Adam's Apples

Apple cultivars are, literally, identical clones. Yet they can look very different depending on ripeness, growing conditions, and so forth.  ¶  On that score, I have never before seen Ashmeads Kernels like these.  ¶  Yet there they were, in a basket in a supermarket in Seattle on Halloween.

The apple trees are sleeping at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts.

The last outdoor market of the year spread its tattered wings under unseasonably warm skies on Wednesday, the day before the American Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November.  ¶  The market in Davis Square, Somerville, here in Massachusetts encamps on Wednesdays from June to November.  ¶  Thus it is ever fated to be among the very last, holding forth up to and including the day before every Thanksgiving.

The penultimate farmers market unfolded in Davis Square earlier today under bright skies. The low November light had most of the market in shadow by mid afternoon.

There are so many colors on this apple that I need two of them to show the full spectrum.  ¶  Regions with a green tint overlap with gold and brown in various combinations: mustard, yellow, olive, brown, orange.  ¶  The Royal Russet, also calle the Brown Russet, is an October apple that boasts real fall colors decorated by distinct light lenticel dots, some filled.

Suncrisp (L) and Winecrisp catch the low November light. Both are late-season varieties.

The suburban farmers markets ended last month, so today I traveled to Boston's premier outdoor market in Copley Square, under chilly, fast-moving grey clouds.  ¶  I was excited to find Gold Rush there, as I have never seen this great variety for sale at a farmers market before.

With a name like an Old Timey singer (or perhaps contortionist), the Smoky Mountain Limbertwig sports a beautiful deep red blush.  ¶  That color nearly covers all of the otherwise green-tinged yellow peel of these medium-to-large apples.  ¶  The apple is only moderately ribbed, and there are tiny light lenticels scattered in the glossy blush.

The annual pause of many farmers markets, and the brutally early end of Daylight Savings Time on Sunday, ushered in the  fading eleventh month with a bleak flourish.  ¶  Plenty of apples still abound, for a short while, but you must hunt for them.  ¶  Under grey skies at today's market in Davis Square, Somerville, one could choose from 20 apples, including these blushed Granny Smith .

A real plot twist, this one.  ¶  Robijn, small to medium sized, are a bit squat and modestly ribbed, many lopsided. The variegated blush, over yellow includes some very deep red streaks that are almost black.  ¶  Some bear zig zags of russet. Small tan lenticel dots swim in the mix of red and orange. The peal has a dull shine and a greasy (that is, waxy) feel. The stem is slim.  ¶  These apples have a sweet aroma, some with yeasty overtones. These are organic apples.

Do you admire this shapely carnelian-red apple with the light lenticel dots mixed with squiggles of russet? If so, you and I see the world in the same way.  ¶  If this apple disturbs you or freaks you out, then you are stuck, I am afraid, with the perfect shiny waxed globes at your supermarket.  ¶  These Red Royal Limbertwigs are medium and large, with understated ribbing. One of these has a closed calyx while the other's is wide open: don't ask me what that means.  ¶  Although off the tree for several weeks, these feel promisingly firm. Their faint aroma is sweet and floral.

The last market of the year bustles in Arlington, Massachusetts, earlier today.  ¶  It still feels like Peak Apple, but winter is creeping closer. All the suburban farmers markets end this week, and there were fewer apple choices on offer at mine, compared to the week before .

Tipp Pippin may be the same apple as Tipperary Pippin, can anyone say? Scored from a specialty shop in Dublin itself.  ¶  My apples are cylindrical and oblate, which immediately brought Pink Lady (Cripps Pink) to my mind when I first saw them.  ¶  But unlike Pink Lady the blush is a purer red, and generally more saturated although the unblushed yellow shows through in a few spots.

I found these medium-sized apples with a blush of pure red at a farm store on the Fife coast .  ¶  Discovery is practically unribbed and bears many light lenticels so small as to be difficult to see in poor light, both in the blush and in the yellow part of the peal.  ¶  My examples come in assorted shapes, one squat and oblate, another more conical. They both wear crowns of russet around the stem well.

