How Little Apple Granola Makes
Apple Crisp

The Ferry Building Farmer's Market is full of stories.  Inspired by small production, the little farms that bring their product to market down by the bay want to make a difference.  They do this by caring

for the soil, the product they produce, and visualizing a correspondingly caring customer.  Farmer Al from Frog Hollow knew he had a jackpot crop with his Cal Red peaches.  Dan Lehrer and Joanne Krueger of Little Apple Granola started their little stall with not much more than an idea it was time to be done "with city life, at least life in the Berkeley flats, and wanted to live somewhere with a bit more space.  With little more than enthusiasm and lack of Plan B, we became apple and flower farmers...During the next several years, we put greenhouses and grew, literally and figuratively, our business."

After beginning their farm by growing vegetables, herbs, and edible flower starts, they also started selling apples, not primarily for eating but processing into juice, sauce and dried.  "The apple industry in Sebastopol (California) started shrinking in 1982, hammered by imports, first from the Central 

Valley, then Washington State, then New Zealand, now China.  China has flooded the world market with cheap apple concentrate, commonly used as sweetener, and you can buy Chinese concentrate for less than it costs to pick the apples here."  Much of the apple orchard land in this once prestigious apple growing area had been torn down and only a few hundred acres of apple trees had been left standing.  "We've wondered for years how to make our orchard a more viable part of our business.  A couple of years ago, we pressed some apple juice on our wooden press and made our first batch of

apple cider vinegar.  It's rampant success made us think: what else can we do?"  Joanne put her culinary skills to use and began tinkering the various ways to create sweet granola combined with apples, such as apple cider caramels with chamomile & vanilla bean

as well as apple cider toffee, which Dan says, "The result, using our apples with expertly-baked granola, speaks for itself.  There's nothing else like it on the market, even one with umpteen million brands of granola."

Apple Crisp

Apples (enough to fill a 9x9 baking dish, approx. 3-4 lbs)

Flour and sugar for the apples

2 tablespoons brandy or juice of 1 lemon

1 3/4 cups unbleached flour

12 tbsps. very soft butter

2/3 cup light or dark brown sugar

3 tablespoons raw or organic sugar

1/2 cup granola

1/2 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Peel, core, and thinly slice the apples. Toss with the brandy and a couple tablespoons sugar and flour (add more sugar if you like it sweeter), and put in the pan. Briefly pulse the granola in the food processor or break up any large dried apple bits with your hands. (This is so the apple bits don’t stick out and burn in your finished crisp.) In a mixer, mix together the dry ingredients. Add the butter and mix on low speed for about 5 minutes, until all the butter is incorporated and the mixture resembles small peas. If it sticks to the bottom of the bowl, just break it up with your hands. Sprinkle over the fruit press down gently and bake for about 45 minutes, until the apples are soft and the juices are bubbling around the edges. Cool and serve warm or at room temperature. Heavy cream, whipped cream or ice cream are optional!