Adam's Apples

Every winter, around the ancient festival of Imbolc , I rate the apples I tried for the first time in the previous year.  ¶  In 2024, I had the pleasure of eating 16 that I'd never tasted before.

Arkansas Black and Blushing Golden flank each other in the January snow.  ¶  In January, with the harvest long ended, I typically turn to groceries and supermarkets for apples to eat.

Walk into any mainstream supermarket in the United States and you won't find this:  (Photo:  A stack of Golden Russet apples for sale at a supermarket in Montreal late last year. )  But russet apples are delicious, and mainstream-popular in other countries.

Twenty twenty-four was not a typical harvest (and, is there even such of a thing?).  ¶  But it wasn't a bad harvest either, and in any case illustrates the rhythms, the rise and fall, of agriculture (as expressed at my local markets).  ¶  All of the apples for sale, by date, from July to the end of the outdoor markets in November of last year. It's from this spreadsheet . Last year, the apples started in mid-July with Vista Bella , peaking in fat October with 25 apple varieties on a single day, and dwindling to the final 11 the day before Thanksgiving.

Very best New Year's wishes to you, dear readers!  ¶  This busy fall included a healthy 17 "new" (to me) apples , some quite good. I published 23 posts in a single month ( October ).  ¶ I still owe you reports about some of the interesting orchards I visited last fall. Also per annual custom, I'll be applying my