Adam's Apples

Sunday, December 25, 2022

Sierra Beauty**

Very oblate apple, green with streaky red blush

I have three of these extremely flattened beauties from Mike, a reader in Southern California. They are green and blushed, with pronounced ribbing and short thick stems.

Three of These Things Are Not the Same

Three apples of differrent shapes and shades of red

Which of these apples

is a 150-year-old heirloom?
is from a local (Massachusetts) orchard?
is commonly sold in supermarkets and grocery stores across North America?

If you've been reading my blog you know the answer.

You also know that this is a trick question.

Keim

Two pale yellow-green apples with small spotty red blushes, one very oblate, the other squarish with deep creases caused by natural ribbing

Keim is German for "sprout." ¶

This apple proved unusual in several ways. ¶

You can see the very different shapes that are possible, one very oblate but only modestly ribbed, and the other a bit stocky and with ribbing so pronounced as to produce a distinct crease.

Despite the differences in shape, the apples share a small wash of red-orange blush over a very yellow spring green. The blush includes saturated spots of red pigment haphazardly at some of the lenticels.

On the road

A large red replica of an apple dwarfs two cars parked one on either side. White letters across the apple read "Clarkdale"

Back from a quick trip to the Pioneer Valley (Massachusetts), where I got a bag of Gold Rush, some interesting ciders (hard and sweet), and this photo.

Shown: The emblem of Clarkdale Fruit Farm in Deerfield.

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

Not with a Bang

With tables of fruit in the background, a sign says "Last Day"

"Last day of market" in Davis Square, Somerville, today.

The American Thanksgiving is tomorrow, which means that the urban markets here ended today.

Hawkeye vs. Red Delicious smackdown

Two apples, one small, lopsided, and adarrk purple-toned red, the other yellow with a wash of many orange and red stripes

Take number 2, this time with a local Red Delicious.

America gets its fruit at the supermarket, and that determines what we eat and what farmers grow.

So I thought it fair and reasonable to compare these apples using a store-bought Red Delicious.

Which I did.

Keener Seedling *

Today's russet apple wears a jacket of brown with olive tones, rich and warm.

That covers the entire apple. But one sample has an unrussetted patch that shows a subdued red blush over what is probably green. That blush is faintly filtered through perhaps half of the russeted area.

These are oblate and medium-sized, with many lenticels raised slightly from the surface.

Hawkeye vs. Red Delicious

Deep red apple, tall and tapered, next to a rounder apple with orange stripes over yellow.

A Red Delicious, once America's apple, fresh from the supermarket. Hint: It's the tall one on the left.

And the fabled Hawkeye, a seedling found growing on a Quaker's Iowa farm nearly 150 years ago. Here from an Indiana orchard.

But surely you know the story that connects these apples.

Salome (Cherryfield, Benton Red)**

An apple, green with a streaky red blush

I'm thinking, what a typical looking apple.

It's round and a bit oblate, one slightly tapered, one not, a streaky red blush that is a little washed out covering about two thirds of a spring green peel.

It's not a McIntosh or a Cortland, but it might be, if you don't look too closely.

Yellow Bellflower

Tapered yellow applewith streals of faint pink blush and leaves still attached near the stem

Some of my pale yellow samples of Yellow Bellflower are less tapered than this (photo).

Nonetheless, all sit on tiny bases (or, if you prefer, crowns) around partially open calyxes.

Some have faint streaks of a pink orange blush, and all are ribbed and decorated with dark lenticel dots, large and distinct above, tiny and close together below.

You can feel them with your fingertips, rough projections from the peel.

Hawkeye*

IF THEE MUST GROW, THEE MAY

I never thought to taste this apple, discovered by a farmer in Iowa nearly 150 years ago.

It has been superseded by history.

Hawkeye was purchased by Stark Brothers and then modified by sport after sport to be nearly unrecognizable.

You surely know it, as Red Delicious.

