Adam's Apples

Today's apple is large, very tapered and modestly ribbed. It's colored with a mixture of an orange pink, yellow, and yellow green.  ¶  Yellow-green dots are small and fused together at the base, becoming larger and distinct further up. There's a green dimple on one side. It's really pretty, don't you think? That peachy color. Its calyx is closed.

I had to travel all the way to Colorado to find this apple from Washington State. Lucy Rose, and her sister Lucy Glo , are in supermarkets in many parts of the U.S. They have not, however, made it to eastern Massachusetts. This does seem to be the Year of Red Flesh here at Adam's Apples, does it not? Lucy Glo is also red fleshed, though she is otherwise unlike her sister.

What's striking about this apple? It's the unusual color: a "glo" that is the result of a pastel orange-pink color peering through an otherwise pale green peel. (Click on any photo for a closer look.) This look reminds me of the tan exterior of the Pink Pearl . Which raises an interesting question...

Shelburne Farm , in Stow, Massachusetts, is on a tear with red-fleshed apples, and here are three of them. Left to right: Scarlet Surprise, Pink Pearl, Firecracker The photo above buttresses three of my observations about red-fleshed apples generally.

This small, crabapple-sized fruit, with its glossy deep red peel and striking pink flesh, is gorgeous. But is it good to eat?

Note the dark red bulls-eye near the center. Outwardly, Scarlet Surprise is a round, red apple, pretty if not remarkable. Now imagine biting in to discover that the color is more than skin deep. Surprise! To avoid surprises, the grower had sliced samples on display. But the true surprise lies in this apple's interesting flavors. Scarlet is a medium sized apple, round and orange-touched red, with very little ribbing at all and small light lenticel dots. The peel is glossy with natural wax, and there is a slight light-colored bloom in a few spots. Inside Instead of biting in, I cut. The sliced apple smells of berries and pumpkin. The striking magenta-pink flesh is yielding and without much of a crunch, but it is juicy and pleasant,  coarse grained. The Surprise is well balanced, though on the tart side of that range. The flavors include raspberries and citrus with a marshmallow note (the candy, not the herb ). I found a little  grapefruit  flavor in parts of the ap...

According to the grower, these diminutive crabapples—the largest might be an inch tall—are super tart and used to make cider. The staff at Shelburne Farm told me that these were Firecrackers. Maybe they are, but I have some doubts, aired (and resolved) later in this post. The apples are certainly pretty enough, though imperfect. This orchard sustained a good deal of hail damage last summer.

I do not know if the name of this apple is an error, a joke, or something else (named for a Mr. or Ms. White?), but I was not expecting this flamingo-pink interior. The elongated, olive-shaped  fruit is small, though large for a crabapple, about 2 inches high. Each has a glossy peel that blushes from a delicate pink-orange wash to a saturated red.

What a show stopper! You can see why some apple breeders become obsessed with creating red-fleshed apples that also have good eating qualities. Did they succeed with Ruby Red?

A parfait is a layered confection, and true to its name Pink Parfait has a pink layer within its off-white flesh (below). From the outside, Pink P is a medium-sized green-tinted yellow orb nearly entirely covered by a translucent blush. The blush is flecked with many dark red spots and streaks. The apple is round with moderate ribbing. All apples have lenticels, the pores of the fruit, but they are essentially invisible on the Parfait. The peel is glossy.

The Almata apple, as we have seen, is a red paint ball , dripping with color. It is intensely carmine from blush to core. But the crimson tide does not stop there. It saturates the entire tree. It colors the branches. It peeps at us from within each leaf. In the spring, the blossoms of the Almata are a dark pink. The tree is entirely healthy—and brimming with red.

Saturated with color, Almata is a novelty. It's interesting, it's unusual , and it's edible. But Almata is not a compelling pick eating out of hand.

This medium-sized apple (many quite small) is elongated and conical. The not-so hidden blush is a solid fuchsia-tinged red over yellow green, but there is also a thin peach-pink wash of blush, delicate and pretty, over much of the back and sides. Small light lenticels stand out against every background. In the right light they almost seem to glow. There's moderate ribbing, and a thick stem in a shallow stem well. The apple is rock hard with a sugary sweet aroma. Its calyx is shut and an unusually thick stem emerges from a shallow stem well.

What a distinctive, unusual apple! I'm posting even though my sample is a bit past prime. The Pink Pearl's signature pink flesh, marbled with white, is front and center in my first photograph.