Adam's Apples

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.

Imperfect translation: Beauty of August My samples of this apple are small. The partial blush, streaky in spots, is a cheerful red over yellow green, decorated with light lenticels in the blush. There's really no ribbing to speak of, and despite a slight taper, the overall impression is round. The stem adds a jaunty note.

No photo today! I thought I'd taken Melba's portrait, so I went ahead and ate my samples to write up my review.  ¶  Too late, I discovered I hadn't gotten the shot after all.  ¶  Sorry! In lieu of that, sit back and picture the following:

Lobo's red streaky blush over spring green suggests a squat, hulking McIntosh , though the blush is more orange and is decorated with many tan lenticels of varying sizes.  ¶  These have partially open calyxes and almost no ribbing. Mine are pretty large.

This small, slightly oblate apple, perhaps 2 inches across, is ribbed, sometimes extremely so. It has a streaky red blush over light yellow, tinted orange where the blush is thin. The lenticels are effectively invisible. I have two samples that bear a sweet cider aroma. In early November, Benoni's flesh is soft and yielding, on its way to mealy but with plenty of miles left before it gets there. It turns out that Benoni is a summer apple.

This cheerful yellow apple holds a surprise. Crisp and juicy, Blondee offers uncontroversial flavors in the early harvest. The surprise? The blond one is a sport of Gala, not the result of breeding. Gala is Blondee's sole parent. Sports usually entail only minor differences form the parent variety, but I think Blondee goes beyond that. It is truly its own variety, if not its own breed.

These oblate apples run from large to enormous with articulated ribs that stretch from crown to base. There is a streaky blush of attenuated red, sparse in parts, over spring green. Light lenticels get a little lost against this variegated background. The snowy white flesh of this firm fruit is crisp and juicy, medium-fine-grained in a way that breaks of cleanly to the teeth.

Today's variety is classically shaped, if on the squat side, with very little ribbing, medium-sized. One sample (photographed) grew wildly lopsided. The blush is a thin red, just a bit dull, over spring green. Lenticels show light in the blush, dark on the green. Note the mustard-colored strands of russet radiating from the stem well. This apple grew up on an organic farm and has the usual marks of character. It's nice and firm and has a complex grassy smell.

"Early Macoun" is just a nickname proffered by Hutchins Farm to give our brains a handy handle for this variety. It is formally known only as NY 75414-1. My samples are all small, though that may be more a characteristic of this harvest than of the breed in general. They are classically shaped with a slight conical taper and almost no ribbing at all. The blush is crimson with dark purple streaks, made even darker on some samples by a smokey blue bloom like the one that gives a name to the Blue Pearmain . The effect is striking.

"Green Crisp" is very apt. But the truth is that not even the grower knows the true name of this apple, or even if it has one. Green Crisp is a lovely light spring green, conical and ribbed. It is a medium-to-medium-large apple with small dark lenticels that are not obvious, except where russetted. The fruit feels quite firm and smells faintly of moss. Inside is firm white flesh, crisp and pleasantly juicy, that is halfway between fine-grained and coarse.

Locust Grove Farm in Milton New York grows this apple and calls it Summer Pippin. I have my doubts about the name, but a box of these big green beauties at the Union Square farmers' market (New York) commands attention. This large apple is a saturated bright spring green, reminiscent of Granny Smith's unglazed hue. It's ribbed and lumpy, with a little russet radiating from the stem well and dotted with white lenticels. The firm fruit has a faint sweet smell. The flesh is a dense white tinged with light green, a little yielding to the teeth. The taste is predominantly tart with some sweet, not as complex as a Granny Smith but reminiscent. There is some bracing acidity and a hint of unripe grapes. Finally, there is a faint sweet citrusy aftertaste. Whatever you call it, this apple is both unusual and refreshing. I shot the above in Central park. A more scenic image is here. Update: Apparently the grower is now calling this variety "Greening Sour." That is helpfu...

Today's handsome apple runs to to large: a shapely, conical, and slightly ribbed fruit. Its yellow skin has green highlights. Some sport a small, delicate orange-pink blush, nearly transparent. There are many small lenticels, most light-green, some dark (perhaps with russet). The calyx is partly open, and there is faint sweet aroma. Golden Supreme's flesh is crisp, coarse-grained, and light yellow. It bears juice with some of the honey-and-pear qualities of a Golden Delicious, but lighter and less complex.

This apple doesn't really have a name. It is identified by the grower as Early Spy, but that is a purely local title, neither patented, trademarked, nor enrolled in any one's Registry of Fruit Names. Instead it is known to the fruit world (if at all) as NY75423-30, which identifies it as a product of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station .

This large medium-sized apple is round with only a faint trace of ribbing, a cheerful yellow-green partially covered with a streaky blush of vivid red with orange accents. The lenticels are a slightly darker green on the skin and lighter in the blush. Wealthy feels reasonably firm and has no appreciable aroma. The flesh is a somewhat tender, but crisp, medium-coarse white tinged with yellow, bearing juice that is tart but not unbalanced.

There was such variation in the bin of Mollie's Delicious that I could not find a typical sample. Most ran large to extra-large and were both ribbed and conical: more so than in my example, and a few with such exaggerated ribbing as to look strangely emaciated. All had a streaky red blush that nonetheless manages to be quite rich in places, a very handsome color. This is over a green-tinged yellow skin. Mollie has a very deep stem well and tan lenticels that range from tiny to large. It feels quite firm unbroken and has a very faint sweet aroma.

"Ugly, but sweet," said the sign for these little gems at Farmers market. Ugly? I beg to differ. These small ribbed apples have an orange red blush over yellow, with light green lenticels. My three tasting samples are each different. One is mostly blush, and one is mostly russet (with little blush). Today's photo showcases the one with some of everything. "Striking" I would say. "Not airbrushed barbie-doll perfect," I grant you. But ugly? Click here (or on the photo) for the close up and say that.

Bonus question first: With the name "Jonamac," what could the two parents of this apple be?  This variety is a straightforward blend of many of Jonathan's and McIntosh's fine qualities, with an emphasis on the Mac. Jonamac has a streaky dull red blush over a bright spring green, decorated with light lenticels. It is medium large and ribbed. My sample is slightly conical and wears a few spots of flyspeck.

Large, ribbed, and lobed, this cross of McIntosh and Worcester Pearmain wears a red blush over spring green, with many light lenticels visible in the blush. One sample is lopsided, with odd lobes and scars; the other more regular and with russet radiating from the stem well.

I bought one of these big guys at Volante Farms yesterday. Volante says this about Mutsu: This Japanese apple is a descendant of the Golden Delicious. It is large, spicy, crisp & juicy. Excellent all-purpose apple. Various sources say this is the Crispin apple by another name. Mutsu is bigger and greener than Golden Delicious, whatever its relation. This is a large fruit, almost cylindrical, with definite ribs and a light green-yellow skin. The color varies from green-yellow to yellow-green and has darker green spots perhaps a tenth of an inch across, some with tiny white centers and some with tiny brown ones.

Crunch! Gingergold is a medium-to-large fruit, a sprightly green-yellow with tiny dark-green speckles. Some of the apples have a pale red-orange blush, usually over only a small portion of the skin. The sample pictured is more conical than most, but all seem to have some ribbing and many have a little russetting in the stem well.