Verified organic apples and pears. Photo by Miriam Diaz-Gilbert
I’ve been baking since I was a teenager. I love to bake cakes for the holidays, birthday cakes, breads, bagels, babka, bread pudding, brownies, pies, and more.
My favorite season of the year is summer, but I love autumn because it’s pie baking season. This time of the year I enjoy baking apple pies and making homemade pie crust. The aroma of the pies and spices wafting in the kitchen and throughout the house is intoxicating.
Unfortunately, in the US conventional apples and pears are heavily sprayed with diphenylamine, a pesticide used to prevent black and brown patches from forming on the fruit.
However, I cannot have preservatives, additives, food coloring, steroids, hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and insecticides because they injure my esophagus, and are the cause of my food impaction episodes and eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE).
It’s been thirteen months since I created my own diet and eliminated these harmful chemicals, and healed my EoE. My eosinophil count went from 100 to “up to zero.” To maintain my healthy esophagus, my husband Jon and I make our own food. I do all the baking.
While I grow my own strawberries and some vegetables free of pesticides and insecticides, those that I can’t grow, like apples and pears, I purchase at verified organic farms. This autumn for the first time, I baked pies with the organic apples and pears we bought at an organic farm.
At home with my organic apples. Photo by Jon Gilbert.
The first time we visited the farm, we picked sixty apples, a mix of Fuji, Roxbury Russet, Enterprise, Honey Crisp, Pound Sweet, Liberty, Sun Crisp, and Golden Russet apples. We also picked pears, a mix of Shenandoah, Potomac, Lincoln, and Korean Giant pears.
If pesticides and insecticides don’t harm your esophagus, you are very fortunate that you can buy supermarket apples and pears. Whether you eat sprayed or verified organic apples, start peeling, coring, and slicing. And start making that pie crust.
If you don’t have any recipes, google ‘apple pie recipes.’ There are many to choose from.
These are some apple pies I baked. I adapted a recipe we have used for years and baked with verified/certified organic ingredients: apples, flour, eggs which we get from our two hens Faith and Gracie, butter, cane sugar, vanilla extract, and spices that do not contain preservatives, etc.
Apple pies fresh out of the oven. Photo by Miriam Diaz-Gilbert
I am vigilant with so-called organic foods/ingredients. At farmers’ markets, I ask vendors if their fruits and vegetables contain pesticides and insecticides. At the supermarket, I read the ingredients label carefully. Some contain chemicals.
For the first time ever, I made a pear pie. It was delicious. I googled ‘pear pie recipes” and found this great recipe. I adapted it and used organic ingredients.
Scrumptious pear pie. Photo by Miriam Diaz-Gilbert
There are many apple and pear recipes, some easy, some more elaborate. I also make apple and pear bread, pancakes, and sauce. I found an easy applesauce recipe. I made jars of pure
applesauce — no chemicals and no sugar added.
Jars of tasty applesauce. Photo by Miriam Diaz-Gilbert
Baked goods made with love make wonderful gifts. I love to make my autumn apple and pear pies, and applesauce for my husband Jon and me to enjoy, and for family and friends. They love my pies and applesauce.
©2023
When I'm not baking or writing, I'm running ultramarathons. If you're a runner, and even if you're not, you might be interested in my book Come What May, I Want to Run: A Memoir of the Saving Grace of Ultrarunning in Overwhelming Times. Thank you for checking it out.