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Welcome to autumn!

It's apple season, welcome to Adam's Apples! If you are curious about this fruit you have come to the right place.  ¶  Here you can find more than 365 different varieties described in my opinionated catalog . If that's more than you can chew, you might visit my seasonal guide or my Michelin-style rating system for apples.
Recent posts

Crunch time

The sticker of the day graces a lovely Stayman Winesap .  ¶  See closing times at the polls for every American state and territory.

Sops of Wine retasted

My Sops of Wine are pretty, medium-sized apples with a streaky red blush over yellow.  ¶  They are oblate, modestly ribbed, and decorated with tiny light-tan lenticel dots .  ¶  I reviewed Sops of Wine in 2013, then had  another bite , not as good, just two years ago.

The end of the markets

The suburban farmers markets end on Halloween. Today's in Belmont was the last until June.  ¶  Urban markets continue until Thanksgiving.

Knobbed Russet

Today's Knobbed Russet is neither.  ¶  The twisted, glowering Knobbed Russet I reviewed in 2011 is more characteristic. I was strongly tempted to reuse its photo to show some of the deformity this variety can achieve  ¶  This Knobbed Russet has a reputation of being covertly tasty, a connoisseurs secret. It was the failure of my 2011 samples to meet that standard that made me especially pleased to try again. Today's apples are a pale gold, one with a small orange glow of a blush, both with fractal zig-zags of a rough brown russet.

Getting a grip on Deane

This extended version of Deane's story examines accounts of the apple's origins.  ¶  Don't miss the plot twist at the end.

Finkenwerder Herbstprinz

O Prince of autumn! Finkenwerder has a striped red blush that reads as orange over the green-tinted yellow peel of this apple.  ¶  It is lightly ribbed and tapered, though my sample is not as elongated as the one hanging from a branch in today's photo.  ¶  Small lenticel dots match the peel, but many are filled in with grey. For some reason that is the most common on the unblushed side.

Happy twenty-five

October is apple fat, and the market is happy. But behind the scenes things are winding down.  ¶  Vendors at this week's farmers market were selling 25 different kinds of apples, and of course there are even more out there at the moment .  ¶  But on the farm, most of the fruit is off the trees. Many (though not all) of the markets will close for the year after next week.