Adam's Apples

This week is the very last for the suburban farmers markets that have served us since June. Urban markets will run through the American Thanksgiving.  ¶  In Arlington this afternoon, the vendors were breaking down their canopies and booths as I arrived. But you could still have bought any of twenty-one kinds of apples:

Today we stray into speculative territory. MAIA 1284 has not been released by the Midwest Apple Improvement Association. It may never be.  ¶  Should it? You be the judge of its unusual flavor set.

Red, ribbed, and russeted: Scruffy's blush, and dull-yellow unblushed peel, peers out from behind fractal-edged russet that seems to be spreading from pole to pole.  ¶  It is hefty and sprinkled with russeted lenticel dots (and less-obvious "clean" ones). The example in my photo is especially lopsided.

SPOT THE RINGER I am delighted to have these four different apples from the Midwest Apple Improvement Association. Specifically, from David Doud in Indiana.  ¶  Three of these are modern MAIA apples. One of those has been trademarked, so presumably has progressed from development to production. But the fourth was created by a much older fruit-breeding program in 1899.

There were 32 different kinds of apples for sale at Volante Farms in Needham last weekend, roughly tracking the 30 varieties listed on their dedicated apple web page .  ¶  (They were out of Cosmic Crisp, at least temporarily.)

Scarlet Crunch, large and conical, wears a streaky warm red blush over green-tinted yellow.  ¶  They are only slightly ribbed (you have to hunt for that) and are decorated with nearly invisible lenticel dots.

I have a healthy batch of these pale yellow apples courtesy ( again !) of Michael Wunsch of North Dakota. Medium to large, they have a small red-orange blush that is speckled and spotty.  ¶  They are slightly ribbed and only slightly asymmetrical (the significance of which will perhaps become clear below). Each is so glossy with wax that they are what apple nerds call "greasy," though none of it will come off on your fingers.