Adam's Apples

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.

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.

I have two of these pretty red apples today, large and medium.  ¶  But note "today" is mid October, as I saved one of them to eat a bit later in the season.  ¶  The smaller is a bit asymmetrical from some accident of growth, but both are ribbed and wear constellations of large light lenticel dots and a very faint light bloom of excess natural wax.  ¶  Rub that off and the apple has a semigloss shine. (Always wash an apple before eating, not to remove the harmless bloom but because you don't know where it has been.)

I've got two Allington apples today: one large, the other slightly smaller. They are classically shaped, long stemmed and nearly unribbed.  ¶  The apples wear a semigloss skin of yellow that is almost a spring green, with a partial red blush that comprises darker red steaks and specks in an orange wash.  ¶  There is some russet in the mix around the stem well, but the kind of textured, subdued olive-toned red you can see in my photos is mostly just the thin blush, with its streaks and spots, spread over the underlying green-tinged yellow.

The name of this pale yellow apple tells us it is a product of the Purdue-Rutgers-Indiana breeding coop, which has brought us such innovate apple varieties such as Pristine and Gold Rush .  ¶  The color of some of these large apples has a touch of green in it. The example in the above photo, on the other hand, is faintly orange in the area facing the camera, the closest thing I find as a blush.  ¶ 

Today's Trent apples are large mediums, slightly oblate with essentially no ribbing. Their streaky red blush is rendered a bit pastel or "dusty rose" by a light smokey bloom.  ¶  Many large light green lenticel dots (small near the calyx end) are visible throughout. They are if anything slightly larger in the less-blushed areas where the underlying green partially shows through the thinner blush.

I guess this gigantic apple is England's King Luscious . It is colossal, some 13-1/2 inches around.  ¶  Howgate Wonder's size grabbed my attention right away. Beyond that, it is conical and moderately ribbed, a light spring green with a streaky red blush and a glossy peel. It's lenticels are small and indistinct.

It took me a while to identify one of the characteristic flavors of this apple, but once my mouth figured it out the taste was obvious.  ¶  Rubinola is round, oblate, and barely ribbed. The streaky red blush is a bit orange where thin over the yellow peel.  There are not only streaks, but also tiny splotches of red floating against a pale orange field.

Nuvar Golden Hills: a cheerful yellow apple, round, oblate, large, and ribbed. The apple has understated light-grey lenticel dots sometimes filled with a dark russet.  ¶  My sample is not the one shown above, though it is similar. It has a splash of brown russet on one side at the top. There's no hint of a blush on any of these, which is not to say that there might not sometimes be. The peel has a satin finish and is a little waxy.

Here is one very pretty medium-sized yellow apple, decorated with russet like unburnished gold flowing from the stem well. There are channels within the russet that have a green tinge.  ¶  This apple has a very slight taper and is oblate and ribbed. Lenticels that do not present as gray (perhaps russeted in) are very hard to see at all.

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.

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.

My sample of this antique apple comes not from the St. Lawrence valley, where it may have originated, but from western Washington.  ¶  Red vertical stripes, some deep and saturated, radiate from the stem well of this visually striking apple. They contrast with Saint Lawrence's otherwise pale yellow-green peel. Many small red flecks mix in with darker lenticel dots.

This distinctive apple has saturated orange-red streaks over light yellow tinged with green. My samples are ribbed and have a classic, slightly tapered, shape.  ¶  The small tan lenticel dots are hard to spot in the blush, though some are dark with rusett or other matter.

I have three of these extremely flattened beauties from Mike, a reader in Southern California. They are green and blushed, with pronounced ribbing and short thick stems.

I'm thinking, what a typical looking apple. It's round and a bit oblate, one slightly tapered, one not, a streaky red blush that is a little washed out covering about two thirds of a spring green peel. It's not a McIntosh or a Cortland , but it might be, if you don't look too closely.

You probably know that crabapples are, basically, little apples. They can be sour, bitter, sweet, good, or bad, just like other apples. Just had to get that out of the way. Today's are on the large side for crabs, standing about 2 inches tall. Although standing is a little problematic because, for some, the remains of the calyx , clenched tight, project beyond the tiny area defined by the "chins" or crown at the base.

This medium-sized, slightly tapered apple has a rich (but nonetheless striped) red blush that covers most of an underlying yellow. Tiny light lenticels widely spaced, ribbing, and a bit of natural gloss, round out the classic look. Mine bears a sweet cidery aroma.

JUST PEACHY These little guys, from Indiana, have exactly the same colors as the local peaches here in the Bay State right now. They are a sight for sore eyes. I have not tasted a new variety since last October. These are Trailmans, and they are crab sized, most just a bit over an inch wide.

What a marvelous name! What do you think it means? These conical light yellow apples are on the large side of small, classically shaped with only a hint of ribs. There's a coppery crown of russet and some brown around the base.