Quality apples are flooding in from China, Washington state, and South America, keeping local apple growers at bay, excluding them from the wholesale apple market.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Losing ground
Writing in Sunday's Boston Globe, Matt Gunderson charts a distressing trend: local apple orchards giving way to recreation, development, and other uses. The reason:
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Jonathan *

This medium-sized apple has a striking appearance: a deep purplish crimson sparsely accented by small light speckles in places. It is clasically round with light ribbing.
Jonathan's flesh is yellow, fragrant, medium-dense, and somewhat tender, though it chunks off nicely.

The flavor of this apple is very different from the crisp tart-sweet blends of the McIntosh family, though there is both tartness and sweetness plus a nice astringency. The flavor is full and cidery, a little spicy with strong pear notes and a hint of melon. I'd like to have some cider made from this variety.
Some sources trace Jonathan back to 1864.
Labels:
*,
apple review,
classic apple,
Fall,
Jonathan,
September
Friday, September 26, 2008
Cortland

This medium-large fruit is painted with a streaky red blush--deep red in spots--over yellow-green, with light tan spots. It is firm in the hand and noticibly ribbed.
The flesh is everything you'd want from a McIntosh heir: snowy white, fine-grained, crisp, and loaded with sweet juice. The taste is pleasant but unassuming.
Despite a little spicy bite at the begining, Cortland's flavor is mild, generally sweet, and cidery. It's not syrupy by any means but there is very little balancing tartness or acidity. The peel comes forth in the finish.
Like Macoun, Cortland was introduced by the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva at Cornell. It is also popular for pies.
Labels:
apple review,
classic apple,
Cortland,
Fall,
industrial apple,
September
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
This is Not An Apple

This fruit is medium-small, but they can grow large. The skin is a rough golden brown with light spots, and the flesh is crisp, sweet, coarse-grained, and very juicy--like, but denser than, the flesh of a watermelon.
Hints of pear (duh) and brown sugar.
The flavor is light and sweet and watery, and eating one is refreshing.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Shamrock

It is medium-sized and, as the name suggests, a bright Kelly green. The fruit I am tasting has a small and faint red blush and also some odd black stippling over part of the skin--some kind of russet I imagine. There are dark green spots that are light colored in the blush.
Labels:
apple review,
Fall,
September,
Shamrock
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Swiss Gourmet (Arlet) *

Apple high season is surely here.
Labels:
*,
apple review,
Arlet,
September,
Swiss Gourmet
Friday, September 12, 2008
Opalescent **

This big, primarily dark red beauty is juicy, firm, and pleasant in flavor. Opalescent was introduced in 1880.
Labels:
**,
apple review,
Opalescent,
September,
Summer
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Mutsu (Crispin, Mitsu) *

This Japanese apple is a descendant of the Golden Delicious. It is large, spicy, crisp & juicy. Excellent all-purpose apple.
Various sources say this is the Crispin apple by another name.
Mutsu is bigger and greener than Golden Delicious, whatever its relation.
This is a large fruit, almost cylindrical, with definite ribs and a light green-yellow skin.
The color varies from green-yellow to yellow-green and has darker green spots perhaps a tenth of an inch across, some with tiny white centers and some with tiny brown ones.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
A pause at the market

Last week there were only three varieties for sale at Arlington's farmers market, none new (though the ever-so-sweet Honeycrisps made their debut the week before).
Does the end of the early-apple season mean fewer choices? Fall, the traditional apple season, brings many known favorites. Does an apple farmer dare to dabble in little-known fruit when the market wants McIntoshes and Macouns?
Some do. Earlier today I paid a visit to Volante Farms, which had more than a dozen varieties for sale, including a few heirlooms. Volante (in Needham Heights) is an apple lover's idea of a farm stand, with each bin of apples helpfully documented.
I hope that some of these varieties make it to farmers market this year. As much as I esteem those justly popular Macs, and really love Macouns, variety is the spice in the applesauce of life. We do see Baldwins and Roxbury Russets every year, but of course not until October.

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