Not with a Bang

"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

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

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)**

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

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.