Several years ago while studying French at the University of Cannes in Normandy, I had the good fortune of staying at a friend’s country house. It was autumn and apple harvest was in full swing. It seemed as though everywhere you turned, there were baskets and bushels of apples. In their abundance, it’s not surprising that they migrated beyond the kitchen and could be found in unexpected places throughout the house: A centerpiece full of green apples on the dining table, a massive basket of sweet-smelling pommes in the foyer, a delicate plate cradling the fruit on the night table….

In the street markets, I noticed apples tiered in perfect pyramids and fell in love with the simple idea of using the fruit to make geometric sculptures. Leave it to the French to show that common apples could have such a pleasing visual–as well as olfactory–effect.

It’s little wonder that there in the Pays d'Auge region, known for some of the best Calvados apple brandy in the world, the fragrant fruit is elevated and appreciated for decoration nearly as much as cooking and drinking. And it is a tradition and aesthetic I gleefully exported back home with me.

The apple orchard at Weatherstone has been an earnest work in progress over the past fifteen years. Gradually, I have replaced the old trees, and the orchard collection now stands at about a hundred specimens of Northern Spy, Winesap, Golden Delicious, McIntosh, Cortland, Macoun, Crispin, and Red Delicious. So now, almost as soon as apples begin to drop from the trees, I begin to place bowls and bushels of polished fruit throughout the house. Different shades of red apples with red grapes, or Granny Smith apples with white grapes, make a beautiful centerpiece that can last for weeks, if you can keep your hands off of them.