Adam's Apples

Thought experiment: imagine that one vast banana tree is the world's sole supply of the yellow fruit. Now imagine the tree is dying from an incurable disease. Actually, with some poetic license,  that is the case.

Some of you have been telling me recently about a new apple, Wild Twist. More recently, you said it was just a new trademark for Sweet Cheeks. (I reviewed that apple in 2017.) Thanks for doing my job for me! I've edited the review with the new name and a note. Sometimes different harvests or handling deliver fruit of varying quality.   Several readers liked this apple a lot more than I did. 

I find that most keepers, or winter apples, hale from the later part of the harvest. But there are many exceptions. One of these is Melrose . I discovered this apple's winter virtue a year ago by virtue of poor organization of my apple hoard.  Then, several Melrouge (a sport of Melrose) lurked in the back of my refrigerator. They proved good. This past fall I made a point of buying some for a midwinter bonus.

A GENEROSITY OF APPLES The encyclopedic website Pomiferous , cleverly organized and with links to related resources, is a labor of love by two "great friends," one an outdoors writer and the other a web designer. This ambitious, generous site is a work in progress, rough edges, loose ends, and all.

There's always more to know.  Consider this the second installment in the ongoing investigation of what to call the set of bumps that sometimes grace the ridge around the calyx end of the apple. Last month I weighed in with crown, noting that an apple usually begins its life with its calyx pointing up.

Curation is key. Gene sequencing is helping the National Fruit Collection (UK) to prune its orchard and improve its classifications. I reviewed the NFC's searchable apple database in 2008.