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I have two fire-engine-red RubyRush, medium and large. They are round with a little flattening at the poles.
A small less-blushed spot on the back is orange over yellow, and the shallow calyx well is yellow green, around an open calyx. Faint but noticeable lenticel dots add visual interest.
The stem is thin and shares some color from the blush. No ribbing to speak of.
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How wrong is it to assess a cooking apple by eating it out of hand? It certainly cannot do justice to the apple.
Nonetheless, eating uncooked is my measuring stick. When I had to opportunity to try this legendary culinary apple, a staple in the United Kingdom, I did not hesitate.
Today's apple is large, very tapered and modestly ribbed. It's colored with a mixture of an orange pink, yellow, and yellow green.
Yellow-green dots are small and fused together at the base, becoming larger and distinct further up. There's a green dimple on one side.
It's really pretty, don't you think? That peachy color.
Its calyx is closed.
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Yesterday was the last Wednesday of October and thus the end, until next June, of Arlington's farmer's market.
This is the earliest closing the calendar allows. Were Halloween just a day later, we'd have another week.
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Many apples develop a powdery bloom, which is actually some of the natural wax made by the fruit as it matures.
Today's photo (click for a closeup) shows both a bloom and the swath where the bloom was removed by a strip of masking tape that the grower, Jesse Downs, taped to the apple as an ID tag.
The tag read "Smerelda," and this pretty, conical apple, with a partial
pink-red blush neatly framed (in this view) by a fringe of green, is one of
two from Jesse.
They are small, and on has to look closely to detect the slight amount of ribbing.
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These orange-tinged-red–blushed apples are wide and oblate, with tan lenticels that are occasionally filled in with something dark.
There is modest ribbing, and a wonderful sweet aroma. The peel is glossy and the underlying color is yellow.
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So he reached into his living museum of 1,600 apple varieties, sent me two Aromatics, and asked me to try again.
Happy to oblige.
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I've got two medium sized green-yellow apples with complex patchy layers of russet and and small swaths of vermilion peeking through.
These are lightly ribbed, round, and oblate, with dark lenticel dots. One has some flyspeck.
The russet looks like antique gold. They are rock hard.
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What a marvelous name!
Derek Mills, who grew today's apples, says they run says medium to large. To prove it he sent me a medium and a large sample.
Good thing! because the first one I tried was decidedly off. There were issues with both, but I think got a good idea about this apple.
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These apples are in the small side of medium, classically shaped and moderately ribbed. There is a very dark red blush on one, covering a pale yellow. The dark blush nearly swallows the lenticels.
On the other sample the blush is more of a brick red and displays large lenticels.
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| Light from the setting sun falls on the apples at the Arlington, Massachusetts, farmers' market yesterday. |
There were more than 18 different kinds of apples at farmers' market on October 4.
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Chehalis is a light yellow-green apple blushed about half with a delicate translucent peach. It has a classical shape with a slight taper and barely detectible ribbing.
Lenticel dots are large and distinct, tiny brown-and-red bullseyes in the blush, a darker green dot elsewhere. Its calyx is slightly parted.
