Adam's Apples

I have a healthy batch of these pale yellow apples courtesy ( again !) of Michael Wunsch of North Dakota. Medium to large, they have a small red-orange blush that is speckled and spotty.  ¶  They are slightly ribbed and only slightly asymmetrical (the significance of which will perhaps become clear below). Each is so glossy with wax that they are what apple nerds call "greasy," though none of it will come off on your fingers.

I'm able to share Red Baron with you today thanks to the generosity of Michael Wunsch, an orchardist in east-central North Dakota.  ¶  Glossy with natural wax , these run the gamut from the large end of of small to the smaller part of large. The red blush (streaky in spots) mostly covers a yellow peel tinged with green. 

A modern fruit breeder would never name an apple anything like "Anton Poulter." It would be trademarked as "HoneyCluck" or "Sweet Chicks" etcetera.  ¶  But today's apple dates from a gentler time, when a farmer might discover a new apple growing on his* farm (*for surely Anton was a man) and bring it to the state fair or horticultural society.

Today's apples are small and medium sized, round with no ribbing but flattened so they don't roll. What looks like ribs in the photo are small bruises.  ¶  The blush lies streaky red over a green that sometimes leans towards yellow, and the resulting variation in saturation of blush over variable shades makes for a variegated surface, sometimes dull red-green, sometimes orange, or yellow or green.

I've got two of these, medium and large, pale yellow-green with small faint peach blush. They are round, with flattened tops and bottoms, those of the larger one especially so.  ¶  Flyspeck and a few small bruises join many filled grey lenticels decorating the peel. They do not come from a big industrial orchard. These apples have a lovely sweet aroma.

This handsome apple blushes deep red, at its most saturated as dark as any Arkansas Black or Black Oxford .  ¶  It is decorated with many small light lenticel dots, and the unblushed portion is streaky over yellow.  ¶  Soluna is sightly tapered and slightly ribbed, firm in hand with a pleasant fruity aroma.

A WHOLE LOTTA NOTHING  ¶  All supermarket apples are good looking, and Dazzle, with its cool red blush decorated with many small lenticel dots, is no exception.  ¶  The apple is large and blocky, with only a slight taper keeping it from a completely cylindrical profile. The blush mostly covers a yellow peal, and is thinner (and warmer) on the shaded side.  ¶  Its calyx is open.