Adam's Apples

Will you look at that gorgeous apple! The crimson blush is so saturated that the prominent lenticel dots look white in stark contrast. A relief map of red-brown crackles resemble scars. You can feel them with your fingertips, like a Braille interpretation of a Jackson Pollock painting.

In the midst of the tedious Age of HoneyCrispySweetieCrunch®, the name of this apple made me laugh. At least someone has a sense of humor!

This is an interesting looking apple by many metrics. Large and round, with really no perceptible ribbing, the Caney Fork Limbertwig is a light lemon yellow about two-fifths blushed with the mottled orange red that you see. Dark lenticels brood within the blush. They are raised bumps in the unblushed yellow. And check out that long, skinny stem.

There are fifteen different kinds of apples for sale until 2 pm today at Somerville's Winter Market , unless they have run out.

On December 2 of this year, when things are usually pretty quiet here, the traffic to this little blog suddenly went through the roof. On Twitter, Matt Haughey , who has a preposterous  28 thousand  followers, had tweeted some very nice things about my blog. Temporary internet fame ensued.

Lucies Rose (L) and Glo Once upon a time there were two sisters, Lucy Glo and Lucy Rose. Lucy Glo was the tangy one, Lucy Rose the sweet. Or so they say . Today, we'll see.

It's easy to see a list of all the apples I review on this blog, if you are reading this on a desktop computer. Just scroll down enough and you'll see the list in the right-hand sidebar. Some of you are reading this on a phone or tablet and the sidebar is hidden. For you, all my apples (as of today) are listed below as clickable links.

I had to travel all the way to Colorado to find this apple from Washington State. Lucy Rose, and her sister Lucy Glo , are in supermarkets in many parts of the U.S. They have not, however, made it to eastern Massachusetts. This does seem to be the Year of Red Flesh here at Adam's Apples, does it not? Lucy Glo is also red fleshed, though she is otherwise unlike her sister.

Behold, not for the first time , Calville Blanc d'Hiver, the classic French cooking apple. I'm glad to have two of these, but also disappointed. Here's why.

Beneath the grey November sky, the last farmers market of the season held court today in a parking lot in Davis Square , Somerville.

What's striking about this apple? It's the unusual color: a "glo" that is the result of a pastel orange-pink color peering through an otherwise pale green peel. (Click on any photo for a closer look.) This look reminds me of the tan exterior of the Pink Pearl . Which raises an interesting question...

Excuse me, but I am closing in on a minor milestone: 300 unique apples reviewed on this site.

I was in Boulder (Colorado) for less than 20 minutes when I first heard praise for "western slope Honeycrisps," the best apples in the world. Within the hour, I'd heard it again, from my landlady. She had one ready for me. Best apple in the world: that's debatable. But it was the best Honeycrisp I have ever had. (And we now know what they like to eat in Boulder!)

In the 17th Century, left-wing puritans would frequently find themselves before magistrates for disrupting church services, refusing to pay tithes, and otherwise resisting the public order. Then they would dig deeper holes for themselves by addressing the judge with the egalitarian "thee" instead of the respectful "you." It is perhaps in this spirit that Steven Edholm, the originator of today's apple, informs me that the correct spelling is, all caps, " BITE ME !" including an obligatory exclamation point.

Behold this large apple, shapely and tapered (if a little lopsided), a cheerful yellow with patches of orange-pink blush. Russetted lenticels stand out against the light background, and there is a very small amount of ribbing.

You has to eat a peck o sharpie to be a nappleman true, as John Chapman once said. Today's sharpie was wielded by Will in Central Massachusetts.

Wouldn't you say these are the same apple?

It's a fine time of year for apples.

Will, from Central Massachusetts, sent me these (and some other apples) from his home orchard seeking to know what they might be. They are from his tree E5 and are supposed to be Red Delicious ("RD") from a tree purchased from Home Depot ("HD"). You do not have to be a pomologist to know these are not those. So, what are they?

Josh has been sending me apples this year from his orchard in western Washington: one last summer, and six this fall I've already written about the first three of the six, which included a second bite for me of Tompkins King . There was also a mystery apple that I think could be the great Ashmead's Kernel . (Others disagree .) The second trio, below, also includes one apple that Josh knows for sure. It is Kingston Black, a famous cider apple.

Today I am tasting the first of a shipment of mystery apples from Will, who grew these in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, near Worcester. Will got ahold of me hoping for some help IDing his crop. I warned him that he'd probably be disappointed, since I'm not much of an apple sleuth . He sent his apples anyway. The provisional names are his.

