Adam's Apples

Not the shoe and not the fabric, today's fruit is named for its unusual deep color and a county in western Maine. It is small and quite dark, spattered with rust-colored lenticels like some polished victorian curio of exotic hardwood or stone. The blush is a deep red with purple overtones, almost mahogany, sometimes described as having a blackish bloom. The apple is slightly ribbed and classically shaped, round to conical. Its unbroken peel has a faint grassy smell.

The apple thought of the day must surely be this one, about Hawkeye's slow evolution into Red Delicious: More than 30 mutations later, we have an apple that’s gotten redder and redder, with lots of emphasis on an elongated conic nose.... The ones in a supermarket could be as much as a year old, and they’ve had quite a journey.... So when you bite into one, you’re often disappointed.

I snagged a small bag of these elusive apples this year and a few were in pretty good shape. So while I am keeping my original review in place (of an imperfect sample), here are tasting notes based on fresher fruit. Esopus Spitzenberg is attractive: large and classically shaped with prominent ribs and a slightly conical profile. The red blush has a matte finish and runs from various shades of true red to orange to the underlying yellow. Many large irregular tan lenticels accentuate the shape.

John Henderson, a farmer and social-sciences librarian at Ithaca College (New York), shares three generations of apple lore and memories at My Grandpap's Apple Orchard. This no-frills web site succeeds on several levels: as a catalog of apple descriptions, a collection of memories and stories, and an an impressive and well organized collection of links, categorized with a librarian's sensibility.

The apple-blogging niche is not crowded, but things change and people come and go. Here is where things stand at the end of 2010.

Besides the blush, this apple is really two-toned: a banana yellow (sure enough) tinged a little with green, and a distinctly green-yellow hue. Flecked with brown lenticels, the resemblance to the long tropical fruit is clear, if not necessarily obvious. The blush is small, a light pink whose translucency, over the yellow, makes a peachy orange. The general effect is striking. The apple runs medium to large and is ribbed and slightly conical. The skin is naturally waxy. A week off the tree it is firm and has a sweet grassy fragrance.

"Ananas" is "pineapple" in French. This small-to-medium variety is ribbed and conical. I selected the apple for today's photoshoot for its striking lime-green stripes over a lighter spring green. However, some other samples have distinctly yellow regions, and one has a pale orange blush over one third of its surface.

The local apple season starts with a thin trickle in July and slowly builds to its October climax. Blushing Golden In November things drop off the edge of a cliff. This year the end of the harvest felt particularly abrupt. At those few farmers markets that continue past Halloween, pickings were slim compared to last year, when you could buy Blushing Goldens the day before Thanksgiving. I chalk this up to the vagaries of the harvest, from this year's odd Spring to Fall's windstorms. I wonder how long the Macouns will last in supermarkets this winter. Enterprise Treasures were few this month, and if you are reading this wondering what to buy in some future November I refer you to the guide I wrote last year. I did get some wonderful unpasturized sweet cider from Phil's, a blend of Enterprise and Cortlan

What a pretty color! Thome is a sport of Empire —a genetic mutation, with but a single parent. Looks count at the market, so a sport that is redder or more attractive than its parent can be valuable. The fruit is medium to large and ribbed, a slightly elongated sphere. The deep plum-purple blush is decorated by many small light lenticels and a dusty blue bloom. It's nice and firm.

The variegated skin of this ironically named antique mixes shades of yellow green and green yellow in an attractive way. You can see what little blush there is, faint spotty brownish orange, in the photo on the tops of the lobes of this ribbed apple. The lenticels are dark and the peel—see it shine?—is waxy. This variety is also known as Palmer Greening, which was apparently the more popular name in New England. It is hard to know which name to use today, but it is mostly an academic question, since it is so little grown.

Jona-gored? Worst name ever, but let's eat it. This apple is "just" a sport of Jonagold , but is redder and much, much bigger. My sample approached King Luscious territory , and was far from the largest in the bin.

From the back roads of Massachusetts at the end of October. Scent of apple fades and trees fall into drowsy sleep

Large and prominently ribbed with distinct lobes, Lyscom has an open calyx and a very shallow stem well. Its blush is a streakey blotchy wash of dull red and purple over green: the effect is almost brown in places. Large Lyscom unbroken has a sweet grassy aroma and a firm feel. The flesh is light yellow, moderately crisp, and slightly coarse. Lyscom's flavor is balanced with some tartness, pear at first giving way to some astringent notes: lemon, spice, and a vinous quality.

