Adam's Apples

Chances are good these are a named variety, but Josh, from Western Washington, calls them Gatekeeper. That will do since we do not know what they are. They have a good texture for such an early apple, and painterly streaks of red. Sadly, for eating out of hand these do not work for me.

Above, two moments in the life of Duchess of Oldenburg , an antique Russian variety with cooking and keeping qualities. It's a late-summer apple. A friend took this and other blossom photos in Harvard, Massachusetts, yesterday.

Today's variety, Duchess of Oldenburg, runs medium-sized with a pinkish blush in pronounced streaks over yellow green. The apples are ribbed and wear many green lenticels a little darker than the skin. My tasting sample has a little russet in the stem well, and her calyx is closed. The Duchess is renowned as a cooking apple, especially if picked a little early (as I suspect mine may have been). But what would you have me do? Suppose I did cook some into a pie (or a pancake ). Yummy for me, but there would be no frame of reference to compare these apples with the other sixty-odd varieties I've reviewed. So I'm just going to stick to my old habits and eat this one raw.