Adam's Apples

ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς: The buds on the trees at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts earlier today blush like eager debutantes  While some in other climes report blossoms , we are in the chill stasis of a Massachusetts April.  ¶  The cool temperatures slow the rhythms of spring. Magnolia, forsythia, and even cherry persist; apples are standing by.

A bud is opening on an apple tree in Lexington, Massachusetts yesterday.  ¶  Some are reporting apple blossoms , but where I live things are still mostly buttoned up, though that is changing.  ¶  It's still forsythia and cherries here, though just a few towns farther from the sea the magnolias are in full bloom. The apples cannot be far behind.

Whan that April with his showres soot is when (whan?) GoldRush, that king of keepers, is ready to eat.  ¶  It's also when I see how the ones I laid down in my refrigerator in December have fared in my home newsprint-and-perforated-plastic-bag storage system.

(Photo: Buds are swelling on the apple trees at Hutchins Farms in Concord, Massachusetts, earlier today. ) It's still early days, but promising signs are right up there.

There are buds on the branches of the apple trees today at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts. A line of younger apple trees is visible in the distance.  ¶  After a week of sleet and snow, yesterday's eclipse seemed to mark a change in the weather and the start of spring.  ¶ 

Green buds all were swellin' earlier today at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Mass. There Will Be Blossoms. But, will there be apples? 

EverCrisp is the Midwest Apple Improvement Association's entry into the Honeycrisp Succession Derby . I found it in my local supermarket this month. How well does this variety, ever crisp, weather the wholesale chain? My other samples were all direct from local growers (and earlier). I bought three, emblazoned with PLU stickers, to find out.

Not a bud has burst earlier today at Huchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts.

They're available now. But are they any good? Lady Alice made her New England debut in the spring of 2010, leaving a very favorable impression. I awarded her two stars ("worth seeking") for great texture and rich and unusual flavors. That this variety needed to sit until March or April to reach her peak was a feature, not a bug; having something this good to bite at that time of year was a welcome treat amid the tired supermarket standards. Starting in 2011, reports began to trickle in here of this variety for sale in February. Or, I should perhaps say, complaints: blandness, bitterness, a "chemical taste," and general dissatisfaction.

Half a year after picking, the Gold Rush apple is a fabulous, fabulous keeper. I liked this apple to begin with, but confess I really did not know what to make of claims like this one from a grower: We grow and sell hundreds of bushels of Goldrush every year directly to consumers who proudly show us samples of Goldrush they picked at our orchard the year before. (Emphasis added.)

Before there are apples, there are buds. Third in a series of studies of one apple-tree branch tip ( 1 ) ( 2 ), as seen earlier today.

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote, The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licóur Of which vertú engendred is the flour Apple trees perced to the roote yesterday at Hutchins Farm.

September's apple harvest as teleologically implied yesterday at Hutchins Farm.

April's Ashmead In April I reach into the back of my disorganized refrigerator and eat the very last of my fall hoard . There are always a few surprises. So it is that in the past few weeks I have had my last Lady Alice (excellent flavor still crisp and firm, if ever-so-slightly rubbery), Ananas Reinette (inedible) and Ashmead's Kernel (an absolute marvel). Also a few other odds and ends, with similarly mixed results.

Earlier today at two local apple orchards, blossoms are just beginning to burst forth. Starting to flower at Nagog Farm in Littleton, Mass. Some trees were all green, and others in full bloom, but most were in between.

Empire I found myself leaning heavily on Empires this month, still in good form after half a year in cold storage. The flavor intensities of these apples varied, depending I suppose on how they had been stored and handled. Smartfresh, a widely used gas that blocks fruit-ripening (by suppressing ethylene), has the side effect of diluting flavor, though this wears off. April is typically when the harvest in the Southern Hemisphere comes north. These apples are six months fresher than fall's crop, though both undergo cold storage in controlled atmospheres before they arrive in supermarkets here in North America.

View earlier today from Peters Hill, Arnold Arboretum, Boston. Update: More than you thought there was to know about these trees here.

Despite its "April" title, this post might be helpful from December through July, if you are missing your favorite apples. If your favorite is available year round, like Red Delicious or Braeburn, you might still want to try something a little different. If you like Try Because McIntosh , Macoun , Gravenstein , Winesap , & similar Empire Though not complex, crisp Empire, with its berry and vinous notes, is like a generic version of these classic varieties. Honeycrisp , Melrose , Melrouge Pacific Rose , Fuji Light, sweet, and crisp. Rhode Island Greening , Newtown Pippin Granny Smith Authoritative tang. ...