Turning Colors

Many deep magenta crabapples hanging from branches with fall colors in the backround

NY 1229*

Handsome, symmetrical red-blushed apple, streaky in spots

Does it look big?

Today's handsome apple is a hefty 12 inches around. Its name, a mere number, betrays the fact that it has not been released as a branded variety by the New York State apple breeding program at Cornell.

Another gentle ending

Tables laden with fruit spread beneith awning on umbrellas on a grey day

Arlington's farmers market ends on a day of fog and drizzle.

There were 22 different kinds of apples to buy at Arlington's farmers market on Wednesday, the last of the year.

Sops of Wine

Red-blushed yellow-green aple with long thin stem

Some apples are innately big or small, but also apples can mature at different sizes depending on thinning or on growing conditions.

However, the long thin stems on today's pretty, red-blushed treat suggest that Sops in Wine never gets very large. That stem could not support a large heavy fruit.

The apple (on the small end of medium-sized) is ribbed and oblate. The crimson blush, though saturated in spots, is mostly streaky, over a pale green yellow.

Under the big top

Hundreds of apples sorted into large open crates by type, under an awning in the grey outdoors

Twenty-six different kinds of apples were on offer this morning at Volante Farms in Needham, Massachusetts.

Crunch time

Apple trees laden with red fruit, behind a wire fence

The apples hung heavy, sweet, and ready in Harvard, Massachusetts, yesterday.

Fauxwhelp (Geneva Foxwhelp)*

FRIEND OR FAUX? ¶

Large round apple with streaky red blush

I approach this tasting with the knowledge that my sample is not the legendary English cider apple, Foxwhelp.

Today's is a different apple that was confused with the real thing in North America decades ago.

Still, this is a cultivated variety, worth tasting. I assume it resembles the true Foxwhelp.

Mine is round with some flattening at top and bottom and just a little conical taper. It is hefty with almost no ribbing, a light spring green with a streaky red blush.

The tide comes in

Piles of apples in wooden bins on a table outdoors

Apples in the low October sun

Just a few of the twenty-five varieties of apples for sale at the farmers market today in Arlington, Massachusetts.

Sunrise

Update: Looks like this was actually Sunrise Magic, a new variety from Washington State that I have re-reviewed. More on this confusion below.

A yellow apple with a partial wash of orange-red blush

These medium-sized apples are mostly conical and tapered, though one sample is a bit rounder.

They are ribbed, sometimes markedly so, with calyxes that fairly gape—you can see right inside them.

The wash of orange-red blush covers a pale yellow peal tinged with green. There are many faint tiny lenticel dots, easier to spot in the unblushed portion but not prominent anywhere.

Mysteries Three

What are they?

Three apples of varying sizes and colors

An old orchard, a mystery apple, and two more. In autumn.

What's not to like?

Come with me and review the what we know.

Summer Rambo (Rambour Franc)

These green, ribbed apples run quite large, with a partial streaky red blush and a satin finish.

Large tan lenticel dots are prominent, but only within the blushed region.

The calyx is closed. The apple is oblate and a bit lopsided.

Comment of the Day

An apple with a mottled blush, from flame to deep ruby

Sweet Liberty

I love my readers, and treasure all your comments. Hearing from you pays me back for all the work I put into this blog.

This note today, from a reader who signs his or her comments "The Fluffy Bunny," is epic. Writing of Liberty (shown),

While apple aficionados might guess this apple is a member of the Snow/McIntosh clan, if you asked them to guess its familia association I doubt it would even be on their radar until you mentioned it. For one, the strong vinous flavor of McIntosh and Macoun is far more muted to nonexistent in Liberty.

Haralson redux

Hail Haralson, elder god in the pantheon of Midwest apples!

I first reviewed Haralson in 2016, but a few fresh samples have come my way.

View from an Orchard

Coppery-brown apples hang from a tree. In the background are trees bearing orange-red-blushed fruit.

