Adam's Apples

A modern fruit breeder would never name an apple anything like "Anton Poulter." It would be trademarked as "HoneyCluck" or "Sweet Chicks" etcetera.  ¶  But today's apple dates from a gentler time, when a farmer might discover a new apple growing on his* farm (*for surely Anton was a man) and bring it to the state fair or horticultural society.

The Jerseymacs have been very good this summer, and I am both obliged and pleased to reconsider my 2008 take : There is a moment when you take a bite that you can convince yourself it is going to taste like a McIntosh....  ¶  This year's is the same round, oblate, modestly ribbed apple, its red blush, streaky in spots, over spring green and decorated with light lenticels and a light bloom.

Today's apples are small and medium sized, round with no ribbing but flattened so they don't roll. What looks like ribs in the photo are small bruises.  ¶  The blush lies streaky red over a green that sometimes leans towards yellow, and the resulting variation in saturation of blush over variable shades makes for a variegated surface, sometimes dull red-green, sometimes orange, or yellow or green.

Travel has kept me from the early apples this year. I've missed the local farmers market where it is likely at least one vendor has offered Lodi or Vista Bella, or maybe even Pristine.  ¶  Left to right: Vista Bella, Yellow Transparent, Puritan.  ¶  This week, my wanderings took me past Red Apple Farm in Phillipston, Massachusetts, which did not disappoint.  ¶  About a minute after I took the above photo, I was eating one of those Vista Bellas. So fresh, so tart, so local , so good.

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.

Eighteen is something like 180 in internet years. I never imagined when I started this blog in 2008 (an experiment writing about "a year of apples" ) that I'd learn so much, or that I'd still be learning and blogging in 2026.  ¶  Possibly that year year-long commitment is what kept me going. I bagged 44 apples in the first six months (a number I have never matched in any subsequent full year). It would have been easy to quit when things inevitably got harder to write about in the winter.

Why review apples that are past their prime? Because I don't always know when their "prime" is.  ¶  When I bought these Kerry's Irish Pippins last week, I did not suppose they'd been off the tree for a month.  ¶  Today's small-to-medium fruits are wearing a warm red blush, including a few saturated streaks, over yellow that is tinted with the usual green, with a satiny gloss sheen.  ¶  They are modestly ribbed, one more than the other, and a bit flat at top and bottom. Small, light lenticel dots punctuate the blush. The stem is thin and the calyx is slightly parted; their aroma is faint and sweet.  ¶  So, let's eat.

VERY GOOD, SOMETIMES :  It's been nearly 16 years since I sampled Redfree, a modern disease-resistant breed that is a candidate for home gardeners and organic orchards.  ¶  I learned that there is some variability in this summer variety.  ¶  The above apple grew at an organic farm (Hutchins, in Concord, Massachusetts) about week ago (when I tasted it). These apples are different enough from my 2009 samples to justify a second bite.

The apples ripen and swell at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts, on August 26.  ¶  As we near the end of pomological summer , more farms are selling a wider assortment of apples.

By some accounts, this early English variety was once quite popular and is still grown commercially today.  ¶  My samples are medium sized, slightly ribbed and slightly flattened at top and bottom.  ¶  Their warm red blush, over spring green, is variegated and includes many lenticel dots that are curiously indistinct, as though they were fuzzily out of focused.

Zestar and Gingergold have joined Early Mac and Paula Red at farmers market this week.  ¶  It is fun to watch the symphony of apples build to its annual crescendo in October. The melody unfolds a little differently every year.

This understated antique apple is a window on the past.  ¶  The last (and only) time I tasted Chenango Strawberry was in November (of 2017). I could tell then that the apple had been off the tree for a while.  ¶  Still, I did not appreciate how early the Strawberry actually ripens, and how long it had been sitting. Apples change in even the best storage, so I am eager to taste a fresh version.

For the third week in a row, only one vendor at our farmers market had only one kind of apple.  ¶  But the fruit was different this week: a modern variety called Pristine.  ¶  This has become one of my favorite early apples.

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.

There were 5 varieties of apples at yesterday's farmers market, up from a skimpy 2 last week.  ¶  One vendor has McIntosh, but I did not bite. They really aren't ripe this early even in a normal season.  ¶  And things seem generally late this year, though I am not sure why that would be.  ¶ 

The pickings at Farmers market this week were pretty slim, but there are more choices farther afield.  ¶  Red Apple Farm has these enormous Williams Prides , and more besides.

Apples for sale at the Arlington, Massachusetts, farmers market earlier today.  ¶  It feels skimpy to have only two choices for apples in August, but that is what was on offer at the farmers market in Arlington today.  ¶  After all, Californians celebrated the Gravenstein Apple Fair last weekend. An anonymous reader confirms these apples, some of the best of August, are ripe there.

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.