A year of apples

BEST WISHES TO MY READERS ¶ 

I've had quite a year with apples, to the point where I am looking forward to the quieter winter and spring. ¶ 

As alway, I am both grateful for and energized by your attention and, especially, comments. ¶ 

A special thanks to Karim Habibi of Keeper's Nursery in Kent for a memorable day and a score of new apples, and to Josh, Jesse, Derek, and Yaroslav for apples I never would have found on my own.

A bumper crop—for my blog

In 2023, I clocked in with 39 new apple reviews.

That's the most apples in a year since 2009, when I was just getting this blog going and it was a lot easier to find varieties I'd never had before.

The harvest here, meanwhile, suffered from a late frost in May. It was harder to find some of my favorites this year.

Apples on the road

I found many of those apples while traveling, first to Quebec, then to England.

Both trips inspired thoughts on the state of apples and apple popularity.

The Canadian reflections are forthcoming, and I've already shared my surprise at what I found in Great Britain.

15 seconds of fame

In February this blog was profiled in Good Fruit Grower.

This is a trade publication that usually covers things like preventing plant diseases and trends in farm labor supply.

I was honored to be in that number.

State of the blog

Last January I reinstated email subscriptions to this blog for those who like that.

The new subscription service seems to be working well enough, but if there are any problems I'll be grateful if you let me know.

Also: your comments, which are the best part of this website, seem to be running into some technical problems for some of you. 

The Adam's Apples IT department will issue a report on this subject soon.

A little help from my friends

Over the summer and into the fall I was delighted to taste apples from readers (and farmers) Josh (from Snohomish), Jesse Downs (Down Home Farm), and Derek Mills (Hocking Hills Orchard).

These included some classic varieties.

Chatting with the bots

Oh yes, I also asked a chatbot to help me research the Aura apple, which I tasted in March. 

Google's Bard may pass the Turing test, so may I suggest the more-rigorous Apple test? AI flunked that one.

Thank you for reading Adam's Apples! Very best wishes to you for the new year.

—Adam