Behind the Scenes: Preparing for a Shoot

It’s a busy morning here at New England is Delicious headquarters. I’m getting ready to head up to Gould Hill Farm to shoot a segment for New Hampshire Chronicle, which is a big treat. The subject is, naturally, apples and will touch on Yankee’s September issue, which includes an excerpt from my apple cookbook. It’s still quite early in the apple season and I’m told that the farm has about a dozen early varieties available: Akane, Elstar, Gala, Gravenstein, McIntosh, Milton, Paula Red, Porter, Primate, Redcort, Red Gravenstein, and Swiss Gourmet. Even after 5 years of studying apples, some of these are new to me (namely the Porter, the Primate, and the Swiss Gourmet). In 1905, the USDA cataloged 14,000 unique apple varieties being cultivated in this country. Can you imagine? Now we’re down to a fraction of that number, but it’s thrilling to know that there are still surprises out there. Getting ready for these shoots is a good deal of work because we’ll be filming out in the orchard, which means that whatever tools and ingredients I need to cook on camera must be brought in. In place of a stove, I’ll improvise on a fold-up table and a hot plate. Here’s the scene this morning as I set out about half the food and gear I’ll actually end up bringing. Incidentally, since we’re still waiting on the butcher block counter for the island in this kitchen, I improvised with some plywood and Mexican oil cloth. I like the look!

  I also baked off an open-face apple-pear-cranberry tart this morning. You can find this recipe right here in Yankee‘s archive.

  All this to make it appear as if the food just drifted down from the heavens and landed among the apple trees! I’ll try and take some photos today so you can see how the rest of the shoot gets done. No air date yet, but I’m sure they’ll let us know soon.