Adam's Apples

GOING FOR THE GOLD Hint: These are not Granny Smith.  ¶  They are Golden Delicious .

Do you like steady, mellow, and well flavored Golden Delicious ? This honeyed variety has enriched the world of apples as much or more than any. It is reliably consistent and easy to eat. It stores well and is available year round.  ¶  However, Golden Delicious is best during or after the October harvest. If you are eating Golden D in late summer or early fall, you really owe it to yourself to try some of the great varieties that are available fresh.

Sturdy, modest, and reliable, is Golden Delicious anyone's favorite? I turn to it with pleasure in the off season, and apple breeders return to it again and again for its amiable eating and growing qualities. At its best GD is a lovely fruit, sweet and mild with hints of pear and honey, crisp and juicy but not hard. It is often near its best, and available in supermarkets year round. There's just enough underlying tartness to balance the honey and deliver a clean finish.

This is a sport of Golden Delicious, and very like. But as you can see, these don't really look much like the Golden Delicious you'll find year-round in your supermarket. This one has a distinct blush, for goodness sakes, rosy orange over skin that is more green than yellow. There's some russet and fly speck too. The lenticels are dark green, light green in the blush. True, it is conical, tapered, and ribbed, like the G Delish we all know, but so are many varieties. In any case, Golden Delicious deserves a repeat performance.

My medium-large Golden Delicious is a cheerful yellow tinged with green. It has distinctive dark green lenticels that fade to nearly nothing on the blushed area, which is a faint orange pink. My example is ribbed and conical, with a round ridge of chins at the bottom, and theres a small stellation of russet radiating within the stem well.