Adam's Apples

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.

At the end of the first week in December, my Glockenapfel is a little wrinkled around the calyx end, but still firm in hand.  ¶  The long, tapered bell shape is a visual clue to the name of this apple.  ¶  That graceful profile, and pretty colors (green-tinged yellow, and small orange blush), make for an attractive fruit.

I've tasted Reinette Clochard only once before and was mightily impressed with it.  ¶  Time for a second bite.

When I published my review of Belle de Boskoop in 2011, a reader told me ,  ❝ My samples look quite different.... Does yours have the 3 pronounced ribs on it? ❞  The implication (delivered diplomatically) was, are you sure you got this right, dude? When I published my review of Alexander earlier this year, another reader told me , Looks like Belle de Boskoop to me, and the description is consistent with my experience with that variety. Your review of Boskoop displays an apple inconsistent with my experience in both appearance and qualities.

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.)

My Sops of Wine are pretty, medium-sized apples with a streaky red blush over yellow.  ¶  They are oblate, modestly ribbed, and decorated with tiny light-tan lenticel dots .  ¶  I reviewed Sops of Wine in 2013, then had  another bite , not as good, just two years ago.

It's been years since I had one of these, and I am eager to try Holstein again.  ¶  I only have one tasting sample today, but it is a very pretty one, with a warm red blush that reads as orange when stretched over the green-tinged yellow of the underlying peel. The apple has a satin-sheen finish.  ¶  Inside all of that, the tiny light lenticels are hard to see.

In Derek Mills' opinion, there was something off about my 2015 description of the Cornish Aromatic .  ¶  So he reached into his living museum of 1,600 apple varieties , sent me two Aromatics, and asked me to try again. Happy to oblige.

I've recently enjoyed chomping my way through a box of new apple varieties under development by the Midwest Apple Improvement Association . Little did I know that the assortment included a ringer. Number 544 was really EverCrisp .

Four years after I first had this elegant hobo of an apple, I have the opportunity to take a second bite. I might learn something new, or at least have a very nice ( two-star ) snack. Outside These green apples are compact and oblate apples with just a little ribbing, medium sized. The stems are quite short and the peachy-orange blush is partial and translucent. 

In my review of this apple ten years ago, I hoped to revisit Priscilla once better samples came my way. These are a few weeks earlier and better, one a squat medium and the other quite large and a bit tapered. They have a little ribbing and a lovely deep red blush, streaky in spots, over yellow, attractively freckled with tiny light lenticel dots.

When a reader named Josh packed up a care package for me from his orchard in western Washington, he threw in Tompkins King (aka King) because I had said (in my 2013 review ) that I would like to try it again. This Tompkins is large, ribbed, and classically shaped, if a bit broad in the beam. It's a naturally green apple almost entirely covered with a blush of very fine streaks, orange-red. Look closely to see many regular tan lenticel dots. It is firm and fragrant.

I had my first Chenango Strawberry two years ago, picked two weeks later than this one (which dates from mid September). At the time wondered if my apple was a little too long off the tree, and wished for a second chance. Well I got my wish, and I think this is a slightly better version. What I learned, however, is that I pretty much nailed it the first time.

Yes, there was a flaw in this apple. I bought it anyway because so what, and also because it was the only one left. I've been wanting to retaste Sweet 16 ever since some of my readers told me that my 2011 tasting sample did not express this apple's true flavors. So:

Seek no further! This large and essentially spherical apple (though slightly oblate) has a very pretty layered blush that is in some places a warm pink. In others there is a kind of Indian red, with brown tones. (A second sample is a little conical and has a more classical shape.)

Puritan was one of the first apples I reviewed on this blog, back in early August of 2008. Rereading that review made me think that apple might have been picked early. So when I saw it again, in early September this time, I decided it was time for a second bite.

I'm a fair minded guy so decided to revisit the Great Sugar Bomb, Honeycrisp. No, I'm not a fan—through I do appreciate them in a sort of arms-length abstract way . I've been told that Honeycrisp is not so super sweet in its native Minnesota. Today's apple only hails from Western Massachusetts, but was orchard fresh and different in appearance than the hulking planetoids I have seen in the past. Anyway, I had hopes that my tastebuds would catch a glimpse of something different this time.

Dense, hard Decio  impressed me as a likely keeper apple when I tried it for the first time last November. So I held one back to eat near the end of the year. Superficially, the older Decio is rock hard. It seems to have weathered well the past month in my perfectly ordinary refrigerator. My sample's sweet aroma is leavened with a yeasty note that is probably related to its crown of russet. Otherwise it similar to my November sample. I'll add that Decio's stem is thick and its calyx is wide open.

Cortland sits modestly in the shadow of its more glamorous relatives, McIntosh and Macoun . Cortland is the number one favorite of some people I know, yet I generally pass this variety by, given what else is available in the fall. For this reason I wanted to revisit Cortland, with a farmers-market-fresh apple picked at peak. Would I revise my original review ?

Rubyfrost, in some of the white stuff that we have so much of these days. Just a year ago the only way I could sample Rubyfrost, a spanking new apple from the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station , was to have a friend send one to me. Yet there it was last week in my local supermarket. These apples are from the 2014 harvest, which is a rapid deployment to market outside of the Empire State. So how does Rubyfrost hold up in storage? Pretty well!