Adam's Apples

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.

If October is Peak Apple, this coming holiday weekend is peak agroturismo at orchards in the Northeast. (Photo: Part of the crowd lining up to order cider donuts and other treats at Shelburne Farm in Stow, Massachusetts, on Saturday. ) ¶  Come for the apples...but also the donuts, hayrides, goats, corn maze, musical performances, and other delights. Resources below, but also a report from last weekend.

I'm able to share Red Baron with you today thanks to the generosity of Michael Wunsch, an orchardist in east-central North Dakota.  ¶  Glossy with natural wax , these run the gamut from the large end of of small to the smaller part of large. The red blush (streaky in spots) mostly covers a yellow peel tinged with green. 

A modern fruit breeder would never name an apple anything like "Anton Poulter." It would be trademarked as "HoneyCluck" or "Sweet Chicks" etcetera.  ¶  But today's apple dates from a gentler time, when a farmer might discover a new apple growing on his* farm (*for surely Anton was a man) and bring it to the state fair or horticultural society.

The Jerseymacs have been very good this summer, and I am both obliged and pleased to reconsider my 2008 take : There is a moment when you take a bite that you can convince yourself it is going to taste like a McIntosh....  ¶  This year's is the same round, oblate, modestly ribbed apple, its red blush, streaky in spots, over spring green and decorated with light lenticels and a light bloom.

Today's apples are small and medium sized, round with no ribbing but flattened so they don't roll. What looks like ribs in the photo are small bruises.  ¶  The blush lies streaky red over a green that sometimes leans towards yellow, and the resulting variation in saturation of blush over variable shades makes for a variegated surface, sometimes dull red-green, sometimes orange, or yellow or green.

Stillman's Farm, my source for Mollie's Delicious , pulled a little rebrand last week.  ¶  I guess the crop was a little bent this year. The apples, normally just round or tapered, had this little atrophied base (or crown if you prefer).  ¶  And they were sold as "Molly Sheep Nose."