Adam's Apples

I was traveling last week, and thus missed farmers market, where there were probably some early apples: Lodi at least, and maybe Vista Bella .  ¶  I made it to an orchard on Friday. Things looked pretty good there!  ¶  Hutchins Farm, in Concord, Massachusetts, did not have any apples to sell yet, but will soon by the look of things.

Since my first blog post here on this day in 2008, I have learned a lot about apples, and a bit about blogging too.  ¶  The plan then was simple: go to Farmers Market every week, see what was ripe, and tell the world.

Apples swell on the trees at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts, yesterday.  ¶  Not ripe yet, but getting there: these apples are an encouraging sight.

( Vista Bella Apples for sale in Arlington, Massachusetts, earlier today. ) Not a moment too soon, the 2025 harvest begins.  ¶  Vista Bella is an early apple, a good one. But these are early: VB is at its best closer to the end of the month.  ¶  So these aren't great, except that they are.

They are tiny, which perhaps explains how I missed these Wickson apples at the back of my produce drawer.  ¶  They do not have the most hopeful appearance, but I had to try them.  ¶  Verdict: Surprisingly good, though but a shadow of their best.

In the first six months of this blog, which I started 16 years ago today , I tasted and described 44 different kinds of apples.  ¶  That is not an annual milestone I ever passed, nor hoped to, because back then every apple was new to me.  ¶  But last year came close, with 39 first-time varieties. That's owing to fall travel (to Quebec and England ) and to the kindness of fellow apple aficionados who shared some of their favorite apples with me.

Too green, too early, and doubtless too unripe, the very first apples of the 2024 harvest landed at Farmers Market in Arlington today.  ¶  And though I grouse about farmers who pick apples before their time, in this case I say, not a moment too soon .

I've come to terms with the fact that this is a seasonal blog, so I don't beat myself up when there is not much to say some times of the year. Today is the anniversary of my first blog post , however, when I reflect and assess. That seems to demand particular honesty. 

A taste of things to come at the Arlington Farmers Market on July 19. The note says "baking apple," a fair assessment of Lodi , which never seems to be very good for eating out of hand.

This one-year experiment is now fourteen , and looks with hope at the start of another apple season. Early apples Lodi and Vista Bella It's been fun and rewarding for me! Those who subscribe to Adam's Apples by email may see some changes. (Click the title for details.)

After last week's false sighting , I was pleased to see these, the first of the year, at farmers market on Wednesday.

I have been seeing apples everywhere .  It is that time of year. I knew quite well it was too soon here for even the earliest of the earlies. Still, I did a double take when I spotted these at farmers market last Wednesday.

The harvest begins with a crate of Vista Bella and the distinctive flavor of watermelon candy .

I have several of these small green apples, noticeably ribbed and slightly conical. Two of them bear a small faint blush, and in the blush the lenticel dots make a faint light spray. The green is light and subdued, a little milky. This is my first local apple of the season and I am excited to have a "new" (to me) variety to start things off with this year. A good omen!

Today marks the first day of the twelfth year of this blog, originally conceived as a one-year project. Sign me up for another, if only to counter last year's dismal showing (in the new-apple review department).

Any day now the apple harvest will begin. The soon-to-be-picked apples— Lodi , Vista Bella —are recognizable on the tree. Most of the later season apples, at this point, look pretty much alike, unless you peer very closely. They are round, they are green, and they do not look ready to eat. But don't you think that baby Baldwin , above, is very like?

A reader writes: On our island in Lake Mälaren, one hour west of Stockholm, Mantet has matured the most. "An attractive red-flushed early-season apple variety from Manitoba in Canada. The name is a combination of 'man' for Manitoba, and 'tet' from Tetofsky, one of the parent varieties."

These apples were hanging out earlier today at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts.

Things are not pretty here at the end of June. Supermarkets are flush with Honeycrisps picked in August of 2018. Of course the cupboard has been bare at almost every orchard for most of 2019.

Perhaps not the best apple of all time, but the event it heralds has no match in the calendar of fruit. The above Lodi apple is the first of the 2018 apple harvest.