I got a hankering about an hour ago for butternut squash soup with apples.
Don’t ask me why my hankering machine came up with something so specific. It might be because I have a squash and a bushel of apples hanging out in my kitchen. It might be because I got a recipe for squash and apple soup at some point and it was holed up in my brain somewhere. It might be because I’ve been reading Rhonda Shember’s columns. Wednesday she wrote about squash. Next Wednesday she’s writing about apples.
What might have tipped the balance was an e-mail I got from The Pennsylvania Apple Marketing Program, alerting me to the fact that October is National Apple Month.
They provide some fun numbers:
Hundreds of apple varieties are grown in Pa.
The state produces 440 million pounds of apples a year.
Pa. is the fourth largest apple producer in the country.
35 percent of the apples grown are sold at retail
65 percent are used for processed products, such as canning, juice and cider
All those numbers just made me hungry.