This time of year features an endless series of crates and boxes (wooden or otherwise) and sometimes baskets and even plastic bags, all filled with fresh produce.  ¶  This week was probably the last chance to stock up on Ashmead's Kernel. These keep reasonably well and I am well provisioned.  ¶  Dr Ashmead's fabulous apple has been abundant this year. According to David Wadleigh, who bought Kimball Fruit Farm in 2022, the previous owner grafted lots of Ashmead onto existing McIntosh trees. That strategy is, um, bearing fruit.

Not sure what to make of today's apple, called "Pixie." Probably it is Pixie Crunch , though it is a bit large for that, a large medium, barely ribbed, and moderately oblated at top and bottom.  ¶  Photo:  Pixie Crunch from 2020. Color and lenticel dots match.

Perhaps not clear from my first photo: this hyper-lobed apple is basically a big triangle.  ¶  Bramley is Granny Smith–spring green, but the calyx end has a dull red blush where it has been kissed by the sun, and a ragged corona of russet radiates from the stem well.

Miss just a few farmers markets (I was traveling), and WOW. (Photo: Just some of the apples you could buy at the Arlington, Massachusetts, farmers market on Wednesday. Click to embiggen! ) There were 26 different kinds of apples for sale at the farmers market this week. possibly a record. (Well, maybe not, but still a lot of apples.)

On the small side of large, my Rajka has a classically tapered shape and a streaky red blush.  ¶  That blush, while attenuated on what must have been a shaded side, essentially covers the entire apple. There is just a little underlying yellow peeping through. Some of the blush is saturated and deep.  ¶  A second sample is squat and oblate, and the blush is deep and saturated over a larger area. Both are slightly lopsided and lean to one side.

Just a few things that gladdened my heart this year. (One photo is from 2010, though.)  ¶  Ashmead's Kernels

Orange on orange :  These are some of the Cox's Orange Pippins that I picked this month.

Fall foliage frames the farmers market in Arlington, Massachusetts, on September 25.  ¶  Farmers brought 13 different kinds of apples to Arlington's fall farmers market yesterday.

Why review apples that are past their prime? Because I don't always know when their "prime" is.  ¶  When I bought these Kerry's Irish Pippins last week, I did not suppose they'd been off the tree for a month.  ¶  Today's small-to-medium fruits are wearing a warm red blush, including a few saturated streaks, over yellow that is tinted with the usual green, with a satiny gloss sheen.  ¶  They are modestly ribbed, one more than the other, and a bit flat at top and bottom. Small, light lenticel dots punctuate the blush. The stem is thin and the calyx is slightly parted; their aroma is faint and sweet.  ¶  So, let's eat.

You could still get the excellent Chestnut Crabapple at farmers market today, but my attention was all on Macoun.  ¶  Macoun is among the best of the vast McIntosh family, and it time is now.

McIntosh (L) and Chestnut Crabapple share center stage during the second week of pomological fall .  ¶  The Mac is here: the harvest is in full gear.  ¶  Other apples at Arlington's farmers market today: Chestnut Crab , Gala , Gingergold , Honeycrisp , Macoun (too early I wager), Swiss Gourmet , and Zestar .  ¶  And there's more.

THE BEST TIME OF THE YEAR :  This week marks the start of the pomological fall season , and the markets are swelling with fruit.  ¶    I counted 11 varieties, including fan favorites Honeycrisp and McIntosh (though the latter are probably a bit early).

VERY GOOD, SOMETIMES :  It's been nearly 16 years since I sampled Redfree, a modern disease-resistant breed that is a candidate for home gardeners and organic orchards.  ¶  I learned that there is some variability in this summer variety.  ¶  The above apple grew at an organic farm (Hutchins, in Concord, Massachusetts) about week ago (when I tasted it). These apples are different enough from my 2009 samples to justify a second bite.

The apples ripen and swell at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts, on August 26.  ¶  As we near the end of pomological summer , more farms are selling a wider assortment of apples.

