Adam's Apples

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 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."

I've got two of these, medium and large, pale yellow-green with small faint peach blush. They are round, with flattened tops and bottoms, those of the larger one especially so.  ¶  Flyspeck and a few small bruises join many filled grey lenticels decorating the peel. They do not come from a big industrial orchard. These apples have a lovely sweet aroma.