Adam's Apples

Today's weather is brought to you by the lovely, lustrous, and ligneous Arkansas Black .

A trio of Arkansas Blacks gleam darkly in the January sun earlier today.

Season's greetings from Adam's Apples and Arkansas Black.

A friend in California reports finding Arkansas Blacks for sale this month. Others have expressed interest in this apple too. Now is not a bad time of year to eat these, if you can get any. I guess I think everyone should try one of these once. What you do after that is entirely up to you.

Here among the daffodils is my final Arkansas Black, picked more than six months ago. It's the very last of my autumn stash and I just ate it. This unusual apple has held up remarkably, but sampling one every month or so has shown a gradual change over time: a (very) slow softening of texture and melding and mellowing of flavors. Arguably this variety was better in January than in November. By March it was clearly past its prime, though still toothsome. Some notable changes: texture, from very hard to granular (which might be mealy in another apple); flavor, from sharp with notable acidity and distinct flavors to more mellow and blended. One unusual flavor, which I described as "tobacco" or "vegetable," persisted for a long time but gradually transmuted into more of a baritone suggestion of molasses. Some flavors, like pear, persisted throughout.

I finished the season in November with a stash of apples that I hoped would keep well: Baldwin, Golden Russet, Arkansas Black, and Blushing Golden. These varieties all have reputations as good keepers. Some are said to improve with age. Macoun: not exactly a keeper but in my rotation By supplementing them with supermarket Macouns that have been carefully stored, I have enjoyed an agreeable and varied apple diet. Rather than periodically revise my reviews of these fruits ("two months out and still crispy!"), here is how this experiment has fared.

Arkansas Black is a Southern apple and I am fortunate to have found some growing right here in Massachusetts. These run on the small side of medium and have a dull blush that runs to deep purplish red on the sunward side, with small light lenticels. The unblushed skin is yellow, and there is a little crown of russet around the stem well. The apple is very firm and, for its size, heavy, with only a very faint apple aroma. The flesh is fine-grained, yellow, very crisp, and dense. Arkansas Black might cut the redoubtable Blue Pearmain, not that I have one to compare. The fruit is reasonably juicy but has so much matter that the juice gives out before the apple, leaving a dry impression. It oxidizes quickly when cut. And, it's really filling.