By some accounts, this early English variety was once quite popular and is still grown commercially today.  ¶  My samples are medium sized, slightly ribbed and slightly flattened at top and bottom.  ¶  Their warm red blush, over spring green, is variegated and includes many lenticel dots that are curiously indistinct, as though they were fuzzily out of focused.

Zestar and Gingergold have joined Early Mac and Paula Red at farmers market this week.  ¶  It is fun to watch the symphony of apples build to its annual crescendo in October. The melody unfolds a little differently every year.

This understated antique apple is a window on the past.  ¶  The last (and only) time I tasted Chenango Strawberry was in November (of 2017). I could tell then that the apple had been off the tree for a while.  ¶  Still, I did not appreciate how early the Strawberry actually ripens, and how long it had been sitting. Apples change in even the best storage, so I am eager to taste a fresh version.

A reader writes,  ❝ In the early 1960s for several summers I worked at Nagog Hill Farm when J. Morrison maintained a dairy farm there. I recall one warm August day when I was assigned to clear a fence line in the old peach orchard. The peaches were at their peak and none were picked. I almost got sick on the best peaches I have ever eaten. At the time I had no idea I was in one of a handful of the oldest, continuous fruit orchards in the country.

On a bike ride to one of Massachusetts' finer beaches , I stopped to pay tribute to the old Crockett orchard, which failed tragically in 1934.  ¶  The original farmhouse still stands (though the road has shifted a good bit closer to it in the last century), but I found myself drawn to a neighboring property that, I assume, was part of the original orchard.  ¶  There stand two old apple trees, bent but well tended, both bearing many apples.

The view from from Concord, Massachusetts, is more cheerful than that of my previous dispatch from Littleton .  ¶  In Concord, the fruit is ripening nicely on Hutchins Farm's well-tended trees.

I am sorry to see the state of things at the old Nagog Hill Orchard, now several years into its abandonment.  ¶  Nobody seems to have the wherewithal to make a go of these trees , held (with the land) in trust by the Town of Littleton in Massachusetts.

For the third week in a row, only one vendor at our farmers market had only one kind of apple.  ¶  But the fruit was different this week: a modern variety called Pristine.  ¶  This has become one of my favorite early apples.

Since my first blog post here on this day in 2008, I have learned a lot about apples, and a bit about blogging too.  ¶  The plan then was simple: go to Farmers Market every week, see what was ripe, and tell the world.

Apples swell on the trees at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts, yesterday.  ¶  Not ripe yet, but getting there: these apples are an encouraging sight.

( Vista Bella Apples for sale in Arlington, Massachusetts, earlier today. ) Not a moment too soon, the 2025 harvest begins.  ¶  Vista Bella is an early apple, a good one. But these are early: VB is at its best closer to the end of the month.  ¶  So these aren't great, except that they are.

They are tiny, which perhaps explains how I missed these Wickson apples at the back of my produce drawer.  ¶  They do not have the most hopeful appearance, but I had to try them.  ¶  Verdict: Surprisingly good, though but a shadow of their best.

In spring and summer this seasonal blog slows down. I think of apples often, but not all thoughts are worth sharing.  ¶  You might nonetheless enjoy one or all of these three summer reflections while you wait on the harvest.

This wrinkled, rubbery apple tastes better than anything in supermarkets this month.  ¶  Click to view up close and personal.  ¶  The texture is not bad either.

(Photo: Some of the apple trees at Hutchins Farm earlier this week in Concord, Massachusetts. ) Neither blooms nor frost: these whitened trees are glazed with a spray of kaolin clay , an organic treatment that discourages pests from eating trees and crops.

(Photo: The apple trees are looking for love at Hutchins Farm yesterday in Concord, Massachusetts. )  So far, so good.

Hopeful spring is early days, with months of risk and peril before the harvest.  ¶  Some of these won't make it.  ¶  But it's May, so let's enjoy the beauties of spring and the promises for the fall.

(Image: Mary Daisy Arnold/USDA )  A vendor at Lexington's farmers market sold me a "Coville" apple back in 2009.  ¶  Now I think the grower got the name wrong.