The lovely low light of November's sun kisses the trees at Nagog Farm like a stone skipped over a pond.

This large, classically shaped apple is visually striking, with a variegated blush (quite deep red in spots, but mostly streaky over yellow) and some unusual effects from russet and other superficial defects. Of course this sort of thing is the kiss of death in the big-time fruit world, where obsession with physical perfection has been known to compromise quality. But this fruit is from an organic farm and wears its blemishes like dueling scars. I find it ruggedly handsome.

Seldom sought (or grown), obscure Ben Davis is the sire of sturdy stalwart Cortland.    Ben is a big ribbed guy with a streaky red blush over a bright yellow green. The blush is almost granular, like small discrete blobs of pigment washed over a green canvas. His calyx is dry and open.  My sample is nobbed and gnarled and host to a harmless skin condition called sooty blotch. It is quite firm and, unbroken, has a sweet yeasty fragrance.

Proposition: Today's apple, crunchy, juicy, and flavorful, is the un-Honeycrisp. I have two Topaz apples, one medium sized and one quite large. Both are ribbed oblate spheres with an attractive red blush, streaky over a vivid yellow green. Tan lenticels are of varying size. The whole apple is rock hard (but not to the tooth, see below).

Left to Right: Winter Banana, Thome Empire, Ananas Reinette, Roxbury Russet. October is always exciting, the principal month for apples in the principle apple season. (Further emphasized by the abrupt end of the harvest around Halloween.)

The green apple with the Dutch name is on the large end of medium-sized and moderately rubbed. Beneath all that superficial sooty blotch (this is from Tower Hill's very-low-spray heirloom orchard ), Swaar is two-toned, a bright spring green over a greenish yellow. There is a subtle hint of orangey coppery blush in a few spots; click on the photo for a better look. Russeted lenticels are all but lost in the intricate tattoo of russet, flyspeck, and the previously noted blotch.

A mile north of Concord's historic rude bridge that arched the flood where, in Emerson's words, once th' embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world. is Hutchins Farm, an organic farm with a small but diverse orchard. I have been eating, and reviewing, apples from these trees for the past month.

Apple leaves of gold trees at Nagog resting now— yet red fruit remains.

Davey (rhymes with "savvy," not "gravy") is medium-sized, conical, and lightly ribbed. Its attractive red blush is a little striped and streaked over a yellow peel that is much greener at the crown than the base. Large green-yellow lenticels are prominent in the blush--many at the base thinning to none at the crown. Davey's calyx is partly open. The apple is firm and has a pretty cidery aroma.

What impressed me first about this little farm stand was the hand-written note warning that the Macouns were "not at peak" yet. (That was in early September: the Macouns have been pretty wonderful for the past month.) Since then Brigham has surprised me with several unusual varieties. But the sign signals a respect both for apples and the people who appreciate them.

An unexpected perquisite of this blog is that sometimes people send me apples to try. (Okay, twice. But a man can dream.) Today's variety is just such a gift, picked and mailed in early October. Smokehouse, named for the proximity of its ur-tree to a Pennsylvania smokehouse, ranges from medium to large.

Hutchins Farm reports that this apple, a sport (apparently) of Empire , has no name. Nature abhors a vacuum, so we will use Hutchins's home-grown appellation. * This sport is very large and moderately ribbed, with a red blush that is mostly streaky over a bright yellow-green.  Many small light lenticels decorate the blush, which manages to be quite dark in places, and as the photo shows there are some jagged swaths of what I take to be russet. (Or perhaps it is something else?)

This variety is either old or very old, and may be a parent of the popular McIntosh . There is a family resemblance. Fameuse is a medium-sized apple, round and firm, with a red blush that is streaky in most places over yellow-green (about a third of the skin is unblushed in my samples). Its calyx is closed.

Thanks to a reader for forwarding this link to New York Magazine's micro-reviews of 28 apples. The authors made their picks from 60 varieties bought at the Union Square Greenmarket in Manhattan ( map ).

This pretty variety, a large medium, is mostly an unblushed yellow. Though the blush is often streaky, it ranges from a saturated red to a faint orange-pink wash. (It's quite solid on one sample). The lenticels are dark. Lucky is ribbed and well-formed, a bit conical.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of a tasting tour through an orchard of 119 heirloom apple varieties. This remarkable collection, conserved and curated by the Worcester County Horticultural Society, lives today at the Society's center at Tower Hill in Boylston, Massachusetts. Worcester Horticultural's Joann Vierra in action. For more than an hour we walked from tree to tree while volunteers cut slices of apples fresh off the bough, the autumn sun and breezes in our faces and hair. Meanwhile the society's horticultural director, Joann Vieira, told us about the apples, quoting Spencer Beech's Apples of New York extensively.

