Adam's Apples

Blushing Golden improves with age. A good pick for November, it gets better in December, when lush flavors bloom. Highly recommended. Buy them now and eat them later. If you are like me, you can't get these in December. So, stock up while you can. Winter is coming!

Gold Rush (L) and Blushing Golden on a day in late fall Two ribbed, conical, yellow late-season keeper apples with partial red blushes, in between medium and large. Blushing Golden , at right, is larger, yellower, and with a livelier, more-saturated orange-red blush. Gold Rush is more elongated and conical, with a streakier and more-subdued bronze-red blush over a more-subdued green yellow, flecked with brown.

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.

The seller was clear: Blushing Golden improves with age. So I have kept my apple refrigerated for nearly a month. Now for the moment of truth.