Adam's Apples

The best apples are a blend of sweet and tart.  (Photo: Esopus Spitzenberg ; also shown: Opalescent .) These apples are in or near the sweet spot where the tension between sugar and tartness is perfectly balanced and the flavors sing.  ¶  The old pomologists used the term "subacid" to describe an apple that had some acidity in the mix, but which stopped just short of being predominantly acid.

before after What do you want to be when you grown up? These apples are grafted, so there is really no doubt about that here. Behold the Calville Blanc D'Hiver .

Two Williams data points, one from Harvard on Sunday, another from my Williams review circa 2015.

There's an apple in there someplace. I have never had the pleasure of tasting a Hightop Sweeting, so no "after" photo this time. But isn't this one gorgeous? (And isn't that a topping name?)

Above, two moments in the life of Duchess of Oldenburg , an antique Russian variety with cooking and keeping qualities. It's a late-summer apple. A friend took this and other blossom photos in Harvard, Massachusetts, yesterday.

Is it too soon to hope On this chilly wet day in early May For the sun, and a bountiful harvest