This large-medium - sized apple is conical and distinctively ribbed: one jutting corner of my sample cleaves the air like the prow of a ship. The peel is delicately colored with green streaks over a lighter green, but some samples have a small fragile pink blush. There are light lenticels, and my sample has flyspeck, sooty blotch, and a corona of russet flairing out fron the stem well.

Like Early Spy , this is another apple with a purely "local" name. But it beats "NY428," this apple's official designation as part of the breeding program of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station . Sister is named for her relationship to the better-known Fortune, which was originally NY429.

The blushes seem more saturated and intense to me this year. Above, Chestnut Crabapples cluster around Melrouge. The crabs are sadly not good to eat this year, dry and mealy (though firm to the touch). Their uncharacteristic deep color may be a symptom of too much heat or time on the tree. However, fiery, russet-blasted Melrouge is excellent.

Elstar is generally medium-sized, with some variation. It is moderately ribbed with a streaky red blush over yellow, and with tan, nearly invisible lenticels (a few have dark specks in the center). This apple is firm with a sweet aroma that suggest the Golden Delicious variety. (Aptly so, as it turns out.)

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Crossing Northern Spy with Golden Delicious can get you a huge apple, at least if Spigold is any indication. This lopsided, oblate, and very slightly ribbed variety has a dull red blush streaky over a light green yellow. Its light tan lenticels look smaller in the blushed area. Unbroken Spigold feels hefty and firm with a sweet cidery aroma.

A few trees did not survive hurricane season at Nagog Hill Farm Yet many apples remain to be picked. (Photos October 2)

September starts with a parade of interesting but short-lived summer apples and ends with some of the finest varieties at their peak. This year I was especially interested to see how Spring's unusual weather would affect the harvest. One grower had wildly predicted McIntosh in mid-August (even as he was selling Lodi apples harvested much too early). Macoun and McIntosh

A reader asks, I just have one simple question where can I buy Russet Apples, NOT the tree the actual apples. You could swap in almost any variety for this request. One fellow wrote to me three times asking if I could ship Baldwin and Northern Spy apples to him, and would I like his credit-card number. (Needless to say, I do not grow apples. I just eat them.) Russets are great apples, a whole continent of taste (and great keepers), but out of fashion today because of their appearance. They'll be in season in a few weeks.

Senshu, a daughter of Fuji , is slightly ribbed and runs from medium to large. She has a red blush over yellow-green peel, starred with large lenticels that are dark, except in the blush. This variety is firm and smells sweet. Senshu has delightfully crisp light-yellow flesh, on the coarse-grained side and juicy. The flavor is light and sweet with just a suggestion of balancing tart.

Gray Pearmain is a medium-to-medium-large apple, oblate with barely any ribbing. Its peel is a pale yellow with regions of pale yellow-green. The closest thing to a blush is a small rosy tinge. My tasting samples bear many inconsequential marks of Nature's affection: russet, fly speck, sooty blotch, and other imperfections. The fruit feels firm with a faint promising fruity aroma.

Today's handsome apple runs to to large: a shapely, conical, and slightly ribbed fruit. Its yellow skin has green highlights. Some sport a small, delicate orange-pink blush, nearly transparent. There are many small lenticels, most light-green, some dark (perhaps with russet). The calyx is partly open, and there is faint sweet aroma. Golden Supreme's flesh is crisp, coarse-grained, and light yellow. It bears juice with some of the honey-and-pear qualities of a Golden Delicious, but lighter and less complex.

To mark my impending 100th variety review (hooray!), I have added to this blog a page of the images of all my apples. I like to look at them; if nothing else, they document my journey as a pomophile (and photographer). If you are seeking a particular variety, your best bet is the alphabetical list in the sidebar at below right. But if you want to quiz yourself, or match an unknown apple you have in hand, or just see a lot of apples, each of the thumbnails will provide you with the name of its variety on mouse hover, and a link to its full review. A link to the visual page joins the tabs at the top of the page, or you can just Read more»

This apple doesn't really have a name. It is identified by the grower as Early Spy, but that is a purely local title, neither patented, trademarked, nor enrolled in any one's Registry of Fruit Names. Instead it is known to the fruit world (if at all) as NY75423-30, which identifies it as a product of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station .

