Adam's Apples

I have been feasting this month on Pacific Rose, Opal, and Piñata apples. These three millennial varieties bring something long absent to the table: flavor. They are part of the leading edge of what I hope will prove to be a long-term trend towards taste . Don't get me wrong: You could always get flavorful varieties at orchards, if you know where to go. Here's what I mean in terms of supermarket apples (North America version).

Two years ago I had the idea of comparing Macoun with Rubyfrost. This was an appealing thought because both are products of the same breeding program in New York, separated by 90 years. But it proved not a fair match . So this year I am back with what ought to be a more apt comparison: Rubyfrost (r) versus Empire , also from the same breeding program. Those tiny white streaks are snowflakes.

Here on the East Coast, new North American varieties usually debut in winter. Green Dragon entered the market here in December. These are shapely tapered apples just on the green side of the yellow border. The color flirts with that border, sometimes crossing it on the sunward side where some examples sport a pale and tentative orange glow. Ribbing is moderate, though in some samples there are nearly flat regions that intersect to create a distinct edge. The many small light lenticels are all but invisible except where russet or some other agent discolors them. Green Dragon bears the striking fragrance of green-apple candy.

Very best wishes from me to you for the year to come. This has always been a seasonal blog, overflowing with images and ideas in the harvest season but with fewer and more contemplative columns in the winter and spring. But this year, to my surprise, I stopped writing for four whole months. I didn't plan that. Am I finally running out of steam?

Dense, hard Decio  impressed me as a likely keeper apple when I tried it for the first time last November. So I held one back to eat near the end of the year. Superficially, the older Decio is rock hard. It seems to have weathered well the past month in my perfectly ordinary refrigerator. My sample's sweet aroma is leavened with a yeasty note that is probably related to its crown of russet. Otherwise it similar to my November sample. I'll add that Decio's stem is thick and its calyx is wide open.

I took this photo back in October to show that the beautiful color of Jonathan (right) has the same deep tone as  Ruby Jon's . As his name implies, Ruby Jon is a sport of Jonathan—a genetic mutation that entails some difference or improvement valuable enough in this case for farmers to cultivate.

Since 2014, Eliza Greenman has been sharing her perspective and knowledge about growing apples in her blog, Unconventional Stories from an Apple Farmer . Greenman's observations often have a critical edge that borders on the subversive, from her exhortation to " Eat Ugly Apples " to her questions about "the ethics currently involved in producing the status quo" in the fruit world.