The apple blogger's complaint Clockwise from right: Ashmead's Kernel, Macoun, Wickson, Baldwin It is glorious October ! At this point in the season my refrigerator overflows with Ashmead's Kernel, Macoun, Wickson, and Baldwin. But can I eat them? I can not.

The purpose of today's apple adventure is not to decide which is best, but rather what is what. I spotted some similarities between Ashmead's Kernel and an unidentified variety that came my way . Some of you, gentle readers, begged to differ . So, I report, you decide. What is this guy?

This is shaping up to be the Year of People Sending Me Apples. This past summer Josh sent me what was probably Duchess of Oldenburg from his Eastern Washington orchard. Josh thought so too. Hey, I got one right! And now the floodgates are opened. I do not mind at all (far from it), but for the record let me explain why I probably cannot identify your mystery apple even if I have one to taste.

When a reader named Josh packed up a care package for me from his orchard in western Washington, he threw in Tompkins King (aka King) because I had said (in my 2013 review ) that I would like to try it again. This Tompkins is large, ribbed, and classically shaped, if a bit broad in the beam. It's a naturally green apple almost entirely covered with a blush of very fine streaks, orange-red. Look closely to see many regular tan lenticel dots. It is firm and fragrant.

Kingston Black is famous! But not for eating.

Some of the choices in the mist at the Union Square farmers market this morning.

I had my first Chenango Strawberry two years ago, picked two weeks later than this one (which dates from mid September). At the time wondered if my apple was a little too long off the tree, and wished for a second chance. Well I got my wish, and I think this is a slightly better version. What I learned, however, is that I pretty much nailed it the first time.

I guess it is the Year of the Red Fleshed Harvest here at Adam's Apples. Behold the red-tinged pips of the Redfield apple.

This small, classically shaped apple has a deep red blush decorated with a rugged archipelago of russet and distinctive light lenticel dots. The peel has a satiny gloss. My Redfield is moderately ribbed and has an open, and deep, calyx. It smells faintly of cinnamon, perhaps residue of actual cinnamon from baked goods in the farm shop where I bought the apple.

Most of the time, my comparison posts start by introducing the apples and asking, which is best? This isn't that kind of thing. Instead the question is, will these apples go together as well as I imagine?

Shelburne Farm , in Stow, Massachusetts, is on a tear with red-fleshed apples, and here are three of them. Left to right: Scarlet Surprise, Pink Pearl, Firecracker The photo above buttresses three of my observations about red-fleshed apples generally.

The Starkeys are particularly good this year, the way the Baldwins were last year. So I thought I'd taste one again.

The light plays across the apples at farmers market yesterday.

This small, crabapple-sized fruit, with its glossy deep red peel and striking pink flesh, is gorgeous. But is it good to eat?

The broad stripes on the apple at left do not appear to be usual, but I wanted you to see it alongside the more-typical apple on the right. Both are Ellison's Orange. Consequently there are two examples of this English apple to enjoy. These fruits are on the small side of large, a cheerful spring green layered with a subdued orange-red blush and a fair amount of rusetting. The surface finish ranges from matte to rough.

It's no trick of the light. This yellow-green apple (a French cider apple with a familiar name) really does present a two-toned face to the world. The lower left two-thirds is distinctly darker, with a jagged but clear boundary. That darker area has a curious translucent quality, as though the apple were a sponge that had been partially moistened. What is going on?

Note the dark red bulls-eye near the center. Outwardly, Scarlet Surprise is a round, red apple, pretty if not remarkable. Now imagine biting in to discover that the color is more than skin deep. Surprise! To avoid surprises, the grower had sliced samples on display. But the true surprise lies in this apple's interesting flavors. Scarlet is a medium sized apple, round and orange-touched red, with very little ribbing at all and small light lenticel dots. The peel is glossy with natural wax, and there is a slight light-colored bloom in a few spots. Inside Instead of biting in, I cut. The sliced apple smells of berries and pumpkin. The striking magenta-pink flesh is yielding and without much of a crunch, but it is juicy and pleasant,  coarse grained. The Surprise is well balanced, though on the tart side of that range. The flavors include raspberries and citrus with a marshmallow note (the candy, not the herb ). I found a little  grapefruit  flavor in parts of the ap...

Suddenly, this new variety is everywhere. My supermarket has them in the merely large size, and the grocery chain Trader Joe's has big ones for sale loose and little ones by the bag. Stemilt, the grower with one of two North American licenses for this apple, sent me six huge ones, and that's what I have before me today.

Gingergold (left) and Gravenstein are what's going on right now.