Adam's Apples

With its cherry-red blush, tapered profile, and prominent light lenticels, today's photo suggests nothing less than an enormous strawberry. Coromandel is a medium-large apple, ribbed and conical. The lenticels are rough and slightly extruded, providing an unusual tactile sensation.

This variety wins a spot in my unwritten list of especially marvelous apple names. It came my way courtesy of a generous reader. Specifically, Seek-No-Further reached me via U.S. mail, carefully packed, eight scarred apples of small-medium size. Each has a ruddy red blush, streaky over green yellow, and an oblate shape that is ever-so-slightly ribbed. There is a dull brownish bloom, which is not terribly attractive (it washes off), and large light lenticels that are widely spaced.

Today's apple grew in the same orchard where this variety was first discovered one hundred and fifty years ago. American Beauty, large, round, and ribbed, has a dark red blush, sometimes streaky, over yellow green. Russet, rough to the touch, gives this fruit a sandblasted aspect. Lenticels are light, on the large side, and numerous. My apple feels quite firm and smells of cider.

A reader asks whether another name for Pomme Gris is "Grey Pearmain." My answer follows, but if you know better, drop us a line in the comments.

Available nearly year round, this durable variety is a personal mainstay in the winter and spring, when they are shipped from controlled-atmosphere storage to the supermarkets. I've already reviewed Empire, but since I eat so many of these felt I should, for once, try one fresh from the orchard.

This year's annual celebration and exploration of apples in the state of Maine is this Saturday the 24th. The event is sponsored by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, in Unity, Maine. Activities include cooking workshops, apple and cider tastings, an expert panel (to identify your mystery varieties), and the fellowship and good cheer that ripens where apple lovers gather. Thanks to Kenn for this information!

A local apple—Roxbury today is part of Boston—these are medium to medium-large and only partly rusetted over spring green. Some have a coppery blush. The patchy russet is a grey brown and the underlying colors show through a little. Roxbury's lenticels are small and often rusetted; some are larger and slightly raised. My samples run from ribbed to slightly ribbed, with a closed calyx, and are quite firm in hand.