Adam's Apples

Young apples-to-be cluster on a branch in Concord, Mass., earlier this week.

public-domain image Eccentric and saintly, Johnny Appleseed is an unlikely member of the pantheon of American folk superheros that includes such he-men as Davey Crockett, Paul Bunyan, and John Henry. Like Crockett, Johnny Appleseed was a real person, though his name was John Chapman. Born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, in the early days of the American Revolution, Chapman grew up in Westfield and headed west to become a frontier nurseryman, bachelor, and sometime Swedenborgian evangelist. He gleaned apple seeds from cider mills and eked out a living planting them and selling saplings to settlers.

Full bloom today on an apple tree in Arlington, Massachusetts. After several years of harvest jeopardized by early springs , it is a relief to see the trees in bloom in May.

September's apple harvest as teleologically implied yesterday at Hutchins Farm.

What apples do you like for late winter and early spring? I usually lean heavily on Macouns for as long as they last, but the crop was small this year. Empire can be reliable and I often find myself turning to them in April, May, and June. But this winter I ate a lot of three varieties that previously were only available briefly. They are Opal , a new European variety that has just one North American grower The uneven, but superb when at best, Lady Alice Elusive  Pacific Rose

For the past few months I have been enjoying a steady stream of writing about apples and their role in American history and culture at American Orchard . This blog belongs to historian William Kerrigan, the author of Johnny Appleseed and the American Orchard , tantalizing excerpts of which sometimes find themselves into blog posts. This blog goes right to the heart of the apple as a profoundly social fruit, mediated by society but also mediating it, as in this post about hard cider and the election of 1840 .

If you miss the apple season as much as I do, you will enjoy Steven Edholm's recapitulation of the harvest on his farm. In a recent post on his blog, Turkeysong, Steven shares his apple tasting notes for the second half of his growing season, which, since he is located near Ukiah, California, lasts until late January.