What about them Apples..

When I was in graduate school in upstate New York, on our rare days off in Fall term, we would head over to the local apple orchard. With something like 30 often rare varieties of apples, it was a carnival of delights for the apple lover in me. I would go with a few friends, get a basket or two of mixed apples, sip fresh milled cider (nothing at the store remotely compares!) and taste all the varieties to see what fed my pallet best. As a person with a vata constitution, I always loved the sour varieties as sour, along with sweet and salty are the best of the 6 tastes for a vata dominant body. (To learn more about the 6 tastes and which is best for your type, click here).

I always loved these trips not only because I have loved apples since I was a child, but also because of the obvious and undeniable connection I felt to the season and my local ecosystem where apples happened to grow in abundance.

So why I am I writing about apples? Mainly, I was starting to get excited to visit Lana, S. Tyrol for my upcoming retreat October 14-17 (4 spots left!).. Lana (see above) boasts not only stunning hikes and sweeping vistas of the Dolomite Mountain Range, but it also happens to be in a valley loaded with apple orchards. Heaven!

In Ayurvedic terms, apples have the qualities of being cold and dry. This is the perfect antidote following hot and humid summers. And that, my friends, is the beauty and intelligence of eating seasonally: our local environment gives us the exact medicine we need in each season. Transitioning from summer which is hot, humid and sticky into fall which is cold and dry through adapting our diet to what is growing locally, and then adapting our daily routines to let out the excess heat provides a smooth transition into fall rather than the seemingly inevitable early fall cold. That need not happen if we tune our eyes to what is happening in the fall season. This is called ritucharya in Ayurveda - adapting our daily rhythms and eating to the season.

So what about them apples? Because apples are dry and mostly astringent, they can increase vata if you eat too many of them. Remember, the phrase is, an apple a day keeps the doctor away, not 3 or 5 apples. Vata digestive types can tend toward gas, bloating, or constipation, so a raw apple may not be the best for y’all. I for one, looooove to cook apples and add in warming spices like cinnamon, cardamom and ginger. This makes them easier to digest and keeps the body warm from the inside out. If you have more pitta in your system, with excess heat and strong digestion, raw apples are a great choice to add into your favorite muesli or porridge. For kapha types, the astringency of apples (especially the sour ones) soaks up water and fluid retention that kapha bodies tend towards.

Happy last days of summer friends. I hope to see you either on retreat or at one of my local public classes in Munich.