Adam's Apples

Chestnut Crabapple and Opalescent , earlier today.

I didn't bother to count all the kinds of apples for sale in Davis Square earlier today.

For an old-fashioned, high-quality desert apple, try the splendid Opalescent—if you can! This heritage apple is hard to find. Opalescent is large and handsome: I use this photo of it as my personal online avatar.

A generous reader sent me today's Antonovka, along with some very fine Jonareds ( sports of Jonathon ) from his garden orchard. Thank you, Mark. My squat, painterly Antonovka runs a mini rainbow from spring green to a faint peach, the latter a blush spread thinly over a peel that is largely yellow. The small lenticels are hard to see except where filled with dark russet, and there is an odd glassy region on the side opposite the blush. Am I seeing watercore from the outside?

I was unimpressed when I tried Akane back in 2010. But a reader told me to sample this variety fresh off the tree for the real story. Given that my 2010 Akane was on the early side, and from a food co-op in Seattle, a redo seemed like a reasonable item for the apple bucket list. But it's not grown widely here, and this is my first crack at a second bite.

Oh sure, you could find them for sale (unripe) last month. But now McIntosh is finally at peak! All hail the King of Fall.

Puritan was one of the first apples I reviewed on this blog, back in early August of 2008. Rereading that review made me think that apple might have been picked early. So when I saw it again, in early September this time, I decided it was time for a second bite.