thought" with Nancy Leson and wrote and directed the Jimmy Jazzoid live radio musical comedies and 100 episodes of Jazz Kitchen.