Sunday News: Apple-powered time machine makes Medina mecca for apple lovers

Bye’s Popcorn is back in Olcott Beach, vegan that delivers in Niagara Falls

Take a ride on an apple-powered time machine to revel in the fantastic flavors of great-grandma’s apples.

Last year, six basic flavors made up 87.5 percent of American apples.

None of them are bad. Except for Red Delicious, of course. They’re just, you know, basic.

Have you ever had a really good, really ripe mango? So, you can get fresh mangos in Buffalo, NY. I am told they do not hold a candle to the mangoes of India. At least that’s what 100 percent of Indian folks have told me, sometimes repeatedly.

So if you think you love apples, you should know about what’s happening next week at LynOaken U-pick in Orleans County.

That’s when you’ll get a rare chance to take an apple-flavor-powered time machine back to your great-grandma’s days. She could bite into an Esopus Spitzenburg every September.

87.5 percent of all US apples grown last year were one of the six varieties. production. In Medina, the Oakes family, growing apples in the frost-resistant land along Lake Ontario since 1919, planted a living apple library in 2008, featuring 300 rare varieties.

That gives people a chance to taste the stunning flavor profiles of the greater apple universe. It’s like the thrill of finally tasting mangoes in Asia, without needing a passport.

“Apples cross-breed automatically, meaning every apple seed is a new variety, an offspring of whatever apple it came from and whatever variety of pollen the bee brought to fertilize it,” said Katie Oakes, who runs LynOaken U-pick with husband Christopher, and writes At the Core, her blog illuminating the apple business. “Plant five seeds from one apple, and you can get five completely different apple varieties, all never before seen.”

Over centuries humans have singled out particularly striking rolls of the genetic dice and preserved them. Grafted onto rootstock to maintain their generic integrity, they give true fruit.

The Oakes had to sell off about 90 percent of their apple acreage this year because their commercial apple business cost them money to operate after their strains fell out of favor with commercial wholesale buyers.

Will enough people appreciate the Oakes’ deep and motivating apple nerdship to make the journey to LynOaken U-pick? It’s only an hour’s drive from Buffalo City Hall. That means it might as well be on the moon for a dismaying number of otherwise lovely friends who will take an international trip to Ikea for a towel rack.

This much is sure: if you pick a week to visit, you are guaranteed to never look at apples the same way. Medina, named after the Saudi holy city, has become a mecca for people who really, really love apples.

LynOaken U-pick

10609 Ridge Road, Medina, 585-798-1060

Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Sunday

Cost: No admission charge. Prices range from at $8-$15 per half peck. Bag sizes go up to a peck, which is a half bushel. Customers buy the empty bags, head to the orchard, then fill them as much as they can.

Here’s the LynOaken U-pick variety schedule. Note that this timeline is tentative, and can change with weather or picker volume. Follow LynOaken’s Facebook page for updates.

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REVIEW: Cafe 59 has fed the people of Elmwood Village their everyday survival meals for 20 years. Vegan dishes were a menu mainstay before vegan was cool, and owner Leon Rung added a full bar as he shaped his everyday restaurant to meet the needs of his neighbors. (Wednesday, for patrons.)

BYE’S IS BACK: Bye’s Popcorn, the Olcott Beach kettle corn stand, powered by the next generation of kernel busters, offers extra hours in September.

Get fresh caramel corn or special batches jazzed up with Golden Grahams or chocolate Cheerios at the seasonal spot – cash only.

Regular hours through Labor Day: 4 p.m.-8 p.m. Friday, 1 p.m.-8 p.m. Saturday, Sunday.

Then before Bye’s closes for the winter, 1 p.m.-6 p.m. Sept. 20, 21, and Sept. 27-28.

Bye’s Popcorn, 1667 Lockport Olcott Road, Olcott, has offered popcorn to passersby for 100 years.

ASK THE CRITIC:

Q: Hey dude, any suggestions for NF restaurants with at least some protein-type non-meat fare THAT WOULD DELIVER? I will not use those delivery apps, have to be able to call to order and request delivery.

Reg G., via text

A: I gotchu. Lahori Fried Chicken has a falafel plate, with rice and salad, and will personally deliver within a couple miles of their restaurant from 1 p.m.-7 p.m.

Meat eaters seeing this should know about the chicken chapli kabob and mix boxes, plus the fact that Lahori Fried Chicken’s full-frame wings are battered and deep-fried to a satisfying crunch.

Lahori Fried Chicken, 1738 Pierce Ave., Niagara Falls, 716-215-6767

Hours: 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-midnight Friday, Saturday, noon-10 p.m. Sunday.

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