Adam's Apples

Scarlet Crunch, large and conical, wears a streaky warm red blush over green-tinted yellow.  ¶  They are only slightly ribbed (you have to hunt for that) and are decorated with nearly invisible lenticel dots.

I have a healthy batch of these pale yellow apples courtesy ( again !) of Michael Wunsch of North Dakota. Medium to large, they have a small red-orange blush that is speckled and spotty.  ¶  They are slightly ribbed and only slightly asymmetrical (the significance of which will perhaps become clear below). Each is so glossy with wax that they are what apple nerds call "greasy," though none of it will come off on your fingers.

I'm able to share Red Baron with you today thanks to the generosity of Michael Wunsch, an orchardist in east-central North Dakota.  ¶  Glossy with natural wax , these run the gamut from the large end of of small to the smaller part of large. The red blush (streaky in spots) mostly covers a yellow peel tinged with green. 

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.

I've got two of these, medium and large, pale yellow-green with small faint peach blush. They are round, with flattened tops and bottoms, those of the larger one especially so.  ¶  Flyspeck and a few small bruises join many filled grey lenticels decorating the peel. They do not come from a big industrial orchard. These apples have a lovely sweet aroma.

This handsome apple blushes deep red, at its most saturated as dark as any Arkansas Black or Black Oxford .  ¶  It is decorated with many small light lenticel dots, and the unblushed portion is streaky over yellow.  ¶  Soluna is sightly tapered and slightly ribbed, firm in hand with a pleasant fruity aroma.

A WHOLE LOTTA NOTHING  ¶  All supermarket apples are good looking, and Dazzle, with its cool red blush decorated with many small lenticel dots, is no exception.  ¶  The apple is large and blocky, with only a slight taper keeping it from a completely cylindrical profile. The blush mostly covers a yellow peal, and is thinner (and warmer) on the shaded side.  ¶  Its calyx is open.

There are so many colors on this apple that I need two of them to show the full spectrum.  ¶  Regions with a green tint overlap with gold and brown in various combinations: mustard, yellow, olive, brown, orange.  ¶  The Royal Russet, also calle the Brown Russet, is an October apple that boasts real fall colors decorated by distinct light lenticel dots, some filled.

With a name like an Old Timey singer (or perhaps contortionist), the Smoky Mountain Limbertwig sports a beautiful deep red blush.  ¶  That color nearly covers all of the otherwise green-tinged yellow peel of these medium-to-large apples.  ¶  The apple is only moderately ribbed, and there are tiny light lenticels scattered in the glossy blush.

A real plot twist, this one.  ¶  Robijn, small to medium sized, are a bit squat and modestly ribbed, many lopsided. The variegated blush, over yellow includes some very deep red streaks that are almost black.  ¶  Some bear zig zags of russet. Small tan lenticel dots swim in the mix of red and orange. The peal has a dull shine and a greasy (that is, waxy) feel. The stem is slim.  ¶  These apples have a sweet aroma, some with yeasty overtones. These are organic apples.

Do you admire this shapely carnelian-red apple with the light lenticel dots mixed with squiggles of russet? If so, you and I see the world in the same way.  ¶  If this apple disturbs you or freaks you out, then you are stuck, I am afraid, with the perfect shiny waxed globes at your supermarket.  ¶  These Red Royal Limbertwigs are medium and large, with understated ribbing. One of these has a closed calyx while the other's is wide open: don't ask me what that means.  ¶  Although off the tree for several weeks, these feel promisingly firm. Their faint aroma is sweet and floral.

Tipp Pippin may be the same apple as Tipperary Pippin, can anyone say? Scored from a specialty shop in Dublin itself.  ¶  My apples are cylindrical and oblate, which immediately brought Pink Lady (Cripps Pink) to my mind when I first saw them.  ¶  But unlike Pink Lady the blush is a purer red, and generally more saturated although the unblushed yellow shows through in a few spots.

I found these medium-sized apples with a blush of pure red at a farm store on the Fife coast .  ¶  Discovery is practically unribbed and bears many light lenticels so small as to be difficult to see in poor light, both in the blush and in the yellow part of the peal.  ¶  My examples come in assorted shapes, one squat and oblate, another more conical. They both wear crowns of russet around the stem well.

Perhaps not clear from my first photo: this hyper-lobed apple is basically a big triangle.  ¶  Bramley is Granny Smith–spring green, but the calyx end has a dull red blush where it has been kissed by the sun, and a ragged corona of russet radiates from the stem well.

On the small side of large, my Rajka has a classically tapered shape and a streaky red blush.  ¶  That blush, while attenuated on what must have been a shaded side, essentially covers the entire apple. There is just a little underlying yellow peeping through. Some of the blush is saturated and deep.  ¶  A second sample is squat and oblate, and the blush is deep and saturated over a larger area. Both are slightly lopsided and lean to one side.

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.

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.