Adam's Apples

The first apples of the season are particularly welcome, but around here the selection is thin. We start in July with Lodi and Vista Bella. I am grateful for Williams Pride , which I trust will be at hand soon. I already look forward to Gravenstein later in August, when there will be many more choices. But there are other fine early varieties that we don't see. My love of Yellow Transparent , is, alas, rarely requited. I've never found any Pristine for sale in the Boston area.

With this post I am pleased to introduce a qualitative rating system for apples. I also list about a third of the apples I have tried that are, in my view, worthy of at least one of three stars. I resisted this idea as hubris and clutter for a long time, but have come to see it as another helpful way to organize the ever-growing content here. I should nonetheless be distressed were these ratings to dissuade people from trying and liking all sorts of apples on their own terms, my opinions notwithstanding. I hope the ratings will encourage some readers to try and to appreciate something new.

The supermarket apples are marvels of sturdy durable sweetness, but lets face it. They get old, and by the time the apple harvest begins I am really ready for something tart and local. The morning suns shines down on an apple earlier today at Nagog Farm in Littleton, Massachusetts.

In my first post four years ago today, I proposed "to blog a year of apples" to test the proposition that "blogging about apples will be a fun way to use the web to view the world." This project began as self-directed professional development, to learn not only about apples but also about writing for online media like blogs. My first "year of apples" is long past and my professional-growth mission is largely accomplished. So, what am I doing here, besides having fun?

Impossibly early Vista Bella apples for sale from Nicewicz Family Farm earlier today at Arlington's Farmers Market. In the words of that great detective and distinguished pomologist Sherlock Holmes, "when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

Want an easy way to connect with customers and sell more apples? Tweet your fruit with Twitter. And, to kick it up a notch, use the #atmkt hashtag . During the harvest season I always want to know: Who has my favorite apple varieties? And when are they ripe?

The sun kisses apples ripening at Nagog Hill Farm in Littleton earlier today.

Apples ripen yesterday at Hutchins Farm in Concord.