Adam's Apples

Cortland sits modestly in the shadow of its more glamorous relatives, McIntosh and Macoun . Cortland is the number one favorite of some people I know, yet I generally pass this variety by, given what else is available in the fall. For this reason I wanted to revisit Cortland, with a farmers-market-fresh apple picked at peak. Would I revise my original review ?

Sometimes it seems as though I'll go a whole season without having a single Gingergold or Zestar , but this summer I've been enjoying both. ingergold starts its run in August a little greenish and tart, but still nice. It mellows out as it peaks towards the start of September. Zestar's flavors, banana and all, work together very well.

The summer harvest parade is well under way by mid August, with quality local varieties such as Williams Pride, Gingergold , and Gravenstein available fresh at farmers market. So there was some irony in finding Diva in supermarkets last week, off the boat (and out of storage) from the spring harvest in New Zealand.

Today we weigh two modern varieties in the shadow, or perhaps the light, of a third apple that isn't here: a hundred-sixty-plus-year-old Russian variety called  Yellow Transparent .

An early Vista Bella promises the harvest to come. Earlier this year I found I had nothing to say here. For four months. But the hope of another harvest, and encounters with four new varieties in June and July, have got me going again.

Lodi Vista Bella

Some unusual flavors commend the apple called Divine (though its variety name is the incomprehensible Delfloki). They are on the small end of large, tapered and conical. Ribbing is subtle and the calyx is recessed so that the apple teeters on a ring around the base. "Teeters" because many of these are oddly lopsided. The calyx is wide open, stamens akimbo.