Seasonal greetings

I love this time of year.

Mountain Rose

Hype about Mountain Rose has become a cloud of uncertainty about these apples. Are they the same as Airlie Redflesh, aka Hidden Rose?

The stroke of a knife will help shed light on that.

Still good

 JUST NOT GREAT, THIS YEAR

Cox's Orange Pippin casts its leafy shadow in October's sun

We've had an unusually wet growing season this year, and the apples have soaked up the water and grown fat.

A juicy apple is nice, but not every variety benefits qualitatively from this aqueous bounty.

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 300 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.

Goodby, Macoun. Hello, King David?

Macoun, the queen of vinous apples, is just not 100% if grown in Virginia.

King David, apple of the South, does not reach its peak here in New England.

I shall miss Macoun.

Priscilla apples second bite

In my review of this apple ten years ago, I hoped to revisit Priscilla once better samples came my way.

These are a few weeks earlier and better, one a squat medium and the other quite large and a bit tapered.

They have a little ribbing and a lovely deep red blush, streaky in spots, over yellow, attractively freckled with tiny light lenticel dots.

Rubens (Civni) (Red Rubens)

My samples are large tapered apples with a variable orange-red blush.

Probably, these Rubenses are well-colored sports, hence the "red." If so, I imagine the blush is weaker on plain old regular Rubens. 

Beauty

There is not really anything new to say about the wonderful Chestnut Crabapple that I have not said before.

I just grabbed this one at farmer's market yesterday because it is so darned pretty.

September trove

Last Sunday, irregularly observed in these parts as Talk Like A Pirate Day, I went a little nuts buying apples.

HunnyZ

Today the wholesale-retail apple system has coughed up a brand new variety bearing a contender for Most Fwow Up Name of All Time.

But let's not hold that against the apple, which had no role in the marketing brainstorming or trademark registration that produced the name. That is all on us human beans.

HunnyZ is large and  moderately ribbed, broad and a little tapered, with an orange-red blush over light green yellow. 

Heirloom?

Got these two truly great apples at farmers market on Wednesday.

To be specific, there's McIntosh, the tart, balanced king of autumn in these parts. A steal at $2.50/lb.

Next to it is the Chestnut Crabapple, a little wonder that is not to be missed. Proudly marked "Heirloom," it went for $4.00/lb. (!).

So, what makes it an "heirloom"?