Adam's Apples

Appreciating the all-too-short Vista Bella season is easy: in July, they are the only game in town. But these apples would be noteworthy any time of year, and today I found a new taste in Vista Bella's sweet-tart berries-and-wine mix: fake watermelon notes. Not true watermelon, but something very like the artificial watermelon flavor you might find in a child's sweet. (But in a good way!)

The crisp taste of a Vista Bella (subject of my first review and excellent harbinger of the harvest season) reminds me that I've been blogging apples for a year. A year is what I signed up for. It's been an unexpectedly rich experience for me.

Sixty-two varieties reviewed since I started this blog one year ago today. (Each is a link to a review; hover your cursor for the name.)

This attractive variety has a red blush over yellow green, accented by many tiny light lenticels. At its deepest the blush comprises darker and lighter streaks together.  The lenticels, which are dark green in the unblushed skin, crowd the bottom third of the fruit and grow sparse near the top. Braeburn runs medium to large and is moderately ribbed. My sample is fragrant, firm, and (see the photo) glistening with wax.

A week earlier than last year, our first New England apples of the season were in a box at the Arlington Farmers Market today. These are Jersey Macs, which were not memorable last summer. But this year they occupy a place of honor. Biting into the first one cuts the ribbon to a season of local fruit. What's that like? Their crunch, their tang, and the fragility of their flesh all proclaim unmistakably that these are home-grown apples fresh off the tree.

For a very long time, the most popular page on this site was for Mutsu (aka Crispin). Lots of people misspell it as "Mitsu," and I am apparently one of the few who list that as an alternate spelling (though it isn't alternate, it's wrong.) Those who put " Mitsu apples " into Google found me. Misspellers of the world, untie!

The cupboard is bare at Nagog Hill Orchard. The scene was earlier today. Luckily I'd brought along a Jazz apple from New Zealand.

So fixed has my attention been on the impending apple season (probably starting with Vista Bella ) that I almost missed this late import. Autumn Greeting is large, conical, and ribbed, with a streaky pinkish-red blush over green yellow. Many of the apples on sale were a little lopsided. Mine has some russet in the stem well. Light lenticels of varying size decorate this fruit, with more and closer spots nearer to the base. The smell is sweet and lush, with almost tropical notes; the calyx is lightly parted

A grower sells produce (but no apples) at the Farmers Market in Lexington ( map ) yesterday.