Adam's Apples

Apples to the rescue!  ¶  Note (or, perhaps, Warning): The Music Appreciation Department at Adam's Apples has selected a recording to play in the background as you read today's report.  ¶  Click the play button below for the full experience. Mid-spring is the nadir of the apple year. The fall harvest is a distant memory and the first apples of summer are 3 months distant.

To the extent this blog has a message, it is appreciation of the many diverse kinds of apples that are still grown, enjoyed, and loved. Towards that end from time to time I take my best shot at pitching alternatives to fans of some of the standard popular varieties.

Sweetland Orchard (or perhaps I should say, @SweetlandOrchrd ) has won me over this week by tweeting apple blossoms straight from the Minnesota farm: #appleblossomjournal Tweets The best thing? Sweetland is going variety-by-variety.

Robots are battling for dominance of the orchard. Check out this fruit-picking robot under development by an Israeli company. Details are sketchy, but a promotional video shows two listless, sweaty apple pickers who are delighted to welcome their robotic overlord, which we are told can pick ten times as fast as humans. Meanwhile, the sound track and the lighting changes and a robotic arm deftly harvests the apples.