Those are Golden Russets on that tree.

And in the background?

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may

Pro tip: You do not see this every day.

Wednesday, October 5, 2022

18 apple choices

MARKET NOTES

Heaps of apples of may colors, arranged in wooden crates

It has taken a while—this is the worst year for local apples that I can remember—but we are finally into high season.

Schoolbus vs Sansa

Two apples, one with washed-out streaky blush, the other with saturated red

These two apples, though very different, share many characteristics. Thus this taste test.

Other than size—both are small, though not crabs—these do not look much alike.

Hewe's Crabapple (Virginia crab)

The grower tells me that this old, and celebrated, cider apple is coming in at different stages of ripeness this year. The smaller, redder one at right is an outlier.

These are wider (perhaps an inch) than tall (three fourths), most with a wash of orange-tinted red blush over a pale greenish yellow.

The apples are glossy and somewhat ribbed. Their lenticel dots can barely be made out, and then only as green spots in the unblushed region.

Schoolbus

The originator of this apple, Joel LaValley of Amnicon Apples, suspects it is a seedling of Red Delicious ("but much better").

It has a good bit of the Red D conical taper, and some ribbing. The streaky red color, where it covers the green-yellow, is purer than Delicious's purple-tinged hue, and there are many light tan lenticel dots prominent in the blush.

My samples are small and medium-sized. Now let's see about that "much better" part.

Feast of Crabs

18 crabapples swarm around a lone regular-sized red apple

Crabapples gather around a lone McIntosh.

It's been crabby here!

Above, left to right: AAX 11, Hewe's Crab (review forthcoming), and the delightful Chestnut Crabapple disport themselves around a single McIntosh (for scale).

AAX 11

Two small red apples with long slender stems

This is an "experimental" crabapple (thus the "X") under development by Amnicon Apples ("AA").

Each experiment is about an inch tall with streaky red blush over a pale yellow. The riot of streak and color wash masks any lenticel dots.

This crabapple has a satin rather than glossy finish, and noticeable ribbing.

Kinderkrisp*

Small apple with warm red blush over yellow

I listen to names. "Kinderkrisp," for example, suggests a "kid-sized" entry into Honeycrisp space.

These attractive apples are appropriately small, maybe an inch and a half tall (and about an inch wider than that). The one shown is the tallest at 1-3/4 inches, and the least oblate.

It isn't fall until

Red apples in a wooden bin, with a sign that reads "McIntosh"

King McIntosh makes his debut at the Arlington, Massachusetts, farmers market last Wednesday.

...the Macs arrive.

Trailman vs Centennial Crabapple Smackdown

Two crabapples, yellow with peach blushes, one larger than the other

Fate, in the form of a care package from Indiana, brought these two tiny August apples to me at the same time last month.

And, they are kind of similar.

Earligold

A yellow green apple with a faint yellow blush

Perhaps by design, the name of this apple evokes the iconic Golden Delicious, which matures much later.

Earligold falls between medium and large, a very light spring green. As the photo shows, there is not so much a blush as a lightening of the green to yellow, but it includes some faint peach accents. Lenticels show as darker green dots.

There is quite a bit of give in the squeeze.

Art class

In bronze, small figures stand atop a large apple

The apple-shaped earth and we upon it, surely the drift of them is something grand,

I do not know what it is except that it is grand, and that it is happiness . . . .

—Walt Whitman

Sculptor (and orchardist) Linda Hoffman cites these words as inspiration for her Bronze work, "This Apple-Shaped Earth."

Centennial Crabapple**

You probably know that crabapples are, basically, little apples. They can be sour, bitter, sweet, good, or bad, just like other apples.

Just had to get that out of the way.

Today's are on the large side for crabs, standing about 2 inches tall. Although standing is a little problematic because, for some, the remains of the calyx, clenched tight, project beyond the tiny area defined by the "chins" or crown at the base.