Adam's Apples

King blossoms on an apple tree at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts, yesterday.  ¶  First to come forth, the king blossom heralds the harvest to be.  ¶  Blogger Chris, of A Life of Apples , tells us  ❝ Every fruiting spur on an apple tree produces a cluster of six buds; five centered around a central blossom known as the King Blossom.  This blossom is the first to open and pollination of it is key in insuring good fruit set.

The trees don their spring finery at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts, earlier today. Yes they are tiny. Click to see them better! Mary Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

A wasp helps to bring an apple into the world at Nagog Farm in Littleton, Massachusetts, earlier today. Pollinator, lad and lass, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, That o’er the orchard green did pass, In springtime, the only pretty ring time, When bees do sing, hey ding a ding, ding ; Sweet lovers love the spring.

Only a few apple blossoms remain on the trees at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts, yesterday.  ¶  This photo bookends last week's image of an early blossom . The 90-degree weather in the forecast here will surely wring out any that remain.  ¶ 

The starting gun sounds for the 2022 apple season at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts, yesterday.

A cool spring has left the trees wearing their party finery as late as today. (Carlson Orchard, Harvard Massachusetts)

The kernels are ready to pop at Nagog Hill Farm yesterday.

before after What do you want to be when you grown up? These apples are grafted, so there is really no doubt about that here. Behold the Calville Blanc D'Hiver .

Two Williams data points, one from Harvard on Sunday, another from my Williams review circa 2015.

There's an apple in there someplace. I have never had the pleasure of tasting a Hightop Sweeting, so no "after" photo this time. But isn't this one gorgeous? (And isn't that a topping name?)

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.

Is it too soon to hope On this chilly wet day in early May For the sun, and a bountiful harvest

Apples to the rescue!  ¶  Note (or, perhaps, Warning): The Music Appreciation Department at Adam's Apples has selected a recording to play in the background as you read today's report.  ¶  Click the play button below for the full experience. Mid-spring is the nadir of the apple year. The fall harvest is a distant memory and the first apples of summer are 3 months distant.

May and June, so far from the harvest, make an especially bleak season of the apple year. High-tech industrial storage only gets you so far, and the supermarket apples are really showing their age. These babies are months away. June 6 photo. This year where I live the problem is exacerbated by an inexplicable absence of apples from New Zealand, Chile, and Argentina. Usually these fruits, fresh from the spring harvest below the equator, provide a welcome relief. The imports  ride in around the end of April and tide us over until the real thing begins here in late July. Though unwelcome, this year's absence creates an opportunity for me to report on apples that I would otherwise avoid: those that have been in storage for as much as 9 months (and counting).

When I started this blog in 2008 it would never have occurred to me to hoard apples throughout the winter so that I could enjoy them in mid-May. Fortunately, I've learned a thing or two since then.

My own ratings notwithstanding, the market has spoken about the relative value of different apple varieties. In the supermarket today, a few tried-and-true varieties are in the bargain bin, going for 99¢ per pound.

No blossoms yet! Though in 2010 trees flowered (above) on April 24. It's been grey and cool in New England this month, an extension of an unusually harsh winter. But Russell Powell, writing on his blog New England Apples , says that farmers are glad of the chill. An early spring forces a premature bloom in the apple orchard, putting the delicate flowers and nascent apples at risk of frost damage for an extended period. Colder weather delays the apple blossoms to a time when a killing frost is less likely.

An apple branch tip makes this reply to sun and rain in Arlington, Mass., earlier today. Here are the earlier parts of this series: 1 2 3  

Young apples-to-be cluster on a branch in Concord, Mass., earlier this week.

Full bloom today on an apple tree in Arlington, Massachusetts. After several years of harvest jeopardized by early springs , it is a relief to see the trees in bloom in May.