Crunch-a-Bunch

These classically shaped apples run medium to large with next to no ribbing. Lenticel dots are dark when russeted, as most are, but otherwise hard to see against the yellow peel.

The stem, absent from my photographed example, is long and thin. One of the apples has a green tint in the yellow.

A honey-sweet aroma suggests Golden Delicious ancestry.

Sweet Zinger

Today's apple is another from the Midwest Apple Improvement Association. It is large and blocky and a little ribbed, and feels firm and substantial.

Its red blush is tinted with a dollop of orange and is accented by large tanned dots. The unblushed area is a light yellow, and the peel is attractively glossy.

The stem well is quite deep, and at the other end the calyx is partially open.

Rosalee

This is a large apple, a little broad in the beam but still slightly tapered.

It has a subdued "dusty" orange-red blush that is a kind of streaky over light lemon yellow. The streaks are streaked with a very fine brush.

Small Milestones as the Year Turns

There was an apple I wanted to know more about. So, last September, I asked about it at the orchard's store.

That's when it happened.

"There's this website," the woman behind the counter told me, apple fan to apple fan."Adam's Apples."

That had never happened to me before. It was kind of cool.

Midwest 311

Will you look at that gorgeous apple!

The crimson blush is so saturated that the prominent lenticel dots look white in stark contrast.

A relief map of red-brown crackles resemble scars.

You can feel them with your fingertips, like a Braille interpretation of a Jackson Pollock painting.

Ludacrisp

In the midst of the tedious Age of HoneyCrispySweetieCrunch®, the name of this apple made me laugh. At least someone has a sense of humor!

Caney Fork Limbertwig

This is an interesting looking apple by many metrics.

Large and round, with really no perceptible ribbing, the Caney Fork Limbertwig is a light lemon yellow about two-fifths blushed with the mottled orange red that you see.

Dark lenticels brood within the blush. They are raised bumps in the unblushed yellow.

And check out that long, skinny stem.

What's On Tap

Apples at Somerville's Winter Market earlier today

There are fifteen different kinds of apples for sale until 2 pm today at Somerville's Winter Market, unless they have run out.

Mostly Harmless

On December 2 of this year, when things are usually pretty quiet here, the traffic to this little blog suddenly went through the roof.

On Twitter, Matt Haughey, who has a preposterous 28 thousand followers, had tweeted some very nice things about my blog.

Temporary internet fame ensued.

The Two Sisters

Once upon a time there were two sisters, Lucy Glo and Lucy Rose.

Lucy Glo was the tangy one, Lucy Rose the sweet.

Or so they say. Today, we'll see.

A good many apples

It's easy to see a list of all the apples I review on this blog, if you are reading this on a desktop computer.

Just scroll down enough and you'll see the list in the right-hand sidebar.

Some of you are reading this on a phone or tablet and the sidebar is hidden.

For you, all my apples (as of today) are listed below as clickable links.

Lucy Rose

I had to travel all the way to Colorado to find this apple from Washington State.

Lucy Rose, and her sister Lucy Glo, are in supermarkets in many parts of the U.S. They have not, however, made it to eastern Massachusetts.

This does seem to be the Year of Red Flesh here at Adam's Apples, does it not? Lucy Glo is also red fleshed, though she is otherwise unlike her sister.

Yes, we have no bananas

Behold, not for the first time, Calville Blanc d'Hiver, the classic French cooking apple.

I'm glad to have two of these, but also disappointed. Here's why.