Apple drought

Things are not pretty here at the end of June.

Supermarkets are flush with Honeycrisps picked in August of 2018.

Of course the cupboard has been bare at almost every orchard for most of 2019.

Usually we get a little relief (warning: music may play) when the spring harvest rolls in from Chile, Australia, and other points south.

Spring apples used to arrive in late April. It's not unheard of for a new variety developed in New Zealand to debut here in May or June.

Well, not this year. But I can report Gala and Lemonade from New Zealand and, just this week, Chilean Cripps and Jazz.

Oddly no Braeburn or anything from Argentina.

In less than a month we'll see Lodi and Vista Bella at farmers market, followed by the parade of excellent August apples and on to the glorious fall. But it's pretty slim pickings today.

My buying advice is to go with those spring apples in the meantime.

Most of the photos on this blog are mine, but the parched earth above is a public-domain image curated by Max Pixel.