Adam's Apples

Apples go best with friends.  ¶  If in the off season you miss thinking about apples, I invite you to browse some particularly interesting exchanges in comments that readers share on this blog.  ¶  They really are the best thing here.  ¶ 

The pretty darlings sleep yesterday at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts.

photo: ubaidhulla adam  ¶  Midwinter is the time each year when I rate the previous year's apples, on a qualitative scale from one to three stars .  ¶  I've already published my one-star ratings for 2023 , and today I award two stars, "worth a journey."  ¶  One star is "very good, worth choosing." Most apples are, and I am generous with this rating. But two stars is a step up, and I am judicious about handing those out. Of the thirty-nine varieties I sampled for the first time in 2023, eight earn the double star.

2023 was a banner year for this blog. Apple reviews are the heart of this project, and I was able to publish 39 of them.  ¶  That is more than any year except for the first two: 2008 (44) and 2009 (41).  ¶  Having so many apples challenges my practice of rating them once a year according to my qualitative system of one to three stars .