Adam's Apples

Update: These are last year's Mutsus, stored very well. Of course. That was my first guess when I saw them at Farmers Market last week. But when the seller insisted they were fresh picked, I entertained some bizarre theories (below) consistent with that. This week the grower himself was at the market and he told me the truth.

On Monday I bicycled to the Bedford Farmers Market. Only one vendor there sells apples and I was not surprised that he had none yet. On Tuesday I went likewise to Lexington's Farmers Market, which includes three apple farmers. One had these Vista Bellas, frequently first out of the gate here. Unfortunately these were early at best. One was white-pipped-spongey-fleshed unripe; another was just very green and tart.

Disappointment, because there are no apples at Farmers market yet. Last year I got the first local apples of the year on July 14. Relief because last year's early crop, following an exceptionally early spring, proved to the the harbinger of a poor harvest. So, one more week to go!

The crop of southern-hemisphere apples that usually arrives in late April or May was, at last, in full cry in June. I don't know whether it is freshness or terroir or something else, but the Chilean Granny Smiths were much better--crisper, more complex--than their Washington State counterparts.