This is what a quarter-megawatt looks like. Carlson Orchards , in Harvard, Mass. , has installed a two-acre photovoltaic array to power its operation. I viewed it for the first time on September 6.

This large medium-sized apple is round with only a faint trace of ribbing, a cheerful yellow-green partially covered with a streaky blush of vivid red with orange accents. The lenticels are a slightly darker green on the skin and lighter in the blush. Wealthy feels reasonably firm and has no appreciable aroma. The flesh is a somewhat tender, but crisp, medium-coarse white tinged with yellow, bearing juice that is tart but not unbalanced.

The mountains are Olympic , wreathed in cloud, as seen from across the Hood Canal in Washington State. The apple is an early Shamrock from Pike Place Market , Seattle's justly famous green market ( map ). I bought a few of these out of curiosity and confusion. They do not look much like the Shamrocks I've had here in Massachusetts , in fact I thought these might be Lodis . They are way out of season for Shamrocks. Also the grower confidently explained (I am such a sucker for that) that they were a Granny Smith - McIntosh cross, something I am quite sure I have never tasted. So I thought they might be something new. * Turns out they are not, but I could not resist the camera angle. Here are my tasting notes.

On the tree at Nagog Hill Farm earlier today.

There was such variation in the bin of Mollie's Delicious that I could not find a typical sample. Most ran large to extra-large and were both ribbed and conical: more so than in my example, and a few with such exaggerated ribbing as to look strangely emaciated. All had a streaky red blush that nonetheless manages to be quite rich in places, a very handsome color. This is over a green-tinged yellow skin. Mollie has a very deep stem well and tan lenticels that range from tiny to large. It feels quite firm unbroken and has a very faint sweet aroma.

So, August is just a prelude to September, when the real Apple action ramps up. Right? Any week that offers a choice between between rich and mellow Williams' Pride , spicy Gravenstein , and Tydeman's Early Red (a wonderful old variety) is a great week for apples. I heartily recommend any of these. That was just the second week in August, when I also found unusual Empress . The first week of August saw the end of Vista Bella (still available, but past its prime). Also for sale: Early Mac, Jersey Mac , Paula Red , Lodi , Gingergold , and Williams Pride, all available throughout the entire month. Early Mac is more a type than a variety, or I would review it. Jersey Mac is representative of the early McIntosh lookalikes. I don't much care for these; if you are missing McIntosh that badly you'd be better of with Paula Red.

Pronounced "ah-kah-nay." This large apple is a very pretty bright red over yellow, slightly conical and slightly ribbed. It is decorated with irregular small light lenticels. Note that my sample was waxed, as I bought it in a supermarket while visiting Seattle. Perhaps for that reason, the fruit had no aroma at all. Akane's dense white flesh was moderately yielding and had a good balance of sweet and tart and generally light and generic flavors but also a suggestion of a vinous quality and hints of kiwi and, towards the finish, white wine. This is a chewy apple with a chewy peel, filling and not super juicy.

Luscious and strange, this apple had me at first bite. Everything about Empress is a little uncommon. Take a look at the photo and mentally remove the stem. A bit topsy turvy, don't you think? Many apples have ribs that terminate in little bumps or chins, but usually at the base, not at the crown. Many taper towards the bottom; this one is plum-shaped. Not every Empress is tapered at the top, but the ones I saw had rib bumps more prominent at the stem than the bottom. 

The Gravenstein Apple Fair has its one hundredth anniversary today and tomorrow in Sebastopol, California . Congratulations, and eat a Gravenstein for me!

Though I am not a fan, I could not resist buying one of these organic Chilean Red Delicious (!) apples just so you could see what she looks like. Lopsided, flamboyant, even a little scarred, this Delicious has slipped through the bars of her shiny red cage to show a glimpse of her origins as heirloom Hawkeye . (As usual, click on the photo for a close-up.) Sad to report, though, that this reversion is only skin deep. To be sure, this is a "good" Red Delicious inside, not mealy as they all so often can be, but the taste and texture were just as generic and unmemorable as those of the glossy red variety .

Two years ago, Red Apple Farm sold me some apples that I found exceptional. I thought they were Lodi apples because the grower said so. This year, it turns out, those apples were really Yellow Transparents. So of course last Tuesday I let Red Apple sell me some more apples called Lodi, and of course I think that's really really what they are this time. Okay, I see the pattern. But I'm getting fed. Pass the fruit. These apples are on the large end of small, a delicate yellow-green that is mostly yellow on the sunward side, where there is sometimes a hint of pink.