Adam's Apples

The first of these luminous beauties had been off the tree too long. The second was picked too soon. But the third was just right. Yellow Transparent, an heirloom from Russia, is small with a pale yellow skin and green lenticels. These are slightly conical and slightly ribbed. Most of my tasting samples had a very faint pink tinge on the sun-kissed side. The overripe one (shown) bruised very easily.

I got three pretty little Yellow Transparent apples at Lexington's farmers market last Tuesday. These are small-to-medium apples with pale yellow-green skin attractively set off by darker green speckles. One has a faint pink blush about an inch in diameter. The flesh is white and fine-grained with yellow-green highlights and is pleasingly crisp with a satisfying crunch.