Adam's Apples

If October is Peak Apple, this coming holiday weekend is peak agroturismo at orchards in the Northeast. (Photo: Part of the crowd lining up to order cider donuts and other treats at Shelburne Farm in Stow, Massachusetts, on Saturday. ) ¶  Come for the apples...but also the donuts, hayrides, goats, corn maze, musical performances, and other delights. Resources below, but also a report from last weekend.

Stillman's Farm, my source for Mollie's Delicious , pulled a little rebrand last week.  ¶  I guess the crop was a little bent this year. The apples, normally just round or tapered, had this little atrophied base (or crown if you prefer).  ¶  And they were sold as "Molly Sheep Nose."

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE ?  Mislabeled apples at Arlington's farmers market on September 9.  ¶  Quite a radical design departure today for Apple Computer (which spells its desktops "Macintosh"). Where's the USB port? If this had been only a hand-lettered sign....  I should not complain, I guess, the point is McIntosh (bonus: spelled right!) is here. Be glad! But it shakes one's faith in farmers.

There are some great farmers markets near me, and in season they are the source of most of the fruit I eat. You never know what new apples, or old favorites, might show up there.  ¶  All of the apples for sale, by date, from July to the end of the outdoor markets in November of 2024. It's from this spreadsheet .  ¶  For the past few years I've reported regularly (with a few gaps) about all of them. It is kind of thrilling to track the harvest as it unfolds, and to feel through that the solemn turning of the year from summer to winter.

The Boston Globe, anticipating pomological fall , on Wednesday published a two-paged guide to some of New England's most interesting orchards and apple experiences.  ¶  Cider donuts too, of course.

There's an orchard near me that takes an interest in apples that are still in development (and may never graduate to wider cultivation).  ¶  These generally have names like "WA 38" (which you know as Cosmic Crisp ) or "NY 428" (which you probably do not know at all).  ¶  My local grower, for example, got its hands on one of these and, since it did not have what you might call a name, called it "Early Jonagold." (It later got fully commercialized as Autumn Crisp.  ¶  ) It also sold Early Spy and Early Macoun that were not these named apples picked early, but something else.  ¶  So when I found "Early Crimson Crisp" there this week, I had to ask: is this another unofficial nickname for an uncommercialized apple, or is "early" just an adjective describing the true Crimson Crisp?

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.

Surrounded by the plastic and newsprint that kept it over the winter, this 2025 GoldRush apple proved still good to eat in June of 2026.  ¶  As things turned out, my eyes were bigger than my stomach when I squirreled away a score of these apples last fall to eat in April.  ¶  But no matter: GoldRush is a phenomenal keeper apple , still good in June. This is my last one.

" From now on I will no longer be a monogamous apple consumer; instead, I will be in a harem with bedfellows by the name of jazz, yello, pink lady and envy." That was one of several lessons learned by Nicholas Jordan, a Sydney food writer, after a group tasting of 16 apple varieties from local markets and grocers.  ¶  Not Australia: A tasting table at Clarkdale Farms in Deerfield, Massachusetts in 2016.

SO FAR FROM THE HARVEST  ( GoldRush (L) and Empire ) ¶  The late spring used to be enlivened by imports of (relatively) fresh apples from Chile, New Zealand, and other points south .  ¶  Today these apples are swept away on the ebb tides of global commerce. (Tariffs? Hormuz Strait?) Things are a little bleak.  ¶  This year I've found myself gravitating to the last of my GoldRush from the fall, and, unexpectedly, Empire.

A friend alerted me to a short broadcast about apples that aired on Boston's WGBH radio last month.  ¶  The focus was on New England apples. It's streamable any time and available as a podcast.  ¶  The April 27 episode of Under the Radar with Callie Crossley includes a 25-minute interview with Amy Traverso and Sean Turley that quickly gets into the good stuff.

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.

ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς: The buds on the trees at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts earlier today blush like eager debutantes  While some in other climes report blossoms , we are in the chill stasis of a Massachusetts April.  ¶  The cool temperatures slow the rhythms of spring. Magnolia, forsythia, and even cherry persist; apples are standing by.

A bud is opening on an apple tree in Lexington, Massachusetts yesterday.  ¶  Some are reporting apple blossoms , but where I live things are still mostly buttoned up, though that is changing.  ¶  It's still forsythia and cherries here, though just a few towns farther from the sea the magnolias are in full bloom. The apples cannot be far behind.

Tomorrow's apples take shape on a tree at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts earlier today.  ¶  Pomological spring is a hopeful time, made dear by uncertainty.

Whan that April with his showres soot is when (whan?) GoldRush, that king of keepers, is ready to eat.  ¶  It's also when I see how the ones I laid down in my refrigerator in December have fared in my home newsprint-and-perforated-plastic-bag storage system.

Yes that's snow! March 9 at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts.  ¶  Temperatures here shot up from the 20s to the 70s (Fahrenheit) in the past week, so I hopped on my bicycle and peddled through the melt to Concord.

The Cortland apple has an ardent following. In September and October, I like Macs and Macouns, close Cort relations.  Photo: McIntosh (L) and Cortland  ¶  But lately, in February and now March, I have been enjoying Cortland's crisp vinous goodness.  ¶  Let's see how it stacks up agains the Mac at this time of year.